Boost the floor....

...just because the stars....

Moderratto- Zodiaco

.....I wish you all have a vibrant time....

Jennifer Lopez & Pitbull - On the floor

...with rhythms of Puerto Rico and Latin moves....

Daddy Yankee - El ritmo no perdona

....whatever you do, wherever you are, I wish you all a beautiful 'nite!

Sweden

So I am back in Sweden now. It is early summer here and some days are rather sunny and warm. But for me who had accommodated myself to the humid and hot days of the Amazons, it felt a bit cold. It took me a week to get adjusted to the climate, food as well as time. It was much easier to get used of an earlier day than a later day...

Here are smoked salmon and stewed potato with dill, some multi grained bread, radish, beans and apple cider (and a piece of my camera brace...:) ).

 

The second photo is on a shrimp sandwich, lots of lettuce, cucumber,
tomatoes, orange, lemon, dill, mayonnese, beans and a raspberry drink. 

One of the first days back I went out with a little steam-boat on a lake close by. It was an early morning and the sun was shining on the light green leaves. I loved this little island....

...or the temple here....perfect for yoga exercises
when mornings have become warmer. 

 

A great way to begin the day.

Lima 4/4: Visiting Isla Palomino

I had the opportunity to find someone (gracias chica!!!) who wanted to take part of cruising around the islands close to Lima, and we were lucky to be joined by a group of Americans, enough with peoples to go out. But none wanted to swim with sea lions...I just had to.... But it was a bit scary with the cold water and hundreds of them around me. I felt really under the power of nature. They were so close, swimming beneath me and watching silently with those big black eyes. The water was around 14 degrees and perhaps 30 metres deep. Waves of half metres were softly swinging our bodies. I was in the water together with a guy who had been going out with people on this cruise for half a year. He was steady and calm. Told me that since the sea lions knew him, it would had been like bringing a friend to a party. He told me to lay still so they might come forth to my feet. He told me to be quiet otherwise I would threaten their space.... but I think I had to do it a couple of times to get used of it and really finding a pleasure in it...still, what a memory...

Gracias Miraflores House en Lima y A. para recorda y upload.

Lima 2/4; Parque de Leyendas

The following day I used to visit the "parque de leyendas" and some museums. After being shutting my eyes for any dangerous animals in the jungle, safely by the coastal area I wanted to actual get to know all the animals that lived there. I think animals of the wild belongs in nature and not kept captivated to be observed. I felt with the panther who was walking restlessly while the worker were hammering on constructions just besides... schoolkids and olders where knocking on the window to get a better lock and attentions. (When writing this, can't help myself to think of the scene in Harry Potter with the snake on the zoo.:) Animals were trying to hide the best they could.... I was sending love and forgiveness to the poor creatures....and while I was observing (still a bit fascinated) I felt someone observing me, and there were two tigers laying cool up in a tree observing me. 

I got friends with a woman from Lima and her mum from Cusco and we hanged out during the rest of our stay on the zoo.

Lima 1/4; Miraflores

Since I never took any vacation (partly because I never had time for it, partly because I did not had finance for it) and my time in Peru had been very intense, I strongly wished of ending my stay in Peru with some calm days by the coast.

Thanks for my lovely family in the jungle, I was connected with uncle M. who worked as a taxi driver in Lima. He picked me up and drove me to a hotel not far from the coast in Miraflores. It was a great place to stay - calm and very nice.

Since I arrived in the middle of the night, I used my first day to just take care of myself. Accommodating to the new habitat and making a hair cut with colouring as well as making new friends in the area (thanks for all great food).

I went out dancing with a friend in the night. We danced to live salsa and I enjoyed it really much. I returned back at half past 4 in the morning, shining like a star of a bright night out.

My second day I went for a walk. It turned out that my hotel was just minutes away from the coastal line. I enjoyed the brisk wind in my hair and slowly breathed in beautiful and well-maintained parks in Miraflores. By the park of love, I found a great little café with two lovely girls in my age. I drank some gorgeous freshly squeezed juices with strawberries and watched one of them going up and away with parogliding (the blue one). She was so happy when she returned, what a thrill!

Discovering Lima…

Yesterday I met with the organisation I will be working with. It was situated very nicely close to the Agricultural University. After taking part of a morning meeting, I met a woman, originally from Japan, she offered to bring me downtown to see the famous church, catacombs, plaza mayor and china town.

We took a bus and went for an hours ride. Imagine that the whole city of Lima (8 millions) is almost as many people as it is in the whole Sweden (9 millions). So I don’t think I would have seen as much as I did if it were not to be for my great new friend (who by the way is doing research of indigenous people close to Pucallpa). So I am very grateful for that, it was a lovely time together. And I actually felt pretty ok walking around in the city centre and to take the bus. People were very helpful and it was much calmer than what I imagined it to be after reading all the stories in guidebooks….

But it was a bit entertaining to try to find some stamps in the city. Many streets had a theme, like one street had a lot of religious shops, another one was filled with printing offices and then again there where the stamps street. Not for postcards, but for stamping letter in beautiful patterns and figures. But after a few “por aqui…” we ended up in the public post office. One postmark was 5 soles and 5 cents. The postcard was 1 soles. In Swedish crowns I think it is a total of more than 20sek…. And it took around two weeks to get to Europe. So I do not think I will write many postcards. I will try to keep you in the loop from internet.

My friend from Japan and I calculated that a 10 minutes phone call from a land line in Peru to home would equal one postcard. So I do enjoy the existence of Internet.

On my way….

As you might have notice, I do not like to write about too much about things to come, since I do not know that they actually will come. Instead I try to live each moment fully, so that when I write about them, it makes up a beautiful story.

For my master thesis I got the opportunity to do my research in Peru. I have talked to so many good and nice people, everyone trying to aid me in my work to succeeding. The timeframe is very short and I am at the moment learning Spanish.

Before I came to Peru, I was living close to my mum in a one room flat. It was a bit isolated, but helped me to focus in preparing everything before departure to Latin America. The housing agency was extremely helpful, as the local library, the travel agency, language coordinator and on the airport everything went really smooth. Thank you everyone.

Also spend some great nights at my paternal aunt’s place close to Malmö. Beautiful time with family, and I really enjoyed to walk by the beach! I grew up very close to the sea (one of the meanings of the name for this blog), so I feel very drawn to it.

"Ohw thye mighty white hart...."

Yesterday I updated my poetry blog. I had watched a man passing outside my window. He was walking so close to the harts, standing grazing next to the sideway. I was pretty amazed how unconcerned the harts where by him, as well as it seemed that he did not notice them. And I was wondering how such a thing was possible.

Today I saw the herd again. Less than 100 metres away from my window. I went out to get a better view.

Since it was a Sunday, many more people had time to just slowly stroll ahead, so they did.

Many noticed the harts. A women with her child (perhaps 6 years old or so) was calmly watching the beautiful animals.They told me that they used to come and see them here. Before the flock was grazing around the railroad, but now they had changed their spot.

It was silence for a minute and then they throwed out some bread to the harts, which at first backed a bit away, then came forward and ate it. The closest hart was just a couple of metres away from us.

More people passed, stopped, took some pictures.

Most amazed was I by the magnificent white hart, since I have never seen anything like it before.

Apparently, people in the area are used of having a white hart in the neighbourhood, since they had seen it before. The particular thing of today was the fact that no less than 11 harts where grazing so close by, without really being disturbed by us humans.

I'll show you...

Happy 2011!!!

....may dreams be fulfilled, new friends met and joy as well as lessons be learn, always with a bright heart and loving smile.... auld lang syne....