Crossing Cultures,  Earthquakes

Me and Lima: Improvising a Life

In Jean Renoir’s classic film The Golden Coach (Le Carosse D’Or), a troupe of Italian actors arrives in 18th-century colonial Lima, expecting to perform in a luxurious palace. Instead, they find themselves in a frontier town.

“What do you think of the New World?” they are asked.

“It will be better when it is finished.”

 Arriving in Peru’s dusty, disorganized capital in July 2007, I had a similar reaction.

 Today’s Lima may be more than 450 years old, but it still feels like it’s being improvised. On good days, I love the city’s eclectic, irrational spirit. On bad days, I feel like I’m living in a loonybin (or a dustbin — take your pick). As an American writer in Lima, I experience both extremes, but mainly I’m glad to be here.  Even if that includes enduring an 8.0-scale earthquake while dodging traffic in my bare feet.

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.

4 Comments

  • Darren

    It sounds fantastic. The question is – this post is absolutely new and original, isn’t it? It seems to me I’ve saw it somewhere before.

  • Henk

    Sequence different a in were they but – before words those all seen have you that fact the by confused being are you, Darren, no.

    (No, Darren, you are being confused by the fact that you have seen all those words before – but they were in a different sequence.)