8 Weeks Later

Enough with the lists, eh? We're just about out of here.

What a time we've had in Lima. Over a month after Santiago, it's been a while since we've been in a real city. I'm partly ashamed to admit that we've been treating Lima as a warm up for the U.S. Two malls, two summer blockbuster movies in English, four times eating KFC, Pizza Hut, and/or Burger King, two games of bowling, one of pool, beer, and steak. Was I in Peru, or was I in Edison, NJ? And really, who cares?

We saw the main plaza, the big museum in town, and we've walked around the trendy Miraflores section as much as I ever care to. We shopped in San Isidro, drank in Miraflores, dined in Barranco, fully explored Lima Centro, and gazed at the Pacific Ocean. I'm putting a checkmark next to Lima in my book.

There's a definite lack of ceremony to the end of this trip, an absence I've justified by saying that the places we've been have been so different from each other, there's no way to celebrate in Lima what happened in Valparaiso or Buenos Aires. The greatness of this trip is very much the sum of several distinct parts, so I don't feel the same need for closure that I usually feel at the end of a vacation. Indeed, as Dylan and I discussed over our epically-long final lunch today, this was much more than a vacation; using my now-patented "haircut rule", we can definitively say that this was more living in South America than simply vacationing, since I required at least one (and, in fact, two) haircuts while here.

If you threatened me with force to tell you what my favorite place was, I would reluctantly say Buenos Aires. But that would really be unfair to all the other cities and places we've been. Like, say, Machu Picchu, which is home to what was probably the single most breathtaking moment of the trip. Or Valparaiso, which was probably the single coolest city to just be in. Or the stars outside Vicuña. Or the beautiful old streets and ocean views and food in Colonia. Or the wine in Mendoza. Or the sunset over Lake Titicaca. Or the drive into the countryside from Salta. Too many choices, really.

I have to take a moment to thank Dylan. I definitely would have still taken this trip by myself, but I know it's been a million times better because I've been able to share it all with a great friend. I'm not going to say I'm going to miss him all that much for the three weeks between the end of this trip and the DC move-in, but neither will I say that I won't be really glad to have him as a roommate.

I also have to thank everyone for reading (and commenting on!) this blog. Having an audience has been a terrific motivator for me to write down my thoughts and observations on all the places we've seen and things we've done. The body of work that has resulted is something I will cherish for a much longer time than the two months for which I've hopefully been able to provide you all with enjoyable, occasional, quick distractions. For now having preserved those wonderful memories for myself, I am extremely grateful to all of you.

In my inaugural post, I said that this trip was meant as a chance to clear my head before starting law school on August 19, and that I would do so by embarking on a search for "lost cities, pretty girls, and the meaning of life". My success, if measured by the completion of those objectives, has been mixed at best. But this has truly been the trip of a lifetime, and I'm glad to report that my head is clear and ready to move on to the coming challenges. I am genuinely excited about law school, and I am even armed with a lengthy personal improvement to-do list that we created on one of the particularly excruciating bus trips.

Anyway. We leave for the airport in 15 minutes. It's been real, South America. Hasta la vista, baby.