I have been busy lately and have not been writing because I prefer to spend the time left over sleeping. I am at the PUCP every day and working working working, had two assignments due and one is finished thank god/wiracocha/whoever. I am also incredibly lucky to be able to attend „Las Lenguas de los Incas“, a graduate class by Prof. Cerrón-Palomino. In Spanish. I think I understand a lot, though I do not say that don't I misunderstand a lot as well. But it is very interesting, about Puquina, Aymara, and Quechua, and some common misconceptions about toponyms such as „Lima“ or „Cuzco“. What the tour guides told me was all wrong!

Yesterday was the big presidential election and because of that many museum had announced to be closed, so I went off to get to the „beach“. Here in Barranco there is a famous path down the cliff to the „beach“, really nice, if you don‘t count the street vendors. They really try to sell you their junk everywhere and what annoys me most is that people actually fall into their traps. Well, I ignored them as usual. The „beach“, or at east the part I was able to reach by foot within half the day, turned out to be a small stripe of pebble between the ocean and the highway. Lima has made the same mistake as Marburg and has built its highway directl in front of what could be a major tourist attraction. There are constructions under way to at least install something of a promenade, but it is really sad at the mo. From time to time the pebbles give way to actual sand, but that is littered. I collected some shells and swiftly went into the nearest Restaurant, where I had the most expensive scallops of my life (but good). Three waiters came one after another to aks for my nationality and then I was presented with a small national flag which was placed on my table. The table next to me featured a Japanese flag and family. Nice try, but I already feel like an alien here, I don‘t want to be reminded.

The remainder of the day was spent in a park around the corner of my hostel overlooking the cliff, which is the quietest place I could find, and where the subtle wind seems to keep the exhaust at bay. It is very beautiful, grass and flower beds, palm trees and gardener, but unfortunately it is also the main doggy place of the people living in the upper-class apartments around the park. Funnily enough, somebody takes his turtle there, a big one. It has its own nanny which sits beside it and feeds it melon from time to time. I see them there more often, wonder whose it is???

I have also been to Huaca Pucllana, a pre-Inca, pre-Wari construction in Miraflores. Worth a visit. And I‘ve done a City Tour including a tour of the cathedral. While passing by Pizarro‘s palace I saw that the artefacts recently returned by Yale University (stuff stolen by Bingham in Machu Picchu) is on public display there, I have to see it! I really need to catch up with the musems, there are at least 4 I want to visit while here. But first: Nazca! I hope that tomorrow I can book a tour to Nazca, including flight over the lines, on Sunday.

Why am I writing this now? Because I just came home from class and have to wait 30 min for the shower to get warm. It is now, so hasta luego!

P.S. On the city tour there was a Peruvian man whose father was German. His family was forced in 1940 to return to Germany (Peru was ally to the U.S. and expelled lots of Germans when war was declared) and his mother and sister and several more relatives got killed there. He returned to Peru and now has his own family here.