Reflactions on my last day in Peru...

Here I am, back in Miraflores, where everything began nearly one month ago. It is amazing how familiar everything feels, yet it glistens with a new sheen after all of the experiences of the past three weeks, rendering it all the more understandible and beautiful. Thinking back on our cherished time here, it is hard not to see it in snapshots. Of rocking sweaty babies, just out of surgery in Lima. Of having to say ¨No gracias¨to the thousanth child who approached me selling homemade finger puppets in Cuzco. Of walking up through the clouds in the humbling, majestic Andes to witness the mist part and the awe-inspiring Machu Picchu laid out before us. Of the Uros woman of the floating isles of Lake Titicaca selling her colorful woven tapestries, while white parasitic tourists laugh and rudely take pictures without regard or permission.

It´s the children laughing in the park. It´s the Argentinian hippies drinking mate. It´s the woman who is spending her last sole (coin) to get her son to the hospital to have cleft palette surgery. It´s the Andean farmer who has to watch a train of rich tourists pass on their way to Machu Picchu, while he scrapes by on less than $1 a day. It´s the children compromising their childhood, selling trinkets to tourists all day so that their family can eat. But, more than that, it´s the smiles, it´s the humor, it´s the enduring friendly nature, happiness and hope of a people who against all odds, and in the bleakest of circumstances, approach life with optimism and a great deal of love.

Peru has taught me a lot. If the mountains have taught me anything, it´s humility. If the sea has taught me anything, it´s serenity. And if the Peruvian people have taught me anything, it´s hope.

Somehow I know that this will not be my last time in Peru. There is something about this country that captivates and touches you on your most primal human level and won´t let go. But, for now, Adiós Perú.