POST 4: The Architecture and a City’s Disparity
Well so far while being here I have seen some beautiful, beautiful houses and beautiful “hacienda-style” architecture in many buildings.  Very inspiring and gorgeous.  Some buildings look like they have come straight from a plaza in Spain!  Yet at the same time there is graffiti scattered around the city, probably every block.  We may live in Miraflores (a nice, protected tourist region) but the hospital where we work, 20 minutes away in a district called La Victoria where buildings are demolished, streets are filthy, windows broken (and no one bothers to fix them) stray dogs run free, and it feels like you have just stepped into the slums.  So there is just a big inconsistency in the Peru that I have experienced.  It is still a developing country with a lot to work on (neighborhoods to clean up, people to feed, a depressive poverty to fight), there are still remnants of Spanish influence from colonization (the nice plazas), and there are some very americanized regions (tourist areas, fast food, casinos, resorts).  Its just a very interesting observation to say the least, one I am sure that can be found in many cities and I am not quite sure how to digest it yet, since I am, perhaps without intention to be so, a tourist.