This is why I'm hot!!!

My lobster red face

Ceviche!

Amazing fish dish with rice and french fries

Shells with sauces. Can you guess what the three sauces are?

After one week in Lima, Peru I have finally experienced the reality of the extreme intensity of the sun. While living in Alaska we get a lot of sun during the summer but Alaska is not located very close to the equator. That being said, Lima is a whole different story, and this past weekend I experienced the full intensity of the sun's UV rays.

Friday evening my host family and I packed up and headed to the beach (playa) for a weekend at the club where we were able to play tennis, play pool, frolic in the pool, and enjoy the beach. On Saturday morning after breakfast my host dad, Luis, asked if I wanted to go play tennis; since it was morning and I was still waking up I forgot that even though it was cloudy I still needed to put on sunscreen. That being said, after about two hours of tennis it was time to get in the pool and cool down so I went back to our room, applied a copious amount of sunscreen, and headed to the pool. It didn't take long to realize that the added sunscreen was not able to protect me from the time I spent soaking up the harmful UV rays in the morning, so as you can see I now have a nice red (rojo) color added to my body. My host mom, Elena, said I looked like a lobster (langosta).

Now that I have a sunburn I would love to get suggestions for good remedies to overcome the pain and discomfort of my burn. If you have any suggestions please comment on this post so I can start trying them out. I am scheduled to go to the beach to take a surfing lesson tomorrow so I am definitely needing to sooth my aching burn.

While getting sunburned hurt a bit, the pain I am in has been overcome largely in part due to the amazing food that is present at the beach. Since the club is right on the ocean front there were plenty of fish (pescado) options on the menu. Saturday afternoon I had my first ceviche, one of Peru's classical dishes. The ceviche was very flavorful, but without growing up eating sushi the raw fish was a bit much for my taste buds. Today, however, I had an amazing fish filete that was accompanied by french fries (papas fritas) and rice (arroz) and it was fantastic. Besides the hot sun, salty air, and plethora of people walking around in bathing suits, one additional identifier that you were at the beach was that all the sauces came in sea shells.

Overall it was very relaxing to go to the beach and experience some more fine Peruvian cuisine, now I just have to learn how to protect myself from the sun! Please do comment with some of your favorite sunburn remedies!