Bienvenido a San Bartolo!

San Bartolo is a beach town about a 30-minute taxi ride south of Lima (or 1-hour bus ride) right off the Pan-American Highway. It is not at all a touristy spot, but it is a popular weekend and vacation destination for Lima locals. The coast line is squiggly so each bay created by the rock peninsulas has a distinct beach area, each one a little different. The beach closest to where we are staying is mostly occupied by fishermen and we are walking distance from a surfing beach, a sandy beach for swimming, and a very calm beach overrun with older adults. San Bartolo feels to me a lot like a ski town: there are wealthy pockets right on the beach and the corresponding increase in the cost of living makes life hard for the poorer parts of the community.

South San Bartolo, the beach closest to us, full of fisherman



Behind us is North San Bartolo, popular with surfers



Santa Maria, a good swimming beach just south of us

My friend William lived and worked in San Bartolo for seven months after high school and kindly connected us with the woman that he lived with and the community center where he worked. We are staying with a very nice lady named Cecilia (and her husband Juan and daughter Luciana) who runs a hostel one block from the beach.  We have a nice room overlooking the ocean with a balcony, Cecilia cooks three meals a day for us, and the family has been great fun to talk to and explore with. Though none of them speak much English, they are great about speaking slowly and I can understand much of what they say.



Our room



View from the balcony



Front of the house and our balcony!

The community center we will be helping at is actually a Catholic mission, but in addition to weekly religious services and on-site pastors (and pastors in training) they provide all the after-school services I’ve come to associate with CBOs in Colorado, so I’m doing my best to think of it as a Family Resource Center instead. The facilities are much nicer than I anticipated and it feels like the mission is really the center of the community. The intention was for us to help with the sports and the English classes with the kids, but Cole charmed the local women so thoroughly in the first few days that they lobbied around an English class for adults too.



The misson/communicy center



Cole and I have settled into a mellow routine that seems just about perfect for the six weeks we’ll be here (after Easter, we leave to travel around the rest of the country). For now, we will be working at the community center three days a week, Wednesday-Friday, in the afternoons teaching English and playing sports. That leaves the mornings for reading and writing on our amazing balcony, exploring the beaches, trip planning, and Cole’s Spanish lessons with Cecilia. And then the days we aren't needed here, we'll go explore the surrounding areas.