Geography

I thought I´d talk a little about geography today. Peru is one of the most diverse countries geographically in the world, with 50+ distinct microclimates and three basic zones. These are La Costa, or the coast, which is generally flatter with warm, humid weather, La Sierra, or the mountains/highlands, which has colder but wetter (three months of rain) weather, and La Selva, or the rainforest, which is what one would assume it would be like. There are also deserts, wetlands, plateaus, etc that fall into one of those three zones.
The Andes mountains cut through the country and are actually fairly close to the coast. This means that even the coast is a bit hilly, and I live on top of a giant, steep hill, which is fun walking up in the afternoon. Around me are dry mountains, not unlike Northern Mexico, where there is almost no vegetation and aren´t high enough for snow. It also is often foggy here, and a bit chilly at times as it is winter right now. Lima is in a bit of a depression, like Los Angeles, and the weather is usually pretty bad there, humid, cold and misty with a dash of pollution thrown in.
On the other side of the Andes is the rainforest, which covers a suprisingly large part of the country. There are no volunteers there for various reasons, and I´ll be placed either on the cost or in the mountains, which are generally more behind development-wise but whose beauty draws my interest more. I´ve lived in cities obviously, and am ready for something completely different (although ideally still with electricity- we´ll see). Anyway, the origin of the Amazon river is in Peru, which I hope to visit, as well as other natural attractions like Lake Titicaca, which I believe is the lake with the most elevation in the world, although I may be making that up. True or not, I´ve heard it is pretty impressive.
That´s about what I´ve learned. On the personal side, we´ve been doing a lot more hands on stuff in training lately, from giving charlas, or small lectures/chats over marketing basic business at a local instituto, or community college and visiting a coastal town that featured a beach complete with trash and a massive sea lion carcass (yes, I´ve got pictures). I know it´s winter, but trolling for dead animals might be worth the effort. As everywhere, city budgets are always a concern, though...