Lifetime Friendships Through Travel--Lima

An Afro-Peruvian Connection

Lima, Perú

As a traveler I prefer to stay away from tourist attractions and be among the everyday people. This, in my opinion, is the best way to experience the real culture; particularly if you want to master the language. In my case, Spanish.

Years ago, I was astonished to learn from an article I read that there are more black Latinos in the Americas than there are black gringos. What surprises me to the point of frustration is that too many Latinos I meet, from New York to California, do not know about the blacks in their own communities who speak Spanish as their first language. What a shame as they, of all people, should know better.

To learn more about black history and the black experience in Latin America, I took it upon myself not to just read about it, but to travel, and as much as possible, experience it.

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My dear friend, Deisy, of Lima, Perú

It was through a Peruvian friend I met on Facebook who now lives in Toronto, Canada who introduced to her family before making my second trip to Perú.. One of the family members is Deisy, of Lima, Perú. Deisy and her family was at my bedside almost every day when I was inadvertently hospitalized with an intestinal infection. I met her mother and her daughter as a result of Deisy's visits. Deisy's daughter and I were Facebook friends for almost one year before she and I met.