Alright, I’m a little delayed with this one, but Week 12 was exciting nonetheless. During the week, some highlights were:
- Walking around Calle Jaen, a street that has retained the colonial era of La Paz, along with plaques describing ghosts that haunt the street, and old absinthe bar, and plenty of photo ops.
- Two back-to-back trips to Ali Pacha, an amazing vegan restaurant with dishes like papaya that tasted like ceviche, tempeh that tasted like meat, and a variety of textures and flavors that make my mouth water just thinking about them.
- Our monthly Junction event at Gustu, where we have local professionals and Remotes present on their jobs, how they got there, etc. This month’s was particularly impressive, as our local city contacts here in La Paz are amazing and know everyone. We had a woman present on her work on a documentary about cholitas climbing Huyana Potosi, one of the more challenging mountaineering feats here in La Paz, two women present on their local fashion company, and fellow Remotes Carolyn and Michelle present on their experience with changing their careers (physician’s assistant to medical writer, and bad-ass UN world-saver to life coach). It was a very inspiring evening. We also got fun RY3 Cousteau hats!
- A sunset yoga fundraiser with Shawn, our resident yogi, which had amazing views of Illimani mountain and just felt oh-so-good.
- A Monthly Mindfulness event, put on by our two life coaches, Michelle and Tania, complete with a 30-day gratitude challenge.
The main event this week was Remote Nation in Lima, Peru. All three active Remote Year groups were invited to the inaugural meetup, and I chose to go for a quick Sat-Sun trip. Outside of feeling amazing with the oxygen and humidity as soon as I stepped off the plane, the weekend overall was incredible. I attended the below sessions on Saturday, all pretty #growthzone for me:
- All Who Wander are Not Lost: a discussion about the experiences we have as travelers.
- How To Channel Your Inner Pharrell: a lesson in creativity and just doing, where we drew “exquisite corpses” (a team drawing where no one gets to see what the other people drew) and set an intention for the rest of our trip to be creative (mine was dance).
- Improv: a workshop that got us on our feet and improving (in so many ways), during which I learned that I love improv and want to keep doing it throughout the year!
- Remote Year Dance Mob: a class that I almost had to teach due to the original teacher’s dance injury, but ended up assisting in instead. We had so much fun learning a dance to “Light it Up.”
- storySLAM: an opportunity for us to get up in front of the group, many of whom were strangers, and tell a 5-minute story. I put my name in the hat for the theme of #growthzone and told the story of how I pursued dance instead of hanging out at Georgetown for a semester.
- Meditation and Reiki: a chance for us to relax and have some Reiki performed on us, which was pretty awesome.
I also hosted an informal discussion over happy hour for feedback that we could provide to the young Remote Year organization. It was a constructive and productive meeting that we hope will result in improvements for future Remotes to come.
After dinner and a bit of dancing at Sukha, a Thai-themed restuarant in Lima, I went home to catch up on sleep and get an early start on Sunday.
On Sunday, I walked down to the shops overlooking the beach in Lima, called Larcomar. A few of us had brunch there, and then I headed to yoga class, also led by a fellow Remote. In the afternoon, a group of us took a food tour of Barranco, a hipster neighborhood in Lima. Our guide Carla was awesome, and we had so much ceviche that I thought I would burst. It was a really fun part of the city, complete with great street art, dancing in the square, and a nice alleyway down to the beach area.
All-in-all, the weekend was a great success. Can’t wait to be back in Lima in a few weeks!
Marina Lvova 
I love your Dance Commitment pictograms! They are pretty amazing, just like the commitment itself. Was it you who drew them? wow, you have more talents than i thought!
All-in-all, I LOVE your blog. Keep doing that! Will keep you busy when you are sixty-four 🙂 knitting a sweater by the fireside… 🙂
Yes, I drew them! 🙂 Thanks mommmm.