Lima

Reflections on seeing the sun rise and fall

By Thomas Feng

June 17^th, 2018

The plane descends towards Guangzhou when a red flare appears. Ten seconds later under the thick cloudy smog, the setting sun appears – a scorching red that reflects and flickers across the dense metallic skyline.

The last time I saw such a striking sunset I was in Lima in the final hours of my first ever solo adventure in South America.

It was easily my least favourite stop; I had grown accustomed to small rural communities in the forest or the desert, and Lima was a confusing, congested megatropolis.

My Airbnb host was a third generation Peruvian with a Chinese-Japanese ethnic background who shared photos of her grandfather moving to Peru from China in the early 1900s.

She barely spoke English so we communicated with a combination of broken Spanish, broken English and hand signals. She showed me the local market which sold all kinds of produce and delicacies.

In the morning she told me to go to Miraflores to look out to the sea by the cliffs.

After being lost in Baranco for most of the day, I slowly walked there to catch sunset.

A shimmering mosaic of dancing purple waves and street lights mesmerised me, and I forgot about the troubles of travelling solo around a giant city.

My eyes watered as I thought about how important this trip was to me. I met so many people from all walks of life looking for different things; I learned so much about local customs and culture; and was humbled by the places I was able to experience.

When I realised I was looking towards Australia and New Zealand, I couldn’t stop grinning as my thoughts turned to my family and friends. It was time to go home.

The plane bumps and rumbles landing across the tarmac and the sun disappears underneath the scarlet horizon.

Later, I board my connection from Guangzhou to Amsterdam and see the sun rise over Uzbekistan with a scarlet haze flooding the plane.

I’m about to embark on another solo adventure. This time though, I’ll be visiting with some of my beautiful friends who had to move back to their home countries in Holland and Spain. And I’m photographing my friends’ wedding in Ireland! I’m ablaze with excitement.