In October of 2013 I was wandering around Lima, Peru via Google maps one evening, sketchbook and fountain pen in hand. I came upon an interesting view and decided to sketch it. Facing a roundabout in what is likely a suburb of Lima called La Perla. I found a statue of the Virgin Mary on a pedestal underneath an arch that declared “Bienvenido a La Perla”. She was gazing over a little pool painted that swimming pool blue color. The pool was surrounded by a fence. I passed an hour or two sketching and painting the little plaza in my sketchbook.

For some reason that night stuck in my head. The sketch was okay, what I think stayed with me was how I felt while I made it. I was in the zone. I didn’t make note of the particular address but I thought about that sketch for the next ten years. I went back to La Perla occasionally but I could not find the Virgin Mary at the roundabout. I kept trying though and it was like I had to remember the way to drive there since Google Maps doesn’t go off road, looking for roundabouts on the map. When I finally found it, a decade later, things had changed. I made sketch number two in December, 2023. The fence had gone, as had the welcoming arch. The Virgin’s pool had been filled in with dirt and painted. Perhaps she appears more inviting to the community now she’s not surrounded by fencing. 

This last time, I didn’t wait so long to visit again. In December of 2025, I checked in on this busy intersection, multiple lanes of traffic churning in both directions, near a gas station and some low office type  buildings, maybe a bus depot, a rotary with a highway sweeping over it. This time I noted the crosswalk cut in front of the island/statue. I begin to see the necessity of someone to pray to at this junction. I’ll be back.