Day 8: Reflections on my first visit to Lima

I spent five days in Lima after arriving from San Francisco. The first days of my trip in Peru's largest and most metropolitan city. I want to say that these days were great, and then continue on to some rambling about Colonial architecture and sweeping confluences of culture. That would be fun to write, mostly true, and valuable as a writing sample for my future application to graduate school.



However I do not want this to be "that kind" of travel journal. I will not gloss over mistakes, romanticize the traveling life, or pretend that these are the best days of my life. They are not the best days of my life -- as they should not be, as the people closest to my heart are far away. They are not the worst days either, although adjustment does take time and can be painful sometimes. Days of travel are not necessarily different from a day of non-travel. There are good days and bad days. Hot showers are still great, and hard to leave when outside the air is cold. Food can be delicious, but it can also give you diarhhea -- the same exact food, mind you. I won't spend too much time ruminating on these thoughts here, but expect similar sentiments in future posts, Oh faithful Reader.



Lima is not really a beautiful city, but is alive with humanity. As a somewhat lapsed New Yorker I greatly enjoyed running through the streets in front of tiny speeding taxis and running to jump on buses and vans as they shuffle and shoot through down the main avenues. The buses, micros and combis, are by far my favorite mechanical mode of transportation. They run throughout the city, letting passenger on and off at a variety of unofficial stops, lurching and honking through traffic seemingly 24 hours a day. A note: micros are small buses, about the size of airport shuttles but packed with far more seats, and combis are old vans with a few rows of seats and a sliding side door. On each of these creatures there are two people who run the show: the Driver (necessary skills: honking, changing lanes into oncoming traffic, incredible peripheral vision to see when people are running to catch the bus) and the Announcer (necessary skills: yelling out stops and destinations constantly, hanging or jumping onto the side door while bus is in motion, clinking change around in hand to encourage passengers to pay before exiting). In most of the buses I was on the pair seemed like a Odd Couple match, with the Driver a strong, silent type and the Announcer a gabby jokester. It would make a perfect sitcom!



I spent my first real day in Lima climbing up to Cerro San Cristobal -- see previous post -- and touring the Plaza de Armas, the main square. I took a tour of the main Cathedral, which doubled as a Religious Art museum. This was the place where Francisco Pizarro was buried and where representatives of the Spanish king signed the documents giving Peru its independence. A beautiful building with the perfunctory "skulls and baby caskets" display in the crypt-basement. Is this display actually perfunctory for Peruvian cathedrals? I plan to find out.



The other days involved a lot of walking, and one day of resting at the hostel and gossiping with my great hosts. A few fun anecdotes:

+ While in the taxi on the way to the bus station, we stopped at a light (there are not very many traffic lights in Lima) and I saw an extremely beautiful woman walking down the street. I couldn't help but turn and watch as she walked by the taxi. When she passed and I turned back to face forward, I saw that the taxi driver had just been staring at the same woman and we both turned our heads back around at the same time. I stifled a laugh and he tried his best to look professional.

+ I spent around an hour on Thursday discussing female menstrual cycles and religion with my friend Pilar, the boss lady at the Casa del Mochilero hostel. I was a little surprised that she was open enough to talk about this subject -- according to her, women have 2 periods. Apparently in her evangelical religion, women are not allowed to go to church or touch men while on their period (either one, I guess). We went back and forth on the issue, and moved on to religion in general. Despite my best efforts she was not offended and at the end of our discussion invited to visit their religious camp in an area a few hours east of Lima known as the "eyebrow of the jungle".


+ While riding a bus I watched man get slapped full-force by another man. One guy ran up along side of the bus as it was pulling away from a stop and slapped another man through the open bus window. The slapper then ran full speed in the other direction and the slapee turned around and looked entirely confused and upset, but neither did nor said anything. The bus was full, and several people laughed quietly.

+ I spent too much time in Lima feeling uncomfortable because people were staring at me as I walked on the street. I didn't think I stood out so much! However on my last day in Lima a car pulled over as I was walking to ask me where some restaurant was -- as if I was a local! Not only that, but I actually knew where the restaurant was! I did a little mental celebration as they pulled away.

It is getting late here in Arequipa, and I will end my recollections there. Tomorrow I will get you, Oh faithful Reader, caught up with my escapades here in Arequipa and my future plans...to the extent that they exist. More pictures too!