Adios Lima

Que tal mis amigos? I have boarded a very nice bus & I’m now leaving Lima after three nights. My emotions are a jumbled mess & I question if I can articulately express myself. In that jumble are strands of excitement, pity, appreciation, anxiety, and anticipation; thankfully nausea isn’t in there yet!

I feel as though I got a very decent flavor of the capital, a city of 8 million (approximately greater-LA’s size), and I left with a sense there is no identity there. The city moves incredibly fast; so much so, it was difficult to get any locals’ attention (expect for the one’s I was staying with). The majority of the time when I was able to communicate with them, many said they disliked living there, dreamed of going somewhere else & for me to be very careful. One 26yr old, gorgeous btw, said she was going to work on a cruise ship seeing there wasn’t any way for here to make a living has she was paid in Soles but shelled out rent in Dollars (s/3.5 to $1). Everyone freaked me out too about safety & I was overly vigilant; walking at 9am I clutched my “murse” like I was keeping national secrets.

I chose to walk mainly, logging endless miles, and sadly, much of the city is slapped with poverty, but when you came to the historical & artistic divides of the city it was stunning. I’m nothing but a point & click man on the camera but I hope to get some shots up so you can see the city. In Lima, I chose primarily to snap the beauty as to leave the ugliness behind.

If I went to Lima & spent the entire time solo I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed myself, but thankfully I had a very unique & wonderful experience staying with a family. A friend of a friend (Lourdes) allowed me to stay in her family’s home; I believe 4 generations were living in this house. Pedro, Lourdes’ 58yr old brother, took me as family & I’m not sure how I can ever repay him. Every night I would return just after dark (high alert on safety) and we would sit at the table & talk for hours. Now this may seem normal to those who know my penchant for gabbing, but the 27yr age gap with the vast language divide made for interesting & stuttering conversation. Luckily we found an equalizer; Cristal! The beer of choice for Pedro, and we shared many “tall-boys” (650ml = $1 US). A couple of those & who knows what I was saying “Si” to, but it worked for us. One night, I took it as a high compliment, he had his 2 daughters (early twenties) take me out to dinner & sangria in Barranco. It was my times at dinner, over the humble kitchen table or just in the family’s presence that I really loved Lima. The people when they slowed down & took the time to share, it worked out well (I had a similar experience at a restaurant where I talked to the two waitresses for 3hrs one afternoon). I’m sure many Limenos feel the same; if their city could just become as beautiful as the citizens.

My anticipation is mounting for my work in Cusco. I don’t want to discredit the next week of madness (I am hitting up 2-4 cities but I’m just winging it & figuring it out day by day where to travel & stay), but I am really anxious to help the Peruvians. They aren’t a charity case as a nation, I understand that they are proud, yet, it’s apparent some of the things we have in America are just not accessible here. As parents we move to a “better” school district or pay thousands to have our kids go to a school we deem more acceptable, which is fine but imagine if there was no school or you had no options. That is what Cusco and many parts of Peru are facing; a lack of quality learning environments. So, needless to say, the fun of Lima’s lights & whatever else I find out here, is secondary to what I hope I can leave behind.

Things I’ve learned thus far:
--Being a gringo in a restaurant will get you slow service; being a single male gringo in a restaurant you might as well pay rent
--Sports are listed opposite as in the states…Example: Lima y Chile means the futbol match is in Lima the day I left town & not in Chile; wish I would’ve known to stay & watch it
--My Spanish is getting worse & by worse I mean I can’t stop, playback, or pause anyone!!!
--The Spanish keyboard is just enough different than the English version to drive me nuts or look like a complete moron on my emails. Getting the “@” sign to work is like keying in your security code at work
--Mosquitoes in Peru are transparent or stealth; I haven’t seen one but have about a dozen bites --Everyone loves Obama in Peru & hates Bush – one things are universal

Overall 4 nights in and I love it; eye-opening as planned, fun and still just scratching the surface. I hope y’all can say the same. - M