September 9: The Best Flight Ever

Word of the day:
tragamoneda- casino (literally translates to "bring money")
Note: Fellow Tufts in Chile member Jon Danzig pointed out that the translation should be "swallows money". Much more sinister.

After a day of last minute packing, due to canceled classes with yet another paro still going on, we left for our flight to Lima around 4 in the evening. It was kind of weird to be in the airport again, because it made me realize both how long and how little my time here has been. Also, the people traveling on this particular afternoon were some of the least diverse people both from a racial and class stand point which felt a little Stepford Wives-esque. But generally, I suppose this is the reality of the people in the world that have the mobility to fly internationally.

We flew on LAN, which was phenomenal. I don't mind flying, but I've never been on a flight before that was as pleasurable as the actual destination. An Almodovar movie, a glass of free wine, comfy seats and excellent food?!? It seemed almost to good to be true. Good work, LAN.

We arrived in Lima around 11, an hour behind Santiago/EST. Even just from the airport, things seemed totally different. Instead of lines of blonde, vaguely Germanic looking people, there was a lot of diversity, due to Peru's indigenous and African heritage. Unsurprisingly, things also seemed much more dangerous, although nowhere near on the level of concern as when we landed in Guatemala City at night on my trip last January. We had taxi drivers waiting in vans, booked through our hostel and drove through Callao, the port area of Lima, which was admittedly creepy at night. There were a ton of casinos, which surprised me because I didn't know Peru was known for casinos. There were also tons of political posters for local leaders for an upcoming election which was a pretty good introduction to political rhetoric. Above all, there was a ton of concern over corruption. Posters blazoned with the slogan "La [pot decorated with a peruvian flag] no es ollanta", essentially, state coffers are not just something you can just reach into, were all over. Candidates seemed to be doing a lot to appear trust worthy, friendly and "popular" (of the people). Basically the same thing they do everywhere, but definitely confronting more distrust of the political classes than in a lot of places. Also some rhetoric about change, jobs, public works, but this type of focus was a bit more common in the countryside. Another interesting feature of the posters were the boxed symbols of the parties with giant xs through them, demonstrating how to vote. We weren't sure if this was a correct interpretation, but we thought this might have been done to facilitate voting for the illiterate.

We finally arrived at our hostal, which despite being in a very good neighborhood, pretty much the wealthiest one in Lima, was surrounded with high metal gates. It was quite nice inside though, and the staff was wonderful. We crashed right away so we could get up and see some of the city ASAP in the morning.