Sept 15: Lima and Out.

Back in Lima, late afternoon, we checked out the town center which took a ton of organization due to our needing to order a taxi, but was worth it to see the gorgeous colonial architecture of what essentially was the Spanish capital of South America, as well as the gorgeous interior of the cathedral. We also stopped by Barrio Chino (Chinese Neighborhood), seat of Lima's large Asian population which certainly gave us a glimpse of some very interesting cultural hybridism.

Back at the hostel, the owner whipped us up some delicious pisco sours, a traditional fluffy pisco, egg white, sugar drink, yet another thing Peru and Chile fight over (ie who originated the drink). Although many Chileans would disagree with me on this, Peruvian pisco is better. Especially the version he made: frozen, slushy style.

We went out for dinner in one of the nicest restaurants in the city in Miraflores on the ocean, in a spiral shaped mall called Larcomar near a park known as Parque de Amor. (Love Park) Despite the name, it was surprisingly and thankfully devoid of lovers, unlike any park in Santiago. Even though we seemed to be dining among perhaps the top 10% of Limeñans, my delicious plate of shrimp, octopus, scallops and rice, flavored perfectly, cost a little more than a burger and a drink in any decent Boston joint. Certainly something to think about. Despite my dislike of upscale malls, it was undeniable gorgeous and fun. We were able to walk home (the hostel owner encouraged it) which I found odd, given how dangerous most of Lima can be and considering it's very frowned on to walk in Santiago at night, even though it's a safer place.

Although I was glad to see the pretty parts of Lima, in my humble opinion, Santiago is sooooo much cooler of a city, especially for students. I had thought about studying abroad in Peru at one point, but I'm glad I didn't. Getting around is such a pain and unlike in Santiago, it's too dangerous for gringos to get an idea of what most of the city is like..

September 11: Exploring Cuzco

Word of the day: gaseosa (Peru)- soda

After throwing our stuff in the hostel and dining on pollo a la brasa, richly flavorful coal cooked chicken, we went to wander around Cuzco for a while. It was an absolutely wonderful and unique city. Although it is one of the largest in Peru, it's fairly small, especially to explore the areas that are touristy. We visited the Plaza de Armas first and the surroundings, filled with gorgeous Spanish churches set against a backdrop of terracotta rooftops, bronze colored hills and blue skies. We also got to see Santo Domingo, a gorgeous Spanish church built on top of Incan ruins. The contrast between the simplicity of the houses and the detailed churches was really neat, as well as the contrast between the tourists and the high presence of indigenous culture. Walking in Cuzco is hilly though, which was interesting with the altitude adjustments, since it was over a mile high.

Although I love traveling with friends, being with our giant group of 11 was trying sometimes. As one of us said, it was just the size of the group, nothing to do with the people. A classic example of this was trying to get dinner. We went at a crowded hour and couldn't find anywhere with enough seats. Fed up and with low blood sugar, my friend Regina and I peeled off from the group to find something quickly. We ended up finding a 3 course menú (set meal) for $2.50. We were worried we would get sick because the food was so cheap, but there were other gringos, so we figured we'd be ok. We weren't sure what kind of meat they served us because it didn't have a texture like any of the usual suspects, but it was still good. Since we were leaving early in morning and exhausted, we retired early, although not before a lot of money arrangements to pay for things. So much math on this trip, with learning a new currency.
Example of the kind of thinking that went on a lot:
-Peruvian money is based on the 1 sol unit, but this is about 1/3 of a $1 US, so there was a lot of mental dividing by 3.
-Chilean money is based in $1000 units, known as a luca, but each of these is worth $2 US, so there was all that to forget.
-Then, there was the problem of some things being cheaper if you paid in certain currencies, plus the changing exchange rates- basically just tons of math.

September 10-11: The Real Traveling Begins...

Word of the Day: cuy- guinea pig. Food here, but I never got around to trying it.

We awoke to an excellent breakfast of bread, jam and real coffee(!!!!!!!!!!!!) and headed out to see a bit of Lima and attend to tasks such as buying groceries and changing money to soles. Thank goodness I had american $$ with me: the rate between Chilean pesos and Peruvian Nuevo Soles was slightly ridiculous- they wanted 650 peso to the dollar, when the real rate is something like 500 to $1. I wonder if this has anything to do with the two countries animosity or more to do with the fact that they produce relatively similar goods and may not actually have very high levels of trade despite their proximity.
After some grocery store adventures in something that seemed like a Peruvian version of Whole Foods, we walked through Miraflores, the part of the city where we were staying to Huaca Pucllana, an ancient ruin right in the midst of a residential neighborhood. It was built by people from the Lima culture, in 200(?)AD, from mud bricks. Much of it has been restored now, because until recently it was essentially buried and the space functioned as a garbage dump/soccer field for the community. Our tour guide estimated that it could take up to another 20 years for them to finish unearthing the ruins and restoring it. Nevertheless, much of the site has undoubtedly been lost because it was destroyed in the urbanization and expansion of the neighborhood. The construction of the site was very interesting: to be earthquake proof, the layers were built with triangles included to provide flexibility. The people of the Lima culture were believed to have had a very female-centric culture due to finding of female human sacrifices on the site: usually cultures that practiced human sacrifice offered up the best to the gods.

We then headed out to the bus station to embark on our 22 hour journey (Only $30 US!) to Cuzco for the next leg of our journey.

Have to say, Lima really wasn't that pretty or special, at least my impressions of it up to that point. I really wanted to like it because travelers are generally said to have the same reaction as mine, but for me it was hard to like a city that was so decentralized, lacked public transport, was dangerous to walk due to lack of stop lights or stop signs and was in many areas devoid of the art and graffiti that make Santiago so vibrant. Occasionally in Miraflores there was some colonial architecture, but not a whole lot, due to its relative newness.

My reaction to the Peruvian desert was also somewhat similar. Kind of bland. I started to realize how little I really knew about Peru though. This was the first international trip I had ever taken without semi-extensive academic study first: I'd touched on Peru in a few classes, but very specific topics that weren't especially relevant to where we were going, such as civil society under Fujimori, the Shining Path and Afro-Peruvian culture.

Everything was way more rural and much poorer than I had expected: outside of the city, there were almost no houses that reflected a higher standard of living. Nevertheless, I've gotten more used to seeing what rural poverty in Latin America looks like, which is kind of disconcerting. I don't like the fact that the existence of such a particularized difficult lifestyle has stopped shocking me so much: I feel a bit jaded that I've come to expect it.

The ride got more interesting at night although not for good reasons, once we started on high altitude curving roads. I hadn't wanted to risk bringing coca leaves on the plane; having seen too many episodes of "Locked Up Abroad," I just didn't want to have to have someone mistake them for any other sort of leaf. Since these were pretty much the only thing that help me, I was kind of in a bind. I kind of lost track of how many times I threw up in the bus bathroom: needless to say, not a good night. I was glad for the group that I was the only one who was vomiting, although we were all affected by the lack of air. I will say this about my study abroad trips: it's making me much more flexible and better at coping, because when stuff goes wrong while traveling, there's nothing I can do but wait it out or solve it on my own.

They also showed quite an awful bunch of movies, including a ridiculously violent kungfu movie, "The Descent", a terror movie about spelunkers and "The Bear" which was sort of like a nature movie with fictional characters and exceptionally bad dialogue and plot line and finally, (twice!) "The Boy with the Striped Pijamas," an exceptional downer of a holocaust movie.

On the positive side, once we "woke up" (I hadn't really slept), the scenery was gorgeous. Mountains, gorges, rivers, winding bends: it was impossible to take fotos because we were curving so much but unforgettable. Around noon, we finally pulled into Cuzco, dusty, terracota colored, but stunning in its own way.

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.