Un poco observaciones sobre Lima y la gente acá...

Lima is very much like New York City with a third-world hispanic twist:  dirty, loud, stark contrasts of rich and poor, but undeniably wonderful and fascinating.  Relative to the country as a whole, Lima is doing quite well for itself, but relative to the United States or Australia (there are Australians all over this continent) it is much poorer than I expected.  A meal here in an upscale restaurant like Tanta (which is one of many restaurants owned by Gaston Acurio, Peru's most famous chef) is between 20 and 30 soles, which is 6 to 10 dollars.  Most of the cars are at least ten years old and I have yet to see a 2010 model.  Apparently this is because the city heavily taxes new cars. Moreover, the police are corrupt and it is extremely common to be pulled over by the police and forced to pay a bribe of 10 or 20 soles.  It's so common that it's almost like a tax just for driving.  Walking around the city carries many risks in the form of anxious taxi drivers who are unwilling to slow down, men sitting in trees and hacking at the branches with machetes above walkways, or hazardous construction sites.  Do not walk underneath construction sites; in place of cranes they use buckets on pulleys to hoist up 2x4's.

Yesterday Johnny Trillo drove me to the center of Lima to see the cathedrals, old buildings, and the presidential palace.  Historically this area was the center of the colonial power in Lima.  Johnny described the old Spanish rulers as "la gente de plata"--literally, silver people.  Wooden balconies jut out from windows above the skinny streets which are crawling with taxis and pedestrians.  We walked through a huge plaza that was surrounded on one side by the presidential palace (very grand and lovely), on the other by a tall cathedral, and on the others by the homes of nobility which are now just used for offices and small tiendas.  Around the corner from the palace is San Francisco cathedral, where tourists can walk down to catacombs and see the piles of bones of the later waves of Spanish conquistadors.  A street away and a level below that are some stone Inca ruins.  So far this is my favorite section of Lima and will certainly be explored further.

Point of interest: Lima may be the only international city where Peruvian flute bands don't flood the streets in obnoxious droves. I have yet to see a genuine alpaca poncho, let alone a pan flute. 

Another interesting fact: I am at this moment chugging a bottle of Inca Kola, the most popular national drink.  It's a fluorescent yellow soda that tastes like bubblegum and it's owned by CocaCola, go figure.  On a similar note I found out from Denny, my Australian classmate, that an American company bought out Vegemite.  I apologized on behalf of my ridiculous country, and wondered why America would want to own Vegemite anyways...

Hasta luego, amigos! Ciao!