News

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"I'm really not that different, you just made me think so."

What's up?

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mood: hot
now playing: cranberries-zombie
vocabulary: rueda

My yesterdays....

• Que paso? - 2006-09-10

Ok. Where to begin. Left this morning at 7:15 from San Augustin Plaza hotel. Got to the airport way too early and sat around bored. Finally got on the plane and then the flight, which is only an hour, was passed with a film of "Just for laughs..gags!" It was an interesting feeling to be on an airplane where all the people are laughing out loud in unison. Nobody cared how loud they were laughing, because everyone else was laughing too.

Got off the plane, went to new hotel where we only have day use because our plane leaves at like 1 am. Yippee. Put our luggage down and went straight to Ovalo Gutierres, where the beautiful (and freakin expensive) Chili�s is. Now, if you know much about me at all, then you know that Chili�s is, if not my very favorite, one of my favorite restaurants. I got my usual. Except I had to settle for a Coca-Cola no ice since they did not have Dr Pepper. It was such a tease. They had little vintage signs everywhere telling you to drink dr pepper, but no, that is not an option. Then, how annoying is this, I got full after one of my three tacos. I didn�t even touch the rice and beans. But, that is life. I didn�t want to carry around my leftovers so my roommate took them. I said I wouldn�t eat them and she said if she doesn�t then she will give them to a homeless person, and yes, there are many.

After that we walked around to a theater and I found out that along came polly, or "mi novia polly" is out, but does not play until 8:45..and since we leave for the airport excessively early at 10, there is not time to go see it. They had posters for Troy and Kill Bill v. 2 and it was making me go insane. Kill Bill will not come out in South America until after I leave. Boo urns.

So then we looked around in a bookstore. I have been so bored busy, having gone through The DaVinci Code in a day, that I wanted to buy Order of the Phoenix, despite the fact that I have it at home. But man, it was 30 dollars! Speaking of DavInci Code, when we were in the Cathedral in Cusco there was a Last Supper painting done by a latino and the person to Jesus�left was -definitely- female. All of the others had beards except for her, and all the others had very bushy, and roughly edged eyebrows. If you have read the book then the significance of this will be more apparent. If not, then I recommend it. You could read it in a few days and it is certainly provocative.

So, my roommate wanted to go see this angelina jolie movie that I was not particularly interested in so I told her I would walk back to the hotel. I knew (vaguely) where it was. Ok, Lima is a mildly intimidating place. I was told it is more dangerous than Rio, which may or may not mean something to you. But anyway, it is pretty dangerous. Now, also, here the taxis are very forceful. They all want to pick you up. Let me explain the taxi system. Any car can be a taxi. They just stick a sticker in the window that says "taxi" and start picking people up. Even certified taxis, the yellow ones, do not have meters. If you do not agree on a price to the location before getting in then they can name whatever price they want after they take you there. It is very disturbing. But the good thing is, you can get taxis to fight over you. Whoever names the lowest price to your destination, so it can work for your benefit. But, the taxi could very easily stop in the middle of nowhere and demand your wallet and purse and being unregulated...nothing you can do about it post-robbing.

Back to my story, the unemployment is so bad that anyone who has a car becomes a taxi driver if he is jobless. They drive around and if they pass anyone on the sidewalk they honk their horns to let you know that they are there. Some of them even have the balls to pull over and stop and go, "taxi, taxi!" You just have to keep walking and ignore them.

The other thing is the whole machismo thing. The cat-calling, if you will. I do not think of myself as all that attractive, but for some reason I got whistled at and called to and it was mildly amusing, and all-together frightening. When I got to the busier streets with lots of people it was not so bad, but all the tall buildings made it so I had no idea where I was going. I asked this guy who evidently sits in the streets changing money for people, where Avenida La Paz is. He asked me my name and then told me he was Eduardo and that I look good and yada yada. Then he did the whole greet with a kiss thing eventhough I had been walking in the hot afternoon sun and was all nasty. I told him where I had walked from and his eyes bulged and he was like, "Mucho calor!" I was like, "Si, si." He told me where it was and then I ran away, politely but not at all slowly. I did not make it to where I was heading because I stopped at this here internet cafe. But I will have faith that when I do leave this place, I am going in the right direction.

This entry is wayyyy too long. Tomorrow I will be in Montevideo and I am sure that my first stop will be getting my photos put onto a disk and then second stop will probably be a bus station to buy a ticket to Punta del Este, a beach resort, where I will lay on the sand reading and relaxing and recuperating from my exhausting vacation :P

Check you later,

Jenn