ciao, lima

Today, I had lunch in the Paseo de la Solidaridad,a few blocks from my hostel (not the Red Psycho Llama; I moved to one that was just down the street, half the price--20 soles, or around $7, for one night!--and much more social on Tuesday). I wondered what solidarity they were referring to, and what this paseo was doing in the middle of ritzy Miraflores. I haven't even begun to figure out the idiosyncrasies of this city.

This is my last day in busy busy Lima; tonight I board a (luxury?) bus to Arequipa, the White City that I'm hoping resembles--at least a little!--Gondor from Lord of the Rings. I might have to find a white horse to ride into the city on.

Lima has taken some getting used to; my NYC street crossing instincts are actually more harmful than helpful since cars here just don't care at all about pedestrians. This is worlds away from Pine Ridge, and I'm starting to realize that while I enjoy the convenience and the closeness and the forced camaraderie of large cities, I don't think I could ever really be happy living amongst 10 million other people in one imagined community (Benedict Anderson!). Space matters. Lima is gray and a little grimy, though I'm staying in the nicer part so there's lots of cool buildings and apartments around--plus the beautiful Pacific, which is surprisingly clean here, even in the city.

I've spent the last couple of days with Joanna, a suitemate from the past (we can begin the suitemate rendezvous count at one, so far), who was doing research on the reception of the HPV vaccine in the outskirts of Lima. We've had four hour lunches, many walks, some pisco sours, some salsa-dancing, and lots of coffee. I'm eternally grateful for her Spanish language skills, and slowly working on mine--last night I met Isabelle from France, who is staying in the same hostel as I am. Our conversation was a mixture of Spanish, French, and English, which was incredibly confusing and wonderful. Now I just have to find some Chinese travelers, which may be a little more difficult.

I'm ready to move on, and see what the conversative hub (or so I hear) of Peru has to offer--glorification of colonization? We shall see.