Hostel Kokopelli is owned by one Peruvian and one ex-pat Euro backpacker. The front desk staff were really friendly, full of advice, and patient with our rusty Spanish. The other backpackers though, come from all sorts of places. A quote from a U.S. roommate, "it's really nice here, everyone is open and it's really white, so you always know where you're at." ...yeah.
But, regardless, it is fun to meet people from around the world and ask them for advice on where to travel, what to do, etc. I just wonder, if at 21 years old, am I really over and done with the 'backpacker' scene? Probably not--maybe we just hit a particularly sticky bunch. Either way I'm perfectly happy that we only spent two days there and that I'll probably never see any of them again.
On our first day in Miraflores, Raighne, Chad and I went to the grocery store at 8am and were handed cups of beer to try. After walking around the store for 30 minutes, sipping our sample beers, we opted for the bagged chocolate milk instead. Story of my life.
La primera noche, Raighne y yo fuimos para caminar y encontramos el Parque del Amor, Miraflores.
And lastly, I really want to know the local politics of something that happened to us on our second day. At 3 in the afternoon, after meeting with el dueño of A.P.U. housing, we decided to walk back a different way and spend sometime along the ocean. The neighborhood we were in was poorer than others we'd been in, but people were greeting us and smiling and nothing about it felt dangerous. A police officer pulled up beside us and told us to get out of the barrio because it was dangerous. Simultaneously an older woman came up to us and whispered to not trust the police officer and that it was dangerous to talk to him. We decided to just walk for a bit and then call a cab. But the police officer followed us, got out of his truck, hailed a cab, and told us to get in it. The taxi driver laughed, took us back to Miraflores, and told us to be more careful next time.
When Raighne and I told our host family the story, Miriam y Lucía thought it was strange that the police officer would tell us that area was dangerous, especially since it was the middle of the day and we were in a small group.
I guess it all just means that Lima's local politics and the dynamics of perceived threats are far more complicated than my lack of cultural competency can handle right now.
Did I mention the heat? Between noon and 3 it's lethal, but I'd take this any day over Wisconsin winter. So I'm thrilled.
The Cow Parade is currently in Lima. What better to make us feel welcome?
Encontré un imagen de María Elena Moyano, una feminista y luchadora social peruana, conocida popularmente como "Madre Coraje". Luchó contra la pobreza y para la paz. En 1992 fue asesinada y despedazada por el grupo Sendero Luminoso en Lima.
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