A few days ago Raighne, Lena, and I thought it would be great to take trip outside of Lima before school starts. First we thought, vamos a Trujillo, but because that was going to be an 8 hour bus ride and there weren't going to be safe places to camp (according to our family) we decided to aim for someplace closer. We selected Huarmey because our guide books and the municipality's website said there were great places for camping. From what we could find there was only one bus from Lima to Huarmey. We took a taxi al Centro to catch it at 4pm, but we missed it by 10 minutes.
On the bright side, we got to get stuck in the best traffic jam of our lives. I don't know if I can even describe how the cars were facing every direction, playing a dozen games of chicken at once, honking, people screaming and putting their hands out windows in attempt to prevent other cars from moving forward. We stayed inside the intersection for upwards of 10 minutes. Maybe Raighne will grace us with an aerial sketch later.
Which, by the way, leads me to mention that the one and only Raighne Mitchell-Luft shall appear occasionally as a guest writer on this here blog. So keep your eyes peeled if you know what's good for you.
Anyway, after returning home embarrassed to face our mother, but not defeated, we picked another location to try. This time we set off to Asia. Yes. Asia. One of of our host family's vacation destinations of choice. The bus to Asia cost 6 USD and featured a movie called the Bridge of Dragons. We arrived in pitch darkness, pitched a tent, ate food we'd bought at Metro, drank Boris with jugo de piña, and made some friends. There were three women just a year or two younger than us from Lima. They were fun to talk to when they were teaching us slang, the warning us of the civil laws in Perú, and sharing their knowledge of MTV celebrities.
Then they kindly went on to warn us of what clubs we should avoid, a.k.a the ones full of "los gays" ...how convenient.
(photo credit to Lena)
We also learned that the beach is not as comfortable to sleep on as it looks, and that the jellyfish here are more colorful than I imagined.
(photo credit to Lena otra vez)
The ocean was glorious the next morning. And though I suffered a sunburn because of it, I was so glad I got to be 10 years old again and fully enjoy the thrill of waves throwing me around and have the sea-salt-fish smell to wake up to. We saw a bit more of Asia headed home after Raighne and Lena tried shared a plate of Cerviche Mixto and I had a bowl of Chaufa (fried rice Chifa style... Chifa being Chinese food, with Limeño influence).
(you can see some people dragging nets out to the ocean for some early morning fishing, as far as I can tell)
The presidential elections are coming up next year. My knowledge of Peruvian presidential history is limited, but what I know is incredibly interesting and full of drama. Por ejemplo... Keiko Fujimori is probably going to run for president; she is also working to get her father out of prison for the crimes of murder, kidnapping, and human rights abuses he is being charged with (from his own presidency in the 90s). I have yet to get a decent handle on how people align politically and what role the wars of the 1980's and 90's play in shaping the federal government's dynamics. More understandings to come, I hope. For now, here's a video of Keiko Fujimori's talking about her father's trial.
Una iglesia amarillo, en estilo colonial, como siempre...
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