Peru: More about this place...

Hello All,

 

I am in much better spirits today and have been able to process and purge the fact that I was robbed yesterday.  I have actually message one of the guys who was present a couple times since it happened.  I am not so sure anymore what happened.  I could have been robbed on the way out of the club since everyone was leaving at the same time.   Oh well, it is just a lesson learned.

 

I wanted to chat more about some of our/my experiences in Peru.  I think Ozell is going to do that same thing, and I could very well repeat what he writes.  Hmmm,  I wonder if that will be a neat record when this trip is done, and I wonder if that would be entertaining for you and us to read?  The "that" I am to which I am referring is the fact that Ozell and I will share some of the same experiences obviously, but it should be interesting to see the differences in our perceptions and reactions to those very same experiences.  Hmm,  I think I will like that.

 

Sorry for the little bit of stream of consciousness writing.  I guess the joint is kicking in.  Actually, it is the little remaining, step brother, and runt portion of the original joint, but it is successfully providing a mild sublimity to the early evening.  We are at the hostel typing simultaneously.  The Point Hostel is nice enough.  It is not super crowded which I prefer anyways.  We have a double room which affords us a little privacy.  I have cheapest dorm rooms do not really appeal to me.  I can deal with some of the negatives of shoestring budget traveling like cold showers with no water pressure, but it is rough to spend night after night in a 6-person dorm room.  I'm sure we'll have to do it from time to time, but I'll be happy to pay a little more for a tw0-person room. 

 

There are some French, German, New Zealand, Canadian, English, and some other nationalities here currently.  There is only abs;)out 20 people here at most.  Ozell has interacted much more significantly with other people so far.  I'll let him write about it.  Everyone is nice and cordial.  The Englishman he has already mentioned in his blog is the one who has sold me a little 420.  It is not high quality, but it does the trick.  Especially since I am not smoking regularly.  My tolerance has decreased.  A nice glass of wine would be particularly satisfying right now.  The fog and sea mist has seeped in just like back home.  It is cool but pleasant.  No southern hemisphere stars for us though.  I have been looking forward to seeing their twinkling.  :)

 

The bar and club we went to Saturday night were enjoyable.  The first, La Sede, was a smaller bar with enough room for a small dance area.  The clientele were more genteel and our age or older.  They were dressed reasonable well and looked like people who had been out to a nice dinner.  The music was okay.  Some of the people were hot.  The place was soft colored, warm, but with more energy than an American counterpart.  The dance club ,or disco as to mainly call them here, we patronized was called Vale Todos, and it was very fun.  The crowd was younger than La Sede, but still plenty of people there our age.  I liked that I can see over most of the crowd here in Lima.   ;)  The music was fantastic in both rooms, but I preferred the electronic over the latin room.  The crowd ranged ostensibly from 18-40 with most in their 20's.  I'm sure there were more than a few 16 year olds around also as it is not to difficult to get into the clubs from what I have been told.  I don't understand why American clubs can't play music like they do in all other non-english speaking countries.  Admittedly, most of my club experience has been skewed towards the gay scene so I can't properly speak about all clubs.  And what I mean about English speaking countries is my experience that Australian and New Zealand clubs were not very different from the US in what type of music they played while Germany, Switzerland, and now Peru have been.  I like electronic music for dancing and do not like what Ozell calls "happy fag music".  Anyways, it was fun to dance there.  They also had a handful of people in moderately extravagent costumes and make up which some may call "club kids", but I don't think that is fully correct.

 

Ozell and I were dancing, and we were impressed with the quality of men there.  The place was pretty damn packed especially the dance floor, but it was large enough that you could actually dance instead of wavering back bouncing from the body on your left to the one on your right.  Three locals dancing next to us befriended us.  They were all very nice and were obviously attracted to us.  They were pretty hot too- and young.  18 according to their testimony, and since they were in Universidad and looked it, I believe them.  We spent a chunk of the time with them but also made our way around to other parts of the crowd.  Ozell found other interesting guys including the ones we left with later.  It was a fun and good time.

 

Yesterday, we mainly took it easy and recuperated since we didn't get back to the hostel until 8am.  But later in the day, I had an adventurous ride on the most crowded bus I have ever been on.  It wasn't a full size bus as you may be thinking.  Most of the buses here are converted vans and Volkswagen Minibus.  I needed to get to the other side of town, and to make the cab fare a little cheaper, I took the bus to Mira Flores.  I had a local woman who worked at the hostel offer to go with me since she had to go out all the way to the airport to get home.  She was a help for sure especially when it came time to negotiate for a taxi.  So I was standing in the doorway of the bus for the first part of the trip with half my body hanging outside the vehicle and only able to hold on a metal rail along the ceiling.  As a couple people got out, I was able to worm my way into a prized standing position entirely inside the bus.  lol  But remember this was a VW Mini bus so standing is really more like crunching over- at least if you are over 6' like me.  It is also a prime place for tourists to get pick pocketed.  I did not have any problems.  But the National Police stopped the bus and demanded to see the proper paperwork.  My guide new this could take a while and would probably end in a bribe from the bus driver to the police so we exited and then caught a cab.  I met a very nice man named Samuel at San Miguel Plaza (a mall) whom I had met at the club the night before.  We had a nice evening talking and fooling around at his place.  His English is very good, and he had a very amiable personality.  I really enjoyed his company and intend to stay in contact with him.  :)

 

Last night after returning from Samuel's, Ozell and I got a little food, but then ultimately just stayed in the hostel and retired to bed early to make up for the long night before.

 

Today we saw the Centro Lima district.  There will be pictures.  This area has some nice buildings and culture, but the area surrounding it was not very safe from what we read.  We saw the Presidential Palace and Cathedral.  There were also some unexpected 16th Century colonial ruins nearby.  We also had a fantastic late lunch/early dinner at a local place called Quierlo's.  It was recommended by the guide book as a good place to go to get authentic Peruvian food and a locals' non touristy spot.  I had a fish pasta, and Ozell had a chicken and rice dish.  Check out the pics for a view.

 

Now we are back at the hostel and planning our next move to Cuzco.  I'll keep you informed.

 

Sean  :)