11/23/2010 - Lima, Peru: Want Some Weed?

Peruvians are funny people. First off they have no fucking clue how to drive. For example, a taxi sped by almost clipping BJ and the curb, only to stop second later at a red light. What a jackass. They really have no idea about common courtesy or a sense of ´we´re all in it together´. No. Every car, van, tuc tuc, or bus for themselves.  They´ve been the worst drivers I´ve encountered on this trip by far. It was stressful to say the least. Once I reached safe ground in the city, I got an even better idea how funny these people can be. everyone is super friendly.  They´ll ask where you´re from, or point you in the right direction, but as soon as your polite conversation is at an end.  They´ll try and sell you weed. Seriously unexpected. Eventually I learned to make a joke about it. It´s all pretty comical when you sit down at a restaurant for dinner and the waiter immediately offers you weed. Oh, no thanks, but dinner would be super.

Now, you might think that getting stuck in Lima might be a bad thing. Really, it was pretty great. There´s a giant circle of shit getting in, but once you make it to Miras Flores you´re golden. It felt a lot like a little slice of Los Angeles. Too many people spoke English, and it was cleaner than any other city I´ve seen on this trip. I spent nearly a week there waiting for the remains of my motorcycle to be brought back to life by a real mechanic. The days were long and lazy, filled with random strolls about the city and drinks in our quiet hostel at night. I could have stayed there another week easy. BJ on the other hand coudn´t wait to get out.

Like I said, it was pretty much uneventful. I met a crazy local chick. Literally crazy. We invited her out with us, and she totally dominated the conversation. She was a strange kid, but definitely made it interesting. The best part was when she thought that airplanes controlled the weather on a day to day basis. Correcting her gently was way out of the question. As it was too much damn fun making fun of her right to her face without her knowing. We didn´t really intend to be so mean, but she had been annoying us all day long, so it was time we had our fun. Other than a fun barbecue for a non profit, it was otherwise extremely lazy time, but hey after traveling for such a long time.  It was just what I needed.

Last few things about Lima, BJ saw a naked fat lady walking the streets like nothing was going on. We both became adults and got yellow fever vaccinations, and for the first time on this trip, BJ and I split up to meet later at a location to be determined. Duhn duhn duhn....