Lima Limon

So Lima is interesting in terms of people watching, but generally too chaotic for me.

The traffic network is stressing me out because I can´t understand how the hell people aren´t getting killed on these roads. Plus in true engineering geekness, I have been racking my brains on what the best solution(s) would be for this city. And I can´t work it out...God help whoever gets to sort these roads out 20 years down the line.


I fagged out for a bit the other day as there was supposedly some "queer\curious" event on a tuesday. It actually consisted of just about 10 gay guys sipping overpriced cocktails, listening to shocking 1994 dance music. Still, it was an experience as 75% of them had similar builds and features to me, which is odd after all these years.

I´m not feeling that connected to the people here as it does feel like I was just born here, look like them, but I´m pretty british and priviledged. Yesterday I got to see the hospital where my life began and took a few photos, then got callously ripped off by the taxi driver who demanded the quote in dollars, not soles. Looking back, this was only 16 quid to me, which in all fairness has been known to dribble out of my pockets with ease and probably meant him and his kid could have a few nice days. It was just the fake pal-ness of it all, pretending to give a shit about something quite deeply personal to me and asking me lots of questions about my family; once he knew i lived in London he was laughing. So from now on I have decided to publically be a student or a firefighter, and generally not say too much about much.
Sitting back in Larco Mar I took note of all the indigenous people begging and the general astuteness they have towards gringos. It´s hard to explain exactly how that makes me feel, because I guess I dont´t know what it feels like to have nothing. But I´m also not capable of ripping people off either, and it makes me irratated that so many people from where I come from are quite capable and skilled at doing so. I realise that having grown up with white parents makes it impossible for me to see myself as "us" and my folks as "them", and there´s no racial animosity in me.
So I have decided to leave this chaos behind and trek up to see the area where my biological mother is from, called Huanuco. It´s an 8 hour bus ride and cost 35 soles which i think is pretty good considering the picture of the nice coach. Will save me a night at a youth hostel anyway, so I hope the bus doesn´t turn out to be a pumpkin! From then on I plan to make it up to Yurimaguas (by bus and collectivo) too, and see where my sister is from. And then I´m going to take a lancha upto Iquitos and hopefully sail down a bit of the Amazon just to say I have. My British parents spent a good decade sailing up and down this river, pulling peoples rotten teeth out and dishing out medical supplies, so I think this venture might actually allow me to have a valid opinion on Worldly matters in my Dad´s eyes.
And that´s as far as my plans go, will probably take a week or so to get to Iquitos and another week of Amazon Adventure. I´d like to buy a shrunken head but life may not be that kind to me.

Todays´s treat was hearing Angels by Robbie Williams on the panpipes in El Parke de la Cultura. Laughed my arse off.