is it just me?

Well, since we last spoke I have come and gone from scenic Lima, Peru. Although I enjoyed it, I understand why Lima is not a place that many people go on vacation. There are lots of tourists there, but they all go to Cuzco and Macchu Picchu and skip Lima. It is a city of 8 million and it does not have high rises. Do you know what that means? It is huge. Sprawlingly, unendingly huge. And there's a lot of traffic. And pollution. And next to the beach. Perhaps it's like LA. Though it was winter and not too warm and kind of cloudy. And the people aren't trying to get in movies. Anyway, I enjoyed it in sort of a nostalgia-for-latin-america-and-general-enjoyment-of-world-travel kind of way, but I will not be moving there any time soon.

To be fair, I did not see much of what Lima had to offer since I was working almost the entire time. I was traveling with my boss who has the deadly combination of a) requiring very little sleep and b) not being particularly fond of leisure. The result of these two is that you spend a lot of time working. I am going on vacation next week and I have been looking forward to it for a long time. The idea of not working for a week fills me with happiness. When I asked my boss if he was excited for his upcoming vacation (which his wife planned behind his back) he said he was "working on it". Honestly.

here are some funny things from Lima:
1. There is a pedestrian street downtown, and at places where it crosses streets with traffic there are mimes. They are wearing these yellow and blue uniforms, have their faces painted like mimes, and their sole job is to keep people from crossing against the lights. They have four on each side of the street, and if you start to move they hold their hand up and then do that weird exaggerated pointing mime thing at the don't walk signal. Traffic mimes. Crazy.
2. You have to throw away toilet paper. You can't flush it. This is actually true in Bolivia and parts of Mexico also, but I had forgotten. The funny thing is there are no signs or anything, you're just supposed to know. Lots of times I forget. And it seems totally disgusting and weird but truthfully you get used to it. You just wash your hands a lot more.
3. They have great service. When I asked the doorman at my hotel (which was a nice hotel but nothing outrageous) where I could buy water, he wanted to go buy it for me. Security guards hail taxis for you and open the door. It's quite nice.
4. Everything can be purchased individually. Medications, pieces of gum, cigarettes. Why buy the whole thing? It is one of the most wonderful things about developing countries.
5. They have every U.S. food chain you can imagine. They have things like KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut which you might expect. I was not prepared, however, for the abundance of Dunkin Donuts. I think Peru might be the only country other than the States where I have seen the Double D's of pleasure.
6. On the road in from the airport there are all these gambling places with lots of neon and names that are supposed to make you think of American like Roky's, Hello Hollywood and Texacana (not to be confused with Texarcana).
7. My hotel room had this desk that was placed right by the front door, like it was a reception area or something. And then I had two brown pleather loveseats from the 70s as a waiting room. The bed was new, as was the tv. But in the bathroom all the fixtures were old. And it had a bidet which for some reason are very popular in Peru. Perhaps it's related to the whole toilet paper thing? Anyway, my room was totally wacky. I only wish I had had more time to enjoy it.

After all this I am fairly sure you are not planning to go to Peru on your next vacation. However, it is an interesting place, so if you're in the neighborhood (unlikely, I know) check it out.

hiatus

Now, I don't really know if I have enough regular readers to merit a notice about non-posting. I feel like not, though I think now there are more than two of you. So anyway I am leaving again and probably won't post for a while. I'll be back, though. So don't forget about me.