Striking, Peruvian Style

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Nothing like a little strike to round out the week in Peru. For the last few days we´ve had little strikes. No cabs/ticos/combis in the morning. They´ll work again for an hour at lunch, but nothing else.
This is important because no one really has a car, so public transportation is far more common. I for one like the bus route called Blanco Jesus, Spiderman, Batman, and my friend Katie takes Sr. Rapido.
The buses aren´t numbered, they are given names instead.

So today was the big nationwide strike. I live right off the main plaza and my school is on the main road. The airport is a little far from downtown... Anyway. I leave for school this morning and the police are out in their riot gear (which we´ve seen frequently as of
late) and there are big buses blocking the road. My roommates and I are like cool, finally, we won´t get run down in the streets by the Ticos (baby cabs). We keep walking and everything is closed and is eerily quiet. A few kids are in the middle of the street kicking a soccer ball because there is no school and who wouldn´t want to play out in the main thoroughfare if possible.

So Curt, Kim, and I are walking to school and we see a Tico. We think, how odd, we thought they weren´t supposed to be out today. All of a sudden, from down the hill next to us, a big mob is flying toward the Tico and throwing rocks at it and screaming. Curt, Kim, and I start running toward our school as fast as our little legs will take us and we see other Ticos flipping U´s in the middle of the street to try and get away. Other Ticos weren´t so lucky and were flipped over for breaking the strike. All around the University, which I don´t live by, were massive protests and burning things that people were talking about.

So we´re in school and we hear lots of shouting in the streets, etc.
all during classes. During our break we´re all outside taking in the sun (since it is colder than freezing at night, we try and get sun when we can. There is a 200% change in temp from day to night. It´s 70 during the day and 25 at night) and having our snacks and drinks and watching different unions parade up and down the street shouting slogans, etc.

In Cuzco the protest aren´t as bad we´ve been told because tourism is the main economy. At one point, the major march filled the whole Avenida del Sol, which is the main street and the street my school is on. Thousands of people chanting all sorts of things by the court house and municipal buildings (across the street from my school). We watched from the window, as things got a little dicey. The street was a wall of people. Mainly against the government, some against the privatization of things (a Spanish company owns the phone company, a Chilean company owns the gas company, and by all means, don´t buy Chilean because there is some serious animosity on that front).

So now I´m sitting in one store that is open, using the internet before I skeddadle back home to the ´fam and some more pisco sours...
It´s almost like a holiday for the upper class, because they don´t really take part in the strike, besides denouncing the degenerates that are striking and inconveniencing them...

Oh, and watching tourists haul their bags up the highway from the airport, a little amusing (as we all were glad it wasn´t us having to do it). The airport is way on the outskirts of town... But not to worry, they all had their hiking gear on, which is a never ending source of amusement for those of us already here and wearing jeans and tennis shoes.

I hate to admit I did have to buy a fleece jacket, but I had to. Since my house is outside, these freezing nights have really taken a toll. I now sleep with my best friends, the hot water bottles and every piece of clothing I´ve brought, and I hate to admit it, even slept in my shoes to keep my feet warm.

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