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Published: October 16th 2008
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Anticucho
Mmmmm, anticucho is delicious. Marinaded meat on sticks with corn. Yum! El bus
It´s fair to say that I´ve been here a good five days or so now and should probably understand how the buses work, considering I catch them to school every day. But no, I still have no idea!
Let me set the scene. Lima has a population of about 7 million people. The roads are pretty busy (not Delhi busy but getting there). The drivers are crazy. It´s chaos. Somehow it all seems to work okay.
From what I can tell the public transport system consists of hundreds, maybe even thousands of small mini buses that carry people to and from work, home, etc. These buses vary in size and quality but mostly they are pretty shoddy, worn out rickety mini vans which can take maybe 10-15 people sitting down, and as many people as you can cram in standing up.
Auri explained the basics. It costs 1 sole, where to get on and off, watch your bag and pockets, and one would assume that´s all you need to know. Well, let me tell you there´s a whole lot more to catching the bus that I cannot figure out!
• The
View from the apartment
This is the view from the apartment. There are 3 lovely parks within a stones throw from their house. price - There´s a price list stuck on the window on the inside of each bus. No-where does it say it costs 1 sole…S1.20, 1.50, 1.70, .80c…ah, I don´t know. I just give the guy 1 sole and haven´t had any complaints yet.
• Getting on the bus - this is a whole blog entry in itself! Until this morning I didn´t realise there are actually bus stops. I thought you just went to the corner, and jumped on. When I say ´jump´, I mean it quite literally. The bus slows down and pulls in to the kerb (most of the time, not always), the dude opens the rickety door, yelling something like “come on, come on, come on, come on, come on…la, la, la, la, la…..” at a million miles and hour, people exit, you jump on, whilst the bus driver decides to start moving. It´s pretty hectic! At least now I know to find the bus stop. I think this might help for future boarding end exiting of el boos.
• Bus lottery - knowing which bus to get so you don´t get lost. There are appear to be many different bus companies and I cannot tell which
Playing cajón
I joined a group of about 25 people playing the cajón. The sound is quite amazing with so many people. ones go on my route from the front of the bus as it approaches. The main stops are painted on the side of the bus so I can´t tell until the bus is right by me if it´s going where I want. So far I´ve been lucky and haven´t got lost! Let´s hope I don´t win the bus lotto jackpot…ie. End up in the dodgy part of town where I get in trouble. Fortunately my route is very straightforward.
La Musica
My host family are really great hosts. They´ve included me in their everyday life and shown me what life is like for them. A big part of their social life revolves around the regatta club. This club is massive and has every type of sports facility you can imagine and any other type of social classes or groups you can think of. On Tuesday night I went with Auri to her cajon class.
Cajón is a musical instrument, very popular in Peruvian music. It originated from Africa and is a wooden box with a hole in the back. You sit on top of it and tap your hands on the front panel, similar to playing the
Miraflores
View from Locamar of the beach. There´s loads of people paragliding off the cliffs in the thermals coming up off the sea. bongos.
Auri being a gracious host, was very eager to introduce me to here friends and soon I had a good 10 or 15 people crowding round welcoming me and asking lots of questions. At this point I was overwhelmed and my Spanish went straight out the window… oh well. I could understand their intentions, even if most of them couldn´t understand me! I joined the cajon class and had a great time.
New amigos
One of Auri´s friends from the cajón class was keen to introduce me to her son. Yesterday afternoon, Auri hurriedly explained to me something about 9 o´clock, you go, Cecilia (her friend), at which point I gathered something about I was to go out that night. Cool! I was up for a night out and had been studying hard all day. As it turns out, it was Manuel´s (the friends son) birthday last night. So I joined him and his sister Cynthia for a few drinks.
They picked me up at about 11 o´clock (by this time I was seriously regretting not having a siesta) and we went down to the fashionable ´Locamar´ complex for a few drinks. Manuel, excited about his
Birthday drinks
Jacquie, Manuel, Riquo, Cynthia birthday was keen to party but it turns out nothing much was happening on a Wednesday night so we went for a bite to eat and a couple of quiet cocktails. Thank god the clubs that are worth going to weren´t open. I struggled to learn anything much at school today, imagine if I had of gone out clubbing…!
So, I now have some new Peruvian friends my age who are keen to show me around town. I´m looking forward to the weekend when we can go out properly and not worry about work/school. Although, having said that I am cooking lunch for Auri and Luis on Saturday. Better make it Saturday night that we go out!
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Jenny
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hola seniorita
Looks like such a great start to your travels! Will be sad to leave your new family I'd say...but there are so many new people to meet as well... Big kram