Jill and I went to see the movie Insurgent last night. Here, it is called Insurgente but it was in English with Spanish subtitles. That was kind of weird. We haven’t been to a movie theater since we were in Florida in October. Theaters are like sensory deprivation tanks. Encompassed by the movie’s sensations, I was transported back to the USA for a couple hours. I remembered we were in Peru only as we walked out of the silent dark and into the evening’s fresh sea breeze.
I sleep well here. We live alone in a room in a hostel. Our two enormous windows are always open. Our hostel is on the corner of two busy streets full of barks, honking, and car chirps. The scent of a cigarette occasionally drifts in. The city’s night lights provide a secure glow in the dark. My hyper senses are overwhelmed and subsumed with the constant grinding of humanity. Knowing that at least on our block life goes on normally is a comfort so constant I take it for granted.
Other travelers pass through as well. Some of the most delightful are the road warriors. The hostel have a small lot where they park dusty customized ready-for-anything vans, trucks, and motorcycles. There was even one with it’s own website. We met some Coloradans meandering to the end of the earth with their son. They’ve been on the road for a couple years and are looking at a couple more. They were driving a Ford Econoline Colorado Camper conversion.
We often meet folks over the meager breakfast offered here. That is where I gave our Colombia guidebook to a Hollander heading north. He was grateful and offered me a Chile book that I declined, Chile can wait. Coralie and Mikhail gifted us the Colombia book when we parted ways in Cartagena. Now it can have a third life.
Throughout our travels I’ve been mistaken as Dutch more often than I can count. Jill is being mistaken as German now. I think when we crossed into South America something changed. We aren’t assumed to be from the USA here. There seem to be few others from the USA as well. While we were walking down by the beach the other day we saw an odd woman wearing a towel whom we’d seen earlier. She greeted us and asked where we were from. When we told her she said that she was Peruvian but living in London. As she walked away she said enjoy our beautiful city.
Lima is the first place on this trip that I’ve found where I feel with all my senses apart from the USA and yet I feel completely at home.
Interesting thoughts, Martin…. How long will you be in Lima and then what? How’s your Spanish progressing?