My flight (LAN Airlines) arrived in Lima about 11:00 PM, 40 minutes early. There were some rumors and murmurings of Swine Flu delays at the airport. At one point during the flight we were handed a Swine Flu form (in Spanish) along with the rest of the custom forms to fill out. But the delay was only about 20 minutes.
Customs went very well. They didn’t even look in my bag, which was good. I had all sorts of electronic equipment I would have had to explain. Luckily I didn’t have to.
Since the fight arrived early, Ricky and Calvic were not there yet as I came through the doors. But there were hundreds of others there waiting for passengers to show up. Many were holding signs with people’s name written on it, presumably tour guides and taxi drivers. I started wondering if I would actually recognize Ricky and Calvic in this sea of Peruvians. But the instant I saw them, and they saw me, there was no question. I received a warm welcome from both.
The airplane food kinda sucked so I was wanting something of substance. Calvic and Ricky took me out for Chinese. We found a 24 hour Chinese restaurant that wasn’t half bad. We ordered a dish make up of chicken, wontons, vegetables with sweet and sour sauce. The food was similar to American Chinese food but with a little twist of Peruvian taste, using their own spices, etc. But very tasty.
Ricky’s dad was waiting up when we arrived. He greeted me and after a couple of minutes headed to bed. Ricky and I weren’t too far behind. They showed me my room. I unpacked a few things and quickly fell asleep.
My first impressions of Peru:
The traffic of Peru beats out both Korean and Paris traffic. The difference is here they drive faster and take more chances. And when they use the horn, they mean it. And they use their horns often. But I feel safe with Calvic driving. He’s obviously done this before. There seemed to be a method to the madness…somehow.
Peruvians enjoy humor. Every conversation is made up of lots of laughs. Among guys it is very common to make fun of each other and tease about sexual preferences. I felt very comfortable joining in not worried about offending anyone. Sarcasm was understood and used as well, which was something I found did not work in Korea.
Most Peruvians were fairly physical. There was physical contact while talking or even sitting next to each other. It is common for guys to greet each other with a handshake and a hug, even with a gringo like myself.
Not as many tourists as I expected, either. Except for a few at Miraflores, I really didn’t see any.
Lots of stray dogs.
Some nice areas but the majority of the city looked very poor.
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