Disclaimer! This was written on the 10th… Sorry for the delay!
So I have officially started my solo South America tour! 1st stop: PERU!!! (By way of El Salvador.) Now if you will, let me go back to when I landed in El Salvador. Instantly I went from “black girl from Oakland”, to “Hispanic Mamita”, who’s native tongue is Spanish. It was crazy… Everyone addressed me in Spanish. Manytimes In my life I wished I spoke Spanish, but today, I really wished I did! Once I opened my mouth to say “Thank you”, I went from one of them, to the last kid to get picked for the kickball game!! It was so bad that I pretended to understand and just nod my head and say “Si” to everything… One of the 1st things I notice during my short layover in El Salvador was the smell! Everybody smelled like they showered in Cologne. Strong smelling women, strong smelling men!! Another thing about El Salvador, at least the airport, was that it was very green. The airport was surrouned by huge green trees that looked like… TREES!! Also durning all of my “5 seconds” stay, I found it very interesting that the airport cops K9 was a regular ass black dog. (sorry dog enthusiast but I couldn’t tell you what type of black dog it was). Then the airport cobs appoaches (at random selection I’m guessing), a well dressed mid-aged woman and proceeded to look through her carry on while in line to board the plane! Better her than me I thought, but still…RANDOM!
On the plane I ate black beans, huevos, fried queso, and plantanos fritos and by gollie, it was slamming!! The flight took about 70 hours…. And not only till I was on the plane reading, or should I say looking at the pictures in a magazine since I can’t read Spanish, did I realize the El Salvador was in Central America and Peru; South America…Uh…Could someone say “Dumbass”?!?! No wonder everyone was looking at me backwards when I told them “I’m flighing into Peru, and THEN El Salvador… Then Brazil”! But enough about me having the geographical knowledge as a wooden statue, HOLA PERU!!
I hopped of the plane, exchaned a few bucks into “Sols” then filled out a 1,000 papers just to get my black ass out the airport. Right as I was walking out the door I met this guy named Mike. He was a taxi driver and my shuttle to the city of Lima. Now Peru is CRAZY!!! Little mini “Scooby Doo” busses full to the rim with women, men, children, horses… Zipping in and out of traffic on I’m guessing their freeway and the abruptly stopping the mini bus and reaching out their hands to let more heads in! Lots of advertisment on billboards I spotted. Like dogs smiling with their legs crossed (creepy), or white Barbie dolls dressed in street walker clothes with the word “excisable” (more creepy) over the head. Most of the buildings are small and in shambles, people walk across the freeway when they want, and men sell machetes to people in cars at red lights. I started feeling a bit over my head when Mike and I had been driving for close to a half an hour and nobody had a leather jacket on, which in my mind made me a easy target! We finally get to downtown Lima and Mike drops me off infront of a beautiful Cathedral and tells me he will pick me up at 19:00 hours aka 7 o’clock. There’s not much in downtown from what I can see but what is downtown is breathtaking. A plethora of old buildings with styles of French architec, splatter the 7 block ratios of downtown Lima. Couples sit very close and look passionately to their lovers while saying God knows what. Whities get hit up for their money every 4 steps and the law enforcement is made up of women who look like Keyshia Cole’s Granny!! I sat smack dab in the center of Lima in awe. Oh and by the way, I’m so glad I brought my leather daddy jacket cause it was a cool 69 degrees with gentle winds… just enough for me to be glad I had it. After I picked my jaw off the floor, I put on my best “East Oakland, don’t fuck with me face” and huffed it on a mission to find food. After walking about 4 blocks into the slick side streets, I spotted a little hidden “Durant Square” if you will, that if you blinked you would miss. Different vendors selling jewels, clothes, chotchkies. Everything was super cute, super Peruvian, and did I say, super cute! Of course I bought something at damn near every booth, spending a whopping $10! (Peru is very cheap!) A sweet old lady at the last booth I was at walked me over to a place to “comer” and then dipped back into the shadows. I ordered “Lomo Saltado” and it was the fucking TRUTH!!! Buttered white rice, tender strips of beef in a tomato herb sauce and french fries that would make any All American proud. Oh, and a luke warm “Cusquena” which was… BORNING! And this is where I’ve been sitting for the few hours and some change. It’s starting to get dark so I’m going to head back towards downtown and smoke a beloved American Spirit and watch a free concert that starts any second. All and all, Peru is great BUT only a little taste I hope of what Brazil will be!! Till then, I’m signing off!
Adios.
