OH PERU!

Today was an absolutely hilarious day. It is funny … it is so easy to feel like we are not in a third world country sometimes while we are in Lima. There are so many modern amenities here that it is easily forgotten that we’re even in Peru (minus the language barrier of course). Today was not one of those days. Today, we KNEW we were in Peru.

Everything in Peru takes a little longer and things just get done differently than in the States. Not bad, just different. Basically anything that can go wrong, take longer than it should, or is just plain backwards, we blame on the fact that we’re in Peru … because, let’s face it, things are different in Peru. Well, today we said “Where are we?” “In Peru” oh so many times!

To start, we went to get my roommate a cell phone. When I got mine, it took about 20 minutes or so because I had a lot of questions. It was a little bit of a confusing process, but it went fairly smoothly. Hers did as well … it just took double the time. At one point, the salesperson wandered away, only to be spotted helping another customer on another floor while we were standing at the counter still waiting to finish our transaction. Oh Peru!

After finally finishing with the cell phone, we decided to head to the mall. We didn’t have a lot to do, but needed to stop by one of the sports stores to sign a friend up for a marathon. We weren’t sure exactly where the mall was in comparison to where we were, but I knew it was relatively close. We decided to ask the security guy that was standing near the crosswalk. Kristen, who speaks Spanish fluently, asked him where the mall was. It became pretty clear very quickly that he really didn’t have a clue what we were talking about. This mall is a pretty big deal in this area, and yet the security guy didn’t have a clue. Okay, fine … maybe he’s new. He decided to tell Kristen where another sports store was, and then just randomly walked away. Kristen wanted to know what he was doing and I said, “I think he’s going to ask the other security guard a question … or maybe not.” As I was saying that, he passed right by the other security guard and we watched him get on a bus and leave. Kristen and I looked at each other in complete amazement. Kristen asked “what just happened?” and we both burst out laughing. Where are we?? In Peru!!

We finally made it to the mall. We signed up for the marathon like we were trying to do, and decided to catch a taxi back to our apartment. We walked up to one taxi to ask how much it would be. Now, mind you, a taxi from this mall to our house should be no more than 6 or 7 soles. Eight is the most I would pay if I was feeling very impatient and late for something. Well, we asked this taxi driver and he said TWENTY SOLES!! I looked at him completely dumbfounded and Kristen laughed at him. He tried to tell us how he was a safe taxi and that was why he cost so much. He kept trying to convince us that 20 was a good price. I know we’re American, and they usually try to pull things over on the Americans, but I mean really … did he really think we were that stupid???? Apparently he did. As we were walking away, Kristen just said “No! No somos estupidas.” What in the world??

Where are we?? Peru!!