Drivers in South America

Since Chad´s blog is wonderfully encapsulating our goings on throughout our trip, I´ve decided to make mine more observatory. (Check out Chad´s blog at http://realtravel.com/south_america-trips-i7689823.html )

My first observation, without a doubt, is that the drivers in South America (at least in Peru) are INSANE. There is really no other way to describe it. Stoplights, stop signs and lane lines must exist merely for decorative purposes, as they are heeded rarely. This makes being a pedestrian quite a challenge. Though I have nearly perfected Jay-walking in Washington, DC; it is truly an artform in Peru as it is the only reliable means of crossing the street without getting tagged by an 80´s model Peugeot.

This discussion on driving leads me to our recent 3 day trip to Huancayo,

an Andean Highlands town with about 300,000 people located about 6-9 hours away from Lima depending on traffic and the sanity level of your bus driver. Our bus ride to Huancayo was uneventful and took just over our expected traveling time of 7 hours. Our ride home, however, was slightly more hair-raising. Chad and I were sitting near the front of the second level of our bus, giving us a great view of the surrounding countryside and also allowing us to see well beyond our driver´s line of sight. Apparently, our driver REALLY wanted to get back to Lima. He decided it was in our best interests to pass semi´s while going down steep mountain roads on hair pin turns with traffic coming right at us.

On several occasions we were forced to return to our proper lane due to buses and other large vehicles rapidly moving in our direction. On several occasions, our bus driver ignored the blaring horns and continued to go down the mountain in the wrong lane as if it were his God-given right. And on at least 2 occasions we were sure that we would crash and end our trip a little earlier than expected by tumbling down the large mountain slopes directly to our right. Needless to say, we were more than pleased to arrive in Lima in one piece.

At least we´re flying to Cusco.

¡Bienvenidos a Peru!

I took off on Sunday, September 21 with nothing but a backpack, hoping to explore as much of South America as I could in 6 short weeks. I sat in the second-to-last row on the flight from Atlanta to Lima, which took about 6 hours. On the flight I visited with the couple sitting next to me who happened to be from Harrisburg, PA. They are in South America to visit Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands. I am very jealous that they get to see the Galapagos.

I landed in Lima at about 11:00 PM local time (Midnight on the East Coast), and cleared customs with no problems. I then met up with Chad Thurman, one of my best friends from USC who is traveling with me for the entire trip.

We asked the customer service counter at the airport how much a cab would be to our hotel and they informed us that it would cost 150 Soles (the current exchange rate is approximately 3 Soles for $1 American). We suspected we could do better on the street, so we grabbed our stuff and asked the first cabbie we found what the price would be to get us to our hotel. 50 Soles later we wre on our way to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Miraflores (Thank you to Chad´s Dad for hooking us up with that one).
On Monday we awoke to grey skies and the sound of hundreds of car horns. We decided to explore our neighborhood and grab a bite to eat around noon. We left the hotel with no map and no real idea as to where we were going. We walked around for about 20 minutes enjoying the hustle and bustle of Miraflores. As we wandered down a small residential street, Chad commented that one of his favorite thing about traveling was getting lost and immersing himself in the day-to-day culture of wherever it is he is visiting. I agreed without hesitation.

As we grew hungrier, we asked a local security guard where we could find the best place to eat in town in our best broken Spanish. He rapidly replied that we needed to go about 2 blocks down the street we were on, make a left turn and go about 4 blocks further before going under an underpass. W thanked him and left to find where he had described. As we walked Chad and I were both very pleased with how well we understood him despite not having taken Spanish for several years. Finding the mall he described was our first major success in Peru. We were off and running.

-Sean