Transportation Adventures

A few months ago I was sitting in my taxi and traffic was at a dead stop. It looked like I was going to be late for work. We were on the offramp to get to my job, and I could see my building directly across the freeway, mocking me. You know how when you're stuck in traffic you just want to get out of your car and walk because you know it'll be faster? Well, when you're riding in a taxi you can do that! I got out of my taxi, walked up the offramp, and over the freeway on the pedestrian overpass. Since that only took two minutes, I had time to stop at the grocery store for a drink! 


I think taxi drivers compete to find the fastest routes. They love using side streets to miss traffic on main streets, and drive much too fast in residential areas. I was seriously worried for the old man walking slowly across the street, and the mother holding her child's hand had to pull him out of the way. If you are driving behind a taxi and it turns down a side street, you should probably follow it so you know the shortcut.


The residential street where I live is a shortcut. Three times a day we get rush hour traffic (lunchtime is not as bad as morning and evening). If you try to back out of your carport or garage during these times, vehicles don't stop to let you out, they just honk at you as they continue speeding by. It's helpful if you have a security guard handy - he doesn't actually stop traffic but he will stand on the other side of the street and tell you to hurry up.


The taxi drivers ask me about driving in the U.S. I tell them that it's different haha! Yes, there are laws, and drivers follow some of them more than others. As a driver or pedestrian here, that leaves you to guess which laws will be followed at any given time by the people around you. I think that the best offense is a good defense! You just have to accept that people will make their own lanes, that four of those lanes will merge into one, that cars on the far left of you will cross in front of you to turn right and vice versa, and taxis will pull in front of you and stop with no warning. The sooner you can accept these truths the less anxious you will be on the streets of Lima. 


I've had a few close calls as a pedestrian, the two closest ones while I was in a crosswalk with a green pedestrian sign! I put one hand on the hood of the taxi that was turning into me and pointed to the green pedestrian sign with my other hand, all while looking the taxi driver in the eyes. He just yelled at me, because obviously I was wrong.  I find it easier to walk like a Peruvian and just cross the street anywhere, in between the cars and buses. 


I've also been in two accidents in two weeks! The first time I was in a combi, and this was truly a crazy combi! The driver was seriously swerving all over the road in an effort to avoid stopping at all costs, unless it was to stop for paying passengers, of course. There was an evangelist standing in the middle of the small bus, yelling something about the Bible and animals while everyone ignored him. Too bad we ignored him, because as soon as he got off the bus, we got into a crash! Another combi hit us from behind (we crossed in front of him and stopped without warning but oh well) and I saw our cobrador (the multi-talented guy who hangs out the door and bangs on the side of the bus to attract passengers, taking your money and telling the driver when to stop) take 30 soles from the other cobrador. Apparently $11. is not enough compensation when one combi hits another, because our driver made our cobrador give it back. I don't know what ended up happening, but we didn't see any police and we got back on the road pretty quickly, swerving as much as we did before the crash. 


This morning my taxi was hit by a truck on my way to work. My driver was merging from three lanes to one on a side street, and had to stop because a truck was parked sticking half way out into the street, which is actually quite normal, and another truck rear-ended us. I heard the truck driver ask my driver why he stopped. Really? Why does any driver in Lima stop suddenly? Because he can! hahaha Again, no police were involved, and we were shortly back on our way. Because we were later than usual, we were stuck in traffic on the street across from my office building, so I got out of the cab and walked across the freeway.  

Just a Wednesday

I am happy to say that things have been better since I stopped fighting Peru. That, and I finally feel better. I don't know what I had for several weeks, perhaps winter allergies, but the scratchy throat, congestion and fatigue got old.  Peruvians say those symptoms are caused by the change of climate (not to be confused with the world's climate change), which would be the cold, humid, misty weather that signifies winter in Lima. It's also been gray here for months. A gray that lacks definition, and seems to permeate everything like steam from a hot shower in a small bathroom.  I love rain clouds, the different colors of gray are the perfect backdrop for the different greens in the trees, intensifying all the colors. There's no differentiation in color or tone in a Lima gray, just one, boring shade. Everyone is tired of it and ready for spring. There's a name for this phenomenon, panza de burro, or "donkey's belly". That would be a gray donkey, not a brown one. Kiko says just think of it as living inside a cloud. 

Today I got up with Kiko and made Peruvian coffee, Finca Mountain Villa Rica, which is grown in the rainforest. The website says it is a socially and ecologically responsible company, so I like it a lot. I automatically use the tap water that we keep boiled in the electric water boiler on the kitchen counter. If we're drinking the water on its own we'll use the bottled water. I love that our regular sugar is azucar rubia, which is like the expensive Sugar In The Raw that I used to get at Starbucks, and tastes different (better!) than white sugar. I toasted some cinnamon raisin bagels that I found and excitedly bought at a bakery restaurant last night. What a treat! Kiko went off to work and I walked the dogs, first in the park behind my apartment, then on through the back of my neighborhood, in Surquillo, dodging the smooshed dog poo on the sidewalk. There was so much going on already, moms walking their kids to school, men working on cars and construction projects, other people walking their dogs. 

My lunch today is an ensalada rusa, a Peruvian mixed vegetable salad. You can buy packages of fresh vegetables, already cut up and ready to cook for soups and salads. They're about 8 soles (3 bucks) and some include the quinoa or barley. They're great. I could've had the Peruvian version of a Hotpocket; since frozen convenience foods don't really exist here, I bought some fresh empanadas and froze them for something quick and easy to eat. I'm getting a bit better with the electric stove, haven't burned anything in awhile but haven't been much more adventurous than eggs and soup either. Staples in a Peruvian household include pan france, sliced ham and sliced cheese. The deli section in the grocery store has a huge selection of ham that they slice for you and a variety of brands of the most popular cheese, edam and gouda. You often eat the ham and cheese with butter in the roll for a breakfast sandwich, or you can eat it with mayo in the roll for a lunch sandwich. And if you don't want to buy your rolls fresh every day, you keep them in the freezer, and thaw them in the toaster oven when you need them. I think people eat a lot of bread here because it's good, fresh, inexpensive and filling. I have to ration my bread servings so I don't get chubby.

Tonight I work from 7 until 9:30, teaching basic English to two hard-working supervisors at Nextel. Most people have Nextel here, no matter where you are you can always hear the beep of a phone before you see a person holding it in front of them, talking into it like a walkie talkie even though it's a phone. Last night one of my students was confused with the lesson on giving directions. How do you explain why we English speakers say "you go down the hallway and down the elevator"? I told him that sometimes you can't ask too many questions, you just have to accept things the way they are. 

See, I'm learning.