Gloomy Lima
Comments(2) KFC. Pizza Hut. Radio Shack. Starbucks. Hooters. Ya. Hooters.
It is hot. And it is overcast. All the time. I don’t think the sun ever shines in Lima. This place feels like purgatory. Not quite where I’m going, but I’m not quite moving forward. Just waiting. In the heat. I thought I left the US. I thought I was going to escape the sprawl. It appears now I’ve swapped a nippy california winter for a strip mall in Georgia in the summer.
The art in Lima is ugly. I think there must be some sort of law that says if you’re going to make public art in Lima, it must be made of trash. Pilons suspended above the ground, trapped together with an old frayed anchor cable. Jagged splinters of rusty iron bundled together adhock, jutting up from an island at a major intersection. The art echoes the sqawlor of this urban mess. Many people. Much plastic. Mouths to feed. Mercedez benz pulled up at the fancy hotel. Casino down the block. Horns all night long. Shanty towns blight the outer edges.
This is MiraFlores. This is expensive. Shopping malls and supermarkets. Everything for sale is priced in soles and US dollars. I came for the simple life and instead I find myself in the Las Vegas of this Nevada. Looking forward to being in Cusco on Saturday. Cool things down a little. Buy a sweater.
I’ve never bought a sweater. Sweaters were always those things that were given as Christmas presents and worn only by off-duty college professors and L.L. Bean catalog models. Will the alpaca sweater gods woo me over with a song? I certainly hope so. Though I may escape with only some gloves.
Save progress. Shut down. Some much needed rest and hopefully a little dreamtime to ponder once again : What am I doing here?
Hard words for Lima. But is interesting to know how many different sensations were created when some one visit this city. Yeah, lima is grey, and thats not only because of modern polution,
stratus clouds are trapped by the Cordillera de Los Andes and the warm air that pacific ocean emanates. Thats why the president San Martin (yeah… we are talking of 16th century) tried to paint Lima with vivid colors.
Miraflores is just as you described, thats the truth, and yeah… Barranco is the typical “bohemian street” that many cities have, and Downtown is dirty but with great buildings, and yeah… kinda dangerous at some hours. But thats just part of Lima. Lima have almost 9 million habitants, and soo sooo many faces. You have not described Lima, but just a very very little part of it, maybe one of the most known, but a little part anyway.
Expectations have a tendency to color our experiences.
For the record, the sun was shining this weekend as I departed Lima for the airport.