Down Day

Anne and I both woke this morning with healthy cases of “tourista” which were likely the result of something we ate last night (the serviche is my prime suspect). We took immodium and dragged ourselves through the process of packing and checking out of the Dazzler - which tops my list of weird hotel names - though it was perfectly fine for one night.

Then we dove back into traffic madness, as our Uber driver demonstrated skill at the Peruvian game of vehicular chicken. One day we saw what looked like a driver getting a traffic ticket and wondered what he could possibly have done that crossed the line. In addition to the absence of the concept of voluntary yielding, which creates the ideal conditions for bumper cars (though in all the time we spent in cars going here and there, I never saw one vehicle touch another), the highway design and frequent blockage of the right lane force three solid rows of bumper to bumper traffic to merge down to two lanes - or with worse adverse impact on traffic flow, the two left lanes become stopped up attempting to turn left against a steady stream of oncoming traffic, forcing all those trying to continue forward into the far right lane, unless of course it is blocked by one of the many rickety minibuses dropping off or picking up riders, in which case gridlock prevails amidst a cacophony of honking horns.

I was able to categorize the honking into at least four groups: 1) taxi drivers asking a pedestrians if they would like a taxi (random pooling seems pretty common); 2) a driver warning another driver that they were insisting on the right of way; 3) a driver warning pedestrians crossing against the light or in the middle of the road to run faster or else; and 4) a driver who is justifiably angry at some manouver that crossed a line that all would agree was reckless and stupid (a difficult threshold to define here).

We arrived safely after the 60 minute ride to our hotel, the Lima Airport Holday Inn, at 2:00 pm, check in time! And this is where we have mostly slept since, now wondering if we should risk dinner.  We have learned that we have to have our luggage outside the hotel room door by 6 am. Clearly some moments in any journey stink.