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Monday, September 15, 2008

Day 1: Lima, Peru

Saturday, Sept. 13
San Francisco, USA to Lima, Peru

The 6am American Airlines flight from SFO is delayed two hours, gobbling up my layover and forcing me to trot a mile, lugging luggage, through the diabolical labyrinth that is Miami Airport. I huff sweatily up to the gate at 5:04pm for a 5:15pm departure. Incredibly, they let me board.

LAN Peru's service trumps that of any domestic flight I've taken since 9/11: hot dinner, coffee and wine, warm wool blankets, ample leg room, and personal TV screens with two dozen movie choices. All free, in coach.

Arriving in Lima after more than 16 hours of travel, I learn that American Air failed to transfer my checked bag. But immigration goes smoothly, and a half-hour cab ride through the streets takes me to a hotel in Miraflores.

The streets at midnight are bumpin'. On Saturday nights, the cab driver explains, Lima's jóvenes keep the bars going until sunrise. I ponder bed, but a posse of pigeons is cooing up a racket outside the hotel window, and a second wind blows me outside.

I grab a sidewalk table at a bar called Corleone, order a pisco sour and a plate of tart ceviche, and read a few chapters in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, glancing up occasionally at the buzzing stream of scruffy dudes in black leather jackets and fly girls with blond streaks in their straight brown hair. Shakira keeps the rhythm.

Sorry, Montereyans. Beats Alvarado Street, manos down.

-Kera Abraham

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Kera,
I'm glad that you made it okay. You also seem cool about your luggage. I like the dancing youth picture on day two.

email - hanifwondir@gmail.com said...

Manos Down,Kernals are fat like KFC, Kera is the coolest!!

ray said...

You are so adventurous! I would have hide away in my little hotel, looking earnestly out the window. But you let that soft wind blow you out. Did you get you bags?

Unknown said...

Disfruta todo!
y cuidate!

Anonymous said...

Kera, I enjoyed the pictures and the article. So when I saw your article on a similar topic of my research paper, I jumped on the opportunity to use it as a reference. I wish everyone gets a chance to read this article. It will open their eyes to the global epidemic we are currently facing and hopefully convincing them to make healthier changes for our environment. Thanks a million and good luck!