BootsnAll Travel Network



The Smell of Fear

26 October 2005 (Wednesday) – 27 October 2005 (Thursday) – Lima, Peru

I had these two days free because my course instructor Danitza was busy in an exhibition. But I also had to wait at least 24 hours for the glass to be baked and cooled. I would only see them on Friday. I hope they look OK!!

Percy had time today to give me a spin around the various districts of Lima, from Barranco to Lima centre to Miraflores to Chorillos and back home in Surco. Previously, my knowledge of Lima was just the colonial Lima centre, my hostel and the horrible area around the bus companies in Paseo de la Republica. Now, wow… I was surprised at how pretty some parts of Lima is or has become.

With Percy at Barranco

I remembered the colonial Lima centre to be busier with more low-lifes and was more grungy-looking 6 years ago. Now, it is clean, with pretty spotlights, an artistic sculpture near Rimac River. It is really a very pleasant place now to walk around and relax. Of course, when we looked out at Rimac River, under the bridge, we spotted some piranhas. These are, of course, NOT the flesh-eating fishes. These are young boys, perhaps 8 years old to mid-teens, who attack people, mainly tourists with all their baggages, by jumping on them in a group of… well, anywhere between 4 to 20… and ripping everything off from the victims in minutes. Yep, much like how piranhas attack in groups and devour the victims of all the flesh in a matter of seconds. Really, there is nothing you can do if the piranhas attack you. This is a rather famous form of robbery here in Lima.

Colonial centre of Lima

When I first told Percy about this kind of robbery, adding that that was why I fear Lima and did not originally plan on coming here, Percy laughed it off, saying that Lima is safe, nothing bad had ever happened to him. As it turned out, I learnt from his brother and sister later, that yes… nothing bad had ever happened to THEM… but to Percy, he had been robbed uncountable times. In fact, he was nearly kidnapped about 5 or 6 months ago by a gang who mistook him for a rich boy, as he has some friends who are really rich. Thank goodness, the police arrived just in time. Naturally, the police then asked Percy for some money in return. Sigh… corruption corruption corruption.

Percy had explained to me what each of the items in the embelm of the Peruvian flag represent and when he finished, I had asked him in jest, “And corruption is represented by?”.

Despite insisting that Lima is ‘safe’, when we reached the Lima centre, Percy quickly took off his watch and asked me to do the same and he kept them in the glove compartment. We were in a car! But still, Percy assured me this step was necessary.  He too had had his watch and cellphone ripped off from his hand while sitting in a car before. 

Anyway, as for the other districts, they are modern, clean and look rather peaceful and pretty. The borderline between a good and bad neighbourhood is very obvious sometimes. Here on this side of the road, I could see really lovely-looking grand houses. But, just right opposite, I would see the incomplete dodgy-looking houses of the poor in pueblos jovenes (like favelas in Brazil) built up the hills.

Coastline of Lima

Great surfing waves

That evening, I had a really great time chatting with Dante, Emiko and her boyfriend Angel over dinner. It was just fantastic getting to know each and everyone of them, their likes and dislikes and other idiosyncracies. The entire family was just fantastic! All of them were so concerned about me and made it a point to take turns to take care of me and help me. They were terribly interested to know about Asian cultures, Singapore, confirming the rumour of those horrible food in Asia. In Percy’s absence, they joked that Percy is like the little mouse in a Warner Brothers cartoon where each time his friend asked him, “What should we do tomorrow?”, the little mouse would cry out, “Let’s conquer the world!!”. Yep, Percy’s ambition is to conquer the world. When asked about it later, he corrected… not the world, just South America would do.

Wait a minute… on closer observation, Percy does bear a slight resemblance to Dr. Evil, Austin Power’s arch enemy, but with hair. I can just imagine Percy stroking his pet dog, Mirko Lopez (really, that’s the dog’s name), and proclaiming, “We hold the world ransom for 1 million dollars!!” Heheee…

The next day, after breakfast, I chatted with Percy first until noon, before Dante came home, and then I chatted with Dante til 6pm. Wow, 8 or 9 hours of non-stop chatting for me at the same spot and in Spanish as well! Incredible that we had so much to talk about!!! I told them about reading auras and it turned out, Dante is something of a psychic as well. He sometimes can see apparitions, and for his school’s exams, he always knew which questions would come out. So, his ‘last-minute’ friends always implored him for exam tips. As I explained how I was taught to read auras, I asked them to try.  Percy could not, but Dante got it right away. He said my aura was violet, oh great, that’s my true colour for being a 7… the colour of spirituality.

Dante, the psychic

I also learnt from them so much about what happened to Lima and Peru in the 1980s and 1990s where there were terrorists and bomb attacks everywhere all the time. They also described what happened during the 1997 terrorist attack on the Japanese Embassy. Gosh, I certainly did not know that the army went to the mountains, kidnapped the best miners to build tunnels under the embassy. These poor miners were not told anything, they were just told to start building tunnels here. The clueless families of the miners thought they disappeared and died. The terrorists were surprised when the army entered the embassy from underneath and killed them all. We made a joke that people from Lima, if they had survived here, they can survive anywhere. However, it was not so true for some people… recently, there had been some news about 4 Peruvian students who were killed for racism reason in Russia. Poor things!!

In the evening, I had an appointment with another Hospitality Club member, Raquel, and as Percy had to go to school, he instructed Dante to take care of me. Wow, see? I have two bodyguards here in Lima! Dante drove me to the meeting point at Cine El Pacifico in Miraflores and soon, Raquel arrived. We persuaded Dante to join us and we went to a pizza place.

Raquel herself was thinking of making a 6-month trip next year. So, when I wrote to her asking for accommodation, she was very keen to meet me, seeing that I, a single woman, am doing a trip like what she intends to. I encouraged her, telling her that it is a great way to travel and she will have a fantastic time meeting people all over, especially people through Hospitality Club. Be open-minded with lots of positive energy and you would attract amazing people all the time! And anyway, we also concluded that if she is from Lima, she can survive anything anywhere. Naturally, she was worried that it might be difficult for her to find a job when she returns. Well, I have the same worry as well, so I cannot for sure tell her that everything will be fine, especially since I think the situation here in Peru is much more different than in my country. Anyway, one really has to do this sort of travelling, that is for sure. I am sure things will all work out in the end.

Dinner with Dante and Raquel



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