Travel Day 008 – Miami to Lima, PERU
I felt terrible again. When I got up after two hours of sleep, I had to realize that going out late and drinking a lot wasn’t the best idea after all. So instead of enjoying the beginning of my Round the World Trip, I was completely wasted and only concerned with somehow surviving the day…
Deserted Streets of Barranco, Lima at Night
For obvious reasons my bus ride to the airport seemed awfully early. From the airport in Miami I was taking my first flight of my Round the World Ticket and the arrival in South America marked my first visit of this continent. Unfortunately my flight wasn’t a direct one and so I stopped in the Dominican Republic first, before we carried on to Lima in Peru. From Lima airport I decided to rather play it safe and so I took a prepaid taxi to a suburb called Barranco…
It was funny, but I had heard and read so many negative things about Lima that I didn’t really want to stay in the city at all. So Miraflores and Barranco seemed to be the safer areas at the outskirts of Lima and these areas apparently also provided everything for foreign visitors. When I made my travel plans, I decided for the more quiet Barranco since it was supposed to be a local neighborhood and less touristy than Miraflores…
Barranco turned out to be a great choice, but on this more than Active Travel Day the contrasts almost couldn’t be grater. I came from an elegant, chick city with fancy clubs to a South American suburb with run down houses and deserted streets. This left me with nothing but a feeling of a completely overwhelming Culture Shock…
When I tried to do a little assessment of current situation, I noticed that I had some enemies on my trip so far: one was my budget (so far I was way, way above it), another one was the weight of my backpack (at least I was already working on that one), then there was the schedule (it was definitely too dense and I urgently needed to get some pressure out of it) and as of today, another enemy was language (damn, I really needed to study more Spanish)…
On the bright side, I met at least two nice Dutch girls in my hostel room, who took me under their wings and went out with me to find some local dinner. So even if I felt complexly overwhelmed on my first day in a new culture and a different continent, at least I wasn’t feeling alone. Despite all the other circumstances, it was great to see that even if you are traveling alone, you don’t have to feel lonely. Even if you are far away from home and in an unfamiliar country, it is good to know that there are always fellow travellers who can show you around or help you with good tips to make the sometimes difficult beginning a whole lot easier… : )
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