Lima Beans

Made it into Peru.

I continue to impress myself with my ability to leave everything to the last minute and then cram impossible amounts of work into slivers of time at the mere cost of sleep. Well, not entirely my fault this time, there were a few circumstances that reared their ugly head.

I slept through most of the 8 hour flight out of Toronto, leaving me with enough energy to drop my bags off and hit the casino for a few hands. Yes - surprisingly breaking even although old Roulette favorites such as "19/22" and the new upstart "6" (hitting twice after its strong debut in Panama last year) made for an interesting night.

Now my sleep is completely screwed and I sit here staring at the wall trying to finish up crap that should have been finished a long time ago.

I am going to try and keep up with this blogging thing although much of my thoughts will be in notebook format while traveling and my updates will get bottlenecked a bit. I will also try to not filter out the stuff that sounds inane and vacuous in retrospect, as hard as that may be for me.

My Random recollections so far:

1. Leopard print high heels are funny in any country. Especially in airports.
2. Boring people and people who aren't comfortable with English use the word "Interesting" too much. I am quite comfortable with English so I had better find a new word so that people don't catch on.
3. Met the bartender at the hotel named Cesar who re-opened the piano bar for me for no other reason than to allow me to get a free drink at 2:00am. We watched a Uruguay vs. Venezuela soccer match and he explained to me that he used to be a professional soccer player before an injury sidelined him. He liked to use the word "complicated". He was fairly interesting - perhaps I should make this word my word. Cesar also had a quiet pride about him as when I asked him whether or not he was a good player in his day he just touched his nose and said "yes". Not a boast in any way, just a statement of fact. He also patiently explained proper tipping etiquette and then refused to accept my tip when offered.
4. The people in Peru appear to be quite friendly, both on (hotel) and off (late night shenanigans) the beaten path. Lima itself seems fairly unforgiving. I am glad to be in the safe part of town.
5. Late night cabbies like to use the word "Chicca". They say it with such glee that one is tempted to start saying it so as to appear not boring. I think I will pass on this one though.

Off to sort out some flights.