We're now officially in another country - Peru, actually. To prove it, the computer keyboard is organized differently, with little use for apostrophes and quotation marks in Spanish.
Over the last 24 hours we've been in SFO, San Salvador, San Jose, and Lima. Still, despite the great distance travelled, it's amazing what remains the same. The time, for one, is only 3 hours off PST. This amazes me, since I've spent my whole life traveling east and west, but have never gone below the equator. Nice to travel thousands of miles and have no jetlag.
We arrived in Lima last night and only had time to get a quick bite before crashing. Funny thing about eating out in foreign countries is that travellers often obsess about eating "authentic" local food. The thing is, real locals usually eat bad pizza and greasy burgers. For example, if someone wanted real Filipino food, I'd tell them to hit Jollibee's. Nobody eats lechon or even lumpia on a daily basis. In keeping with that spirit, we ate at D'nno's Pizza, which sported the tagline "Homegrown in Peru."
American fast food chains are everywhere. We were in San Jose, walking around during our 6 hour stop over, and lasted only 2 hours before skulking into a Burger King bathroom. Strangely, the TV showed women's college volleyball with Ohio State playing Wisconsin (Go Badgers!). Random fast food chains have made inroads into Central and S. America, like Papa John's Pizza and Church's Chicken. These marginal US brands are everywhere down here.
Prices are not as cheap here as one would think. Dinner was about $11 total, about what we would pay for a bad pizza in the US. I blame the weak ass dollar. Stupid president. Still, our hotel is a pretty good deal at $25/night for a nice private room and bath.
Today we're heading up to Iquitos to visit the Amazon. I wish we were in Peru for another week. Two weeks and a couple of days barely offers enough time to see the jungle, Lake Titicaca, and the Inca Trail. We could change our itinerary, but that would just mean cutting into Brazil, which has just as much to offer. I'm telling you, 6 months is nothing.
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4 comments:
Your blogs are great.I can almost smell the greasy hamburghers.The last time (I think) I paid $25 for a room was 20 years ago in a Hampton Inn ....
These are awesome, you guys. I can totally feel your excitement and I'm dying with jealousy as I sit here writing this from my drab office cube in wintry Wisconsin. We were in the single digits yesterday!!!! I can't wait to hear more from where you'll be next :).
Much love, Sam
please do not slander church's chicken. i am a born-again fried chicken eater with little tolerance towards ignorance of my religion. 49er's lost today, but Cal beat Stanford and Brown U won Ivy title. Pepsi, not Pepe.
I guess this is the essence of young and carefree!
I am vicariously enjoying South America through your blog posting, in between the heavy burps.
Not a tortilla in sight......
bummer.....
One thing about those franchise export fast food places, they understand bathrooms. Food, no, but a place to go after you eat what they serve.......they get that.
Big hugs, Ninang
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