Hi everybody - well, I´m here.

Lima is a weird mishmash of other places.  Downtown looks like some strange hybrid of Rome and the French Quarter, with a side of Boston´s Fanueil Hall, but smells like Mumbai (that unmistakeable cocktail of gardens, incense, and fumes).  But with an overlay of roasting chicken seeping out of the pollerias which seem to be the go to food option. 

Right now I´m in the trendy neighborhood of Miraflores, which is more like L.A. than anywhere else I´ve been.  Except the weather isn´t like any of those places, it´s kind of like what the Pacific Northwest is usually described as.  Sort of damp and muggy, but also a little bit cold.  Which is a strange contrast with all the palm trees.  It´s the sort of climate that makes you want to eat oatmeal, not ceviche. 

So far everything´s good.  I´m speaking Spanish like a drunken toddler, but I´m being understood enough to function.  The more I travel, the more I respect people who come to the US with no English.  I studied Spanish for 5 years, and I still encounter it a lot living in New York.  For all practical purposes I have decades of Spanish instruction under my belt.  And yet it´s still REALLY FUCKING HARD to make myself understood and, especially, to understand what people are saying to me.

One small hitch, more for the scope of this blog than anything important — I forgot to pack the cable that connects my camera with a computer.  Which means that, until I get around to buying one (or meet some electronically endowed fellow traveler who´s willing to share), no photos.  Which is really sad because I have some fun shots already, after less than 24 hours here. 

Sentence of the Day - ‘Lo siento, pero mi Español es muy malo…’

Exciting new word I learned just now — Semáforo, which is the Spanish word for traffic light.

Thought to leave you all with — the Bogotá airport is nicer than La Guardia.  No Joke.