Lima

I arrived in Lima last Monday and it feels weirdly familiar. It feels like Los Angeles. My first stop was Miraflores which is full of English speaking foreigners, high-class shopping, and bluffs that overlook a highway, piers, and surfers on the beach. It felt just like Santa Monica. The city of Lima has clearly put a lot of effort into security and cleanliness in this area. There's very little trash, helpful guides and security on every corner, and no stray dogs (though there is a park full of cats?). There's even a street full of craft breweries and cocktails. Prices in this area rival American prices.

My view from the bus. The drivers here are insane

The rest of Lima feels like the grungy parts of LA, but with more Spanish and fewer traffic laws. I think the city’s anthem is just honking car horns.

Saturday was the Copa Libertadores match between Brazil's Flamengo Team and Argentina's River Plate Team. The game was originally planned for Santiago, Chile but was moved to Lima due to the Chilean protests. River Plate took an early lead with a goal in the 14th minute and held it until the last 5 minutes of the game when Flamengo scored two goals in 3 minutes. The Brazilian fans went CRAZY and have been partying in the streets of Lima all weekend.

Because of the influx in people, almost all the hostels in town were booked. Fortunately, my friend introduced me to her friend Ruth who lives here in Lima. Ruth has been amazing! She offered to let me stay in her empty studio apartment in San Juan de Miraflores and introduced me to her entire family. I've had tons of opportunities to practice Spanish with her siblings, cousins, aunts, etc. We've also eaten a ton of delicious cebiche, chicharrones de pescado y calamar, leche de tigre, and two traditional Peruvian drinks: Chicha Morada and Chicha de jora.

On Thursday, we went to her sister-in-law's birthday party. There was a lot of youtube karaoke and I learned of many Peruvian musicians. My favorite was this song by Gian Marco. Most of it is in Spanish, but there is a verse in Quechua; the Indigenous language of Northern Peru. It's a beautiful song.

Politics

Bolivia is still a clusterfuck. Last week, for the second time, armed forces fired live ammunition at pro-morales protesters leading to another 8 deaths. However, things may be turning around as the Bolivian congress has voted to begin a new election process. They have outlined the conditions for the election (though they have not chosen a date) and have voted to exclude Evo Morales from the election. Morales is still advocating for himself but at this point that seems futile. His own supporters in congress voted against his running.

My passport only has 3 more weeks on it so I need to get out of Peru. I was looking at flying to Colombia but guess what happened: it erupted in protests last week! So, I'm going to head to Chile for a bit just to renew my passport. Northern Chile seems to be relatively safe and out of the protest zone. The US State Dept has rated Chile as 2/4 for danger (for context Bolivia is 4/4).

Spanish

One of the recommendations from MIA is to create flashcards using subtitles from TV. I finally got a chance to play with the program that allows you to automatically generate flash cards from TV and it’s fantastic! I now have flashcards with the following structure:

Front:

Picture from the scene in the TV show
audio clip

Back:

Subtitle line that matches audio (plus previous and following line for context)
Audio replay button
Hidden section for explanation (written in Spanish)

I had some trouble finding good content. American content that has been dubbed in Spanish doesn’t match the subs. The subs are a translations of the English, while the dubs are rephrased Spanish to match the timing and meaning. I finally found a Youtube channel that uploads good content with real subtitles. My flashcards are made from a TV show called “Bajo la Red”.

That’s all I got for you. Hope you have a lovely week