Being robbed a month ago; in a hostal my last night in Lima where an American girl was going on and on about how she was robbed; and then an English woman walked in with bandages on her hand and blood splatterings on her shirt. A cabbie took her down an alleyway and, as she resisted the stealing of her second bag with all the important documents in it, he stabbed her hand with a screwdriver. Fucked up shit but she's lucky because that whole situation could've been a whole lot worse. And the night before a girl in the band i jammed with had a gun pointed at her by a guy who wanted her Fender. The collectivo driver intervened and after a couple of drinks to calm her nerves afterwards she was all right again.
So there's a lot of theft in Peru but it's a third world country built on a history of corrupt Spanish colonizers (more on that in a second) All of the above is fucked up but it's the kind of fucked up I can understand. What I can't understand is this: On American Airlines flight 1258 from Lima to Dallas on March 3rd they served everyone a brown bread sandwich I.E.- Two slices of white bread with a slice of brown bread in the middle and all the crusts cut off. What the fuck is that!!??!?! America gets a bit crazier every day.
But back to Peru. Understanding where they come from explains a lot of what's going on today. The Spaniards came in, killed everyone, and stole all the gold. Unlike the British the Spanish were not interested in leaving a socially conscious legacy of government and reform (in theory, this is what they believed they were doing). They just wanted to get rich quick and maybe spread some Catholicism along the way. So it came down to just one Incan Emperor left standing, Atahualpa. All the Incas realized that if he died they were screwed so after the Spanish invited him to a friendly meeting they kidnapped him and demanded a hefty ransom. Gold and Silver were collected from all over the empire to keep him alive. Apparently enough to fill two rooms with silver and one with gold all up to neck height.
After the Incas had done everything that was asked of them and the Spanish had a shit load of gold and silver they thought about it all and then killed Atahualpa anyways. That's what Peru was born of.
So if you let your guard down someone may not be able to resist the temptation to rob you. If you bribe a cop they may except the bribe and then take you in anyways. Don't get me wrong, it's a great country and I met a lot of amazing people and saw a lot of beautiful places. But it's very different from the first world and you really need to think differently if you're going to have a safe and enjoyable trip.
And most gloriously of all, there are no brown bread sandwiches...
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