Laying over in Lima

The Interzone

I spent nearly 7 hours at the airport in Lima, Peru, before catching my connecting flight to Buenos Aires. Airports are strange places, in between places, nonplaces, really. I was a bit worried about how I would occupy all that time, but just getting a glimpse of Peru from the airport (albeit a heavily commercialized, touristy, gifty version of it) was sort of cool. The airport gift shops were full of beautiful jewellery, Peruvian recipe books, novels, chocolate. Since I´m in the interzone (a nonplace), I decided to spend some non-money and buy Edward Galleano´s Open Veins, a book of Latin American history that I couldn´t find in Toronto.

The Interzone - 6:20

I´m starving, sleepy and freezing in the interzone. I´ve noticed that being overtired sends my body temperature plummeting, and it´s been 4 days since I´ve had a proper sleep. The last week, Davey and I seemed to rush from city to city to lake to island as we discovered Nicaragua´s immense beauty.

I got drunk on Flor de Caña Saturday night in Merida, Isla de Ometepe. It was a surprise, fun drunk, and hit me hard after only a couple of shots. We´d spent the day travelling from Granada to Rivas to San Jorge by bus, and then took the ferry to Ometepe, and then spent 3 1/2 hours on a bus from Moyagalpe, where the ferry lands, to Merida, where we planned to spend a couple of nights.

6:40, still interzoning

mmmmmmm. Peruvian ceviche. Sole marinated in lime juice with red onions, lettuce, corn and sweet potato. And a red jalapeno pepper that I mistake for a sweet bell pepper. Big bite, that hot piquante rush, pepper gets spit into a napkin though I'm sweetly satisfied. I switch to dipping fish in pepper, small bites to avoid the seeds.
7:10

an arrival. where are they from? many of them look gringo.

7:45

i think they´re french, they sound french.