One Way United

Fabrice and I are in Lima now.  We are finally caught up to Adam and I will not describe everything we have done as everything is really similar to what you have already read from Adam’s entries.  That’s assuming other people actually read our entries’ except for our moms who leave almost all the comments (woohoo for moms!).  Anyway, I had a point to this entry, and it was to describe a day in the life of an everyday traveler.

Fabrice and I were in Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru, and had finished doing our touristy thing of the day (exploring an old convent…Adam has already described).  We went to the mall to catch the next viewing of the Da Vinci Code only to find that the cinema was closed until 5:00 because of the elections and we had to catch a bus at 8:30, making it impossible to see that movie that day.  A bit dissapointed we did the only thing we could think of at that moment.  Of course it was going to the internet.  Here we were, enjoying a nice hour of internet when we heard a lot of commotion outside.

Since it’s always fun to see things that are not a part of the everday tourist experience, we went outside to check it out.  The results of the election were just coming in and it turned out Alan Garcia (a man who went into exile after ruining the country in his first presidential run from 1985-1990) beat out nationalist Ollanta Humala (who anti-U.S. Venezuelan president Hugo Chaves supported).  This was not a shock as ever since Chavez made it clear which candidate he supported (and publicly bashed Alan), Ollanta began to lose more and more support while Alan’s numbers went up (go figure).

Anyway, back to the story.  We went outside and hundreds of people were screaming “Ollanta presidente, Ollanta presidente.”  They clashed with an Alan supporting group and things were thrown and police were everywhere.  They took sore losing to another level.  They walked around the main plaza for several hours chanting “Ollanta presidente” and “Arequipa revolucion.”  Apparently there were a lot of Ollanta supporters in Arequipa because he had promised to give the city of Arequipa more power or something.  There were a few very tense moments when it felt like a huge fight would break out.  There were hundreds of policemen everywhere in full riot gear.  Several media people with their fancy cameras would get right in the face of some of the intense Ollanta supporters as they screamed threats at them.  Meanwhile, Fabrice was completely undaunted by the unstable atmosphere and he weaved in and out of the policemen, taking pictures, with no policeman stopping him, probably considering him another journalist.  He got many good pictures of the riot which I will put up later.

There was a man in the midst of the madness who, always taking advantage of every opportunity, offered us to eat at his restaurant on a balcony overlooking the main square and the riot.  We thought “why not?” and went upstairs to order dessert.  As we sat at the table overlooking the madness below, there was a group of Peruvian people at the next table.  The waiter informed us that the new Vice President of Peru (Lourdes Mendoza Del Solar) was sitting there.  Of course we both wanted to meet her (”why not?).

Now, this was not the best time to meet a new Vice President.  There were hundreds of people in near riot mode directly beneath us that had a full view of the balcony and we had witnessed things being thrown at that balconly before the VP had got there.  If there was ever a time to say “no” to meeting a new Vice President, it was now. 

In the end, we didn’t care that much (it was the new frickin’ VP of Peru) and Fabrice asked her to write something in his little travel journal he carries around.  I got up to meet her as well and say my congratulations and the VP told us to sit down at her table.  Who are we to argue with a Vice President?  So we sat down and talked a little with her and her staff.  We were offered whisky (Lourdes only drank coffee) which we accepted.  Who were we to reject whisky from a Vice President?  After the group came up with the genious realization that the VP could be in danger on the balcony, they moved inside and invited their new friends along.  That would be us. 

So we sat down and talked some more while also watching the news which had constant updates of the new percentages and so on.  During this time, the mayor of Arequipa also came to hang out.  We ended up talking mostly with the VP’s sister, Sandra.  The VP was preoccupied with the interviews she had to do later, with trying to call the president, and watching the updates on the news.  Whatever.  People get elected all the time, get over it!  No, she was actually really, really nice and I was thrilled to meet a political leader that also seems like a real genuine person.  We learned that she is deputy mayor of Arequipa currently, that she is actually the second Vice President (Peru has 2 VPs) and that she will actually be the first women Vice President in Peru history.  Not bad. 

Anyway, the VP left for an interview and we said goodbye.  We hung out a little longer and talked more with Sandra.  Unfortunately, we had to take a bus to Nazca soon that night and had to say good bye.  We exchanged emails with Sandra, said our ciao, made our cheek to cheek kiss thing, shook hands with the staff and the mayor, and left.  We walked to our hostel to grab our bags before taking a cab to the bus terminal.  We talked excitedly about our meeting and shook our heads.  We boarded the bus and rode into the night.  It was just another night in the life of a couple of ordinary travelers.

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