VIDEO - Large Unfamiliar City EDC

averageiowaguy

averageiowaguy

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Mar 22, 2011
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I wasn't sure what subforum to post this in. There is a Spyderco knife in the video but it isn't the main point of the video. I'm outdoors in the video but it isn't Wilderness. So sorry to the mods in advance if I didn't pick the right location for this post.

This is a quick overview of the stuff I brought along for an exploration of Lima, Peru. I had never walked around Lima before. This isn't everything I would like to have with me, but it is what I had available at the time. Enjoy!

[video=youtube;bQYvsOlvD4M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQYvsOlvD4M[/video]
 
Good views of Lima. Was every section of the downtown as clean as that? It looked really well maintained in litter control and the sidewalks were in good shape. Lima is on my list of cities to see someday. Did you feel secure during the day there? I imagine after dark like anywhere you need to step up your paranoia X 10 depending on where you are and who you are with.
 
willseeyalater said:
Good views of Lima. Was every section of the downtown as clean as that? It looked really well maintained in litter control and the sidewalks were in good shape. Lima is on my list of cities to see someday. Did you feel secure during the day there? I imagine after dark like anywhere you need to step up your paranoia X 10 depending on where you are and who you are with.
Click to expand...

That was Miraflores. It is one of the more affluent and safe parts of Lima. I would recommend Miraflores. Lots to see and do down there. I felt relatively secure during the day. Remember, day is from 6AM to 6PM with very little variation. I did get out at night to go to a place called 'Pizza Street.' I stuck to the main well lit roads at night.

One of the more unnerving things was riding in a cab. Most of the cabs I rode in didn't have licenses displayed and it was some guy's private car. I was a little nervous about getting into a car under those circumstances, especially since I didn't know the area and I wouldn't know if they were going the wrong way. I mostly just walked.
 
Miraflores, I will have to ask my Peru friends if they ever did Pizza Street.

Yeah, the deal with getting robbed there or in any large city is that the ones who are pros at it have their victim already profiled as well as the place they will do it. The cab situation could be a deal where they pull into a private spot where their buddies ask you for all your cash, passport and maybe hold you for ransom if they think you are a gringo of means. Better to look like a poor tourist gringo if you have to. Even better if you have dark features and they figure you may be a variation of the local DNA pool. Some phrases in la lingua local never hurts, better yet a whole lot of phrases en la lingua local.
 
I've done a lot of traveling and i've yet to see a cab driver thats a thief. I've been charged too much, offered drugs, berated, saved from being robbed and saved from being beat up by a cab driver but never been robbed by one. In a foreign country often times a cab driver is your best friend. They'll see you drunk at 4:00 am in a bad part of town for gringos and come pick you. I've had a cab driver insist i get in the cab and tell me i only had to pay what i could because he knew i wasn't safe. One driver that steals is bad for the business of all the other drivers which makes them pretty much self policing in a lot of countries.
 
Good point on cabs, I never have been in a place where I learned to use them and trust them. I think your logic is sound though on what one bad cabbie does hurts them all.
 
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