Seventeen thousand four hundred steps. That’s enough to work off the calories consumed from a grilled banana. That’s also the number of steps I walk to and from ICSLima (the school where I work) and my abode in Barranco in the Smirnoff Vodka building, formally known as the Pepsi Sabor Building.
How long is the walk? About fifty-five minutes each way, a good chunk along the Malecon, Lima’s cliff-like ocean front. So, it’s nothing to complain about.
If the view wasn’t reasonable enough to walk, another reason is the bus strike in Peru. Gangs have been shaking down bus drivers nationwide, charging a fee for them the buses to access certain neighborhoods. A few drivers have been kidnapped, a few others killed, and several buses set on fire. If I do take a bus to school, I take this turquoise one.
The bus drivers in Lima went on strike because the government is turning a blind eye to the flagrant crime. It’s sickening because bus fare in Lima is about fifty cents. The gangs are poaching already impoverished drivers for chump change.
Sometimes, busses are robbed, even if an amulet of Jesus dangles from the dashboard. And, since I don’t exactly blend in with the bronzed skin thick black hair locals, I fear I’d be an easy target for a kidnapping.
The Secretary of State elevated the safety rating of Peru to an orange because of this. I never experienced an orange rating in China. I did however, eat pizza every Friday near a hill where the city used to have executions, lived down the street from the narcotic bureau where drug smugglers would meet their fate, and survived covid with frequent nose jabs and constant phone monitoring.
But since I walk and am easily noticeable, commuting students play a version of Where’s Waldo, seeing who can spot me first. HINT: I’m the one with white hair and sunglasses.
That reminds me of Chicago’s infamous walking man, a mysterious mustached man, who’d wander around Chicago’s Loop in his disco best. Unfortunately…make that horrifically –the Walkingwas tragically set on fire a few years back.
So that’s why I walk. I’ll go eat my banana now.
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