Afternoon beach walk in Lima

While walking through the busy streets of Miraflores, it is difficult not to take note of the busy city life that characterizes each moment. It is interesting that no matter the country, the hustle and bustle of city life seems to be largely universal. It is almost comforting to observe this familiarity- a familiarity that makes any differences particularly interesting. There are a few observations which I think are important to further examine about city life in Lima, particularly in the more affluent area of Miraflores.

Firstly, the large presence of street vendors. I would like to expand this category to include the surfing shops and tour tents which are still vendors but are attempting to sell an experience rather than a product. The number of vendors and the aggression with which they approach passersby suggests that this area is quite reliant on tourists for its economy. Interestingly enough, I did not observe a large number of people who looked as though they were foreigners on my walk. I almost exclusively heard Spanish being spoken, something that can not be said about other destinations on our trip. Despite the fact that it is probably not "peak season," street vendors approached myself and others of the group with aggression and intent.

Aside from the vendors, another thing that I noticed about the Miraflores area was the cleanliness of the city. Every street seemed to have a number of workers dedicated to sweeping and collecting garbage. The lack of litter on the streets was something I found to be quite different from American cities. Another observation which may be linked to this cleanliness was the amount of people who seemed to be running or exercising. The reason I think these two observations are linked is because they both suggest some level of affluence within the community- the fact that the residents value personal and environmental health says something about the economy of this region and its development.

A strange observation that I had that I continue to wonder more about involved a man who was carrying two fish in a pan. I imagine himself or someone else had conceivably caught the fish at one point or another, but maybe he had bought them. He dumped the fish into the ocean and then came back up with an empty pan. He was wearing very worn down clothes and no shoes. This kind of observation stood out to me and I continue to wonder about what it might mean. On some level, however, I truly believe unusual behavior is to be expected in any large city. Maybe this was merely an example.