Because we are all a little scared

I'm back in Vancouver, safe and sound after 3 months of backpacking throughout South America. So, loosely based on the hand written journal titled "fuck you and your blog", I will share the journey.

First stop at Lima, Peru wasn't a pleasant one. Arriving at Lima near midnight, I previously got the hostel to send a taxi to take me to the hostel. Well, the taxi did not show up for an hour and so I had to give the hostel a call and wait another half an hour to finally get picked up. The immediate neighbourhood wasn't the safest place in Lima (I heard afterwards). The driver drove out of the airport and from there, it finally hit me that the journey has started. Looking out the window, seeing billboards, breathing warm South America pacific ocean air, seeing locals hanging out in small streets and holding foreign currency in my hand.  This, I told myself, would be an epic, slightly dangerous, three month journey. 

On the first day of venturing out of the hostel situated in the Miraflores district, I was honestly scared. The culture, architecture, and way to life is so different that I felt scared stepping outside the familiar hostel environment. The buildings were mainly low rise building with metal fences and lots of the building have private security guards. Because the city was in a developing stage, the residences rather build high story buildings over 1000 year old archaeology sites than excavating the site. There were so many mini private owned old 80s buses roaming on the streets and attendance of the bus shouting out location names. There were stalls selling local snacks and look alarmingly unhygienic. Miraflores was surprisingly full of resources. Its got all kinds of clothing shops, food options and electronic stores. It felt like developed countries 20 years ago, it's still in the rough age of coming together as a resourceful place but you can see that everyone has a city mind set of a developing country. 

Tips on walking in foreign third world cities/villages/towns:

• Don't look like a stupid tourist. Put all the valuables out of sight. Lock unessential valuables away in hostel lockers. The possibility of things getting stolen in a hostel compared to getting robbed on the street is significantly lower. A tourist walking with a camera bag, a backpack, and a belt bag is bound to get in trouble that day. 
• Only bring cash for the day and put it in pockets (girls got an extra bra option).If you bring a camera, make sure it's in sight at all times. 
• Look confident. This solves lots of potential problems. If you look confident and know what you are doing, it keeps away unnecessary attention.
• Know your way. Having a map in hand is not necessary but know the general direction. 
• Even if you don't know the way, pretend you do. A friend once said "I just pretend to walk to a destination, I don't know where the destination is, but I will walk very fast to it."
• Avoid eye contact (in some situations). Eye contact gives the other person a chance to interact. If you do not want to interact with strangers, the best is to avoid eye contact, and if they persist, pretend you are deaf and keep moving.