Back to Business

…or not.  What I meant was, things are back to normal in Lima, with random protests happening in the streets, finding weird bugs, people getting sick, and baking non-Peruvian desserts.

I was minding my own business when I could hear, from outside of the window, people chanting.  It sounded like either a parade or a protest, either of which would be interesting.  So I grabbed my camera and dashed outside.  People were gathered in front of the courthouse changing “queremos trabajar” which means “we want to work.”  That, I would say, is a random thing for people with picket signs to be saying.  I’d say the most common sort of protesting in Canada is a strike, which is more like “we don’t want to work.”

I asked around, and had the worst luck.  Everyone I asked spoke very very quickly, or perhaps I just didn’t have the right vocabulary to understand the nuances of a labour dispute.  From what it sounded like, all the people worked for the same company, which was either being sold or shut down, and either way these people would be laid off.  I guess they were protesting at the courthouse because the courts had something to do with the reason they were being laid off, and they were trying to get them to change their minds.

Anyways the whole thing only took about half an hour before they dispersed.

Here are some random pictures from the week:

Enormous moth (approximately the size of a bird)

The protest, as seen from Plaza Vea

Huge caterpillar, approximately the size of a sausage

Warm gooey apple crisp, homemade of course