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Louis R Stott's avatar

From Dad, please realize my writing is more from a tourist point of view and I hope does not take away from the real struggle Abby and Leifer are dealing with. They are essentially dealing with two bureaucracies which is enough to drive anyone insane.

Money exchange is fairly simple in the Miraflores area and I am sure in others. Miraflores is the most likely area you will stay in as it caters to tourists and is claimed to be one of the safer areas. There are other areas that are relatively safe as well.

The Peruvian money system uses "solas" which are roughly equivalent to the US dollar. 1 US dollar is worth about 3.5 to 4 solas. For example, a 20solas meal is about 5 US $.

There are many currency exchange places. Importantly, they like to give out high denomination bills but when paying for things most people don't like to receive high denomination bills. One must learn to keep on top of their money situation in order to always have low denomination change.

One way around the currency issue is to use credit cards but they are not accepted everywhere.

We mostly get around with inDrive or Uber. There are apps for both on your smart phone. With inDrive, you need the correct change because that is how they roll. With Uber, you can use the credit card you have registered with your account.

Riding in Peruvian traffic can be quite the thrill. The use of the horn is more important than signal lights. Short taps of the horn usually suffice and typically a city block isn't traveled without using the horn at least once and quite often many times.

With so much use of the horn, you might think there is a lot of anger or road rage involved but surprisingly not. I have seen a few drivers get the side eye from other drivers but not many.

Adherence to lanes does happen but there is a lot of moving from one to another.

Major intersections have signal lights but most intersections have no lights or stop signs. However, these intersections do have speed bumps where a stop sign would be in the US so that everyone has to slow down when approaching the intersection. This system allows one set of cars of cross traffic to make it through and sometimes 2 sets. Kind of similar to a US intersection with stop signs but here there is no waiting. The overall effect is that usually a car will progress through an intersection without stopping completely.

Driving in Peru requires drivers to commit without hesitation. If you hesitate, people do get mad at you.

To finish this up, all 7 of us squeezed into a small 4 door car the other night headed for our Airbnb during rush hour traffic. The driver had a good sized tv screen in his dashboard tuned to a soccer game between Peru and Argentina. An important game for Peruvians. I think the driver was keeping his eyes on the road but I can't be sure about that. Anyway, we came upon what seemed like an 8 lane thoroughfare that was perpendicular to us. The traffic was at a dead stop and would occasionally move about a car's length. Unbeknownst to us passengers, our objective was to get to the left hand turn lane across all 8 lanes of traffic. And there was no merging involved with this operation. We were going perpendicular to the flow of traffic and at any time taking up 2 lanes. To top it off, it all seemed kind of a natural thing to do. No one honked their horn more than normal and we were basically let through. And we made it without a scratch. Damnedest thing I have ever witnessed and I have 3 other adult witnesses.

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Brianna Okonek's avatar

I’m glad you made humor out of it. Man oh man- what an incredibly tough situation . Like Lois, sending love. Big love❤️. I wish that were enough to give you what you need- a pais!

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