More on Lima

After spending most of the day recoding data, I took another walk this
afternoon through ritzy San Isidro and Miraflores.

I'm still not used to how clean and expensive everything is here--I
suspect that Aubrey will take this as gloating, but it's not. I ate
dinner in a cafe in Miraflores, and it cost me nearly what it would cost
in the states. Damn good food (and ice cream), but pricey. I ate a
"Hindu Chicken Panini," which was essentially a chicken panini with
Mango chutney. Is mango chutney really Indian? I have no idea. I felt
guilty eating something so expensive, but Lima is billed as the
"Gastronomic Capital of the Americas," so maybe this is part of my
cultural experience.

Anyways, it was a damn good sandwich.

Along similar lines, I have a question:

Why the hell can I get Dunkin' Donuts in Lima but not in Boulder?
Stupid. And I normally reserve the term "stupid" only for my
impressions of my old high school students.

Finally, the State Department has released a travel warning for the area
around Tacna, in the South of Peru. I have no plans to go there, for
two reasons. First, it's supposed to be a pit. Second, there's no trees.

But it's interesting. Rioting there is essentially over an issue of
federalism. Locals feel that the district, provincial, and regional
governments aren't getting a big enough share of the tax revenue from
mines in the area. What the ideal distribution of revenue from mines
is, I can't say, but the interesting thing is that there was a
referendum on regional autonomy a couple of years ago and Tacna voted
against it. I can't help but think that it has to do with symbols.
"Autonomy" and "decentralization" mean "neoliberalism." And everybody
hates neoliberalism, right?