They moved the Edge
I spent a couple of summers in South America back in the 90s. Things have changed.
The internet is everywhere, Huaraz is full of little internet shops selling net time at 60c an hour. You can use ALT-6-4 to get the ´@´ on a Spanish keyboard.
International banking and the ATM network arrived sometime between then and now. Travellers´checks are a sort of weird throwback for emergencies. Last time I didn´t even bother with an ATM card and only used my credit card for purchases in very up market stores and the airlines.
Lima has several Starbucks and a shopping maul with wireless access throughout. Even Huaraz has several cafes and restaurants that look like they dropped out of the sky and were previously situated in Boulder, CO.
None of this is good nor bad. What is weird is the tourists who move from one western hemisphere ¨bubble¨ to the next somehow thinking this is being here without really being here. Often conplaining that the locals don´t get it – whatever it might be.
The Edge may have moved but the Place of Definitions is still very much there – in the mountains. Hopefully tomorrow we´ll be off.
Rich:
Top Gear just drove a 4X4 to the Magnetic North Pole. The Edge is missing, presumed dead or at the very least off planet…
23 July 2007, 11:24 pm