Influence

We were amazed in Arequipa by just how much American culture shows up in Peru. A few examples: American rock music is all over the place - in fact the most common radio station heard is a "Best of the 80s" (interestingly found on 99.1, the same frequency of the Latin music station in Washington). If I had a dollar for every time I heard "Footloose" in the grocery store, or "I Can't Fight this Feeling Anymore" in a taxi....

It also seems to be a selling point to use the names of famous Americans for schools here. I noticed it so much that I had to take pictures. These are all from Arequipa.

First, a taste of home:

Then, a two-for-one - Edison and King:

JFK is also popular here:

A very prestigious colegio:

And my favorite, a beauty and fashion school:

Just so you know, colegio is used for school in general, inicial means preschool, primaria is elementary, and secundaria is high school.

I'm sure we'll observe much more of the unfortunate side of American influence here in Lima - we've already seen McDonald's, Papa Johns, Nautica, Abercrombie, and Starbucks. Tomorrow we're going to spend the morning in Miraflores, so we'll let you know how that goes.