Abby in Peru: In Tacna

We arrived in Tacna early this morning.. had breakfast and then konked out for a couple hours. i woke up to the sounds of a really large crowd.. seemingly right outside the hotel. I looked out the window and saw they were actually on the street just beside us. It sounded like it could have been a huge crowd for a soccer game. I asked one of the girls in my room if it was a parade or a protest and she confirmed the latter. i asked what they were protesting, but i didn`t understand what she said.

some people were going to go out for a while, into the city, so i went downstairs to see what was going on. A bunch of people were passing the hotel, walking like the event was over. I stepped out of the hotel to look down the street and after a minute people started yelling again and then running.

I couldn`t see the reason for their running, but then one of the track coaches came out and told me to go inside. i went in, but stayed at the door with some other people. Then another coach (my sports class teacher) told me to come back by her, away from the door. I did and then some people came inside the hotel, covering their mouths and noses with their coats. Then I smelled it. Not tear gas, I´m assuming, as there was no crying, but it was stinky.. so... hm, stink bomb?

I came up to the computers and found this article. http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=8840

`LIMA (Reuters) - Protests erupted in three mineral-rich regions in Peru on Thursday, with angry townspeople clashing with police and taking a local mayor hostage and workers at a major copper pit walking off their job.In the southern provinces of Moquegua and Tacna, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in a dispute over their fair share of taxes miners pay to the government. Businesses were closed and streets were quiet, though the main highway running from the south to the capital, Lima, remained open, along with key mines.`

So i guess i´m under hotel arrest for now as a coach just came around counting people from the team. We compete tomorrow and Saturday. I was hoping to go out to find a memory card for my camera (well, Erin´s camera, as mine broke..). I guess not being in a protest is more important..

I just headed towards my room and my eyes started watering.. maybe there was tear gas in there, too.
....

there were firemen spraying water on a big building.. i guess someone set a fire. There have been huge rocks put in the middle of the streets, yesterday I saw a car hit one.. just grazed it i think, but his hubcap came off.

we got fourth in relays! The 4x100 (each of the four girls runs 100 meters for a total of one lap around the track) fourth doesn´t sound bad, but there were only 5 teams, so it´s not actually that great. BUT as I am no sprinter and didn´t really know what i was doing, I´m ok with it! I ALMOST got us disqualified because i have to receive the baton within a certain area and i had to almost stop in order to get it from the girl behind me without going out of the lane. but almost disqualified isn´t disqualified, so it´s still ok :)

now i have to go jump!

soo.. my track days are over!! turns out i'm not that spectacular, haha. . but it was so much fun yeah! haha. i get the good sport award! :)

We ended up getting 4th place out of the 6 or 7 teams that were there. hmm.. maybe there were only 5.. i know we didn't do that great.

After I finished my events.. I went straight to the street. For ice cream. and crackers. and chips. aaaand cookies. :) mmmmm. mm!! haha, then Johanna, Morayma, some guy friends and I went to this big indoor market.. like a mall in a warehouse. Sort of. But while we were in there browsing, i heard a big commotion and then some of the stall owners started shutting all the doors of the warehouse. Morayma went and asked what was going on and was told that the protestors were coming by and could cause trouble. I guess they'd gone through the market before and destroyed a lot of stuff.. so they locked all the big doors and we were stuck in there for like 45 minutes with a lot of the lights off.. just the individual stores' lights. Not that it was dark, not that there was any real panic, but it was definitely weird. My friends and I.. well, we just sat talking, taking pictures, and having fun :) We got tired, though, and after talking with someone by the doors, we were let through an individual exit thing that we had to crouch through.