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said—felt just as nice. She made her way into the back row of seats next to Sharon.
    “Did you hear what he said about there being no sunshine or rain here except during the summer?”
    “Yes, but it’s hard to believe. How can people live without sun and rain for three-fourths of the year?”
    “I guess the fog and clouds won’t be burning off by the afternoon.”
    Alex greeted them and expressed his hope that they’d enjoy their tour. He asked if they would tell him their names, which he promised to forget the minute he heard them.
    Lynn smiled at that. They began in the front. She and Sharon were last to share their names. When he heard her name, he smiled and paused for a couple of seconds before getting back to his narrative about Peru. He seemed to be making an effort to establish eye contact with each person, but did he look at her more often than the others?
    They experienced another harrowing ride through Lima , with Alex pointing out buildings and plazas and other sites, then giving brief information about each one. A great deal of what he told them had to do with Lima’s history, and that of the country. Lynn was surprised at how quickly she got used to the traffic, in spite of all the honking and street noises. She was finally able to look out the windows and still concentrate on what Alex was telling them without being overly distracted by the extraordinary number of cars, trucks, and buses, and the honking that never seemed to stop. Alex explained that the drivers used hand signals to let other drivers know when they needed to change lanes or turn. Amazingly, all the drivers responded to these signals.
    The only time Lynn and the others became concerned was when the van turned onto a street that had been closed in preparation for the festival com ing up on the weekend—Peruvian Independence Day, according to Alex. The only way the driver could get out of the dead-end street was to back up, forcing cars behind them to also back up. Lynn noticed the hand signals the driver used to let the cars behind know what he was doing. He curved back the way they’d come, onto the street he’d turned off of, forcing even more vehicles to back up until he was straight on the main street. Then he drove ahead and traffic resumed as usual. Neither he nor Alex seemed to think much about it, and there hadn’t been even one fender-bender during the process.
    “It happens all the time,” Alex said, and smiled at Lynn.
    B y the time they were moving again, she noticed that the traffic moved in an odd sort of rhythm, without any hint of a crash or even a disagreement between drivers. Surely, they had accidents all the time, though.
    “Alex, are there many wrecks in Lima?” Lynn asked him.
    “Wrecks?” He didn’t seem to understand the question.
    “Cars crashing into each other in traffic.”
    “Oh! No. Everyone knows the rules.”
    Rules? Lynn and Sharon looked at each other, then at Barb, B. J., Cathi, Vicki, Dorothy and Sheila. Lynn saw the same expression on each face—disbelief! She couldn’t imagine trying to drive in Lima in a car, much less a van or bus! Truly, their driver had to be a “professional” in order to assure the safety of his passengers! At that point, Lynn decided it wasn’t worth worrying about the traffic any longer. Instead, she took a deep breath and focused on listening to Alex’s description of the places they passed. One thing was obvious. The citizens of Lima loved flower gardens. They were everywhere! She took photos through the window as they sped along, but didn’t have much hope of their coming out very well because of the movement of the van, and because of the gloom created by the cloud cover. Everything would probably come out gray. It was then she realized that everything they saw had the same general color superimposed over the colors below—a dull gray-brown.
    “Alex, what is this gray-brown color on everything?”
    He hesitated before answering. “Dirt. Exhaust. It