The Final Word on Bricheras
I’ve written extensively on the phenomenon known as bricheras in Peru. In fact, I’m the internet’s best source for brichera information. And whoever’s in second isn’t close.
You can freshen up by reading these posts: Amigos and Bricheras and The Brichera Scowl and the Second Date. I’m now leaving Peru, so I thought I ought to share what I’ve learned. Plus, I scored a one-night stand with my first bona fide brichera during my last week in Arequipa. Jump to My First Brichera!, Type 1, or Type 2 bricheras.
My First Brichera!
Some may define my first girlfriend as a brichera due to the story in which she lost her mind. But most Peruvians said she wasn’t. She didn’t speak English. Plus, I was her first (and probably last) gringo boyfriend. So my first real brichera was the one in the following story (an English-speaking girl studying tourism fits the bill better).
Ryan arrived on a Wednesday for his two-week trip to help me move to Colombia. We went out to El Balde for a few beers before moving on to Deja Vu, the primary brichera spot in Arequipa. We ran into some friends and talked upstairs before I moved to the dance floor. I was dancing with two girls while I noticed a different one staring at me from across the floor. I smiled at her, but stayed where I was.
Some time later, I was walking with Ryan past the bathrooms and I saw that girl coming out. I introduced us. She spoke a little English. Keeping the conversation going felt like pulling teeth so I split, leaving her with Ryan. Ryan later told me Brichera was touching his leg and making eyes at him. They found me downstairs and I sat them down with some friends. A few minutes later, Ryan got up and told me she was all mine. Brichera had been asking about me (Ryan later admitted that was a lie). I sat next to her and we talked for ten minutes or so before Brichera started kissing me.
We made out for a while before going to the dance floor. We drank a lot. Brichera drank fast. After finishing a beer, Brichera asked if we should get another (implying I buy). I decided to invest in a round. While dancing, Brichera suggested we race drinking that beer. I barely beat her (that’s fast!). She said we should get another. I wondered if I was getting taken for a ride. Oh well, I invested in another. We finished that round as the bar was closing around 4am.
Because Brichera seemed to be a bit of an alcoholic, I told her I had more beer at my apartment. We could keep the party going there. She said that sounded good. Could her friend come? What friend? Brichera had a cute, brichera wingwoman huddled up with some prissy European. The friend didn’t want to come with us. Fortunately, mine did.
The taxi dropped me, Ryan, and Brichera off at the corner near my apartment. Brichera pointed at El Tablón, suggesting we get food. Again, I wondered if I was getting taken for a ride. Well, she’s already come with us to the apartment. One more small investment may pay off. I bought a quarter chicken and fries meal (to-go!), which we shared in the apartment while Ryan went to bed. Brichera was drunk and weird. She would bite off some chicken and then kiss me until I bit some of the chicken from her mouth. Kinda gross.
After eating, Brichera said she just wanted to sleep in the same bed. That’s fine, let’s get in bed then. “Just sleep” turned into butt-nakedness, which turned into hair-pulling, hard-spanking doggystyle. My investments paid off.
In the morning, she woke me up with oral. Her hair was wet. She had helped herself to my shower, which must have been cold because nobody turned on the water heater. Good oral. Then she got on top and rode it until she completed the unfinished business from the night before. She laid next to me. She asked for my hand, which she wanted to kiss. I put my hand up to her face and she licked and sucked and kissed each of my fingers for at least five minutes. Then she turned me over and gave me a half-hour massage. Great massage, for 30 minutes! Then she left.
Type 1 Brichera
The Type 1 brichera is the stereotype that’s out for financial gain or social climbing. This kind can be found around Calle de las Pizzas in Miraflores and in Cusco. I’m sure they exist in Arequipa, but nothing like in Lima. See the definition of a brichera on Urban Dictionary here. I wrote the preferred definition (#1) last year, but the second definition (#2) is an over-the-top explanation of the Type 1.
Although Cusco is known for bricheras, I didn’t meet any. Granted, I drank myself too retarded to talk to anyone. Lima’s where I found Type 1′s. My brother and I were planning our night in Larcomar, but didn’t want to pay Larcomar prices for our first 5 – 7 beers. My buddy Diego dropped us off at Calle de las Pizzas, which I think is hilarious to call Pizza Street.
Pizza Street is actually an aisle of bars and restaurants around the corner from Kennedy Park. We walked this gauntlet to be solicited by someone from each and every establishment. There were so many sales pitches we stopped saying ‘No,’ opting instead to just ignore and not make eye contact.
After one trip up the gauntlet, we still hadn’t chosen a bar. I was hesitant to run the gauntlet again when two women approached us. One was black, overweight, with blond hair extensions down to her waist. The other was light brown, cute enough, and slim. They asked where we were from. They made small talk. They kept talking. Forever. I was uncomfortable. I made an exit strategy, pardoning ourselves for one of these bars. There are prostitutes that work Pizza Street, and we met some, but these two didn’t offer us ‘massages.’ So I assume them to be Type 1 bricheras.
We bought a couple beers at the grocery store and drank them on a bench in Kennedy Park. Two Peruvian cuties walked past us. They noticed us looking at them and they stopped at the next bench over, despite the fact that a couple occupied that bench. They leaned against it, in effect waiting for the couple to leave so they could sit there.
Ryan and I finished our beers and I decided to greet the girls on the way to the grocery store for another round. I asked them if there was any specific bar on Pizza Street that was a cool place to party. The cuter girl said she does know a place and we should all go together. I was a little creeped out at the aggression and said my brother and I actually had to go to the store first but maybe we could meet them there. The cuter one said they could go with us to the store, and then we could all go to the bar together. The other brichera, also cute, picked up that they shouldn’t come with us. I said that we’d go to the store and meet them back at this bench, then go to the bar. We didn’t come back to the bench.
Ryan and I bought two more beers and decided to exit the Pizza Street / Kennedy Park lion’s den of Type 1 bricheras in favor of Larcomar, where I hoped to meet clean and rich Peruvian women. We went to Bartini on the recommendation of the hottie that worked at our hostel, after I asked where we could find ‘the Peruvian girls who speak English.’
We entered Bartini and immediately started getting looked at by hot Peruvian women. One group on the other side of the bar was so obvious that I waved at them. Three heads simultaneously snapped towards each other in a hurry as if they weren’t looking at us. Another group danced their way over to us. One intentionally kept bumping into me while another struck up a conversation with my brother (in English). I assumed this group to be Type 1′s because of the hottest one in the group. The absolute stunner in a white miniskirt had a gringo on her arm. The biggest nerd I’ve seen in Peru. This couple made no sense. He wasn’t ugly per se, but nerdy and awkward. Probably an engineer (nothing against engineers, but even you engineers know that a lot of your peers are nerds).
Type 1′s generally make me uncomfortable and I’ve never indulged in one, so I don’t have intimate details. I imagine that nerd at Bartini would.
Type 2 Brichera
Type 2 is a different story. Disclaimer: this is going to be a politically incorrect explanation, but since when have I cared about offending people?
The need for a Type 2 came up after one specific brichera encounter. I met a tall, beautiful Type 2 through a friend. Later, that friend told me that the Type 2 only dates gringos. Every boyfriend she’s ever had was a gringo. Whenever he hangs out with her, it seems she is always emailing or chatting online with some gringo in Europe or the US.
I made out with her one night at Deja Vu. I called her later that week and she invited me to a party at her house. I went to find her house is huge and nice. The nicest house in Peru I’ve seen. Her family’s rich. Upper-crust rich. So why would she be chasing money if she is already set for life?
Now, to understand Type 2, I have to explain what I’ve learned about the racial issues in Peru (enter politically incorrect analysis).
Peruvian’s culture and national identity is a product of two races. The indigenous people of the region and the Europeans who colonized them. The whiter Peruvians, the more Spanish, still control most of the wealth and power in the country. The darker, more indigenous Peruvians are the poorer, less-educated Peruvians. When angry at the lower classes, Peruvians will often dismiss them as cholos or peasants. I think most Peruvians associate themselves with the European side of their ancestry. The US and Western Europe are the richer, more developed countries in the world. I think each Peruvian wants to believe he / she has more of that in them than the people who built Machu Picchu.
And they all grow up watching Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, or Pamela Anderson and Jennifer Aniston in American movies.
There’s a white girl I know – so white it looks like she doesn’t have an Inca in all her lineage. And all the Peruvian guys think she’s the hottest in town. I like the brown look and I consider many other girls more beautiful. In fact, I think the white girl wouldn’t even be considered above average in the States. But their subconscious desire for white looks trick their mind into thinking she’s so beautiful.
I think the Type 2′s identify with or aspire to be a part of white culture as more of a rejection of the indigenous culture. While their skin might be a mix of the two civilizations, they want to believe that their mind, their insides are more of one than the other.
Conclusion
I think these two types sum up the motivations of the brichera. Surely there are hybrids, but I think they clearly fall into the two categories. If I had to choose one, Type 2′s seem like better bets to me. I never had a go with a Type 1, but they’d surely be good for at least sex.
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8 Responses to “The Final Word on Bricheras”
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hell yeah type 1 and 2…. definitely agree on both…. had a type 2 myself… and she claimed she wasnt like that. it was funny though the similarities in it all.
there is something you have to consider and that is that men in Peru —and this is worse in provinces— have somehow a macho upbringing, and even the sensitive ones will have to interact with the macho mentality of their pals.
Sure there is a lot of racial consideration in here, but I would make a third distinction and would say that while there are girls that are more likely to find themselves attracted to the exotic of “the stranger” their motivations can be found in their inability to find the ideal man are looking for.
*they^
hola! soy de peru y me parece super interesante! tublog! jajajaja increible lo de las bricheras… aunque no lo termine de leer. yo estuve con un belga pero nada de bricheria ni nada era amor del bueno sincero y puro!
ahh olvidaba decir que tengo amigos y tuve enamorados de francia espana y belgica pero yo nunca me acerque a ellos fue todo lo contrario ellos se acercaron a mi, tal vez me encontraban en starbacks , larcomar paseando observando y ellos aki a mi lado preguntando lahora lo mas clasico. jajajaja …. e intercambiamos dialogos interesantes… bueno
quise decir que estuve con un belga y nada de brichera primera vez q escucho ese nombre y su significado …..la relacion con el belga fue amor del bueno puro y sincero…
Mate that writeup was gold – classic gonzo journalism. After reading your article I am inspired but cannot decide which type to sample first. I like the idea of both at the same time but foresee a few problems. Maybe start with a Type I as they sound easier. Plus I am an engineer ( = nerd) so probs should not set the bar too high initially. Top work – keep it up fella.
Ja, ja, ja,..No sabes nada …. por ser FEO y CABRON!!!…