Getting lost, ruins, good food, and cuy!

I have so many adventures to tell! To catch you all up: I'm living with a family in the Pueblo Libre district of Lima, Germán y Susana Vargas and their daughters Claudia and Natalíe. They are wonderful people but I've run into some issues with communication because they have slight accents, speak very quickly, and don't use small words.  Despite that, they are fabulous and have a gorgeous home. Anyway, this morning Susana took me on a bus to a safe ATM where I could get the money to pay the family and avoid carrying it around the city all day.  After taking out the money she put me on the bus to the office where I work.  The paradero--bus stop--is on Javier Prado, next to a big green pedestrian bridge. I got off at the right spot (and I'm rather proud of that) but couldn't remember the street where I worked.  The busy intersection, overwhelming number of landmarks, and constant noise was completely disorienting and after twenty minutes and several (expensive and panicked) calls to my mom I still hadn't found the street.  The address for the office is "Jr. Daniel Alcides Carrión" and all I could find was a street sign that said "Jr. Carrión" so I asked a policeman to point me in the right direction (policemen are everywhere and guard every pharmacy), but instead he decided he and his buddy on a motorcycle should parade me down the street to the office.  So the Peruvians on Jr. Carrión got to see a rare sight today: a gringo being escorted by police through a neighborhood. Ugh.
Backtracking, because so much has happened: On Friday I lived like a Peruvian when I went to dinner with Maribel, Jenny, Jed, and Imke at a truly Peruvian restaurant.  I tried pisco sour, which as I understood it is made during the wine-making process and is Peru's signature drink.
The next day I explored the city with Sofietje and Marco, a married couple from Australia and Italy, respectively, who are traveling South America for their year-long honeymoon.  Clearly they are some exceedingly cool and interesting people.  Last Saturday we ate mind-blowing Lebanese food, drank delicious coffee, and visited some rockin' pre-Incan ruins.  The ruins, Huanca Pucllana, stretched out over several acres and stood quite high.  Our guide showed us the holes where bodies were interred and the plazas where celebrations and religious festivals took place.  A small garden of Peruvian plants (like coca) domesticated by these pre-Columbian people surrounded a menagerie of llamas, alpacas, and cuy (guinea pigs!).  The first of the pictures on this page is of the layout of the ruins, which is impressive considering that much of the original site has been lost to time and urban development.  The second is a view from the top of the ruins with Sofietje, Marco, and our guide included. I threw in llama and guinea pig pics for fun!

This week I began working at Bridge of Hope and I haven't been able to do a whole lot because it's been a crazy week for them, but I love everyone at the office.  They are dedicated, passionate, yet pragmatic people who have made me feel very welcome. Maribel is visiting the St. Louis offices of Partners for Just Trade this week, but when she returns she, Imke, and I will go to La Oroya, Huanaco, and Huancavelica in the Andes to visit artisans.

That's it for now! I'll write more once something else interesting happens. Ciao!

Un poco observaciones sobre Lima y la gente acá...

Lima is very much like New York City with a third-world hispanic twist:  dirty, loud, stark contrasts of rich and poor, but undeniably wonderful and fascinating.  Relative to the country as a whole, Lima is doing quite well for itself, but relative to the United States or Australia (there are Australians all over this continent) it is much poorer than I expected.  A meal here in an upscale restaurant like Tanta (which is one of many restaurants owned by Gaston Acurio, Peru's most famous chef) is between 20 and 30 soles, which is 6 to 10 dollars.  Most of the cars are at least ten years old and I have yet to see a 2010 model.  Apparently this is because the city heavily taxes new cars. Moreover, the police are corrupt and it is extremely common to be pulled over by the police and forced to pay a bribe of 10 or 20 soles.  It's so common that it's almost like a tax just for driving.  Walking around the city carries many risks in the form of anxious taxi drivers who are unwilling to slow down, men sitting in trees and hacking at the branches with machetes above walkways, or hazardous construction sites.  Do not walk underneath construction sites; in place of cranes they use buckets on pulleys to hoist up 2x4's.

Yesterday Johnny Trillo drove me to the center of Lima to see the cathedrals, old buildings, and the presidential palace.  Historically this area was the center of the colonial power in Lima.  Johnny described the old Spanish rulers as "la gente de plata"--literally, silver people.  Wooden balconies jut out from windows above the skinny streets which are crawling with taxis and pedestrians.  We walked through a huge plaza that was surrounded on one side by the presidential palace (very grand and lovely), on the other by a tall cathedral, and on the others by the homes of nobility which are now just used for offices and small tiendas.  Around the corner from the palace is San Francisco cathedral, where tourists can walk down to catacombs and see the piles of bones of the later waves of Spanish conquistadors.  A street away and a level below that are some stone Inca ruins.  So far this is my favorite section of Lima and will certainly be explored further.

Point of interest: Lima may be the only international city where Peruvian flute bands don't flood the streets in obnoxious droves. I have yet to see a genuine alpaca poncho, let alone a pan flute. 

Another interesting fact: I am at this moment chugging a bottle of Inca Kola, the most popular national drink.  It's a fluorescent yellow soda that tastes like bubblegum and it's owned by CocaCola, go figure.  On a similar note I found out from Denny, my Australian classmate, that an American company bought out Vegemite.  I apologized on behalf of my ridiculous country, and wondered why America would want to own Vegemite anyways...

Hasta luego, amigos! Ciao!

Figuring out Lima

I don't think I can adequately recount the last twenty-four hours in one post, but I'll do my best to sum up! Traveling yesterday went smoothly but was exhausting. On the planes I had some great conversations with several interesting people, three of whom were traveling to Peru for various humanitarian work.  Around 8:30 local time we landed in Lima, and about an hour and a half later I had my baggage and was out the door, where I met Johnny Trillo, my driver, who has turned out to be the handiest person in Lima.  La casa where I am staying with several other foreigners is owned by a rather old guy named Orlando, who is unfailingly kind and helpful. My room is perfecto--small bed, desk, chairs, and a tv that doesn't work but I wouldn't watch anyway.  Most importantly there is wifi here so I can skype with everyone!
This morning I began the language school at Hispana Idiomas, only six or seven blocks away from la casa. My teacher is a ridiculously nice Peruvian woman, who is thankfully patient enough to deal with our blundering attempts at conversation in Spanish.  Actually, my classmates speak quite well--one is a recent college graduate from New Jersey and the other is an Australian electrician who has apparently been all around the world.  The school itself is a tiny two-story house in Miraflores (the affluent district of Lima).  After class it was lunch time.  If you are planning to travel to Lima, you will be pleased to know that everything is dirt cheap--I ate sizable portions of soup, salad, chicken, rice, and french fries for ten soles, which is just over three bucks.  After lunch I attempted to walk back to the house and got myself so very lost that I ended up back at the language school, where I ran into Johnny Trillo and got a ride home.  Later, Señor Trillo drove me to see the beach.  Miraflores, the section of Lima that runs along the coastline, is actually several hundred feet above the beach on a long line of cliffs.
The city itself seems more like NYC than any other international city I have visited, which is surprising.  One key difference, however, is the people, who are invariably kind and supportive.  Everyone seems very conscious of the rampant poverty in Peru and sympathetic towards that impoverished population, much more so than in any other city I have seen, including Maryville. Very encouraging, considering the work I will be doing next week.
That's it for now, so I shall say buenas noches y hasta luego! Check back soon for pics!

Mañana!

Only a few more hours until I take off for Peru! Well, first for Newark...but then Peru! My stomach is filled with butterflies but I'm feeling more excited than nervous now that it's so close.  I can't wait to get through the language school (just to freshen up mi español) and start working with Bridge of Hope.  I don't have anything interesting to say yet because I'm still in the US but expect an update once the real trip begins. Hasta luego!