Startin' to feel like Christmas

Last weekend was taken up largely by a 3-day Taekwan-do event in which Carter's group joined the 4 others from Lima. It was his first chance to don all the gear and actually spar, so he was pretty pleased. The final day's event was excruciating and running late, so we left early rather than being held hostage by our kid's activity. Carter moved up a belt level too.

Also that weekend, we went to a kid's birthday party at an embassy family's house. It is becoming clear to us that the Peace Corps housing is not as deluxe as some of the other embassy housing. The party was fun, the kids had a great time playing ball in the emptied pool, and they served the adults pisco sours.

 Meanwhile, we are heading into the Christmas season which is also the start of Carter's summer break. Carter will be out of school from Christmas through February. Three weeks of that will be in summer "camp" with some of his friends from school. He now has made enough friends in school and Taekwan-do that it's not uncommon to be out somewhere (like Pardo's Chicken today) and have a kid yell out "Carter" from across the room. Several of them are bilingual and it is fun to watch Carter and his friends free flow between English and Spanish, whatever seems to work.

This weekend started a little early with a holiday event at the embassy. Jen got her whole office to volunteer...note the elf on Santa's left! The event brought several busloads of special needs children to come see Santa, play on bouncy houses, facepainting, play-doh, etc. The elves were doing crowd control, while the rest of us were each assigned a kid to chaperone. Some of the kids were physically disabled, deaf, mentally challenged, recovering from injuries, or even 100% OK on the outside but fighting cancer within.  Jen could not stand the level of disorganization, and it seemed like more thought could have gone into making it fun for the kids.

Nevertheless, everyone I saw seemed to be having a pretty good time. I spent the morning with a boy named Jefferson, recovering from burns from the chest up. Inexplicably, he wore a baseball hat with the word "Texas" scrawled on it. He was quiet, or more than quiet, he seemed withdrawn in a way that made some think he might also be mentally challenged. We stayed at the Play-doh station pretty much the whole time until the Christmas show. So in spite of getting very sunburned, I had a pretty nice time, certainly less stressful than some of the volunteers I saw who were assigned mentally challenged kids that were "runners", suddenly making a break for the bushes. The show had some Christmas characters, a clown, and a line of sexy Santa's Helpers who had one dance that they did to the tune of Rudolph. They did the song twice. Afterwards, the kids all got a sack lunch, a bag of presents from Santa, and then headed back where they came from. Jefferson hadn't said much all day, and I'm not sure he even returned my farewell...but as his van drove away, he craned around an watched me until the van went around the corner a block away.

I joined in afterwards as Jen took her office out for a Christmas lunch at the good cebiche place not too far away. After I picked up Carter from school and went to Taekwan-do, we met up at McDonald's with Maureen and Julito for a birthday party.

Saturday morning we were back with the same Santa, this time for embassy kids. We had gone with Julio, Maureen and Julito, and afterwards went over to their apartment for a pizza afternoon. The boys played video games, but even us adults played their new Xbox Kinect, having a good time with the dance game, laughing a lot and looking pretty silly. Before leaving, Julio (who is a filmmaker) showed us his 20min film "El Hijo" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0495119/), a short jungle story filmed at his family's coffee plantation. It was great, and talking to Julio about how the jungle is a character unlike any other was interesting. His second film should be out in a couple months.

Thanksgiving / Lady Gaga / Nicaragua

For Thanksgiving, Mariza and I drove across town for a 27lb turkey and only discovered this week that there is an open-air market right here in our neighborhood with very fine looking fresh turkey in addition to any other meat you want (including guinea pig, rabbit, hoof). The night prior, we had a little confusion about the turkey being frozen not fresh, and doubted it would thaw in time. Then Jen struggled to pull out the frozen, embedded neck...only to scream when the whole head popped out suddenly. Mariza went to bed and prayed for the turkey to thaw (her prayers were answered) while Jen and I stayed up late having a little prep party just the two of us. Jen even awoke on Thanksgiving with a wee bit of a hangover.

We had invited any Peace Corps volunteers that were in Lima to join us. On Tuesday, we had 15 RSVPs, but by Thanksgiving morning we were up to 30. We rented extra table and chairs at the last minute, easy enough since of course for Peruvians this was just another random Thursday. Many volunteers brought contributions to the meal, clearly managing to find the use of kitchens in Lima. One girl even brought greenbean casserole for which she had even been forced to make the mushroom soup from scratch.

 Jen gets more contact with the volunteers, so for me it was a particular pleasure to meet them. It's fun to be around so much positive, 20-something energy. For our part, it pleased us to be able to share some of the privileges we enjoy here, sometimes something as simple as IBC Diet Root Beer. By the end of the evening, we had volunteers watching football streaming on my computer, several used my free phone to call their families, there was a huge Michael Jackson Dance Party game (note how sweaty the guy in the green shirt is in the photo), and Carter and Julito were thrilled to have several of the guys join them in a huge running nerf gun battle.

The next evening, Jen went with a couple women from the office to see Lady Gaga in concert. Her summation: "It was weird." It took forever for them to get out to the stadium in a sketchy neighborhood, with the taxi not even getting them to within sight of the venue. A female moto-taxi driver came to their aid and they arrived safely only to find that the stadium was only half full. Their seats were too far away to see well, and it was maddening because other sections up towards the stage were empty. Other parts of the show were strange too, but at least Jen was impressed by Lady Gaga herself and her clear desire to be true to her fans and put on a good show.

You know what rhymes with Lady Gaga?

Nicaragua!

 Jen's business trip to Nicaragua was back in October, so posting the photos now is a little late. She went to Granada, a historic town on the edge of a huge lake. Her taxi ride to town from the airport was an Odyssey in and of itself, but when she got stranded with a broken down taxi in the torrents of rain, she couldn't help noticing that it was in a beautiful spot with a view of the lake and a little café.

The town is centered on a colonial square and her hotel was situated there as well.

The highlight for her was going out on the lake and seeing monkeys and beautiful jungle lushness.

The pleasures of the visit were in stark contrast with her return trip during which she came down very sick, finding herself getting the shakes in the Panama City airport. The illness lasted several days and had so weakened her by the end that she threw her back out. Is that even possible?

Arequipa

For Veterans Day weekend, we took the opportunity to visit Arequipa, Peru's 2nd largest city (Lima has roughly 10 million, Arequipa not quite a million). It lies at 7,500ft, but even so has two volcanoes towering up over it. Many tourists go through on their way to adventuring in some of the dramatic scenery several hours out of town, but as weekenders we satisfied ourselves with getting a taste of Arequipa itself.

Even our watered down version of adventuring was pretty fun, as we went about 15 minutes up the city's river, the Rio Chili, for a short rafting trip. The river cuts down between the shoulders of the volcanoes, and even though the outskirts of Arequipa are still up on the rim, down in the river canyon is was pretty and scenic. At the start, it was a little more rugged but later the river rolls through neatly terraced farm plots. Carter had gotten himself nervous about the trip, but also mastered himself and, of course, once in the rollicking of the waves he didn't want it to end. Jennifer and he got out and walked around the one Class 4 rapid. We're not convinced it was truly a Class 4, but the river still was plenty fun for a family like us.

 This picture is from the town square, with the Chachani volcano in the background. These volcanoes are part of a string around here, many of which have revealed tombs of Inca sacrifices. We took a tour at the museum that houses the "Juanita", the ice princess...so called because she was sacrificed and buried so high up that she's been frozen for a thousand years and remarkably preserved. Amazing to see in person.


On a side note, all the postcards, etc., show the other nearby volcano (El Misti) with snow, but apparently global warming has meant that there hasn't been snow on Misti in 5 or so years (as per the taxi driver).

The photo shows the large church, built from the white stone that makes Arequipa famous. We stayed right in the colonial zone, with streets lined by colonial buildings made of large blocks of this stone. Even our hotel's common areas was once a colonial mansion, with paintings and vaulted ceilings around a courtyard.

I tried cuy for the first time (guinea pig). I asked for it as traditional as possible and the photo shows the result. It was greasy, not very meaty, with most of the food value in skin. Given a choice, a hungry person would probably opt for something else, but I'm not certain. But hey, it came with fries. In the evening I enjoyed another local specialty, a bisque of Andean crayfish. As I mentioned on Facebook, both lunch and dinner featured food with the head still on.

 As parents of a 6yr old, even here we spent a fair amount of time at the playground. Both days we walked to a local park that featured play structures and various small amusements. On Sunday, it was full of families, including many that showed the typical traditional style; very particular hats, blankets artfully tied so as to be carryalls. The older woman in the photo had two long, black braids down her back, and then a knit thing that kind of tied the two braids together.

There were some animals to look at, including a monkey I photographed drinking an Inka Cola right next to the sign saying "Don't Feed the Monkeys". There were also enough small biting flies that I am still scratching now as I type.

 We also explored the historic convent (Monasterio Santa Catalina) that takes up a very large city block right up from our hotel. For hundreds of years, wealthy families would donate to have the honor of a daughter going into this seclusion. Behind the walls, hidden from view, is a warren of paths and rooms, even "streets". Like a small village, there were areas for novices and others for more senior nuns...some even seemed to have been elites, with larger rooms, servants, a piano. Bright colors, paintings and decorative touches, and a kind of idyllic charm — as long as you don't mind the idea of locking women away for their whole lives on a single city block.

Below is a photo I took from the balcony on our hotel floor. Jen and I sat out here Sunday evening for a sunset game of Scrabble. Not shown in this idyllic picture are the roofs we also looked over, with some funny roof dogs cavorting and occasionally barking at us for being fellow roof dwellers.

Arequipa had a wonderful climate, warm sun with cool breezes, and a big sky. Lima would make anyplace seem bright and quiet(er). It is a city that has a strong identity, a mix of colonial and mountain cultures, and we were sorry to leave.

October / Mes Morado

October is known as the Purple Month as Limeños honor the icon known as El Señor de los Milagros. The painting of Christ survived an earthquake a couple hundred years ago, while all else was flattened, and now the icon is marched in processions all month and devotees wear purple. I've seen grandmothers in purple frocks, but also saw an upscale business women in purple blouse and fab purple pumps, and some houses are bedecked in ribbon. Considering we've felt 2-3 tremors since being here, a little devotion to an earthquake survivor seems prudent.

I also want to note the interesting Moorish influence that lives on in Lima. I don't know how other South American cities are, but Lima from its founding has been a bastion of colonialism. So it's no wonder that vestiges of the Moors, that had such an effect on Spain, can still be discerned here. The ornate enclosed balconies are everywhere in the old parts of town. The traditional cookies called alfajores are everywhere, even having a couple stores dedicated to them. Peruvians very often use the phrase "ojala" to express hope, a derivation of "insha'Allah", or "god willing".

The colonial era here, as everywhere I suppose, created all sorts of cultural mashups. Today is Dia De Los Muertos, but also a time when Criolla music is traditionally honored. Criolla, in music and food, is a mix of influences from Spain, African slaves and Andean peasants. The rhythm is drummed on a cajón (= "drawer", from the days when the slaves would use a wooden drawer) that the player sits atop.

Below are some Google images of all these things.

Halloween

We weren't sure exactly what Halloween would be like here, but it turns out that it is celebrated in Lima (not elsewhere in the country, we hear). So we carved pumpkins the night before and got our costumes ready. At 3pm we headed over to the embassy grounds with some Maureen's family and some of the other Peruvian Peace Corps employees.

Since arriving in Peru, Jennifer and Carter have read their way through The Chronicles of Narnia. So he wanted to be Peter the High King of Narnia, while Jen used our xmas tablecloth, etc., to become the frozen evil White Witch and I became someone she has turned to stone. Julito, in this picture, is Anakin Skywalker.

Each department at the embassy competes to decorate their section. It was amazing...an undersea scene with jellyfish, a couple of fright-houses (Jennifer is a good screamer), Mario world, Pac-Man, witches coven, etc. etc.

The winner was the Consular Section, with a large Legoland. They had ordered custom-made Lego head masks in all sorts of characters. Below you can see a mariachi lego, an Iron Man, a skeleton, and the hard-rocking Lego Kiss band. There were many more. After trick-or-treating all the departments, the boys played on the bouncy house and trampoline...which seem obligatory at any kid event here.


At home we were pleased to discover that our neighborhood had trick-or-treaters. I ran down to Pardo's chicken to get takeout (amusing the girls there in my makeup), and we had a fun dinner interrupted by the doorbell. A handful of kids seem to not get the memo about wearing costumes, but everyone was having fun and even the moms wanted candy. Every time he went to the door, Carter would also give a piece of candy to the street watchman...and when we ran out, Carter got us through the few remaining visitors by contributing some of his own candy.

Cricket Club, Housewarming

Weekend before last, we were invited by Maureen in Jen's office to the Lima Cricket Club for a Sunday afternoon. We were joined by the families of a couple of other people who Jen and Maureen work closest with. There are some clubs in Lima that epitomize the different world of the Peruvian elite, but the Cricket Club, even with its perfect recreation of a British pub, seemed earnest and pleasant. With open fields and a jungle gym, the kids ran themselves to happy exhaustion while the parents sipped beer or soda and had a slow lunch outside.

This week we got back into the swing of things after Carter's week of Spring Break. It was also the end of 4 weeks during which I went to Spanish classes 4hrs daily. Saturday evening we had a housewarming party, attended mostly by folks from the Peace Corps office. We borrowed a BBQ, an open style that is common here...significant only because as I stood close to the fire turning the meat, my metal belt buckle became superheated and left a hilarious (if stinging) square burn on my belly into the next day.

Guests included Maureen (who looks Scandinavian, unless you call her 'gringa' and get a taste of her Lima street sass), her husband Julio (a film professor who will film a jungle thriller one day) and their son Julito who speaks no English yet gets along famously with Carter. Also at the party were the handymen who have been at our house uncountable times as we patch/plug/tighten things in the house. Also, a US family in our neighborhood that we've met up with a few times...the dad, Mike, works finance at the nearby International Potato Institute. Before you chuckle, wiki 'potato' and see how this Andean starch has changed the world...there are over 1,000 types of potato here. It's kind of like how the Inuit have so many words for 'snow'. Sanjay (Peru Country Directore) and Garima and their kids showed up a little late and there was no food left. One nice thing about Peruvians: none of that false hesitation, when you yell that the food is ready, everybody jumps up and eats.

Saturday, Jen goes for a week-long conference in Granada, Nicaragua (a city of remarkable history in Central America...click here for the Wiki link).




Here's photos of a great pizza place, half open-air, that Jen found on a dusty corner where their clay oven faces the street.

Huacachina

 {For more photos, click here}

4 hours south of Lima, as the Atacamac desert starts to push inland, the city of Ica lies in a valley made productive by the Ica river that flows from the Andes and bunches up against the sand dunes. Last weekend, a summit of South American and Arabian leaders inspired the government to decree Monday and Tuesday be holidays in Lima (apparently to quiet the city as the limos shuttled back and forth). We took the opportunity to visit a small oasis literally 5 minutes away from Ica, behind the first big sand dune.



To get there, we took Cruz del Sur, a plush bus line with double-decker touring coaches. It's comfortable, they serve sandwiches and play movies. Of course this can lead to some surreal moments, as when my attention flickered between the shantytown through which we passed and Adam Sandler's "Jack and Jill". Apparently the overnight routes offer fully reclining sleeper chairs and a lounge so that when you arrive in the morning you are rested and ready to go.

Huacachina is a small gathering of funky hotels and eateries. The place draws young backpacker tourists who drink and dance all night, but by staying at the Hotel Suisse at the far end of the oasis, we were able to avoid that noise. There are plenty of tourists but also plenty of Peruanos and, on the weekends, day visitors from Ica come up to join in the activities. You can paddle/peddle around the slightly stinky lagoon, but most people come to horse around in the sand. Right behind what was our room, a giant sand dune looms straight up 12 stories or so.

We rented sandboards that are basically rudimentary snowboards. This was my first time trying to talk with someone whose primary tongue is Quechua; I think my Spanish was better than this little old woman with a slight odor and dull gaze, sitting on a blanket renting sandboards. I am thrilled to be learning Spanish, but it is clear that a very large chunk of Peru will remain foreign to me, as foreign as it is to the Peruvians living along the coast.

It is very hard to walk up the steep face of a sand dune. We pooped out fast, and hadn't really gotten much of a ride. We headed over to where a guy wearing a "Future Millionaire" t-shirt was gathering people for dunebuggy rides. The 10-passenger vehicle roared out of the oasis and out towards where the dunes are all you can see. The sensation of sliding was enough to elicit yells from us passengers, but nothing compared to when we would pop over the crest of a dune and drive almost vertically straight down. Other times, the driver would zoom straight up the face and just as the buggy was running out of steam, turn us around to zip back down. Carter hooted and hollered and then, when we had stopped at the top of a giant dune, he did not hesitate to lie on a sandboard and hurtle down the slope. There were adults who opted against the sandboarding, and at one point some other riders felt compelled to come over and ask after the age of this little fearless kid. The dune buggies were so fun, we did it again the next day, Sunday. That evening we enjoyed a dinner on the lagoon, though being around young tourists and the Peruvians who sell to them can be by turns fun or weird.

On that Sunday morning, we hiked up the humongous dune behind our room, this time traversing sideways and walking the crest line which was much easier going. From the top, we got some good views, including the poor neighborhood down on the other side. Carter and I swam in the pool while Jen ran laps around the oasis, we lunched, we dunebuggied, and then we rented a peddle boat. As we peddled towards a large stand of 10ft reeds that turned out to actually be two large rafts, the wind suddenly parted them like Moses and gave us the opportunity to get a close up of some of the cool birds hiding in there, particularly a Black Crowned Heron not 4ft away. At dinner there was a bit of tension as the restaurant's Visa machine was not functioning and my last s/100 bill ($40) was so raggedy that they refused to accept it (as had other vendors). Finally, the waiter walked a block over to stand guard as I used a street ATM, something that is generally a bad idea.

Monday, we returned home.

La Casa

This post is really just for people who really want to see our house in detail. It's a nice place and the photos make it look good. Up close, it's a little worn and we keep finding things that don't quite work right, and the downstairs is kind of dark. But all in all, it has good karma, is very functional, and has some great spaces. Considering what many people here call home, this house could be a lot worse and we would still be doing better than half the city.

	View from the back wall, the small unheated pool, the long covered patio, and bedroom windows upstairs. The embassy made us put in the stupid safety fence. The birds like this area.
	This will be a nice place to be when the weather warms up in a month or two. There is a banquet-sized table at the other end of the patio, so dining al fresco will be great.
Below are three shots from our sidewalk. In (1) you can see the kiosk for the watchman, in (2) you see the big dusty hill around which we go to get into central Lima. (3) is towards the north. The street is never this devoid of traffic though.
	There is a small courtyard for parking between the 10ft wall and the house. There's 3 garage doors in the wall, but we just have the one car.
	Left is the entry, below the (1) living room, and (2) dining room. In the living room you can see the ugly bars that the embassy forced upon us...hopefully those will be covered with curtains soon. And, yes, we intend to get a light fixture. The living room and the dining area are one room the length of the house, with a fireplace in the middle and big french doors out to the patio.
	The kitchen. Mariza will sit at the little table and eat while the rest of us eat in the dining room. This feels weird, and is something I would like to change so I don't have to feel quite so much the don of the hacienda, but attempting to change things plays out in unexpected ways when one is new to a culture. Not pictured is Mariza's small room and bath outside around the corner.
	By the way, here is a meal Mariza prepared. Lomo Saltado is a Peruvian sauté of beef and fried potatoes (basically french fries). Variations are many, but chicken is common, or noodles instead of the fries. Here she has served it with pea soup and rice and a salad. The salad features the unfailingly amazing avocado here, and the little yellow jungle fruit called aguaymanto (Cape Gooseberry). They taste like raspberry and kumquat, with the texture of a cherry tomato...and, indeed, they are relatives of the tomato.
	The den, with a little loft up on the second floor (not really visible).
	The landing upstairs, where I work (though it appears in this photo I am checking Facebook). Out the window to the left is the parking courtyard and the perimeter wall over which I see the street and the hills beyond. As I type, I have a visitor, the Vermillion Flycatcher (like a sparrow, but bright red). Usually it's the bright yellow version, the Social Flycatcher.
	Master BR
	Master Bath
	Carter's Room He likes the bars shut because then "even if a guy has a grappling hook, he can't get in". Note the Tintin painting is a scene from Temple of the Sun and the boat is called Pachacamac...and the story takes place in Peru. I painted this for Carter long before we knew we were coming here.
	Carter's Bath
	Guest Bath
	Guest Room It will be cozier by the time you get here.