Jen's First Lunch (from a week ago)

From an email Jen sent some friends:
Ok.  To all you foodies out there, peru's reputation for their fantastic food does not disappoint.  I was taken out to lunch for a typical Peruvian meal for my first day and behold...center is ceviche.  Seriously the best I have ever had.  The red and yellow dishes are another type of ceviche in different sauces, the red one slightly spicy.  That's octopus on the left, and it was marinated in garlic and served with tomato and avocado...delish!  You can't really see how big the corn kernels are but they are large.  I was informed that no one eats fish for dinner because it is all caught in the morning and would not be fresh enough to eat after 2pm.  This restaurant isn't even open for dinner.  I got to go by the office today to get a lay of the land while no ones around.  It is nice, peace corps budgets considering.  My office, and actually my department, is in a separate bldg from everyone else but it's all right there, just technically not attached.  My office is somewhat utilitarian but has a nice corner window with good light.  I think the phone is from 1985 and there is seriously a typewriter in one of the cubicles.  Living a non-corporate life without resources is going to be interesting.  The city from what I've seen is indeed just a never ending strip of 3rd worldly cement buildings surrounded by mountainous hills of dirt and assorted rubble, but if you look closer at the buildings you see they are occupied by some chic boutiques and restaurants.  I'm looking forward to discovering gems like this lunch place.  Chau for now!  (p.s.  for the record I know that chau is actually pelted ciao in its native Italy but Peruvians have cooped it as their own sign off and spell it phonetically for them!  My first conformity to social norms...next up, driving like Peruvian!)

Miraflores

By gum, Saturday was blue skies!

I drove over to Roosevelt looking for the Saturday morning softball that supposedly happens there, but it apparently does not happen during vacation. The real outing of the day was driving the 30min to the coastal neighborhood of Miraflores set on the palisades above the Pacific. We were immediately treated to nice views of the parasailers taking tourists on 10min rides along the cliffs.

Jen had brought us to this spot because Sanjay, the Peace Corps country director, had brought her here for her first meal in Peru. And it was here, with ocean views, that I had my first Peruvian ceviche...fresh, firm and spicy. Really amazing. Plus it was accompanied by my first Pisco Sour ever. I turned to Jen and said "Well, this is going to work for me."

In the park afterwards, some guys had strung tethers between the palms for tightrope walking and Carter had a good time testing his balance. We wandered down the steps to the shoreline (at the base of the pier in this picture) and sat for a while, watching the surfers and the surfer scene.

By this time is was just about evening, so we found our way to our plans for the evening: a children's theater. The theater was in the basement of a building and does a brisk business in the lucrative birthday party trade. The show presented the story of Hansel & Gretel, but with Phineas & Ferb as participatory narrators. If you are familiar with Phineas & Ferb, you can imagine what an original mash-up this was (if you are not familiar with them, ask any 6yr-old).

The audience was packed with a chaos of kids and though it would be easy to take a jaded view of the low-budget production, it was good-natured and a crowd-pleaser. Of course, it was a copyright lawyer's nightmare.

So that was Saturday.

Sunday, our community-host family from the embassy came by to show us the hidden places where they get their produce and meat. They were very nice, but Carter and I had already discovered the area they spoke of. Still, they had some good advice and they're helpfulness was much appreciated.

Other than that, Jen took Carter to the office so she could catch up on some stuff while I got going on some of my work. I did laundry, Jen having found a washer and dryer in the hotel basement. Of course, I was half way through the second load when it became I was notified that the area was not meant for guests. Oops. They spared me the indignity of dragging sopping clothes back to the room and let me use it for today.

One Week

 After picking up Carter from his last day of "camp" on Friday, we went took a walk from the hotel and found the local market stalls. Jen had asked about this because the supermercados (supermarkets)  tend to be more expensive, but we had not found it yet. I was able to get some great fruit at a produce stall from a very friendly lady.

I was also able to learn something about being careful at these kinds of places...the stall selling cheap Chinese toys sold me a plastic golf set (Carter has no toys at the hotel) but back at the hotel when it was opened, it became clear that they had packaged up a pre-used broken set. On the same outing we went to the supermercado and found, by chance, a Taekwondo dojo...one of the 3 certified internationally. Perhaps we will be able to enroll Carter there.

Here's a photo from that intersection:

In the late afternoon, Carter and I walked over to a hotel closer to the Peace Corps HQ for a little going-away party for the woman who covered Jen's position until Jen got there. This woman is a floater for Peace Corps, going for a month here, a month there...she returns to South America in 2 weeks for Paraguay. It was the chance for Carter and I to meet the Peace Corps crew, who were all very nice. More on them as I get to know them better.

Then we stopped at Pardos Chicken for dinner and I had a salad that was blanched beets, carrots, beans and avacado...simple, fresh and very tasty. Cuisine here is going to be great.