All in all travel time was easily more than 28 hours. It took me about another day of sleep to get over the jet lag. I flew from SFO to Houston to Lima, then after going through customs, took a LAN flight to Chiclayo. Pierre met me there and we took a bus to Guadalupe, then a mototaxi to the family house. The next day I went down to the beach at La Barranca. On monday I came back to town to use the internet and shower. I stupidly left my camera at the beach, so no pictures until next time.
The first things that struck me about the Lima airport was how clean it was, the lack of security insanity, and the lack of trash cans. The are three bins: paper recycling, glass, plastic and metal recycling, and organic waste compost. I only saw Lima at night from the plane, but judging from the sprawling landscape of orange lights, the place is huuuge. I also noticed at least seven boats (or possibly oil rigs) just sort of chilling off the coast.
When we were leaving Chiclayo for Guadalupe by bus, we passed a lady with a cart that said "dios es amor," I thought that was pretty cool. The buildings and vehicles are very colorful. A lot of the buildings are in a strange state of incompletion, with rebar coming out the top of the walls. In Guadalupe there is always music playing somewhere and its usually amazing. The kids are into this guy named nigga, I see them watching videos at the internet cafe. Generally reggaeton and kumbia and accordions and horns and over the top singing/rapping are the style, with the occasional traditional flute remix thrown in. There's an electronics repair shop smaller than my closet down the alley from out house that plays the best music ever, often quite loudly.
The area where Chiclayo and Guadalupe are is a sort of desert interspersed with rivers which are surrounded by green and lots of large scale agriculture. From what I could see from the bus it looked like mostly rice and other grains, although down near the beach there's a patch of onions which are totally delicious. Something I'd like to look into is how much and what kind of fertilizers are used in the area.
I have a feeling the hip waste management at the airport is a bit of a show for the tourists, cause everywhere else I've been there's trash pretty much just lying around. Interestingly, almost every house has its own water tank on the roof. The food is really delicious, although I've only eaten with the family I'm staying with. Sunday morning for breakfast we had fish that were caught that morning off of the same beach we were staying at, sooo fresh!
There is so much to say just from the first impressions. I'm leaving a lot out so if anyone has any questions about anything I could elaborate. For a second there comments weren't working but now anyone should be able to make one.
I'm available by email at noah (at) harkin (dot) net and flamingheads (at) gmail (dot) com
If you want to leave me an insulting and/or drunken voicemail you can call 1 888 579 0208 then dial 3101515183.
Noah, thanks for sharing this experience with us and except for your blogging, I hope that everything else is done in Spanish. Make flash cards with new words or keep a notebook that you are always updating with new words and phrases. Your Spanish dictionary should be an extension of your hand. Don't hang out with the gringos unless they agree to speak Spanish. Andrew followed this routine and even learned to write songs in Spanish. He is on his first business trip to Chicago and it is snowy and freezing there. Enjoy your stay. Don't sample the local wine.
ReplyDeleteCousin Bob
I lived in Brasil for a while, and they had those water tanks on top of the house too. There is a float valve in the tank like in a toilet water tank. Our dona's float valve got stuck one day and flooded her house. They need those tanks for water pressure and because the city water is unreliable. They just turn it off whenever with no notice.
ReplyDeleteSo here's a question: What is the shower like? Is there an electric shower head? If so - do NOT touch the shower head! :0) (voice of experience here.)
@Dave - That's what I thought about the water tanks. The shower head doesn't seem to be electric, but I'll be careful just in case.
ReplyDelete@Bob - There are only two other gringos here and we're helping each other with our spanish. I haven't seen a single drop of wine so far. Everyone drinks only beer, more or less constantly.