Tag Archives: ex-pat

Peruvian Fiestas Patrias

Posted on by under Celebrations, Peru

Peruvian Independence day is July 28, and the related festivities in our area began on Thursday, July 25, with a parade Baños del Inca’s main square, which is about 3 blocks from our house.  We were tipped off to the parade when we saw a few bands go by and a bunch of military.  The base is a block away from our house and we previously had seen the men on training runs and in other formations.  This time, the formations included a lot of guys with weapons and a party atmosphere.  It was either war or a parade, so we decided to investigate!

Once in the square, it was a typical pre-parade chaotic scene.  School and other groups trying to get organized, the military trying to set up a big cannon and, most interesting, a zip line from the top of the municipal building to the ground.  There was a bunch of people like us (well, they were Peruvian; we didn’t see any other foreigners in the mix) just waiting.  Oddly enough, it was pretty quiet given the number of people and the nature of the event.

Eventually, the endless speeches began.  We caught some of it as it sounded like your basic independence rhetoric: freedom, pride, liberty – the usual.  Then the Peruvian flag was raised, during which the anthem was half-heartedly sung by a few on the stage.  Not even the school groups were singing it, which I found rather odd.  To our great amusement, the song is essentially Simon & Garfunkel’s song “El Cóndor Pasa (“If I Could”) (“I’d rather be a hammer than a nail, yes I would…”).  Sure enough, a glance through my guidebook when I returned home mentioned that Paul Simon heard this song played by Los Incas and then recorded it for the Bridge Over Troubled Water album (there is more to the story about the origins and copyrights, but the lawyer in me will spare you those details).  Anyhow, the raising of the flag was punctuated by a huge cannon shot.  That took about a year off my life!  Then the Baños flag was raised and this time we were ready.  Not only did the cannon boom, but also a soldier shot several rounds from a machine gun into a tree (poor tree) and another soldier zipped down the line to the ground waving the Peruvian flag.  What drama!

Then the action moved to another bandstand adjacent to the first and the set up for the parade continued.  As I determined that I do not like Peruvian parades any more than I like American ones, we didn’t last long.

So imagine how lucky I felt to learn that our trip to get our internet connection on Friday was going to coincide with the Cajamarca Patria parade.  We finally received a water bill so we could have Cruz sign us up for internet service.  Yippee!  I had run out of data on my phone within 5 days of getting it, so this was a big moment.   Although the company has offices all over Cajamarca (and Baños, for that matter), we had to go to the main one at the main square (Plaza de Armas) to order the service.  We got there and the scene was identical to that in Baños but on a larger scale.  The internet office was directly behind the grandstand and Matt and I were too intimidated by the military presence to go over there as on the prior day in Baños the military shooed everyone away from the stage (and cannon, for obvious reasons).  But once we found Cruz, we all walked back there and stood behind the grandstand until the office opened.

It was a fun perspective to have, but again, the usual pre-parade chaos.  After ordering our internet service, which went very well because Matt and I had pre-shopped on our own a few days prior and actually managed to understand most things so we knew what we wanted and the same woman assisted us, we watched the parade for awhile.  Speeches given, flags raised, songs sung (with more audience participation this time including that of some preschoolers who were pretty funny screaming “Cajamarca” and “Viva Peru” at the appropriate moments.)  Apparently the zip line riding, flag-waving soldier is customary as it happened again.  While this parade seemed somewhat more organized and had far more groups involved, including interesting military ones such as some shirtless guys with black paint over their bodies and faces carrying large weapons and another military group with progressively more involved camouflage so that the guys on the end looked like Sigmund the Seamonster, a parade is a parade is a parade so we watched for only a short while.

Note:  All this morning there were shots/booms coming from the military base.  Loud shots and booms.  Not sure what is going on over there, but it is a pretty common occurrence.  The noise gets the dogs barking and also sets off car alarms.  Life is not quiet here.

Note 2:  It took two more visits to the internet office before our service was finally installed last week.  Life is not fast here either.

The Walk to Matt’s School

Posted on by under Baños del Inca, Peru, Scenery

It is hard to describe the 4-mile route to Matt’s school, which we walked a few times in anticipation of his daily “commute” in an effort to find the most direct route to a non-direct place.  We found a good route and Matt has walked every day to school thus far and catches a cab home.  You can check out his blog to see some great sunrise pictures and video showing the start to his day.  http://mattgeiger.blogspot.com/

We start, obviously, at our house in Baños del Inca and walk through the town.  Baños is small –we can easily walk around the entire town – and was the center of the expat community when there were more expats in the area.  Houses are crowded close together and, like ours, generally run right up to the sidewalk. The main street in town has countless tiny shops and restaurants on one side and a market and main square/park on the other.  We have become accustomed to walking around here, which was an adventure in and of itself at first.  Sidewalks suddenly end or have large holes or random steps here and there, and piles of rocks pop up in the way.  We have become pretty adept at navigating around Baños but still remain vigilant to avoid a broken ankle.

We rent the first two floors of our house.  Our neighbor’s entrance is on the adjacent side and then they go up the outside stairs to the third floor.  Maricarmen, her baby daughter and mother live there and are very nice.  Conveniently, Maricarmen’s husband is Mexican and while he is currently working out of town, she speaks English as a result!

Corner of Our House
Front Gate
Garage Door
Rooster Neighbors
Burros on our Street
Main Shopping Drag in Baños
Food Stands Across from Main Drag
One of our corner stores
Street of Baños
Construction in Baños

Once out of Baños we take the walking path along Avenue Atahualpa, which is the main road between Baños and Cajamarca.  The path is decent and well used by walkers and joggers, and it would be a nice walk if not for the large amount of traffic (much diesel) on the road.

Atahualpa 1
Atahualpa Mountain View
Atahualpa Cacti and Mountains
Old and New

After about 1 1/3 miles is the turn off to Bella Union – a tiny hamlet.  At first glance, the road doesn’t look much worse than Av. Atahualpa, but come the rainy season it will be a rutted mess.

Matt taking the road to Bella Union

Now we are in the country.  A few cars go down this road, but not many, and we pass many farm families and countless animals.  The natural aspect is quite pretty and pastoral, but we wonder how these people live apparently so behind the times.  Just as we think that, a house will have DirectTV or a nice car in front of it.  This is my favorite part of the walk although the countless dogs make me nervous.  I would like to do this walk on my own, but am not sure that I will feel comfortable doing so without Matt.

After about another 1 1/3 miles we turn on a road that runs adjacent to the airport.  This road is well paved, but a nightmare to walk due to all the traffic.  We tried walking against the traffic, as taught in Wisconsin, and with the traffic, as they seem to do here, and neither makes for a safe-feeling walk.  We pass a large piece of Caterpillar equipment on this road, and the first time by we stopped to take a picture to send to Tommy.  Suddenly two dogs came running toward us, barking and teeth bared.  Thankfully a passing motorcyclist beeped at the dogs and they ran away.  The next time we didn’t linger but noticed that indeed the two dogs were guarding the Cat.Cat and Dog Airport

The airport road ends at Hoyas Rubio, which is the street with Matt’s school and finally we are back on a sidewalk for the last part of the walk.  If I could manage to get out of bed to leave at 5:50 am, I could join Matt on the the country part of the walk each day, but anyone who knows me that isn´t going to happen!

Davy College

Food Part 2 – Dining Out (Safe for Reading)

Posted on by under Food, Peru

Apart from the cuy (see Food Part 1) Peruvian food is delicious: many fruits and vegetables (more on those in another post coming soon), meats of all kinds, seafood, excellent chicken, the best French fries ever, good bread, delicious seasonings.  The list goes on.  Peru is well known for its potatoes, there are over 1,000 varieties (and dozens in daily use), and cholco, which is corn with huge kernels.  Peruvians love their starches; many meals come with both French fries and rice, in addition to a roll or slice of bread.  Juice is also quite popular and while I have yet to find a food processor in a store, I have seen countless juicers and numerous street vendors sell freshly squeezed juices.

It is quite cheap to get a good meal in a restaurant.  A couple of weeks ago we had lunch at a cevicheria, La Base, in Cajamarca.  This time there were no French fries, but there were the best cancha, or corn nuts, ever.  These were freshly roasted and came to our table a little warm, crunchy on the outside and creamy/starchy on the inside.  Nothing like the hard teeth breakers we buy at the bar at home!  We each had the ceviche misto, which was a plate of fresh ceviche made with shrimp, octopus, and squid.  There were two root veggies on the plate, which appeared to be boiled, and cholco.  One root veggie was similar to a sweet potato and the other was white.  Neither of them did much for me, so I focused on the ceviche instead.  Total cost for the meal, including waters and a tip was 29 soles or $10.88.

Cancha
Ceviche Misto

Many restaurants offer only a special menu at the lunch hour.  The menu usually includes a roll; choice of salad or soup; a choice of entrée, often fried fish, breaded fish, lomo saltado (beef/veggie stir fry served over, you guessed it, French fries), chicken, a pork dish or cuy (we are done with that!); fresh juice and sometimes a dessert.  The entrée comes with a veggie and a starch or sometimes two starches.  Matt and I went to Tuna Café in Cajamarca and for 9 soles ($3.38) each we had the following: a roll, glass of fresh fruit juice, chicken soup or salad (we had soup, see the water blog), chicken with sautéed veggies and rice (Kerry) and a beef stew with rice (Matt), and a caramel pudding.  Everything was fresh and delicious and our entire meal and tip was under $10.

We have also had some lunch misses.  We have tried a few cheaper joints both in Banos and in Cajamarca.  At one place the daily lunch special  (soup, main dish, juice) was 4 soles and the food was not very good.  Plus the place was just too dirty for me to feel comfortable with the food and I kept hoping the soup had been boiled for 3 minutes!  We ate at another place in Cajamarca that was packed with locals for the 5 or 6 sole lunch, and while it was a little better, it was not a place we will return due to the lack of cleanliness and sub par food.  For the low price at a “good” place, we do not need to eat at a bad one!

One day we treated ourselves to lunch at one of the nicer restaurants in town, Querubino.  They do not serve a daily lunch special so we ordered off the menu.  I had a lovely fish, although I cannot now recall what kind, served with sautéed veggies and rice.  Matt had a beef carpaccio appetizer and a steak served with French fries and sautéed veggies.  We each had a drink and bottled water.  Total price was 87 soles or $31.32.

Rotisserie chicken is a specialty in the area due to the farming, and we have had excellent chicken both at home and in restaurants.  For 10 soles at our local restaurant we can get ¼ chicken, salad and French fries that are to die for.  Condiments are usually served with meals and while I have never been an American condiment fan (no ketchup, mustard, mayo or ranch dressing for me!), I love the Peruvian condiments.  Aji, is a pepper sauce and ranges from mild to really spicy.  Then there is an herb, garlic, olive oil sauce that is incredible.  Often there is a mayo type item and ketchup, but I ignore those.

We are doing our best to return to low carb eating, but it is difficult, if not impossible, with the type of foods prevalent here.  So we try to keep carbs like bread, sweets, rice or potatoes out of our house and to eat them in moderation when we are out.  I am never very successful with the French fries, though, and fear the cancha will be another one of my downfalls!

Juice Stand
Steak and Fries
Lunch Menu
Peruvian Condiments

Water, Water Everywhere Nor Any Drop to Drink

Posted on by under Food, Peru, Water

It is hard getting used to not drinking the water.  While the water here is theoretically potable, it isn’t for us.  And not drinking includes: not brushing your teeth with it, not opening your mouth when you are in the shower or washing your face, not rinsing food with it, not having iced drinks when we are out.  We have a 20-liter container of bottled water that we use for these things, which costs 16 nuevos soles or $6.  So far it lasts about 6 days.  The good news is that to get a refill, we can just stop in or call our corner store and they deliver it.  A guy rides it over on his scooter, comes in and swaps out the old bottle for the new.  Udate: We found an even better deal – 10 soles for established delivery every week or we can call to get water more frequently.  This sale happened in what we are learning is the customary fashion – someone came to our house and when we said no the first time, came back a week later.  Door to door salespeople are common here and they appear to sell just about everything: cell/internet service, rugs, kitchen wares, stuffed animals and water.  The cell/internet people are canvassing the neighborhood in earnest these days and we get several knocks on our door a day from them.

Using bottled water isn’t the biggest hardship, but is a pain when you want to brush your teeth and need to run downstairs for some water.  We have also been advised not to eat fruits or uncooked vegetables in restaurants right now because they will have been washed in “bad” (for us) water.  Once we adjust a bit to the environment (i.e., dirt) around here, it should be less of a risk to eat those foods outside our house.

In the meantime, washing fruits and vegetables is a process.  First, I rinse them and then soak them in “bad” water and bleach, yes, bleach, for 5 minutes. Swish them around a bit, hope I don’t get bleach on my clothes and then rinse them with “good” water.  I need to rinse them thoroughly so they don’t taste like bleach, which uses quite a bit of good water.  So I am now experimenting with turning “bad” water into “good” water by boiling it for 3 minutes.  While the travel nurse told us 20 seconds was adequate boiling time, the CDC says 1 minute is needed and 3 minutes if at high altitude.  So let’s hope 3 minutes works otherwise Matt and I might be sick tomorrow from our dinner salad!

Bleaching Fruits and Veggies
Pacay and Tuna
Making Salad.
All Clean!

Food Part 1 – Cuy (Don’t read while eating. Really.)

Posted on by under Food, Peru

On Day 12 I ate rat.  Okay, it really was guinea pig, which is a Peruvian specialty called cuy, but it sure looked like a rat.

Cuy

The taste was fine, not like chicken as I expected and with some nice creole-type spices, but the presentation was such that I don’t intend to ever eat it again and in fact may have a nightmare about it.  Matt, who had had been gunning to try it and actually bought it, couldn’t eat it and I thought he was going to throw up as it sat on our table at the Mixtura Cajamarca (the Cajamarca Food Festival).

Cuy is on the menu of just about every restaurant in the area and is offered two ways: fried and stewed.  There was no way I would have tried the fried cuy as those look like flayed bats but I ignorantly thought stewed would mean the meat was off the bone and chopped in little pieces.  I knew something was up when Matt was walking back to our table with his plate in hand and a peculiar look on his face.    And there it was: a half (we think, we did our best not to look too closely) stewed guinea pig, complete with little nasty claws and a prominent rat-like tooth.  It was worse when we went to turn it over in the hopes that the other side would look less rat-like and then saw its little head and ear.

Cuy 2

Matt was done, but I picked away at the edge of it, trying to not look at it, to get a little taste.  I succeeded and called it quits after about 1/8 of a normal sized bite.

Then it sat on our table until the guy clearing plates came by.  He was very friendly and concerned that we didn’t like it and asked if the taste was too strong or meat too tough. How do you explain to someone that his national dish is revolting to you without being rude?  The best I could come up with was that I couldn’t look at the tooth, which gave him a good laugh.  I think he was relieved later when he cleared our dessert plates and saw we had eaten every bite.

Apart from the cuy, we enjoyed the Mixtura, which is a fundraiser for the neighborhoods of the city with the proceeds going toward the Carnival parties.  Each neighborhood makes a typical Cajamarquena dish and your entrance fee  ($9.35) allows you an appetizer, entrée and dessert, which you eat in a covered pavilion while enjoying music from a band.   I had Caldo Verde, or green soup, for my appetizer.  It is a broth-based soup with the “green” coming from fresh parsley and possibly other herbs.  It has potatoes, fresh cheese and boiled egg.  Really delicious.

Caldo verde

Matt had fried, stuffed potatoes, which were sliced potatoes pan fried with various spices and some unidentifiable meat that he believes were chicken innards.  The potatoes were tasty; I passed on the innards, but Matt likes them so he ate them.  Our other appetizer choice was a huge ear of boiled corn with a generous slice of fresh cheese.  After the cuy fiasco, I got us the Parrillada, or grilled meat plate, to share.  The plate contained a very thin filet, a red sausage of some kind, boiled potato and cooked carrots.  The potato was presented cut in half and each half had a different green sauce.  Both were good although one was quite spicy.  The Parrillada was a much better choice for us than the cuy!  Other entrée options were fried cuy, roasted hen leg, grilled chicken, Chicharones, which is a common pork dish that is cut up stewed chunks of meat served over huge kernels of corn, or fried trout.  Our dessert options were various cakes, gelatin, figs with honey or some gooey, fruity tart.  We each opted for a slice of cake; both were very good: moist with a wonderful chocolate flavor.  Matt’s slice had a caramel frosting and filling and mine was maraschino.  A delicious end to the Mixtura.

mixtura

Awkward

Posted on by under Peru

To quote my nephew Kieran, awkward! That is how I have been feeling the past few days when dealing with the service people coming to our home. First it was the Direct TV guys on Friday. They appeared to have walked here carrying all their equipment. From where, we don’t know. Once inside there was waaay too much conversation for us to comprehend. But we figured it out and, several hours later, we were all hooked up.

Saturday was more of the same, this time with the plumber, Jhony pronounced Yanni), who came to repair a leaky pump and figure out why we didn’t have hot water on a consistent basis. (Cold showers were getting old.) I’m not sure how he got here, but he arrived with only 3 tools. So we spent the day with Jhony in our house, trying to communicate. Matt got to help Jhony when the pump kicked in and spewed water everywhere and I got to go on 5 trips to the hardware store around the corner for the various supplies. That’s how it works here – I had to go to buy the parts – no getting billed for it. I felt like quite the regular when I went by myself on the last trip. It made me nostalgic for Saturdays at the hardware store with my dad and Tommy. Poor Jhony – he thought he had fixed everything, but the pump still leaks. We do have hot water, but in order to get it we have to flip the pump switch, wait 10 minutes, turn off the pump and then use the water. And apparently that us how it is supposed to work!

After Jhony we met with Olga, who is going to be our maid. She was recommended by the other principal at the school and we thought that perhaps she would have some English skills. Nope. After the most awkward moments yet, we hired her and she starts tomorrow. We are going to the store together to get a few more cleaning supplies and then I will likely hide from her the rest of the day and hope she doesn’t have any questions! She will be coming 4 days a week so it will be interesting to see what she will do – we aren’t that dirty. But the house is quite dusty and I don’t want to spend my days mopping floors and dusting.

I’ve realized that when we leave the house for an errand we are prepared for the simple conversation we need. But when people are in our home, there is a lot more that needs to be said and then we get stuck. Also, I have to remember that people tend to be nervous around us and that makes them talk faster and faster, which doesn’t help. This awkwardness should be good incentive to learn Spanish quickly!

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Shop ‘Til You Drop

Posted on by under Peru

After three hectic days, we are finally relaxing on the couch watching TV. Yep, in our exciting new life we are watching 40 Year Old Virgin! We desperately need a mindless break after all the work and running around we’ve done. Some of the shopping highlights…

We did marathon shopping with (saint) Cruz on Wednesday. We spent hours at the mall, in the center city looking for deals (which we didn’t really find) and back to the mall. Ugh. Consider having virtually nothing in your house- no pots, pans, utensils, plates, glasses, coffee pot, tea kettle, rugs, toothbrush holders, toilet paper, cleaning supplies… you get the idea. Where do you begin? It is very overwhelming, to say the least.

Shopping here is just odd. What I would give for a Target! While most things are available, the selection is very limited. Take hangers – bet you didn’t think about buying those- and finding out there is one kind in all of Cajamarca, and they are just slightly bigger than a kid’s hanger. End of the world? No. Frustrating to spend $30 on a bunch of hangers that don’t really fit your clothes? Yes. Irritating to consider that we recycled/donated/threw out probably 200 hangers? You bet.

And then there are the things we can’t find – the elusive kitchen garbage can (for which the stores have bags), dish pan or kitchen rug. We finally found a dish pan, or close enough, today at a hole in the wall “hardware” store, which means we no longer have to wash dishes in a bucket! Still no luck on the rug or garbage can. By the time we were done shopping on Wednesday, every inch of Cruz’s Toyota Tercel was packed and we were all exhausted!

We got home around 5:30 and Matt and I set up the kitchen, our bedroom and one bathroom. We had brought one set of linens from home for our bedroom and bath and it was nice to have some of our own things in the house to make it feel more like ours. We took a break for a quick picnic dinner at our bar and finished up around 10:30.

Thursday felt like Christmas morning – we unpacked our luggage. Overall, we packed well; we have yet to find something we wished we didn’t bring, except maybe some clothes. (Less clothes and some hangers, next time!) While it feels like we have too many clothes here, we remind ourselves that this isn’t a vacation and we are living here now. I’m guessing that fact will sink in eventually!

We went back to the mall Thursday afternoon to do more shopping and to meet Cruz to set up my cell phone, direct tv and Internet. We shopped very efficiently this time and did so before we met Cruz as he had been patient enough the day before! Because we are currently on tourist visas, we are not able to buy any services. So Cruz has to enter into the contracts for us. We weren’t able to set up Internet because we need a utility bill to prove we possess the premises or something. The funny part is that the bills will be in the landlord’s name and not ours anyhow. So different from the US where you can walk in and buy anything. Once again, Cruz’s Toyota Tercel was filled when we were done.

Matt and I finished unpacking last night and celebrated at a local restaurant we ate at when we visited in April. Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon, our wedding song, was playing as we sat down and we considered it a good sign! We toasted with a Pisco Sour for me and a Chilcano de Pisco for Matt (note the flag!)

We still have some odds and ends to buy and eventually will get some bigger items we need, like furniture and rugs, but we are settled in. Thank goodness!

Note: As these posts are from my phone, I am limited when adding photos and the quality seems poor.

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Heading to Our New Home

Posted on by under Baños del Inca, Cajamarca, Peru

We made it to Cajamarca yesterday around 4:30 and were met by Henry and Cruz from the school. Their vehicle wasn’t big enough for our baggage and the people in charge of the cargo were “working on the plane” so we went to the hotel with only our carry ons. Last night we ate dinner and went to bed at 8:30! It was wonderful to get a full night of sleep.

It is winter in Peru, but by Wisconsin standards, the Cajamarca weather is really nice. Very dry, sunny, lows at night in the 30s and up to 70 during the day. The hardest thing will be to remember to wear sunscreen and hats given how close we are to the equator and to limit our time outside at first until we are acclimated. Summer weather will be about the same as winter weather but in the 50s at night. Summer is the rainy season, which allegedly runs from February through April although it extended much longer this past year. Regardless of season, the temperature doesn’t appear to get above 72 degrees due to our altitude (around 8900 feet).

Our next few days will be spent getting our house in order, setting up our bank account, ordering services etc. We just heard from Cruz that Henry picked up all of our baggage and it is waiting for us at home. Yippee! All the good thoughts, prayers and vibes paid off!

I am not sure when our internet connection will be live or whether we will have any wifi access at school, so this may be my last post for awhile. Hasta luego!