Lima

Well, we’re on our 6th day in Lima now, and so much has happened! Both good and bad—it’s been a busy week. First, the good. We successfully got all our luggage on the plane, with only one excess bag each, thanks to our careful packing and the nice check-in man who conveniently rounded down the weight of our suitcases. Our transfer from the airport into the city was painless, since the friend-of-a-friend who we were staying with arranged to have us picked up.

After a day and a half of apartment hunting we picked a place on Wednesday night, signed a lease on Thursday morning, and moved in. Our apartment is a cozy but not tiny one-bedroom in a secure building. Our landlords are nice and helped us set up internet, brought us a desk when we asked for one, etc. The one thing lacking in the apartment is an oven, but our landlords may be bringing us a toaster/convection oven-type thingy. We discovered that one-bedroom apartments in Lima do not tend to come with full kitchens. The only kitchens we saw were in 2 or 3 bedroom places, fully equipped with maid’s quarters, etc. If we were sharing an apartment in Lima, we would be living large—we saw some beautiful, well-located and well-equipped places, but they were just too much space and too much money for just us for 4 months. So, we will make do with our two counter-top gas burners and our very “efficient” cooking space. One thing I am very excited about is that we have a laundry room in our building, and even more importantly, dryers! It’s somewhat of a pain to have to go downstairs to do laundry and to share the two machines with everybody else, but oh how I have missed soft, fluffy tumbled-dried clothing. After 5 months of crunchy, wrinkled, and stretched out drip-dried clothes, folding our laundry on Friday was so exciting!

The location of our apartment has both pros and cons. The good part is that we’re just right around the corner from several restaurants, a shop that sells delicious homemade pasta, and a café that has wireless internet we can use until ours gets hooked up on Wednesday. It is centrally located—on a major intersection in fact—which means that we’re only a few blocks from a lot of stuff. But, half of the stuff we’re close to, including the grocery store, is across the major streets we live on, and crossing big streets in Lima totally sucks. There’s very little pedestrian right-of-way, and just standing by the side of the road you can feel the car exhaust burning your lungs. So, even though inside the grocery store is very nice (more about that below), I’m not looking forward to the next 4 months of shopping trips. Finally, our apartment is loud because we’re just 5 stories above two major streets, but I just sleep with earplugs and it’s getting easier to block out the noise.

Our eating experiences thus far have confirmed the rumors that the food in Lima is pretty darn great. So far we’ve had Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and the grocery stores are so much better than in Chile. We didn’t even go to the fancy grocery store—the one closest to us is more like the Walmart I think—and the selection of packaged stuff, meat, cheese, and bread products, and produce was extensive. It will be fun to take advantage of the rich and diverse culinary tradition here, if only I could beam myself from place to place to do it…

So now on to the not-so-good stuff. As I expected, moving around Lima is a challenge. Oh how I miss Santiago’s Metro, and the half-crazy bus system that I had pretty much figured out! Here there is no metro, and although the buses may not be that much more difficult than in Santiago, it’s still daunting to think about hopping on one for the first time. In addition to figuring out the routes (street names are painted on the outside of the bus, there are no numbers or anything), the buses are smaller and more crowded, and I sense—I don’t know if this is warranted or not—that I’m more likely to be talked to and possibly pick-pocketed, not that I plan on carrying much valuable stuff in this city. Perhaps once I know the area better I’ll try out the buses, but so far we’ve just done a lot of walking. Which is ok, but it’s also a challenge to stay off the main streets so as to avoid lots of exhaust. Our apartment is about a 25 minute walk from the World Bank, so I should get a decent amount of exercise going to and from work, as long as my feet don’t fall of and my lungs don’t collapse. And as long as I actually get to work at the WB—another bad thing is that I discovered on Wednesday that this job might fall through. But I don’t want to think about that right now. I should know more tomorrow.

Although I know Lima has a lot to offer, and I’m sure I’ll appreciate it more as I figure things out, I already miss Santiago’s various neighborhoods and the fact that you can explore—try out new cafes, parks, and far-flung museums—while being safe and only a quick bus or metro ride away from home. Lima is definitely different in this respect, but hopefully I will find some hidden gems over the next 4 months.

One last bad thing, which I’m sure everyone is dying to read about, is that this weekend I’m experiencing my first digestive-tract issues. It’s really not that bad, and I fully expected it, and I’m just hoping that it’s just a matter of adjusting to the new environment and then everything will be ok. We don’t drink the water, of course, but since we live and cook here we can’t avoid coming in contact with less-than-pure water—in the shower, doing dishes, etc. The body’s immune system just has to be able to deal with that stuff, right?

So, we continue to settle in here in Lima. Now all I need is my job to work out and my daily routine to fall into place, and time will start to fly I’m sure. I’m going to spend the rest of the day planning my vacation!

El Ultimo Dia

Well, it's our last day in Chile. I had my last spanish class and said goodbye to everyone at school, and now I have nothing to do but finish packing and write one more blog entry before I shut down my computer.

Our activity-filled weekend turned out well. I didn't end up going to the museums on Friday night because it got late and it started to feel like a chore, and I decided that my life would not be significantly lacking if I missed those two museums. Our winetasting trip on Saturday was excellent. The Casablanca Valley is one of the newest in Chile, so the tours were uncrowded and the people were extremely friendly. And the wine was delicious too! Here's a really cool picture of some grapes:

Yesterday we drove up into the Andes to hike up a valley towards a glacier. We even managed to convince Tasha to take a day off and come with us, so we piled into our tiny rental car and braved the dirt roads as an apartment team. The hike was nice--pretty scenery combined with good exercise--although unfortunately it started to rain hard right as we were stopping for lunch, so we decided not to continue hiking up to the glacier. We did take some good flower pictures, though, including this one right after the rain:

And now, it's time to move. I'm sad to leave Chile but also excited to start working in Peru, and most of all I'm nervous about if we're going to be able to get all our luggage on the plane and if we will find a decent apartment in Lima! Only time will tell and probably by the next time I update my blog, I will know. Chao!

Aprovechando

Our time in Santiago is coming to an end, and so I'm trying to take advantage of (aprovechar) the opportunities that surround us. In December I made a list of all the things I wanted to see and do before we left, and I'm happy to report that I'm going to end up doing most of them.

Last Friday night we celebrated Taylor's birthday (a few days late but the timing was better this way) by having dinner at a fun restaurant and then enjoying a set of Chilean-Cuban fusion music at Club de Jazz, one of Taylor's favorite nightspots from his undergrad days. Saturday I went on another bike excursion organized by spanish school, and enjoyed the excercise and the asado afterwards. Here's the river we rode to:

Rio Clarillo

Saturday night we had our Chilean friends over for dinner, which was a little stressful after Taylor and I were both out all day (Taylor decided to climb Cerro Manquehue, which he hated almost as much as I did), but it was fun. We introduced them to one of our specialties--Indian food.

Since it is summer, there are a bunch of art/music/cultural activities going on in the city. Wednesday I went along on another city tour with school, which ended up at the Feria Indigena, a celebration of the indigenous cultures of Chile. One of the groups was performing the traditional music and dance of the North, which I first saw our last night in San Pedro. This time I got a picture!

traditional Atacamanian dancing

Later in the afternoon there was a group from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), which not surprisingly strongly resembled the style of the Maori in New Zealand.

This morning I tried to see the changing of the guard at La Moneda (the presidential palace/main government offices), but either we missed it or it didn't really happen--I vote for the latter. It was supposed to be at 10:00, and Tasha and I arrived at 9:55 and there was no evidence of any ceremony, just throngs of tourists waiting to enter the courtyards. But, at least I got to inside, which I couldn't do when we toured the city with my parents because there was a special event that day. Since I now have tons of pictures of the building, here's one:

La Moneda, from the newly re-opened Alameda side of the building

Tonight several of the city's museums are free from 6:00 pm to midnight, and since I've slacked on all my other oportunities to go for free (they are free every Sunday), I'm going to go visit the history museum and the fine artes museum. I'm also hoping to drag Taylor away from the computer to come with me and have dinner in the centro, but we'll see how that goes considering that...

This weekend, instead of packing up our life or Taylor finishing his work or anything sensible like that, we're renting a car and going wine tasting tomorrow and hiking on Sunday! It will be a great last weekend in (or at least near) Santiago.

To finish up the subject of "aprovechando," I took one-on-one classes these two weeks to help me get back into this Spanish-speaking thing. The first few days I wasn't sure how helpful they were, but I surprised myself the second week in that I had some good conversations with the teachers, with good grammar and good vocabulary and everything. So in the end, I think it was definitely worth it to wipe off some of the rust that had accumulated in December, and I hope it will pay off when I get to Lima and I have to do anything that involves Spanish (I have no idea how much my job will require). I still become stupid when nervous or not warmed up, but I guess there's nothing I can do about that but practice and accept that I make mistakes.

La Presidenta

The second round of the Chilean election was today, and Michelle Bachelet won definitively (53.5%). Yay! So now all the punditry about Chile electing an agnostic, divorced women can continue with my blessing, cause it happened :-).

You know, when I first starting writing this post I was feeling very blah about the whole thing. It seemed anticlimactic and I couldn't think of much to say. I originally titled this post "La Segunda Vuelta" (The Second Round) because that's all I could think of--it is the second round and thus it decides the president, and the period leading up to the election definitely felt "secondary" to the atmosphere of the December election. There are several reasons for this detachment. First, the second round campaign period was really only 2 weeks long (starting after New Years) and we were out of town for the first week. Second, there was much less physical evidence of an election around town, since there were only 2 presidential candidates and the Congressional elections have been decided, so there were only a tiny fraction of the campaign posters and flyers posted around the city. Third, since we live in one of the only 5 (our of 30ish) comunas (like NYC boroughs) in Santiago in which the majority voted for Pinera, at first it didn't *feel* like anything special had happened--all the action was in the centro.

But then I watched more TV coverage, and especially Bachelet's acceptance speech. It was inspiring. To see her speak so eloquently about her victory, about her family (in particular her father, who was persecuted and eventually died in military custody during Pinochet), about her plans for the next 4 years (yeah yeah, I know these speeches always set lofty goals), and even more impressive to see the sea of people out in the streets celebrating... it was impresionante. It's pretty freaking cool that Chile has a female president, and it's cool to be here to see it happen. We thought about going downtown to experience the celebration, but we decided not to for several reasons, one of which being that I would feel silly being there and not being totally celebratory, jumping up and down and dancing, etc. We went to Bachelet's closing rally on Thursday and although it was cool to see, even there I felt a little disingenuous not being as emotional as the rest of the crowd. So obviously we would be very out of place at the victory party! But luckily, even though we are in a relatively conservative neighborhood, it turns out that people are celebrating around us--honking horns in the streets, and at least a few of our neighbors seem to be to having celebratory drinks on their balconies.

So, there it is. I can't think of a snappy closing so instead I'll just post some words:
triunfo=triumph/political win
respaldo=backing (i.e. like support)
conciudadano=compatriot/"fellow citizen"

El Universo Alterno

I don't know how people keep up travel blogs. In my 2 weeks of vacation I barely had any time or internet access to even attempt to write about my activities, and now that it is all over it is dificult and a bit frustrating to try to "sum up" my experiences. Where to begin? Do I write about actions or feelings? How many photos do I post, or do I link to my whole album? Quien sabe.

Not that my life in Santiago has been all that "real", but I definitely felt like I was living in an alternate universe while on vacation. In San Pedro, because although we were still in Chile the landscape was extraterrestrial and our hotel-mates came from all over the world. In Costa Rica, because although we were still in Latin America everyone in the shops spoke English and the billboards advertising real estate could have been placed in California.

...

ok, after some time spent contemplating/testing various photo-sharing-over-blog-and-without-spam-sending options, I've decided just to paste a link the the "View my photos" invite for KodakGallery. You have to sign in with your own account, but then you can view three albums--a small one of pics from Santiago and the nearby coast, which we toured with my parents before flying up north; a large one from our trip to San Pedro; and another large one with pics from our trip to Costa Rica. Although some of the pics would no doubt benefit from more commentary, most of them speak for themselves and there's no way I can narrow down either my commentary or my photo selection to just blog alone. So I give up--check out my photos if you'd like. And please let me know if it doesn't work or if you would like to see them another way.

Costa Rica

I am currently in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Surprise! We are with Taylor's family, on a trip that was a surprise for his father's 60th birthday. This has been a huge secret for the past 6 months, and we are all relieved that it turned out so well--the morning of their departure Rob did not know he was going anywhere. Anyway, Taylor and I flew up here from Chile and met the rest of the family and the tour group, and the trip has been great. We've been to the coastal rainforest, to a volcano, to the cloud forest, and tomorrow we are going to the beach. We fly back to Santiago on Sunday night, at which point 2 weeks of vacation will be over and I'll start my new spanish classes and we'll start wrapping up life in Santiago and preparing for our move to Peru. What fun!