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!
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!
posted by HelenO at
7:51 AM
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