Qué Tal Gringo

Oi, I should be asleep, but I got a lot to talk about before I forget. So first, last Wednesday, I dropped off my bike at a little tiny bike shop on a side road in a shabbier part of Miraflores. It turned out I had to pay S/. 50 to get the pedal welded back on and get a maintenance/cleaning done on the whole thing. I think I could have got a new bike from this little shop with really good prices for less than I've paid in total now, but I guess it's been a good learning experience. At least the bike looks new now. It sounds a lot better too. I had a nice chat for about an hour with the shop owner Luis on Friday after work as he finished up his job on my bike. He was a really cool guy who also was really good and worked hard at his job. He, like many others here, was really confused about what on earth International Studies is. In a developing place like Peru, education is certainly on the rise, but it tends to be all at a very practical level. Whenever I try to explain it through my internship, they follow-up with, yes, but what is your carrera, which is their word for major/career. There is not the biggest understanding of the concept of studying international relations/ethics. Nonetheless, he was really interested that someone from the powerful US was interested in his country. He himself has tried for 9 whole years to make it to the United States, but he says they don't let in those who deserve it, and only let in those who don't, those with la plata. He seems to be doing well enough for Peruvian standards, but he definitely works a lot. He only has one son, but he says he could never do what many immigrants would do and leave their families to immigrate; I suppose that is a product only of severe desperation. Family is highly valued in this culture. Despite his desire to go to the US, you can hear the pride he has for his country and its amazing food and people and land.

I have noticed the phenomenon of a great deal of pride for Peru a lot, as well as a movement for all Peruvians being united as one group. I'm sure it has its roots in a lot of history, but from what I know of recent Peruvian history and of what my friend Carlos has told me, this is really only something of recent years. With Peru's late economic success and emergence from its years of conflict, people are able to unite as being part of one Peru, which seems to have the potential to make it a great example among the region. No longer does everyone have any reason, nor desire, to flee to the United States. And they're all convinced they have the best cuisine outside of France, which may be true dependent on your taste.

Saturday, I had a really great day exploring the Historic Center of Lima, but only the part of it in the district known as Lima Cercado, as part of the Center lies across the river in Rimac, where hopefully I'll go sometime when I'm more comfortable here. I started taking a combi up Arequipa to around as far as the main set of the city's really cool parks, which I have yet to explore, near La Victoria where I bought the bike. Then, I wandered up toward the center and found a really cool alley full of grafitti and stores selling burned CDs and old books. I bought a few Jazz and "Chill Out" CDs, the guy who said music was his life told me. The chill out ones are not the best purchase I've made.

Calle Quilca: Boulevard de la Cultura

interesting

Then I got to Plaza San Martin, a monument to Peru's libertador.

Then, I walked up Jiron de la Union, where I passed a cool plaza where Peru's independence was declared, as well as an ultimatum for democracy announced in 1956, which needless to say wasn't heeded. I started to get my first taste of the interesting colonial architecture of Lima's center, where there are apparently 1600 old balconies.

 

  

Then I came to the Plaza Mayor or the Plaza de Armas, where many important buildings are located, including the Catedral de Lima and the Government Palace.

 

Finally, I went to Parque La Muralla, where I got views out toward the slums north of the Rimac River, including Rimac. It has a cool preservation of old city walls and an old house as well.

 

Bridge and northern districts of Lima

Rímac and Cerro San Cristobal

  

Yea, I could read that writing that far away, fortunately my camera has 12x zoom so everyone else can too.

"Constructing Peru" and "Peru Is Progress"

Interesting things to be written on that hillside, no? The vibrant colors of the houses in the pueblos jóvenes (shantytowns) is really fascinating to me as well.

  

Old City Walls to defend from attack by river

Finally, on my way home, I was aggressively approached by Pedro the Bolivian, a clean, but sketchy looking older guy who tried to get me to go have a beer with him. Maybe my Spanish getting better isn't always a good thing. It prevents people from getting to the point of the con they're trying to pull. He was rapidly asking me questions about what I'm doing and said he wondered California, because Creedence Clearwater Revival was always his favorite band. I'm pretty sure they're a Southern band, but what do I know? I got the typical confused response about my major, but this guy was "curious" enough to say, "Disculpe mi ignorancia, pero pero me lo necesitas explicar mejor (Pardon my ignorance, but you have to explain it better)." At that point he didn't care enough to hear my answer and repeated that we should just go have one little beer. At that point, I had had enough and was on my way.

Other than that, I've secured an English-teaching job, for which I'm waiting for a call back that someone wants a class. It's going to be a little hard getting paid on my tourist visa though. I also went to the rock gym, the first full-time one, of which the owner is really proud. It is a sweet little outdoor bouldering wall that actually has a decent amount of wall. Unfortunately, they don't make all that much money to offer me a paying job. They even make all their own holds. But he said I could climb for free if I help them out time to time, as he said he really appreciates what I'm doing here. He also said his son was born in "the f****** North America," but hey no offense intended, as he laughed it off. Really interesting guy, I was looking at a newspaper article on the wall in his office that he and a partner traversed the entire length of the Andes in Peru; pretty incredible!