Although we have only been in Peru a few days, I have to stop and say a word about how fantastic the food has been. It certainly helps that we are being shown places by people (Ricardo and Julio) that know and appreciate good food. Of all the amazing things I have been trying (Tacu Tacu, Chicha Morada, Yuca, Lomo Salteado, Rocotito, Pisco Sour, etc) I have to say the highlight was today’s ceviche at Pescados Capitales.
One very funny bit from yesterday that I forgot to mention in my previous post involved a small exchange between Juliette and a local man while I was getting a refill for my cell phone. This man approached her and tried to speak Spanish, but Juliette was having a difficult time understanding him. He then helpfully pulled out a pre-written piece of paper that on one side said, “I am shoe expert” and on the other “May I see your beautiful feet please?”
Deep cultural exchanges like this really add to the richness of travel. I LOVE the fact that he had a pre-written note!
It was interesting to be in the city center, which is quite a bit more gritty than the posh neighborhood we have been staying in. That said, there was a fair amount of architectural history, even though most of the oldest part of the city was destroyed in a massive earthquake in 1749. Lima maintains some pretty impressive color uniformity in the several plazas we visited, such as the Plaza de Armas (where almost all the buildings were yellow), the Plaza San Martin (all white), and the Plaza de la [something I can't remember] (all blue). One of the weirder things was the trip to the catacombs underneath San Francisco church. Many tens of thousands of people were entombed there over many years and when it was opened in the first half of the 20th century, some enterprising and artistic monks with too much time on their hands and a bit of the OCD decided to catalog and clean up all those skeletens. They neatly arranged many hundreds of bins by bone type (with skulls stacked neatly in this bin, femurs over here, fibulae over there, etc). But the true piece de la resistance, (by an artiste/ horror film nut) was the radial pattern of bones and skulls laid out in the central circular well. We then took in the Parque de la Muralla, walked around central Lima a fair bit, and headed to the fascinating erotic art collection of the Museo Larco.
Click on the photo below to go to the album:
- I find it quite shocking that a city so close to the equator and sea level can be so cold. It was grey and overcast and misty yesterday and today, and apparently is exactly like this from May or June all the way to late November. The suicide rate must be quite high.
- It is a surprisingly easy city to get around in. Taxis are everywhere and as we learn to negotiate with them they are getting cheaper. But it is also easy to walk and there seem to be an abundance of buses.
- The people here have been very nice and very helpful, often without being asked. I couldn’t help but contrast this with Mexico, where no one ever goes out of their way to offer any help whatsoever. Here people have been always kind and volunteer much information and service.
- While we haven’t yet seen the historic center (sticking today as we have to San Isidro, Miraflores and Barranco), I have to say that most of the architecture of Lima seems fairly charmless. There are some cute buildings near to where we are staying however, and even the ugly stuff has an overall a scale that is not unpleasant. Overall, the streets are clean with nice sidewalks and planting all around, which makes strolling them quite pleasant despite the lack of beautiful building.
- I can’t believe how easy it was to get a Yellow Fever vaccination here.
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| From Arrival in Peru |
It was a bit of a long trip, but we finally got in late last night. I have yet to meet our host Ricardo, who seems very nice by telephone, but was unable to meet us here at our arrival due to a compromiso. He left the key with the security guard though, and we let ourselves into his fabulous apartment overlooking the sea in the Barranco neighborhood of Lima. I tried to wait up for his return, but having been awake for more than 20 hours, I gave up at about 2am and went to bed. I am hoping to catch a glimpse of him this morning. Today we will head into town and check out the historic center I believe, as well as take care of a few things that we forgot to do before leaving. The most egregious of which is that I somehow stupidly didn’t think (after the 8 I had for India) that I would need any special vaccinations for this part of the world. I was wrong, I will be needing a Yellow Fever vax (especially if I want to go anywhere near the jungle areas) and so we will get one in the city today. After that, we should be able to settle in nicely for ceviche, pisco and coca.
Juliette and I are in final preparation for our trip to Peru later today. We leave in a few short hours, and it is hard to believe that later tonight we will be in Lima. What an amazing visit I have had to New York. I have been energized by the city and its culture. I have been productive in both my writing and consulting endeavors. I have reconnected with old friends and made some new ones. And I have been surprised by a sweet and growing romance with Roland (who may meet me in Brazil in a few months). Although all such things are subject to unforeseen changes in my life, at this point I plan to move here after my travels at the end of the year. (If McCain should somehow win the presidency, however, I will be moving to Madrid.)
My friend Juliette just arrived from London today and we will be leaving Tuesday to head to Peru for a few weeks. You may remember Juliette and I met and traveled together in the north of India just a little over a year ago. I am thrilled she decided to come with me on the first leg of my South American adventure.
1. The network, which should be fantastic in a place like NYC, sucks very badly. Not only did I have the switching problems that many others suffered, often times it didn’t matter if I was on EDGE or 3G. With full bars showing, I often couldn’t get web pages to download AT ALL, or they would take forever. Friends of mine in the exact same place and time with other brands of cellphone or first gen iPhones could get on and download easily.
2. GPS has serious problems in a place like NYC.
3. When I bought the iPhone, I assumed it would be able to be unlocked soon (as the first gen was), but that still has not happened. Since I will be traveling in several other countries for long periods in the next few months, I didn’t feel like paying ATT’s outrageous roaming charges. If I can’t pop a new SIM in wherever I go, that is a problem.
4. Constant denials from Apple and ATT about problems are not good customer service. On the other hand, my experience at the Apple Store (West 14th street) when returning my phone was exemplary. They were very helpful and kind and did not hassle me about my return.
I really loved the iPhone when it was working properly, but that was all too rare (at least in NYC. It seemed much better in the Midwest with both GPS and Internet access.) When I return to the US at the end of the year, I will look into getting another. Perhaps the problems will be fixed by then.
I just went to see a really fascinating and satisfying exhibit at MOMA entitled “Home Delivery“. It deals with the intersection of mass production and art, specifically in the development of prefabricated housing. If you are in New York before the end of October, I highly recommend it. As an added (and really cool) bonus, on the west lot owned by the museum they have placed four prototypes that can be explored inside and out. Below is a slide show of my MOMA trip this morning.
Today was all about the business, what with finishing a site and meeting with clients. And I am pretty happy with how the sites are turning out. Check out this one for example.
I had a lunch meeting setup with my client/friend Roland today. He asked me if I knew the restaurant called “Hell’s Kitchen” on 9th ave, and I responded that I did, having passed it several times in the past few weeks here on a couple of my walks. I got to the restaurant about 5 minutes early and got a table and waited. And waited. At about a quarter past the hour I figured something had come up, so I sent Roland a text message saying “Are you coming to Hell’s Kitchen?”. About a minute later came the reply “I am at Hell’s Kitchen.” I looked around the restaurant but didn’t see him, so I sent a message back saying “I am”, and then called him a minute later. It turns out that there are TWO restaurants with the name “Hell’s Kitchen”, and both are on 9th Ave. One is at 47th and the other at 39th.
So if you have a date in Constantinople, he’ll be waiting in Istambul.
Through an odd set of coincidences, I have had quite a bit of work fall in my lap while here in NYC. I have spent the better part of the last week building and setting up two websites, and configuring a home office network and new computer. I wasn’t looking for work at all , but I can sure use the cash. It has been interesting, especially with the website programming, to be cast back into that headspace. It is quite a different place to be than where I have been over the past 2 years. Not completely unpleasant either, there is a small satisfaction in figuring out these types of things and synthesizing a solution. The trick is not to get flustered when stuck, and not to let these things stress you out. More and more, it seems to me that when I do return to the land of the working, I should aim for these types of finite contracts. They will allow me to remain more present and outside of the long term stresses that large office politics can produce. Then again, contracting has its own set of hassles, not the least of which is the administration and money chasing. In any event, if I can make it as breezy and fun as the last couple of weeks, it will definitely be worth it. And it will leave me time to write and blog and work on other projects. And not have to wear a suit or have a fixed schedule or location.
Although ideally, I would still want this job…
A simple question for all of you (perhaps this should be a poll, but I think written responses could be quite interesting):
When you are alone in a house or apartment (yours or someone else’s) and you go into the bathroom (to relieve yourself or bathe), do you close the door (and/or lock it) or leave it open?
From my super yummy brunch yesterday with my good friend Sian, at a place called Ouest : Brioche French Toast.
Last night I went to have dinner with Johnny and Kevin and a few of their friends at a truly wonderful restaurant called Flatbush Farm in…Brooklyn. And the night before that, my friend Sivan and I were hanging out and having great Indian food (well, by US standards anyway) in the Jackson Heights area of…Queens. It is amazing what psychological barriers we have in place for all sorts of things. I remember coming to New York as a kid and later living here on a university co-op assignment at the age of 19. In those days, Manhattan WAS New York, no two ways about it. And there was something off-putting to me then about leaving Manhattan. And there was something even more off putting about the idea of actually living outside of Manhattan. You don’t travel hundreds or thousands of miles to move to New York just to live outside of it, I reasoned at the time. And I was not alone in my assessment. The media and culture at the time were similarly Manhattan focused and dismissive of the other boroughs. Of course, as the economics of living in Manhattan became increasingly perilous, more and more people moved out and New York seems to me today to be a much more decentralized place in terms of where it is all “happening”. If anything, I notice a little reverse snobbery from Brooklynites these days when they are forced to leave their beloved borough for “…over there”. In any event, if I move back to New York, I will feel much more comfortable living in any number of neighborhoods spread out through the boroughs …of Manhattan, Brooklyn or even Queens, anyway. You couldn’t pay me to live in the Bronx or Staten Island.
I was really just going to let it drop. I should have, but after reading everyone’s advice and figuring there was a tactful way to do this that might spare others in the future a similar problem, I decided to bring it up. I went back to my favorite cafe and waiter and mentioned to him in a very polite manner that I thought there had been a small error in the previous credit card charge. He took my receipt and told me they would look into it. Immediately I was happy I had brought it up, b/c from the look on my waiter’s face it was obvious he had nothing to do with it, so I could continue in my warm assessment of him. A few minutes later the manager came over and apologized for any error and said they would look into it when the accountant got in. He then offered me free coffee and some pastry. I was perfectly happy in that it hadn’t turned into a big deal, and all was well.
But then my contentment was shattered about 30 minutes later when the accountant got in and approached me in a huff with the last CC charge, showing me that it HAD only been charged for 19, not the 21 I had claimed. I checked my bank website and there was the charge for 21, not the 19 he had claimed. I asked him if it was difficult to pull all of the charges I had ever made there (I assumed there were 2 or 3), and he told me no problem and scurried off to his office. When he came back, he showed me 3 charges, two totaling 19 dollars and one totaling 21. Apparently there is a significant delay between when they post and it gets to my bank account listing. These WERE my charges, and I had egg on my face. I apologized to the accountant, who was at this point giving me a self satisfied look, followed by an “OK then. hummff.” Mortified, I then apologized to my waiter, paid my bill and skulked away, totally embarrassed, thinking that now I could REALLY never go back to this place.
As an unbelievable (and further embarrassing) postscript, my waiter somehow found his way to this blog and posted his own comment on that post, which you can read here. And upon checking my bank account online this morning, that damn charge is now showing up! Next time, I will definitely be keeping my mouth shut. Mea culpa, mea culpa.
Strange flight over Broadway
(p.s. The iPhone camera sucks badly.)
Gabe invited me to go with his friend Raffy and he to a screening of “Working Girl” in the park last night (part of the Central Park Film Festival). Gabe and I met beforehand below the park to grab sandwiches and drinks, and started walking into the park towards the screening to meet Raffy. When we caught up with him just outside the film area, he had his small dog with him and told us that the people at the gate wouldn’t let him in, even though no where on the site does it mention that dogs are not allowed and this was an outdoor event in the park after all. The problem was that Raffy lives up in Harlem and didn’t have time to take the dog back before the film started. At Gabe’s behest we started walking the perimeter looking for a place to sneak in. Gabe was somehow able to sneak in past the guards and call me on my cell phone to tell me where, but alas we were stopped by security before being able to make it in. Raffy put his dog into the bag he had with him and we approached the main entrance. When the security guy felt Raffy’s bag he told him that pets were not allowed and we just continued to walk in, towards Gabe who was already inside. We then found an inconspicuous place to sit and started to unwrap our picnic. Everything seemed fine for a few minutes until a very large (wide, more than tall) security guy came over to tell us we couldn’t have the dog there, then noticed our beer and told us that was not allowed either, and that we would have to leave. He followed us all the way to the exit where we passed the first security guard wagging his finger at us. So we sat outside on a lonely bench and enjoyed our picnic while the distant voice of Melanie Griffith pretended to gravitas.
