Mother’s day dance at Brianna’s kindergarden

My first parade at the Plaza de Armas

One of the things I like about living in Cuzco is that life is so full of social events, friends, family, there is always something other than work and money. Last week Brianna had her first Mother’s Day dance in her kindergarden, papi was so proud I almost cried! We also got together with Patricia’s family on Mother’s Day and just yesterday Brianna had a parade down Cuzco’s Plaza de Armas (main square) as part of the “day of private education”, or something. As the only gringo dad in Brianna’s kindergarden I got volunteered to walk in the parade

In between all this we also went to the baptism of a friend’s son. Little Ares Joaquin is about a year-and-a-half old and already a good little playmate for Brianna. After the baptism we went to Ares’ house, ate, drank and socialized with the family. After the dinner Ares’ dad was serving beer and asked me if I wanted a drink.

Before I could reply one of Ares’ uncles answered for me:

“You should ask only in the hospital” This was directed at Ares’ dad who was serving. The implication is that if a person is in the hospital you should ask if it’s OK to serve them alcohol, make sure the doctor says it’s OK. But if you’re not in the hospital, there should be no reason to ask, you just serve!

I like that. Ask only in the hospital

To understand the “I could see how it could happen to me” part, you have to keep in mind that Peru is the counterfeit money capital of the world (heads up via IKN). You commonly see fake money in Peru, mostly bills but also coins. It’s hard to imagine how making fake coins is worth the effort, but apparently to some in Peru it is. Any time a Peruvian accepts cash from another person, be it at a store, in a taxi, where ever, the person who accepts the cash always does at least a cursory inspection of the money. I’ve personally seen store clerks refuse counterfeit cash on a few occasions.

Counterfeit money switcheroo scam:

A few weeks ago mamacita linda took a taxi to work. In the center of Cuzco, taxis are S/.3 (~$1) about everywhere you go. If you want to go to some areas on the outskirts of the city like Larapa or San Sebastian the fare may be 5 to 8 Soles. On this fateful day the taxi driver asked mamacita linda for his fare a bit before they arrived at her work. Normally you pay as you get out of the taxi. Mamacita linda gave the driver S/.3 but he gave her back one of the coins (S/.2) saying it was a fake coin. Mamacita linda gave him another coin. The driver said that one was fake as well. Mamacita linda said she had no other coins and gave the driver a 20 Soles bill. The driver gave her back change for 10 Soles. Mamacita linda said “I gave you 20 Soles.” But the driver replied she only gave him 10.

All this is happening as the taxi is arriving in front of mamacita linda’s work – on a very busy street with no room for the cars to pass. Mamacita linda is upset but doesn’t want the hassle so she gets out and the taxi disappears in busy city traffic.

I’m not sure if my account of the story is exact to every detail. All in all mamacita linda estimated losing about 15 Soles to the unscrupulous taxi driver. He gave her change for S/.10 instead of S/.20 and probably held on to some of the coins that mamacita linda had originally given him as well.

You can easily think “How is that possible” but you have to keep in mind people in Cuzco take taxis practically on a daily basis. You have work and family and what not on your mind, you don’t exactly keep your guard up every time you hand a taxi driver his fare. Fake coins are common but the driver just used that as a distraction, while mamacita linda was trying to figure out her not-fake coins, the driver scammed her out of her change.

Mamacita linda was mad for the rest of the afternoon but we believe people get what they deserve in the end.

Con mi mamacita linda!

The other day I had to be at the airport early for a flight to Lima and I decided to call a taxi to our apartment. I figured it would be quicker than to go out in the street and hail a cab at that early hour. The dispatcher told me my taxi would arrive in 6 minutes, which was about right. I hopped in and we were on the way to the airport.

While riding in the back of the cab I could listen to the dispatcher call her drivers over the radio. It was quite entertaining. The dispatcher would talk sweet and funny as long as she was getting her way with the drivers but change in an instant to a condenscending angry tone when she didn’t get her way. She complained to 2 drivers that they took too long to get where they were going, she fussed at another for going to the wrong apartment building and at one point she yelled at driver “If you don’t want to work then don’t come to work!” I think she’s good at her job but probably doesn’t have a boyfriend.

We got closer to the airport and as we were about to turn into the airport parking my driver reached up and pealed the “TAXI” sticker off from his windshield. From our house to the airport taxis are about S/.5 (~$2) but calling one to the house is a few Soles extra. The driver said 8 Soles, which is about right. I gave him 10 Soles (you’re not expected to tip taxi drivers in Cuzco). The driver fumbled around his center console and said “No change”. He was pretending not to have any change. It worked, I said thanks and got out. I didn’t want to bother and I figured S/.2 extra was a pittance for this poor driver having to listen to mean dispatcher girl all night long

I called to get a licensed taxi but instead I got overcharged and the guy was moonlighting. Oh well. Then I checked in for my flight to Lima… Yippie, center seat! That’s okay, for my next flight I’ll have the left front seat.

I miss my baby goose while I'm away on a trip to deliver airplanes.

Living in Peru has given me a new point of view about minorities. I am a minority now for the first time in my life. No matter how much I like Peru and how friendly Peruvian people are to foreigners, there is some level of comfort in being with people who are like you, and like most expats I know, I get together or spend time regularly with other expats. There’s another perspective to this as well: Mark, Lori and myself are very different by the traditional “classifications” that we try to apply in the US. Lori is an African-American woman, I’m a middle-age white guy. In the US we’d be lumped in entirely different “categories”, but here in Peru we’re the same category (GRINGO). While we may have different ethnicity, our backgrounds and life experiences are similar. Diversity is more than checking off a box on an HR form.

At any rate, the four of us devoured one of Mark’s pizzas and shared a bottle of cheap Peruvian wine. Bad for the waist but good for the soul. Here’s some of the things we talked about:

Pizza

We fussed about how Peruvian pizza isn’t that great. Mark is planning to overhaul the entire pizza scene here in Cuzco with his “Machu Pizza” restaurant and little pizzas sold from “Machu Pizza” carts outside schools and markets. Here in Peru this sort of “informal economy” is very common, there are street vendors selling candy, snacks, drinks on practically every street corner. Mark is planning to become the mogul of street corner pizza vendors

Peruvian workmanship and reliability

As a kid I remember going to my grandmother’s house one day while she was preparing food to cook. My grandmother was using a little knife to cut some food and she complained that her knife “was a Spaniard”. I didn’t get it at first (I was only 5 or 6 at the time) and she had to explain to me what she meant was that the knife was doing work of inferior quality – it was not sharp at all.

I sort of took offense to my grandmother’s comment at the time because I loved Spain, it’s where we went on family vacations. But my grandmother had a point: in the late 70s (not that long after the Franco era in Spain) when northern Europeans like us would go on summer holiday in Spain we found that quality of workmanship was not nearly as good as in the more industrialized countries in northern Europe. You can love a place while still being realistic about strengths and weaknesses in an economic or practical sense (*).

During our conversation Mark told us he bought a welding machine and is building his own mobile pizza ovens for his streetvendor carts. He tried to have one oven built by a local mechanic or contractor, but never got it done. One part of the job was done well and on time but then the job never got finished. After much delay and promises of “tomorrow” Mark eventually retrieved his partly-built oven and finished it himself. I fussed about the 2-year old park in my neighborhood that’s already falling apart, Lori complained about some of the sub-standard workmanship on her house that she is building. These are very typical gripes of expats. I love Peru but it’s not a place to go for high-quality workmanship and reliability in an industrial sense.

Peruvian web sites are really bad

Mark mentioned something about a web site he’s had in the works for 6 months now, still not ready. Most Peruvian websites are terrible quality. I think it has to do with the education at the universities and higher-education institutes. The quality of education in IT seems really bad and not practical.

Why Peruvian kids love to work at McDonalds

Mark told us he’s having trouble getting reliable help for his restaurant, not uncommon in his business I’m sure. Several of the young people who had worked for him have gone on to work at fast-food restaurants here in Cuzco. We have 1 each of McDonalds, Bembos, KFC and Starbucks in Cuzco and many kids look at them as cool or great places to work. We amazed how fast-food jobs – at least with the big multi nationals – are regarded highly here in Cuzco, unlike back home.

* * *

So it would be a fair question to ask, after all that fussing, why don’t we just go back to our own countries?

Truth is, we discussed that. Despite our typical belly-aching we agreed that we like living in Peru better than in our home countries. There’s a certain quality of life that has nothing to do with mundane considerations like taste of pizza or quality of websites. Here in Peru there is more social interaction than back home, life revolves a bit less around work and money, people don’t take themselves as seriously as in the industrialized countries. And of course as expats every day is a bit of an adventure, maybe that’s not for everybody, but I like broadening my horizons by living in a different culture.

And finally, other than pizza, Peruvian food really is better than the rest

I delivered a small Cessna 172 from the factory in Kansas to Lima last month. Here I am on final approach for landing in Piura.

(*) If the EU people had been more realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of the various economies throughout the Euro-zone they might not be in the predicament they are now.

Seriously, I cannot party like a young person any more.

Mamacita linda celebrated a birthday last week and we celebrated in the proper tradition of Peruvian birthdays. In other words, eat, drink and dance till the wee hours of the morning. We started with the family at our house, Pisco and soda because I didn’t have time to make proper Pisco Sour for them all, and then to “Sr. Panda” for some yummie food.

Back at our house for cake. Peruvian birthday cakes only have 1 candle, whether you’re turning 1 or 100. Not like up North where the nr. of candles matches the nr. of years. Peruvians don’t seem to keep track of the years, Patricia doesn’t know her brother and sister’s age without seriously thinking about it.

Mami's birthday cake

Mamacita linda on her birthday!

Our apartment here in Cuzco is very small (hopefully this year that will finally change) and we can’t really entertain friends and family together, so we had decided to have the family at our house first and then a few drinks with friends at The Frogs, a sort of hip / bohemian bar close to the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco. We got to “The Frogs” around 10pm and this is where the party really took on its Peruvian character. Some of Patricia’s friends showed up early, but others didn’t show up until 1:00am, which this is totally normal here.

At the Frogs in Cuzco

We had lots of finger food and then more cake. As you can see we had a little glitch where we ran out of forks for the cake…

Cake for mami's birthday at the Frogs in Cuzco.

When you run out of forks....

We had a good time at “The Frogs” with a ridiculous amount of finger-food, more cake, and, errgh, a few drinks. The deal was that Patricia had booked a reserved room for our party and gotten a package-deal with food and drinks. At the end we decided to have the waitress bring all of our remaining drinks for a nice picture

Drinks at the Frogs in Cuzco

If you thought the party was over just because it was going on 2:00am or so, you must not be Peruvian! At 1:00am the party around the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco is just getting started. The girls decided to take the short walk from “The Frogs” to the Plaza de Armas and go dancing at one of the local discos, I think it was “Mythology”.

A few months ago there was a big to-do about the mayor of Cuzco trying to close all the discos at the Plaza de Armas. How’s that bone-headed idea working out you ask?

Just have a look… I mean, nightlife is part of any big tourist city, from Miami to Amsterdam to Downtown Disney.

Mythology disco at the Plaza de Armas Cuzco

Mamacita with one of her best and most-outgoing friends

In the wee hours of the morning we headed home but some of Patricia’s friends stayed out a bit longer. I suffered the next morning, this party stuff is for young folks

Tonight I’m in the mood for a yummie pizza (mitad Vaticano y mitad Romana) and a jara de sangria, but the question is whether mamacita linda will be home early enough. One of the only bad things about living in Peru is that people who work corporate type jobs must work really long hours. Patricia’s normal hours are 9:00am to 8:00pm, 6 days a week! She does get a 2-hour lunch break which is enough to run home for a bit.

It’s not unusual for Patricia’s work hours to run a bit late in the evening, so here’s to my mamacita linda:

Meet me out in the street, to be exact, at La Romana Pizzeria on Av. Tullumayo in beautiful Cuzco, Peru

Also, not meaning to change the subject to awful bad, we have another reason to celebrate today in addition to my craving of hot greasy pizza: 20-something years ago today, somewhere in Cuzco in the back of a taxi (*) on its way to the hospital, a baby girl was born. Feliz Cumpleaños a mi cuñada!!!

(*) Not kidding, true story.

Cuzco during rain season.

Now mind you, not everybody is blowing at the sky during rain season in Cuzco, only those people whose birthdays fall during the DRY months of the year. That’s right, there’s a belief or superstition here in Peru that people whose birthdays fall during the dry months can make the rains go away by blowing at the sky!

Occasionally while walking down a street during rain season, when clouds are building or rain starts to fall, you’ll see somebody blowing at the sky. Brianna and I do it all the time when we’re playing in the park and rain starts to fall, it really helps to hold off the rain for a while

Rain season in Cuzco begins towards the end of November and lasts through the beginning of April. It’s not bad really, no tropical downpours, just a steady diet of clouds and rain. But the rain helps rejuvenate the lands and green areas look good again. Meanwhile in the coastal areas of Peru summer is just beginning, so many Cusqueños take a trip to the coast for the traditional summer vacation. It’s something to get used to for gringos coming down from the Northern Hemisphere, when you visit Lima in December everybody is getting ready for Christmas and summer vacation at the same time.

After the official graduation ceremony at UNSAAC, Peru's newest economist!!!

And another thing, lentils? You take the day off and that’s the best you can think of

All kidding aside, I’m very proud of my mamacita, this past Friday she walked in the official graduation ceremony at the Facultad de Economia at UNSAAC, the major university here in Cuzco. Studying economics at the Universidad Nacional San Antionio Abad de Cuzco (UNSAAC) is very intense and academic, and she did great. Mamacita finished her studies nearly 3 years ago but with baby and thesis her graduation was put on the back burner so to speak.

Felicitaciones Mamacita linda!!!

From gosouthamerica.com:

And how better to celebrate such a joyous event than with food! Here in Cuzco the traditional meal on “Día de todos los Santos Vivos” consists of lechon (suckling pig) and tamales.

Buying lechon on Día de todos los Santos Vivos in Cuzco

Here in Cuzco, Oct 30 to Nov 1 was also the festival of the bread, or T’anta Raymi. Sweet bread figurines, known as pan wawas (from the Quechua word wawa which means baby) are sold everywhere during these days. At the plaza Tupac Amaru close by our house we saw this gigantic pan wawa and I believe there was an even larger pan wawa set to be displayed in the center of the city.

A giant pan wawa on display at the plaza Tupac Amaru in Cuzco, Peru

There was a sort of baptising celebration for the pan wawa which again seems like a blend of Catholic and Andean traditions. We didn’t stay for the baptising of the pan wawa, we wanted to go back to the house and devour our yummie lechon

A while back we visited Jurassic Park in Oropesa. Many playgrounds in Peru are not that well done, but the Jurassic Park in Oropesa is the exception to the rule. It’s a very nice park and the dinosaurs are very well made. Brianna had a great time playing.

Oropesa is a small town in the “Valley of the South”, just outside of Cuzco. Oropesa is best known for its bread, seems like the biggest activity in Oropesa are bakeries that supply bread to the city of Cuzco.

The “Valley of the South” with its towns of Saylla, Oropesa, Tipon and Andahuaylillas is well worth a visit while you are in Cuzco. Many tour operators offer day-trips, but you can also hop on a bus (“combi”) and explore the area on your own. You can eat yummie chicharron in Saylla or “Cuy” in Tipon. Tipon also has ancient Inka ruins that rival Machu Picchu only with far fewer tourists. Most “Valley of the South” day trips end in Andahuaylillas, where you can visit the Sistine Chapel of the Andes – an outwardly unassuming looking little church with stunning murals on the inside.

Of course if you have kids along don’t forget to stop at Jurassic Park Oropesa. Just hop of the bus at the Oropesa stop, walk up the hill to the main square and continue up the hill a few more blocks. There are also taxis waiting by the bus stop that will be happy to take you there. Avoid mototaxis because the hill is kind of steep