Tag Archives: Peru

Small town tragedy

Posted on by under Life in Peru

A retired policeman went to visit his hometown a few hours outside of Cusco. It’s the kind of small town on a river gringos like me tend to romanticize. A simple way of life, fresh clean air, picture-perfect scenery, all that we miss in our hectic modern lives.

But while life in the small town sounds idyllic to a gringo with a steady foreign income, it isn’t all milk and honey for the people who were born into it. Working the fields is hard and poverty is very real. Alcohol abuse and family trauma are common.

We gringos also like to hallucinate that food in the Peruvian countryside is fresh and healthy but that’s only partially true. While small towns in Peru are mostly detached from the big industrial food chain it’s also a reality that pesticide use is widespread and largely unregulated in small town agriculture. A rarely discussed but tragic side-effect of pesticides in rural communities is that they are often used as poison in a moment of desperation, as was the case with one young woman in this small town.

The young mother had taken poison on various prior occasions but each time she’d been found by someone in her family before it was too late. Small town people have their tips and tricks. They’d make her drink milk to neutralize the poison, vegetable oil to make her vomit, liquids to dilute the poison, somehow she’d been saved every time. I don’t know whether she really intended to take her own life or if it was just a desperate cry for help. Even if it were the latter, it’s not like she would have found any professional help in her small town.

The policeman’s family is well known in the small town. They trace their heritage back there for generations, several of the family live on the main square and even those who moved to the big city frequently come back to visit their hometown. The family runs the only real store and the only hotel in town. The bus stop is in front of their store.

When the young mother poisoned herself again people ran to the policeman’s family store for help. This time she had not been found quickly as on the previous occasions, by the time people found her the young woman was in bad shape. The policeman’s wife is a high-end nurse. She believed the woman could be saved if she were given atropine. They called to the nurse at the local medical post. The post was closed. The nurse said she’d come out but didn’t have a key. There was no way to open the medical post until the next morning. The retired policeman wasn’t going to stop at that. He kicked open the door to the medical post and busted a window to get into the pharmacy. His wife knew every medical post is required to stock atropine. They searched desperately but didn’t find anything. Nada. Nyet. Nichts.

The young woman died, leaving behind a 2-year old and couple of older kids.

Tragic as the story may be, there’s a final twist that says much about Peru today. When the medical post opened again the following Monday and the damage was assessed, the policeman, his wife and all the town’s people pleaded ignorance about the busted door and window. If any of them had admitted to busting the door open to save a young mother’s life they would have been summarily charged. There would have been paperwork, fines, trips to the police station and a long headache. On the other hand nobody will be held accountable for the sorry state of the medical post, the lack of doctors, the lack of atropine, lack of mental health care, none of that.

I’m not sure what the right word is, “authorities”, “bureaucrats”, “powers that be”, “the system”. If they can’t save one life or frankly, care about saving one life, do you expect them to solve the big problems of today?

Coup d’état in Peru

Posted on by under Life in Peru

I suppose I owe a follow up to my cryptic post of yesterday. Although I’d been meaning to write about the deterioration of the Peruvian currency (PEN – Peruvian Soles) for some time, the world headline news of the ousting of President Martin Vizcarra saw me throwing up a cryptic one-liner predicting swift demise of the PEN.

First things first: we are all fine and daily life has been mostly normal this morning. But to be abundantly clear: there was a coup d’état in Peru yesterday whereby a bunch of thugs in congress effectively voted themselves into the executive branch.

All the talking heads are talking but any time you take power of your country outside of the established constitutional order, it’s a coup d’état.

Ostensibly congress impeached the sitting President, Martin Vizcarra, on corruption allegations. Legally, congress in Peru has the authority to impeach the president but legal and legitimate are 2 different things. The big rub in this case is that Martin Vizcarra was governing without vice-president due to the political turmoil of the past few years. Without any vice-president in the executive branch, the president of congress was next in line for the presidency.

In other words, congress was the judge, jury, executioner and most importantly, the direct beneficiary of impeaching Peru’s legitimate President Martin Vizcarra. The thugs in congress trumped up some charges against the President and in a few hours of open and shut debate, voted to throw out Vizcarra and take the keys to the executive office. There is no defensible argument that it was a legitimate impeachment, the Peruvian congress voted out Peru’s president because they could and because they would be the immediate and immense beneficiaries.

The details really aren’t important. What matters here is that the constitutional order in Peru is flimsy at best, and deteriorating. Peru today is not really a constitutional democracy, its system of governance is a ruling class comprised of oligarchs and thugs under the guise of a democracy.

Just because people trot out to vote every X years does not mean the country is a constitutional democracy. Unfortunately many ordinary Peruvians simply don’t have the level of education or understanding to make the distinction between a true democracy and marking a ballot every so many years.

As for the Peruvian Sol (PEN) there are many underlying issues, from populist policies across the board (printing money) to demographics (young population) to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic but all of those things are relatively not as important as the underlying constitutional order.

Remnants of a boondoggle

Posted on by under Life in Peru

A while back we took a drive behind Calca. We were just driving around the countryside with no particular place to go when we stumbled upon an unusual sight: the groundwork for what was supposed to be the Southern Camisea natural gas pipeline, passing a stone’s throw behind a small settlement.

The homes in this rural area are barely more than mud block huts with straw roofs. There are no paved roads, little if any health care infrastructure, and teachers from the city barely show up a few days a week to teach in the nearest schools. Yet somehow the powers that be thought that running a gas pipeline from pristine jungle over the Andes mountains was the best way to invest in the future of Peru. The powers that be in Peru during the first 2 decades of the 21st century sure loved their so-called “mega-projects”, with the most infamous of course the Interoceanic highway.

Eventually the Southern natural gas pipeline got cancelled in the fallout of the Odebrecht scandal, which it should be noted would have never existed if it were not for a court case in the US.

Strange creatures. A few of these llamas seemed to start throwing themselves on the ground out of nervousness, even though we stayed quite far behind.
Houses that are barely more than clay block huts with straw roofs, and a pipeline tract.
The unfinished tract for the Camisea pipeline, in the Layo area.
I don’t know where I’m going but I sure know where I’ve been.

Peru’s constitutional crisis explained

Posted on by under Life in Peru
  • The President is corrupt, incompetent and does not act with the best interest of the country in mind.
  • Congress and the Judicial branch are corrupt, incompetent and do not act with the best interest of the country in mind.
  • 60% of people working in public service are incompetent, corrupt and do not act with the best interest of the country in mind.

A nation will be sad tonight (UPDATED)

Posted on by under Life in Peru

The only question is will it be Peru or Argentina? Unless there’s a draw in the Argentina – Peru World Cup 2018 match tonight, in which case both teams hold on to feeble hopes for a berth in the 2018 World Cup, the winner is likely in and the loser is likely out. Argentina hasn’t been out of a World Cup tournament in basically living memory and Peru hasn’t been in one in basically the same time frame, so tonight 2 nations will be on edge.

Calling that affair a “World Cup” is a bit odd when you consider that the United Kingdom alone could in theory send as many teams to the big event as all of South America combined(*) Sure that’s only a theoretical possibility but in practice it’s likely that the UK will send 50 or 75% as many teams to the so-called World Cup as South America will. TV money have anything to do with that?

Now for the real question, where will Otto sleep tonight? An Argentina fan in Peru, things could get dicey tonight in the Otto Rock home. If you need a place to stay Otto, let me know, Mamacita Linda has an extra apartment with a big TV!

(*) Excluding the small Guyana type countries that nobody believes really exist.

UPDATE: Argentina-Peru 0-0. Everything will be decided next Tuesday.

Rosemary

Posted on by under History and culture, Life in Peru

At breakfast today, during a conversation Mamacita Linda was having with our maid Vasilia, I learned that the Spanish word “romero” means Rosemary, the herb. I didn’t know that before. Mamacita Linda has been bothered for a while by a minor discomfort in her ear and our maid Vasilia suggested some natural concoction with “romero” would help ease the discomfort.

I didn’t know “romero” means Rosemary so you can imagine the surprised look I got from the two of them when I blurted out “If I ever have another son – which I’m not – I’d want to call him Romero.” They looked at me all puzzled so I added “After Bishop Romero.”

More puzzled looks.

I was surprised neither my wife nor our maid knew anything about Bishop Romero. It’s not polite to talk about girls’ ages but both Vasilia and Mamacita Linda are old enough to remember when poverty and social injustice were far more obvious in Latin America than today.

When you have 3 little ones, you live in the moment, the experience of 3 little kids is just so overwhelming. So on the rare occasions we discuss life before marriage and kids, it feels almost foreign, like a previous life. I explained to Mamacita Linda and Vasilia how I used to fly shrimp larvae from a shrimp farm in the Florida Keys to Honduras many moons ago and got to know Central America a little bit. Even though I didn’t know him well, I attended a few meetings with the late Ambassador White who spoke out against social injustice and the geopolitical forces that perpetuated it in Central America for too long.

Neither Vasilia nor Mamacita Linda knew much about the complicated history of El Salvador but our conversation quickly turned to Peru. Not unlike El Salvador, the latter part of the 20th century was a very tough chapter in the history of Peru, with hyperinflation and the Shining Path terrorism. Mamacita Linda talked about how the Shining Path terrorism wasn’t felt too badly here in Cusco but she remembers as a kid seeing the reports about car bombs in Lima on TV.

“It was bad in Lima”.

There’s no such thing as a lesser evil or trauma when it comes to kids living in a world marred by violence but when Vasilia finally spoke up, her story was much more personal. Growing up in the country she didn’t experience Shining Path terrorism over the TV but very personally. Her parents would hide out behind the house whenever the Shining Path guerillas came to town, or at least hide the kids. The guerillas would come and take whatever they’d want and terrorize the town. Fortunately Vasilia and her family all lived through it. Her grandfather wasn’t so lucky, one day the Shining Path guerillas came to town, took Vasilia’s grandfather away and he was never seen again.

To the average tourist or casual observer there isn’t much history of terrorism in Peru nowadays but for those who were affected the wounds are still there.

That’s OK, he’s always been old

Posted on by under Life in Peru

Some of the places I used to live have a very high median age, Belgium, Florida. I remember walking into the old Langford Hotel in Winter Park with a friend of mine who was in his 60s at the time. One of the patrons at the bar said in all seriousness “nice to see a couple of young guys in here!” So I’m a bit fascinated in Peru by the mob of young people you see everywhere, the median age here is so much younger than in the places I used to live.

Mamacita Linda went to Lima earlier this week to see Aerosmith live. Big week for rock fans here in Peru, Aerosmith played in Lima on Monday and today the much hyped Guns N’ Roses reunion tour hits Lima. BTW, is that why you’re on the road Otto?

While Mamacita Linda was in Lima for the concert, her and a few friends were browsing rock stars on Youtube and she called me in a great big panic:

Mamacita Linda: “Papiiiiiiiiii!!!”
Me: “Erghh? You OK?”
Mamacita Linda: “Nooooo!!!”
Me: “What happened?”
Mamacita Linda: “We were looking up videos on Youtube and we saw Jon Bon Jovi, he’s old now!!!!!”
Me: “Erghh? He’s about 10 years older than me?”
Me: “And by the way, you just saw Aerosmith, I think Steven Tyler is older than Jon Bon Jovi.”
Mamacita Linda: “But for me Steven Tyler was always an old guy, so it doesn’t bother me that he’s really an old guy. But Bon Jovi used to be young and PAPI*!”

That’s one of the sentiments that fascinates me the most: the young people in Peru just know when they see an older person, that that person has always been old.

I have to admit, subconsciously I do the opposite: when I see all these young people who don’t remember a world without cellphones or internet, I somehow think that in 20 years time they’re going to understand a world without internet, cellphones or 24 hour news just because I used to know that world once, when I was the age these young kids are now. Of course that’ll never happen, no matter how old these young people ever grow up to be, they’ll never go back in time to a world without internet or cellphones.

(*) “PAPI” is used to describe handsome guys.

Arriba o Abajo?

Posted on by under Life in Peru

When you’re standing on the North Pole, any direction you take is due South. You and your best friend can be standing back to back on the North Pole, step away in opposite directions and both of you will be walking due South. I recommend doing this in the summer. The same is true if you’re standing on the South Pole, any direction you step away from the Pole is due North.

In a city like Cusco, high up in the Andes mountains, the locals have the same kind of directional system. Everything is either up or down. Arriba o Abajo? The only variations are if some place is way up or way down from where you’re at than it’s Arriiiiiiba o Abaaaaaajjo?

The other day Mamacita Linda was going to the market to buy fresh groceries. I ask “which market”.

“The one arriiiiiba”

There’s about 4 or 5 markets “arriba” from us but since she said “arriiiiiiba” that narrowed it down to either the main market in downtown Cusco or the Huancaro market.

A while back we took the kids to a birthday party at a friend’s house. I’d never been to the house before so I ask where it is.

“Abaaaaaaaaaajo todavia”

That describes an area of probably 100,000 people, maybe more.

Sometimes you don’t know if they mean “arriba/abajo” in the immediate sense or in the long run. For example, the main avenue coming into Cusco, Avenida Cultura, generally slopes up towards the city center and down towards the outlying areas of San Jeronimo and Saylla, but there are a few stretches where the slope is opposite. Whenever we’re out and about I’d give my earthly kingdom for some left/right directions once in a while!!

* * *

The farthest North I’ve been is Qikiqtarjuaq, 68 degrees North latitude.

Runway at Qikiqtarjuaq CYVM

The runway at Qikiqtarjuaq (CYVM) is marked to TRUE North, not magnetic North.

Mooney Acclaim on ramp at Qikiqtarjuaq (CYVM) airport.

Mooney Acclaim on ramp at Qikiqtarjuaq (CYVM) airport.

Sad sad sad

Posted on by under Life in Peru

Mamacita linda is so sad right now we almost adopted another puppy, but not even that could cheer her up. The result of the Presidential elections here shows that there will be a runoff between Keiko Fujimori and either PPK or Veronika Mendoza. Right now exit polls show a statistical dead heat between PPK and Veronika but the sentiment here is that Veronika has the advantage (later reporting areas will likely favor her over PPK).

The thought of a Veronika presidency is unbearable to Mamacita Linda. I don’t have a dog in this fight but I don’t think Veronika Mendoza has the right composure or vision to be President of Peru at this time either.

FWIW a friend who knows Veronika personally (and knows her quite well) tells me she’s a good person.

Update: With a good part of the votes now counted the 2nd round runoff will be between PPK and Keiko Fujimori, which is less bad for Peru IMHO. Official results here.