Tag Archives: Peru

Tipon: Like Machu Picchu without the tourists

Posted on by under Life in Peru

We took my parents to Tipon the other day. Tipon is a beautiful Inca-era archeological site just outside of Cusco. It rivals Machu Picchu in architecture, water engineering, and stunning location on the side of a mountain.

Being touristy at Tipon

Being touristy at Tipon

Tipon

Tipon

Relaxing in the Andean sun

Relaxing in the Andean sun

Unlike Machu Picchu, Tipon is a quiet site, visited by few foreign tourists. It’s a perfect place to relax and enjoy the Andean sun or chat with the local visitors. You will usually find as many locals as foreign visitors at Tipon.

Why are there so few gringos at Tipon? Perhaps because they’re all at Machu Picchu, where the tour operators take them… I mean, why take S/.18 (transportation included) from the gringo to see Tipon if we can take $150 to see Machu Picchu?

If you’d like to see Tipon, the directions are on my travel blog.

A few tourists at Tipon

A few tourists at Tipon

Where are the gringos?

Where are the gringos?

Happy birthday Peru

Posted on by under Life in Peru

July 28 is Peru’s national holiday or Fiestas Patrias, happy b-day Peru!!!

That’s all I’m going to say about the national holiday. Not that we aren’t patriotic, but July 28 also happens to be the birthday of Patricia’s grandmother, “Mama Vicky”, so we celebrate her birthday with the family. If you need pictures or war stories of the Fiestas Patrias, I recommend Barb or Stuart.

As for “Mama Vicky”, the account of her true age varies between 82 and 85. Either way, the experiences in her lifetime are hard for me to even imagine. She raised 8 kids – and sadly lost several more – in the small town of Accha throughout the bad-old-days of terrorism in Peru.

Mama Vicky on her birthday

Mama Vicky on her birthday

My parents are in town for a few weeks, so they got to enjoy the party as well. As usual here in Peru, Mama Vicky’s birthday was celebrated with food, family, beer, wine and Pisco.

4 generations

4 generations

Drinking Pisco Sours

Drinking Pisco Sours

Happy birthday Mama Vicky!!!

Media

Posted on by under Life in Peru

The links below are absolute must read. Nothing I can add.

Hard-to-believe, but true story about media coverage of the Bagua massacre in Peru last month:

In Spanish on GCC
In English from IKN

Established media in Peru really dropped the ball on this. Who knows how many people read the government propaganda and misinformation and took it for fact since it came from the nation’s leading media outlets. Que basura!!!

El Comercio miente

El Comercio miente

Picture courtesy of Amazilia

Baby’s first restaurant trip

Posted on by under Life in Peru

We took Brianna on her first restaurant trip. Some fellow expat bloggers (Barb, Rachel and Stuart) will love me for this… We didn’t take her to one of my local favorites such as Coco Loco’s, Trotamundos or Makayla’s, but to McDonald’s!!!

Eat your veggies, put some ketchup on those fries!

Eat your veggies, put some ketchup on those fries!

At McDonald's in Cusco

At McDonald's in Cusco

Look, it was Patricia’s idea, plus we had a coupon 🙂

Actually most Cusquenians don’t seem to mind that a McDonalds opened on the Plaza de McDonalds – digo, Plaza de Armas – it’s pretty low key without its typical big golden arches. In addition, we had just come from RENIEC, the mother of all Peruvian bureaucracy, so I was ready for some good American style efficiency and capitalism!

Baby's first, but not last, visit to RENIEC

Baby's first, but not last, visit to RENIEC

RENIEC is the agency that issues DNIs, the Peruvian national ID card. Like all of the bureaucratic agencies in Peru, RENIEC is full of pencil pushers whose only goal in life is to maintain their steady paycheck, regardless of how much they may be holding back development in Peru. I mean, I could have been working instead of trying to hold my baby up straight so she could put her “footprints” (not kidding) on her ID papers.

I’m cranky now, gimme a cheeseburger 😦

Cusco – general strike pictures

Posted on by under Life in Peru

There has been a lot of social unrest in Peru as of late, in particular in the provinces. The working class, the poor and indigenous people have been justifiably unhappy with the neo-liberal free-trade policies of the government in Lima. The worst unrest happened in Bagua last month, but there has been widespread social unrest all over Peru recently.

Here are some pictures of the general strike in Cusco today:

During strikes there are typically demonstrations by the main government buildings and the roads are often blocked. For example, there has been an ongoing dispute in Sicuani that caused temporary chicken shortages here in Cusco, since trucks were not able to come from Arequipa.

Here in Cusco social unrest is very mild. Thanks to the tourism industry the standard of living in Cusco is much different from in the rural areas. If you live in Cusco, the reality is that you should plan for about 5-10 extra days of vacation every year.

Finally, during strikes here in Cusco you see Peruvian police (PNP) standing by everywhere, in case, you know, an ice cream vendor comes by 🙂

My first bribe in Peru

Posted on by under Life in Peru

Bribery is part of life here in Peru. If you get pulled over in traffic for example, just step out of the car and leave S/.20 (~$7) on the front seat. The cop will politely wish you a good day. While that may seem rather innocent, corruption in Peru has historically reached to the top levels (in English from IKN) of Peruvian government.

I’ve managed to get through nearly 2 years in Peru without bribing anyone, unless you count the time we were on the way to hand out Christmas presents to poor kids in a rural town and we had to give a cop a piece of Paneton for safe passage. Seriously.

Aside from the fact that I’m a cheap Dutchman, I just hate the thought of being part of the corruption. The bureaucracy is like a cancer here in Peru, with a bunch of middle class folks hiding in their comfy government offices enjoying the status quo, lining their pockets without doing a thing to improve their country. So I stubbornly persisted through getting legally married in Peru and obtaining my carne extranjeria without bribing anyone. But all that changed last week.

I got bribed.

OK, it wasn’t a real quid-pro-quo thing, more like what GE would call a facilitating payment. On the last day of class, which are always interesting, one of my students gave me this beautiful hand-made sweater for our baby girl.

My first bribe in Peru

My first bribe in Peru

It wasn’t the first time a student gave me a gift, but in this case the girl had missed more classes than she was supposed to, so it had a bit more of a “teacher please help me out” feeling attached to it 🙂

Honestly the so-called rule we have about students not missing classes is totally disregarded anyway, so it wasn’t as if she would have failed the class, but when she gave it to me in front of all her classmates, everyone laughed and said things in Spanish I’m only too glad I didn’t understand 😉

Happy 4th of July!!!

Posted on by under Life in Peru

Since we’re in Peru, we’ll miss the fireworks and cookouts this year. Have one for us though! Last year I was in SC with friends on the 4th.

Busy month for national holidays in our wildly multi-national family:

  • July 4th. The US citizens in our family – Roxi and Manchita – will get an extra hot dog today 🙂
  • Belgian National Holiday on July 21, time to hit up Google for a good Belgian Waffle recipe.
  • Peru’s National Holiday on July 28, which also happens to be Mama Vicky’s birthday.
Roxi and Manchita

Roxi and Manchita

BTW – if you’re enjoying your freedom, take a look at the Honduras resistencia blog to support the people in Honduras who aren’t quite as lucky as us. Last time I was in Honduras was 15 years ago or so, but the poor people there deserve better than a return to the Cold War.

Quechua girl names

Posted on by under Life in Peru

The most popular post on this blog remains “Looking for names of Inca princesses”, which I wrote when we first found out our baby was going to be a girl. We had already picked Brianna for the first name, but I wanted a native or Quechua name as well.

Since then I’ve learned a lot about Quechua girl names. My students made me a list of Quechua names:

  • Urpi (Dove)
  • Illary (Rainbow)
  • Tica (Flower)
  • Saywa
  • Illa
  • Killa
  • K’antu (the national flower of Peru)
  • Kusi
  • Mayu

Probably the most common Quechua girl name I’ve heard here in Cusco is Chaska. If you like names of famous people, you can choose Q’orianka, after Peruvian-American actress Q’orianka Kilcher. Site friend Amazilia posted this link to Quechua names in the comments of my “Looking for names of Inca princesses” post.

Patricia wanted to pick a unique name though, and found Nayaraq on this list of Quechua names. So we settled on “Brianna Nayaraq”.

Brianna Nayaraq

Brianna Nayaraq

Nayaraq means “who has many desires”. I hope she will grow up with the desire to make Peru an even better place.

I’m very happy we picked a name that will remind our daughter of her heritage as well as the great history and culture of Peru. Of course we also like the way it sounds, plus we can use “Naya” or “Yara” for a nickname 🙂

Baby pictures

Posted on by under Life in Peru

Here’s a few more pictures of our baby Brianna. Some were taken at the Clinica Paredes where she was born, and a few more here at our apartment in Cusco:

She’s already a week old, and both mommy and baby are doing well.

I think all babies are cute, but it’s funny how many people here were hoping the baby would look like a gringa… “ojalá que salga con las ojos de su padre” … while all of my gringo friends were saying “let’s hope she looks like her mommy.” 😉

Baby arrives!!!

Posted on by under Life in Peru

We are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl!!!

Mom and baby

Mom and baby

Brianna Nayaraq

Brianna Nayaraq

At almost 3.9kg (~8lbs 10 oz) she’s a big baby girl! Born on June 20, the shortest day of the Southern hemisphere. Mom and baby are both doing well!!!