We spent a few days in Arequipa last month, you may have already read about part of the adventure here.
Arequipa is the largest city in the south of Peru, known as “la Cuidad Blanca” or the “white city”. It is well known that Arequipa is called “la Cuidad Blanca” because many of the city’s colonial buildings are made out of “sillar”, a white volcanic rock local to the Arequipa area. However, I’ve heard there’s a second reason for the nickname “white city”: when the Spanish settlers arrived in Lima, many found Lima’s climate too cool and humid and moved to Arequipa for its mild and dry climate. As the Spanish settlers with more white-colored skin displaced the native Quechua Indian population, Arequipa became known as “the white city”.
I don’t know if that second story is true but you can’t blame the Spaniards for moving to Arequipa in search for a better climate than Lima. Stuart once said that Arequipa has the most perfect climate on earth and it’s hard to argue with that. Outside of a few rainy months during the Southern hemisphere summer, Arequipa enjoys a mild, dry and sunny climate – all day, every day.
The weather isn’t hot but do bring a hat because the sun is very strong in Arequipa, I guess that must be due to the combination of elevation and dry air. Arequipa, by the way, is at an elevation of 7,550 feet or 2,300 meters, higher than Denver but lower than Cuzco.
There are many reasons to visit Arequipa: it’s far more cosmopolitan and far less touristy than Cuzco. The local food is a bit different (more spicy) than in other parts of Peru. Arequipa has beautiful views, history, culture and a near-perfect climate.
But the most important reason to visit Arequipa is that the city is near to several major volcanos, practically in the shadows of “el Misti Volcano”. One day sooner or later one or all of the volcanos will go KABOOM and then Arequipa as we know it will be history. So go on and get your chupe de camarones and rocoto relleno before it’s too late 🙂
Further on my series of posts on cost of living in Peru, time to fess up that out of $200 I started with exactly 1 week ago, there’s nothing left in my wallet.
Nada, nichts, zilch, nothing.
The final straw came yesterday morning as I started to boil water (we boil our drinking water) and the gas in the kitchen ran out. I called the gas company to bring a new cylinder of gas and, as always, they asked me with how much I would pay. This is so they can make sure the driver has correct change. I mustered up the confidence to open my wallet and saw I had S/.60 (~$21.80) left. A cylinder of gas is S/.35 and change. I don’t think most people tip the driver, but I do. After all, the guy’s delivering cylinders of explosive natural gas on a motorcycle in Peruvian city traffic for 12 hours a day, I think he’s earned a tip.
Since my previous post on day 4 of my “cost of living in Peru” experiment, this is how we’ve spent the last of my $200:
Food: I loose track of how many times I go to Mega – our local grocery store. Since the store is about a half a mile from our house I walk to Mega and back, consequently I only buy as much as I can carry (and still chase the baby if I need to). I think I go to Mega 4-5 times per week. I spent S/.20 at Mega yesterday and S/.36 the day before if I remember well. Some time earlier during this experiment I spent S/.170 or so at Mega because we bought expensive items like laundry detergents, etc.
Bread, snacks, etc: I spend S/.2.00 for fresh bread every morning and occasionally S/.6.00 – S/.10.00 to buy yummie treats at the bakery in the afternoon. I often take Pitufiloquita to the park in the morning and we both get our S/.1.00 ice cream when the sun is out.
Restaurants: Saturday we ate at “Sr. Panda”, a nice little restaurant right by our house. We like it because the food is good and reasonably priced, it’s only a block away, and “Sr. Panda” is about the only place in Cuzco (maybe all of Peru) where you can get good, hot and greasy chicken wings.
We also like “Sr. Panda” because right nextdoor is an arcade where I can take Pitufiloquita while we’re waiting on the food – just so she doesn’t raise too much cane in the restaurant 😉
I believe I spent S/.28 (~$10) at Sr. Panda and maybe S/.5 – S/.8 at the arcade.
Mamacita and Pitufiloquita playing at the arcade
Brianna getting ready to race at the arcade
Long story short, I managed to make it through a week on $200. That’s about right as far as our cost of living here in Peru goes. Our rent is $220 per month, our bills are around $200 (some are discretionary such as cellphones and satelite TV) and with food, restaurants, day trips and the like we usually spend between $1,000 – $1,400 per month for a family of three (5 if you include the mutts).
When I lived by myself in the US my bills were around $2,400 per month just for mortgage, car payment, gas, utilities, etc. That was before buying food and any discretionary things like going out to eat.
How about you, how much is your cost of living and in what area?
Ouch this is getting ugly real fast. Only 4 days since I started my cost of living in Peru experiment and I’m already scared to look in my wallet to see what’s left of the $200 I started with on Tuesday.
Day 1 was easy enough. After paying some regular bills (see previous post) the only money we spent was S/.23.94 (~$8.86) at “Mega”, our local grocery store. Mamacita got a few things at “Mega” and we had our famous homemade salchipapas for dinner:
Homemade salchipapas
Salchipapas are a favorite Peruvian snack: a mix of french fries and deep fried slices of hot dog. Yumm!! Most Peruvians eat their salchipapas with lots of sauces (ketchup, mayo, aji, etc) but I prefer mine just with plenty of salt.
Day 2 of my “cost of living” experiment wasn’t bad either. The only things we bought were bread in the morning and some paltas (avocados) to make fajitas for dinner at night. In the US many people assume that all Latin American food is like Mexican food, but that’s not true at all. Peruvian food is nothing like Mexican food. Having said that, my homemade fajitas didn’t turn out bad at all 🙂
Day 3: now it gets bad
It’s my own fault, we had to spend some money. A few days ago I lost my cellphone, been looking for it ever since but it didn’t turn up. In Peru cellphones get robbed all the time, but in my case I’m certain I just misplaced it (or pitufiloquita may have taken it out of my coat pocket and disappeared it somehow). I can live without a cellphone, but the trouble is that I just sent out a few resumes to my potential dreamjob, and the resumes of course have my phone nr on them. Mamacita has threatened if I don’t get a real job by the time I’m 40, that we’re all moving back up North – so I can’t afford to miss any phone calls 🙂
Our plan to replace my phone was very Peruvian: mamacita has various cellphones and doesn’t use all of them. Since her phones are with a different company, we decided to take one of her unused cellphones to “Centro Commercial Paraiso” to have it unlocked. “Paraiso” is one of the less reputable markets in the Santiago district of Cuzco. A lot of stolen cellphones end up there to be unlocked and resold.
Mamacita thought we would be able to unlock her phone for S/.10 and buy a new chip at Movistar for another S/.10 but we had no such luck. Mamacita’s cellphone is a nicer new model, and nobody at “Paraiso” was able to unlock it for us. I gave up and we went back to Movistar to buy a new phone (S/.109 or about $40) and new chip so I could retain my phone number.
On the way back from the cellphone store we spent S/.39.40 (~14.59) at “Mega” again. Just some supplies, drinks, juices, etc. I drink a lot of juice in Cuzco, not sure if it’s the altitude or why?
KFC in Cuzco, Peru:
Later in the afternoon on day 3 mamacita spent some time with Maria, one of her best friends, to work on their univeristy thesis (presentation next Wednesday!!!). Exhausted and hungry from all their hard work, mamacita and Maria wanted to go eat at KFC at the Plaza de Armas late in the evening.
The KFC restaurant in Cuzco recently opened up in the spot where Cafe Ayllu used to be at the Plaza de Armas. I don’t care too much anymore for American style fast food, but since this is only the third American style fast food restaurant in Cuzco (the others are McDonalds and Bembos) I understand that mamacita and Maria wanted to try it out. In my opinion the food at KFC in Peru is better than KFC in the US. I haven’t eaten at KFC in the US in a long time, but I remember some years ago eating at KFC and thinking that the Colonel would have been ashamed if he was around to see what the food had become. Here in Peru the KFC chicken is pretty good, although in Cuzco I prefer “Brosso” for fried chicken and if you want really yummie fried chicken I think La Paz (Bolivia) has the best.
KFC restaurant at the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco, Peru
Inside the KFC restaurant in Cuzco
We spent something like S/.51 (~$18.75) for the big combo at KFC. Pitufiloquita was her wild usual self inside KFC. She managed to stay out of major trouble until she jumped and fell of one of the bench seats, but no harm done. At least no food ended up on the floor…
Yesterday was day 4 of my “cost of living in Peru” experiment. I didn’t really spend any money other than fresh bread in the morning (S/.2.00), S/.36 in groceries at Mega and S/.3.00 for more fresh bread, the Peruvian national bread pan ciabatta in the evening.
Conclusion:
I started out with $200 (S/.544) in my wallet on Tuesday. Right now I’m scared to look in my wallet, I’m hoping to at least make it through the weekend without having to hit the bank again 🙂
I get a lot of emails and questions about the cost of living in Peru. There really is no such thing as “the cost of living” in Peru. What one person spends in Miraflores in a month will be entirely different from what another person spends in Accha, and averages tend to skew the big picture.
“How much you save depends on your own personal circumstances…..working wife/single, kids/no kids (school or university age), social habits/stay at home guy, etc….so hard to say. I made 140K last year as a year 2 Captain….BUT you pay about 30% tax, and 10% goes to your pension so every month they take a whopping 40% out of your pay check. Lima is not as cheap as it used to be, housing has increased significantly, aprox 100% in last 6 years……this is fact, I just sold my apartment! Schools range from 500-1000 USD/month and if renting don’t expect to pay less than 1K per month for a decent place.
It’s true that some areas of Lima are very expensive, but on the other hand most people in Peru have a far lower cost of living (and income) than what’s quoted above. Per capita GDP in Peru 2010 was $9,200 (CIA factbook).
So I decided to do my own little experiment: I took $200 (about 544 Peruvian Nuevos Soles) out of my local bank account here today. I will try not to use my bank card for anything in the next few days, just cash, and keep track of how much I spend each day and how long it takes for my $200 to run out. Hopefully I will make it through at least a few days 🙂
Sadly, I’ve already spent some of my $200 because bills were due today. Here’s what I’ve spent so far:
Garbage pickup, 2 months: S/.13.00 (~ $4.78)
Water & sewer, 1 month: S/.14.00 (~ $5.14)
Electricity, 1 month: S/.42.20 (~ $15.51)
Maybe today wasn’t the best day to start my experiment, because I’ve just completed 2 of my biggest recurring purchases in the past few days: diapers and dogfood 😉
Check back tomorrow and see how my wallet is holding up!
I’ve been really short on time lately and haven’t been posting much. I meant to write about my last visit to the EsSalud hospital for Brianna’s routine immunizations. The nurses at the hospital wanted Brianna to see a psychatrist and a specialist for being “hyperactive”.
In my opinion that’s nothing but bad influence from the so-called developed world. According to the CDC 2.7 million kids in the US are taking medication for ADHD – but I don’t want any part of it. ADHD is baloney. I agree that Brianna is more active than other kids her age, she’s nothing short of a little hellraiser. But having lots of energy is not a medical condition that needs to be treated or corrected, hyperactive kids just need a way to apply or let out their energy in an acceptable manner, and if it takes a lot of effort from the parents to channel or control that energy, so be it, that’s life.
Arequipa
We spent a few days in Arequipa last week – more on the trip and beautiful city of Arequipa later. Unlike Cuzco, Arequipa has some new North-American style shopping malls. Since we don’t get the opportunity too often (Cuzco has no movie theatres) we went to see a movie at the Cinemark theatre in the mall Aventura Plaza in Arequipa.
We decided to see “the Smurfs” movie, or Los Pitufos in Spanish.
Los Pitufos = the Smurfs
Loquita = little crazy one
therefor: PITUFILOQUITA = Hellraiser Smurf
After watching the movie, my new nickname for Brianna is Pitufiloquita, loosely translated Hellraiser Smurf.
It all started of innocently enough. Pitufiloquita ran around the entrance hall of the Cinemark theatre while mamacita stood in line to buy the tickets, sodas and popcorn. She ran in and out, up and down the escalator, looked cute and innocent thereby giving all the teenage couples waiting to get into the theatre an entirely wrong impression of what a 2-year old really is like.
We got into the theatre just before the movie started. We didn’t even make it through an entire movie preview before half of Pitufiloquita’s popcorn ended up on the floor. Mamacita had wisely bought a separate small popcorn for Pitufiloquita and a large popcorn for us to share.
Pitufiloquita then insisted on sitting on the floor and eating popcorn off the floor. Not much later the other half of her popcorn met the floor as well. Pitufiloquita then decided to stomp the popcorn into mashed popcorn. Next came the Skittles, and you guessed it, most of them ended up on the floor.
By this time Pitufiloquita was thirsty, so out comes the soda. I made darn sure no soda got spilled in the theatre, that’s just not cool. It’s one thing to sweep up some popcorn, cleaning sticky soda is a different matter. Pitufiloquita knows how to drink from a cup by tipping the cup, she also knows how to use a straw. Sometimes she gets confused and tips the cup all the way up and that’s how most of the soda ended up on her shirt.
What remained in the big bucket of popcorn for mamacita and papucho then somehow ended up on the floor as well. At that point there was nothing left to throw on the floor so Pitufiloquita started to explore the theatre, climbing up and down the stairs. Papucho made the mistake of going after her, which she just interpreted as “hey, time to play the chase-me-around-the-theatre game”.
Papucho retreated to his seat, pretended not to know anyone and started looking for the nearest exit.
Funny how kids that age learn all the things you don’t want them to. At one point when I was trying to stop her from making a mess Pitufiloquita got all mad and right at a perfectly quiet moment in the movie she yelled out:
“Maldito sea-a-a-a-a-a-a!!!!” (a Spanish curse word)
She starts out in an angry voice, but then it becomes a whiny baby voice. It’s so funny you just can’t help laughing, even though you know you shouldn’t.
Now all this is not to say Pitufiloquita wasn’t enjoying the movie as well. For all her antics she actually did pay attention. At one point there’s a scene with a cellphone, and Pitufiloquita of course had to comment:
“Hallo, hallo, …”
“Di-me, di-me, diiiiiii-me!!!” (~go ahead)
Probably the worst moment for me was when the man sitting next to us got up to go buy some snacks. He was with his wife and kids. One of their kids was about Pitufiloquita’s age, but she sat quietly on her mommy’s lap during the entire movie.
When the man got up and started to walk past our seats, I expected him to shake his head, make a condescending remark, or perhaps just pretend to ignore us. Instead, he paused, his eyes opened wide:
“Oh, Whooaaaaa!!!!”
Probably only guys will really understand this. His reaction was like when you watch an MTV “Jackass” episode: you’re looking at something disgusting and you know you should be disgusted or offended, but the scope of the mess is so immense that you just can’t help but be impressed.
This man was a father of a young family himself yet he was impressed by the mess made by our 2-year old.
“Oh, Whooaaaaa!!!!”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
When the lights came on I ran for the nearest exit 😉
As for the movie, I thought it was pretty good except that I wish they had chosen a setting other than New York city. I understand the commercial aspect of it, but personally I would prefer if more movies were set in different places.
No matter where you are, people are people. We were trying to enjoy our first post-baby vacation and try to make it through a movie without embarrasing ourselves just like young families do anywhere in the world.
Click on the pictures for full size.
Hellraiser smurf at the mall in Arequipa
Hellraiser smurf in Arequipa
A promotional video from the developers of mall Aventura Plaza in Arequipa:
The “Pitufos” movie trailer in Spanish, so you too can have the Smurf’s song in your head for the next 4 days 🙂
As I mentioned in the previous post, this was before about half the guests arrived because I forgot to charge the camera and it died on us before the party really got started.
Birthdays are a big deal here in Peru. Brianna’s birthday was actually on June 20, but since I was away at the time we decided to have her party last Sunday. The video was taken before about half of the guests arrived, since somebody forgot to charge the camera’s battery the camera died on us before the party really got started 😦
The party was a blast. I think there were about 10 or 12 kids and 30 or so adults. The clown did a great job entertaining both the kids and adults, ending in a fun “hora loca” (crazy hour). Of course we had surprises, balloons and a piñata for the kids, the mandatory “pollo la brasa” (rotisserie chicken), a bunch of “bocaditos” (snacks) and a yummie cake!
Mamacita worked hard all week to prepare for the party. Next year we’re just doing something simple at the house… but then again, that’s what we said last year too 🙂
Bert, my best friend, was a counterintelligence agent. A really good one. I’ve said bad things on this blog about US foreign policy and intelligence. From shadowing John Lennon to bombing wedding parties in Afghanistan, much of Western intelligence is the bad product of people stuck in their own ideology and world view, but Bert was nothing like that. Many guys tell tall tales about covert operations, war stories about threats and enemies that sound eerily similar to the latest Hollywood movies, but not Bert. He didn’t carry a gun or shoot bad guys. He didn’t brag and rarely told any stories, I was perhaps the only person he confided in. About certain things he confided in me more than in his own sons.
Bert was a true counterintelligence agent, a card-carrying member of the US Communist party at the height of the so-called Cold War. He played a significant role in bringing about “detente”. He brought Romanian business to Foreign Trade Zone 24 in Scranton PA while Nicolae Ceausescu was trying to move policy towards the West. Bert always maintained Ceausescu was with the CIA. Bert was trusted so much by the Soviets that he did business with the head of the Siberian railroad and Amtorg. When he was out with Soviet agents, the Soviets always would point out the FBI agents watching. “See him over there, he’s FBI.”
His biggest coup was organizing the 1972 Nixon visit to China. Bert always said that the FBI had tried for 25 years to get in with China, but never made any headway. He got in in 2.5 years. Regardless of how you feel about China today, at the time the objective was simply to avoid all-out war.
Bert died several years ago after a long battle with cancer that he blamed on cigarettes and nuclear radiation. He had a large spot on his thigh that was smoother than a baby’s bottom where he believed he’d been hit by Soviet nuclear instrumentation (which he wanted to sell in the US).
My best friend and I, many years ago. He was already very ill then.
What does any of this have to do with Peru and Ollanta Humala?
There have been many comments and opinions this week about the future of Peru under new President Ollanta Humala (he takes office on July 28). Otto was interviewed by The Motley Fool and he makes reasonable arguments (except that I don’t believe the meteoric rise of the Lima stock market is sustainable in the long run and I’m concerned that the amount of cash that the AFPs are pumping in the stock market is a considerable long term bubble risk).
As for Humala, I said way back in April that people were overreacting and not much would change under Ollanta Humala. I stand by that statement because of something Bert told me long ago. This was one of his stories that he repeated down to each and every detail maybe 50 or 100 times (he readily admitted that some of his past was traumatic and had taken a mental toll on him).
Bert’s career was no fairy tale by any stretch of the imagination. He got hurt and in trouble several times. He joined the US Navy as a young man and served on the Destroyer Leader USS Willis A. Lee. He got seriously hurt in the Navy and was medically discharged (but retired). He walked with a leg brace most of his adult life. He was badly beaten by the New York mob and arrested for being a Communist. He always maintained at one point both the FBI and CIA wanted him dead but the Navy Admiralty said there would be hell to pay if he was harmed. I believe that story because one day at the VA hospital in Tampa a group of young Navy officers came in to salute Bert. Everyone else in that hospital ward said something like: “who the heck are you? In here we’re all just sick old men who used to be somebody, and nobody comes to salute us.”
Bert grew up in a devout Catholic family. The story he told me over and over is that one day early in his career he got in serious trouble and sought refuge in the Vatican. There he confided in a high-level Vatican attorney that he had conflicting feelings about his work. He was raised a devout Catholic but became a counter-intelligence agent and card-carrying Communist.
The response from the Vatican, the Holy See, was this: “Son, you should work for whoever pays you the most.”
Long story short, there is a lot of money in Peru nowadays (mostly thanks to high metals prices and booming tourism) and Ollanta Humala will not want to upset that. Money always wins. Humala will certainly implement some domestic social programs, and that’s not a bad thing, but he won’t do anything so drastic that it would upset the country’s macro-economic prospects.
You can’t just compare Ollanta Humala the person to Hugo Chavez or Lula, look at the environment as well. Peru today is a very different country from 1980 or 1990. There is a lot of money in Peru today and Ollanta Humala will have to work with whoever pays Peru the most.
R.I.P. Bert, and know that at least some of your advice stuck with me.
Exit polls for Peru’s 2011 Presidential elections are showing Ollanta Humala 52,6%; Keiko Fujimori 47,4%. Official election results are not due in until later, but it looks safe to say Ollanta Humala will be Peru’s next President.
Exit polls show Ollanta Humala leading Peru elections 2011
Here are the up-to-the-minute Peru election results from La Republica, the only major Peruvian newspaper that had endorsed Ollanta Humala.
Expect the Peruvian stock market and real estate prices to take a long overdue nosedive tomorrow, but I believe there are many great opportunities in Peru and Ollanta Humala has a chance to prove his doubters wrong.
Results are not official yet, but congratulations to Ollanta Humala.
We earthly people take ourselves waaayyyy too seriously sometimes. Just take a look at the video taken this past Sunday when so-called environmental activists in Belgium destroyed a field of genetically modified potatoes. The field was a scientific test organized by multiple universities, where genetic material from Peruvian potatoes was added to Belgian potatoes to make the resulting potato resistant to disease.
There’s a fine line between idealism and stupidity. Both the scientist types and the so-called activists have too much time on their hands or take themselves too seriously, I don’t know. Perhaps they should do something that’s really important to the world, like, say, spend time with their families and loved ones.
Speaking of mixing Peruvian and Belgian genes, check out this apple 😉
Life in Peru 