Earthquakes, keys, and locks

In the few weeks since we arrived in Lima we have already experienced two earthquakes, which makes us feel like Peru is more tectonically active than California! Peru lies at the intersection of the Nazca and the South American plates. Their collision gives rise to the Andes, the second highest mountain range in the world, next only to the Himalayas. The plate collision also results in many faults, which invariably means earthquakes. The first one we felt after being here for only about a week was a sudden strong jolt which shook walls and rattled windows. The second one was completely different. It came slowly and grew with a crescendo. Stephanie asked me if it was an earthquake and I replied that probably a large truck was passing by. But then it grew stronger until we couldn't mistake it for anything else. It was very long, longer than anything I've felt in California, at least 20 seconds, which is very long for an earthquake. Fortunately neither one caused injury or damage from what we know. Peru suffered a devastating earthquake in 1970 that killed some 60,000 people. I hope we're not due for another big one.

Out of concern for things like earthquakes and fires we decided to always keep a spare key in the front door lock. Peruvian locks are made so that in order to lock the door you need to lock yourself in. In other words, you need a key to get out. So, we always left it attached to the inside lock in case we needed to get out in a hurry. The problem with that is that (and no one told us this since every good Peruvian should know it already) if you try to lock the door from the outside with another key in the side of the lock inside the apartment, the two keys may turn in different directions resulting in a stuck key. Needles to say, this happened to us last Saturday as we were heading out for a weekend outing to the zoo. Well, the locksmith had to come and drill open our front door lock and replace it with a new one. The entire ordeal took a couple of hours which Ixchel and Stephanie used to visit the Christmas Store (more on that later) and some friends across town while I waited outside our door as the locksmith struggled to get us back into the apartment. As the say, live (in Peru) and learn.

Ixchel llega al Peru - Ixchel in Peru (Parque Central, Miraflores)

Transporte, moneda, y distancias

Nuestro principal medio de movilidad es el Be-eme-doblepie. Ademas utilizamos los buses, chamas (microbuses), colectivos, y taxis regulares. Ademas, de vez en cuando hay tours particulares que uno puede tomar. Lima es una ciudad con una poblacion mayor a la de todo Honduras, o sea que hay de todo, lo bueno, lo malo, y lo feo. Lima tiene un centro historico muy bonito con edificios coloniales, parques, y todo. Hay que recordar que junto con México DF era una de las ciudades más importantes en tiempos de la colonia. Hay muchos museos y eventos culturales. Nosotros vivimos en el distrito de Miraflores que es como una pequeña ciudad pues tiene su propia alcaldía y depto. de policía. Está al lado del mar que es bueno pues hay menos contaminación que en otras partes. Miraflores es un lugar bien tranquilo, nosotros estamos como a 8 cuadras del mar. Las distancias son largas si uno necesita desplazarse por todo Lima, pero por lo general todo lo que necesitamos lo tenemos cerca ya que estamos en una zona bastante centrica de Miraflores. El nido de Ixchel esta a tres cuadras, el super a cuatro, el banco a cinco, y hay pequeños restaurantes por todos lados.

Estefanía va todos los días al centro de Lima pues ahí tienen los archivos que ella investiga. En taxi se llega como en 15-20 minutos. Los taxis aqui son mas baratos que en Honduras. Adentro de Miraflores no pasan de $1.50 y para ir al centro que esta más lejos unos $2. El aeropuerto nos queda como a 45 minutos y de ahí sí cobran como $10. Aqui tienen una economía bi-monetaria o sea que el dólar circula mucho y se puede usar para pagar en el super y en las tiendas y le dan el cambio como usted quiera en dolares o en soles, y como en Honduras, muchos precios se los dan en dólares como el alquiler de los departamentos por ejemplo. El cambio ahorita esta como a 3.3 soles por dolar. Cuando estuvimos aqui en julio el sol estaba a 3.5 por dólar, o sea que el dolar ha bajado en relacion al sol. Nunca ví que sucediera eso en Honduras aunque ultimamente el lempira se ha mantenido bastante estable. Los precios son bastante cómodos, especialmente la comida pues una comida estilo "menu" le cuesta menos de $2. Además la comida es muy rica pues el Perú es uno de los principales centros gastronómicos en Latinoamérica.

Cuando nos visiten nos gustaría salir de Lima pues el Perú es un país inmenso donde caberían 11 honduras (1,285,000 km cuadrados) y hay mucho que ver. Hay tres regiones principales: la costa que es árida, la cadena de los Andes (el Perú tiene muchos picos que sobrepasan los 6,000 m), y el bosque amazónico al otro lado de los Andes. Se puede imaginar que las distancias son bastante grandes. Hay buses-cama pues viajes de 20 o mas horas no son fuera de lo comun. Para ir a Cusco por lo general la gente se va en avion, por ejemplo. El clima no termina de calentar aqui en Lima. Los días siguen nublados y el clima está fresco como para andar suéter o chumpa ligera. Yo le digo a los peruanos que en Lima el único sol que hay es en la moneda. Pero las cosas estan mejorando pues estamos entrando en el verano austral. Dicen que el 15 de diciembre empieza la temporada veraniega y que de enero a marzo son los meses en que las playas se llenan de veraniantes.

Mold and more

[By Stephanie] I've been sick for the past 2 weeks, stomach stuff. They gave me antibiotics, but they didn't work the first round so I'm on another 5 days. At this point, it's not as bad as it was; I just get a stomach ache everytime I eat and I can't eat all the good stuff, like cebiche, until I'm better. Luckily Ixchel has a stomach like a Peruana and Alex is well equipped given his 14 years in Honduras. Of course Ixchel isn't eating cebiche yet, either, although in general she likes the basic foods: potatoes, avocados, rice, quinoa, etc. There's a Peruvian vegetarian restaurant near our house where we go with some regularity. But I guess I got in trouble b/c we've been sampling everything -- how can you resist in Peru! -- in a different restaurant everyday. Oh, and we found an incredible dessert store the other day. It has choclates with pecans and manjar blanco (the caramel-like stuff) inside, to name just one item.

The other day, I was putting away some clothes in my closet and I found that the 4 pairs of shoes I have that I haven't worn here yet (b/c they're for summer, more formal) were COVERED in mold! It looked like some 4th-grade science project gone wild. Seriously, over 2 inches of mold growing all over one pair. Washed everything in bleach and have the closet loaded up with "dehumidifier balls" which will hopefully take care of things. Of course Alex, the physical geographer, assures me that the humidity can't be THAT high here because the air is too cool to hold high amouts of water. He patiently explains to me that San Pedro Sula (Honduras) has higher humidity because the air is warmer. But my clothes dried in SPS and my shoes were never covered in mold! I insist. Consequently, Alex has had to re-think the application of theory to our wet, Lima reality and has finally decided that although absolute humidity is not that high here, relative humidity is: the coolness of the air allows it to be fully saturated and eliminates its drying power. Peruvians (who have all experienced the moldy-shoe phenomenon) look at Alex like he's nuts when he tries to explain relative vs. absolute humidity in Lima.

Ixchel really likes her "nido" (daycare, literally means "nest"), especially Miss Ines, her teacher who's very nice. She's learning lots of words (dato = zapato = shoe), pie (foot), and she said "Miss" a lot after her first week in the nido. On Friday, I'll go on a field trip with her nido to a farm outside of Lima. It's a really nice nido; it's very Catholic as is almost everything here. She's already been parading around the block for one of the thousand religious celebrations they have here (the Miracle Christ on this occasion, as opposed to Christ in his other 100 manifestations that are celebrated). She enjoyed it -- got to wear a purple cape, a little purple Jesus necklace, and walk around outside looking for wow-wows (her favorite activity besides chasing balls of other children in the park...everyone is very nice and lets Ixchel play with their toys). She has picked up some less attractive habits...I'm waiting for "mio" to pop into her vocabulary, but not yet...the other day she spent a whole day sort of whining with her face screwed up for no apparent reason (we were on a nice walk in the park). Soon I realized she was just testing out what she'd seen other kids do in the nido. I nipped this annoying behaviour in the bud very quickly (although, more likely, I think Ixchel just got bored with doing it).

I've been a bit slowed with my illness, but primarily I've been working in the national archives which are located in the Palacio de Justicia (a state building just across from the Sheraton for those who know Peru). I enjoy the dusty documents and think I'm working on some relevant stuff (labor complaints against Nikamatsu Okada, the largest Japanese immigrant landowner in pre-WW II Peru, was deported...trying to see to what degree there was popular protest against different Japanese groups (ie rich/powerful like Okada) and/or if anti-J campaigns were organized by competitors -- other large landowners -- and how all this fed into state policy). Sometimes it's hard to tell how relevant it is when you start. The other problem is that a lot of the 20th c docs are disorganized. I also met with Amelia Morimoto, the most eminent Peruvian writer on the J-Ps. May go to Ica later this month, but I'm a little behind in my planning b/c of the sickness.

Alex is working on articles and applying for some jobs. Luckily it's warmed up so he's not freezing to death. He really likes the food and being in Latin America. Oh! And we went to a play the other night with a friend of Alex' who works for the UN in Peru. Our other friends' niece (she's in her 30s) took care care of Ixchel.

Ixchel, clima, y comida

El traslado al Peru nos dejo incomunicados hasta hace unos dias. Aqui tienen los "cafes internet" pero como le cobra a uno por minuto, casi no puede escribir a nadie sin terminar en bancarrota. Felizmente, por fin conseguimos internet en casa, asi que puedo escribir con un poco de tranquilidad. Llegamos al Peru el 1 de octubre y todo anda bien hasta ahora. Ixchel esta de lo mas bien, creciendo, hablando...dice "datos" para "zapatos", "pa" para "pajaro", "naña" para ninos y ninas, etc. y a ella le encantan los guau-guaus. Ella se ha adaptado de maravilla. Alex tambien se encuentra bien, le gusta estar en America Latina de nuevo, pero yo creo que extraña hasta el calor de Cuba en agosto! No se calienta Lima, te lo juro. Hay una capa de neblina que cuesta quitarse. Me van bien las investigaciones, pero me enferme del estomago y he estado con dolores y varios otros malestares relacionados, asi que me tuve que quedar en cama por unos dias. Ya me estoy recuperando, creo. La comida es muy rica aca y he comido de todo, pero parece que esta panza gringuita no aguanto. Y eso que no me enferme pa' nada en Cuba.

Ixchel in the park

Ixchel being Ixchel --- Ixchel siendo Ixchel en el parque del amor