Another One Buys the Bus

May 12, 2013 – Day 660

Every Sunday, the School that our children attend sends out an email with all of their weekly news. Along with notices about the latest happening in Mr. X’s class or how darling the performance was by Mrs. Y’s oboe students, an item in today’s electronic communications caught my eye.

The School was announcing that it was auctioning off five of its school buses. Granted, only four of them are actually working but the School did provide a list of all the parts needed to get Bus#5 back up and running.

I read this announcement with chagrin because I couldn’t figure out who would buy a Ford F-70 bus, but then I remembered I currently live in Peru.

Here in Lima, the public transportation system consists of a single bus line (The Metropolitano) and a single-line electric train (Metro).

For a city of nearly nine million people, there are only two lines to ferry people to and fro courtesy of the government.

The leftover demand for road transportation (and there is a great deal of leftover demand) is taken up by private individuals. Private ownership of cars is growing by leaps and bounds in Peru, but I would contend that the bulk of people are transported from Point A to Point B courtesy of taxis and combis.

Combis, for those who need a refresher course, are basically privately owned buses of various sizes. Ranging in mass from small vans to mini vans to larger, combis travel along a set route and pick up/drop off passengers along the way. They – to my eyes – are always packed tighter than a Japanese subway. I have never partaken of a ride in a combi and I do believe it is one of the experiences I will skip out on as our time in Lima winds down.

Since a combi is privately owned, this means that a person has to shell out the money to purchase whatever vehicle they will be using. That could be one of the reasons our School is advertising the upcoming auction of buses. It’s not an auction so much as an opportunity for someone to become an entrepreneur.

Likewise, an owner can also sell their combi, which explains the “Se Vende” (For Sale) sign on this vehicle…

Great Deal – Only driven on days ending in “s” or “o”

Final note – Just in case you’re wondering (and I highly doubt you were) about the circle with the “70″ in the left-hand side of the picture, this means that the bus can only reach a top speed of 70 kilometers per hour (43 mph).

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

March 31, 2013 – Day 618

The photographic theme this week is…
The photographic theme this week is…
The photographic theme this week is…
The photographic theme this week is…
The photographic theme this week is…
The photographic theme this week is…

…patterns.

WordPress wants to see a picture that represents a pattern and so I will repeat myself and show you another picture of the central checkerboard floor that forms the center open-air space of the Museo de Arte in Lima (MALI).

Oh, look, there’s my daughter as she breaks up the pattern.

Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

March 31, 2013 – Day 618

“From Above” is this week’s theme from WordPress.

Today’s response comes from the outing the family took to soak up some culture as we visited Museo de Arte in Lima, also known as MALI.

The building is a rectangle and in the center is a spacious center that looks like it would do a good job of hosting all manner of outside events. On this particular Sunday, this space was empty save its checkerboard-style black and white tiles and the four of us.

For no reason whatsoever except that I liked the effect, I decided to take a snapshot of one of the shiny black tiles while standing right over it.

A photo with a reflective quality

In one of those series of photos that I took, which I have submitted above as my response, my daughter photobombed me.

Workers of the World, Take a Break

May 1, 2013 – Day 649

This day in Peru is a holiday known as Dia del Trabajo. Schools are out and most – but not all – business gave their workers the day off. Empleadas (domestic help) also receive the day off on this holiday.

Actually, this day is a holiday in most corners of the globe. The first of May, May Day, is known as International Workers’ Day and is meant to commemorate all those who labor (or “labour” if you live in England). First set up to honor the demonstrators killed during the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, Illinois, May Day became a day for workers to march and celebrate their contributions.

Because the celebration of May Day has its roots in the Socialism movement of the late 19th Century, I am not overly shocked that May Day is not celebrated in the United States. The Stars and Stripes celebrates its labor force on the first Monday in September.

However, the first of May is an actual holiday in the United States. Workers living in the fifty states and the District of Columbia won’t have the day off and students won’t be out of school, but you can now win a bar bet by letting others know that today is Loyalty Day.

No, seriously, this is a real holiday. It even says so right here in the United States Civil Code.

Have It Your Way At Home Was Here First

April 25, 2013 – Day 643

This adventure to Peru would have been radically different had it taken place two decades ago (heck, even ten years ago). Back in that bygone era known as the early 1990s the Internet was known only to those who had mastered UNIX and were privy to the arcane arts of FTP (that would be “file transfer protocol”). There were no browsers as there wasn’t even a World Wide Web. Podcasts weren’t even a glimmer in the eyes of tech-savvy folk.

Had I lived in Peru a score of years ago, I believe I would have been out of contact with the news that emanated from the United States. Perhaps, in the 1990s, I would have been able to keep tabs on the happenings in the States by reading days-old newspapers that were shipped to Lima.

However, I am in Peru now and now means the Internet, the Web, and podcasts. Courtesy of all of that technological wizardry, I am able to keep abreast of all manner of news from the sea to shining sea as well as all other sections of the globe.

One of my favorite podcasts is Marketplace, a business-oriented program from American Public Radio. Today, I heard the program from April 24 and was greatly humored by the final item of Wednesday’s program as narrated by the program’s host, Kai Ryssdal. In its entirety, here is that transcript…

This week’s sign the apocalypse is upon us: (And honestly, I don’t know how I missed this, but somehow I did.)

It seems just because fast food isn’t already convenient enough, you can now get it delivered. I learned today Burger King franchises in Chicago, San Francisco and eventually here in Los Angeles will start delivering Whoppers, et al.

After all, to steal a line from one of our producers here, a microwaved $2 hamburger isn’t enough. Now you can get it cold, on your door step.

My apologies, Mr. Ryssdal, but if your metaphor is to be believed, then the Apocalypse has already been upon us based on life down here in Peru.

Fast-food delivery from the burger-makers of McDonald’s, Bembo’s, KFC, and yes even from Burger King, has been the epitome of normal since we arrived. Delivery is done via motorcycle as can be seen in this picture…

Fast Food on Fast Wheels

Are the burgers cold? No. Why? For the same reason, Mr. Ryssdal, that your delivered pizza isn’t icy when it arrives at your doorstep. The burger joints use insulated boxes that keep the hot stuff hot and the cool stuff cool.

Chicago, San Fransisco, and L.A., please enjoy your delivered patties.

From the 80s to Today

April 24, 2013 – Day 642

Over my time here in Peru, I have made mention once or twice about how Lima appears to be a magnet for musical acts that were popular back in the 1980s.

The City of Kings has seen Roxette, Aerosmith, and Erasure make appearances while I have lived here. The hits simply keep coming as the news is out that the music group Yes will be performing in Lima in May.

However, the era of Reagan, Flashdance, and shoulder pads for women is not the only period of time that sends its musical acts to Peru. Nope, Lima is also on the leading edge of music hip-ness as Korean pop music (aka K-pop…which is a vastly different musical style from K-Tel) sends its practitioners to this South American capital.

PSY has not yet shown up (only a matter of time, I suppose), but this weekend sees the ten-member boy band from South Korea, Super Junior, in concert. Actually, there will only be nine members showing up for the gig as one of them dropped out to join the Army.

How big is this concert?

It’s so big that one of Peru’s largest newspaper, El Comercio, placed a large poster of the group in its paper as a souvenir item to promote the April 27 show. Part of the poster is reproduced below…

Their show is called “Super Show 5″…that’s why their hands are that way

I may laugh about the bubble-gum quality of K-pop, but I did the same decades ago when the Backstreet Boys hit it big.

And now that quintet has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Who’s laughing now?

Park of the Fountains

March 28, 2013 – Day 615

Over the Semana Santa (Holy Week) holiday during the Thursday and Friday before Easter, our family took the opportunity to visit some sights around Lima that we had not yet seen.

High on that list was the Parque de la Reserva (Park of the Reserve). Completed in 1929, this public green space was built to honor those who fought in the battles of San Juan and Miraflores during the War of the Pacific (1879 – 1883) where Peru and Bolivia fought against Chile.

As a side note, and to highlight the fact that some folks are still steamed over the outcome of that conflict (over a century+a score+a decade ago), the government of Bolivia has gone to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to obtain the coastal land it lost to Chile.

In other ICJ news, Peru and Chile are awaiting the Court’s ruling on Peru’s petition to redraw the maritime boundary between their two countries.

However, all of that judicial and military maneuvering flowed to the back of our minds as we enjoyed a lovely evening walking around the park’s signature feature, El Circuito Mágico del Agua (The Magic Water Tour).

The tour is a series of a baker’s dozen of distinct and different fountains. Each one is numbered and named.

The Tour is best seen at night when the floodlights makes the dancing waters sparkle. We arrived near dusk.

Fuente de la Cupula Visitable

I also learned a valuable lesson for tourists. I learned that one needs to make sure that the battery in the digital camera is charged up before going on an outing. Sadly, I neglected to check the level of electric charge in my trusty camera and so right after I took the above picture, I was greeted with the “Recharge battery” message.

Ignoring the mocking green letters on my camera’s screen, I was able to squeeze out a few more images (seen below) before my camera truly gave up it lithium-ion ghost.

My apologies for the grainy, fuzzy nature of these photos. I’d like to say that I used some sort of Instagram filter on them, but as I said before, I had little battery life and so I only had a few seconds to turn the camera on and take whatever shot I could before my camera died.

Fuente Magica

The above fountain, Fuente Magica, is the tallest of the thirteen. People are not allowed in it, but that doesn’t mean the fine folk of Lima couldn’t enjoy a cool blast of water on a March evening.

Fuente Laberinto de Ensueno

Two days later, we went from the wet to the dry as we visited Caral.

An OK Caral

March 30, 2013 – Day 617

So how did you spend your Saturday before Easter Sunday?

We went to an archaeological site.

To be more specific, we drove north of Lima to Caral, considered to be the oldest city in the Americas.

After a three-hour drive north – of which the last twenty kilometers was done on a road that had not been paved since Caral was last inhabited – we arrived. This is the entrance sign in all of its glory letting you know you have arrived.

There’s a sign post up ahead

Caral is located in a desert. This should help you understand why all the next series of pictures are rather bichromatic (tan bottom half / blue upper half).

Worth more than $20,000

We were assigned a guide as that is the only way to tour Caral. There are no free-range tourists at this site. As there are no ropes, fences, string, or any other barriers to keep the crowds off the ruins, having an ever-present guide is a good way to keep the rocks where they have been for the past five millennia.

The highlight of Caral are the pyramids which may even be older (but not larger) than the pyramids at Giza.

Twin Peaks

In front of the main structures at Caral Alto was a pit that – according to our guide – served as a sacred space for the upper echelons of the Caral citizenry. This picture below doesn’t do the structure justice, but you’ll see an aerial shot of the place at the “Thank You” sign

Take those stairs and you’re movin’ on up

After a ninety-minute tour of the ruins, we were done. We knew we had completed our journey when we saw the sign thanking us for our visit. Politeness is always appreciated when one is dusty, hot, and thirsty.

Y’all come back now, y’hear

And, yes, the exit here does drop you off at the gift shop / refreshment center.

Fashion Season

April 9, 2013 – Day 627

Two items of note concerning fashion…

Signs of the Season

The calendar down here south of the Equator says fall (or otono) but that autumnal season has yet to arrive. One way I know this is that the high temperatures for these days has hovered around the upper seventies.

The other sure sign that summer still has its hooks in Lima has to do with feet. As of this date in April, I still the vast majority of women in the Peruvian capital wearing sandals. A definite barometer that the winds and weather have changed is when women switch from open-toed shoes to boots.

This Southern Hemisphere-ical seasonal change of style is similar to the end-of-winter/start-of-spring phenomenon observed in the Northern Hemisphere with the pants/shorts worn by UPS delivery people.

“And We’re Coming to Town”

This week has seen the start of LIF – otherwise known as Lima in Fashion Week – a five-day festival of all things sartorial. As with anything fashion-related, there are events where designers can showcase their latest creations.

Please allow me to share with you three items designed by Elfer Castro that were examples of clothes inspired by the Incas. This trio of photographs were in today’s El Comercio as part of a special supplemental about LIF.

Not sure what this is #1

Not sure what this is #2

Bank robber or runway model?

Part of me is quite content to know that odd fashion is not limited to Paris.

Tech Genius

March 2013

With the advent of the start of the second semester of my children’s School down here in Peru, the high school that my eldest attends has implemented a new policy. The School’s administration highly, highly, highly encouraged that every student bring a laptop to school. The School can’t mandate that every family shell out $$$ to purchase a laptop, but the head pooh-bahs of the School made it clear that any child sans a portable PC would probably suffer in their educational pursuits.

I had my reservations about letting high schoolers loose at school with computers hooked up to the Wild Wild West of the Internet. Yes, the School IT Wizards assured me that the educational facility had appropriate filters set up on their firewalls which was probably as useless against tech-savvy teens as this fence was.

I had my reservations about letting high schoolers loose at school with unlimited access to Facebook and Twitter. If you thought that passing notes was a distraction at school, I can only imagine that allowing high schoolers unfettered access to social media would be as distracting as a room full of laser pointers to a cat.

However, I had my reservations turned around as I was shown the utility of having the kids in classrooms be equipped with laptops. On a particular day in March, my eldest stayed home from school because he wasn’t feeling well. As it happened, on this day, his Social Studies teacher was giving an important lecture about an upcoming assignment. Now my son knew when his class was so he fired up his laptop, started up Skype, called one of his classmates, and my eldest was able to videoconference into the class and hear and see the whole lecture.

Genius, I dare say…genius.