Monday, July 06, 2009
An American in Lima
The title was totally stolen from a writer's blog that you can find here. But I figured that it's an appropriate title for this post, so I'm going to use it. If the owner of the blog wants me to change it, I will. :)
URUGUAY
So ... where did I leave off last time? I suppose that I haven't yet written about getting back to Montevideo on Friday. Leti and the kids and I all took the bus from Montevideo back to Rivera - about a six hour ride. Her parents live there, and her dad met us at the bus station. I spend the night there at her parents' house and she and the kids would be spending the week there, as it's their winter break.
Her family is delightful - several generations in Uruguay, but very very Italian, and very much like any American Italian family. Her parents both have HUGE personalities. When we arrived, about 7:00pm, they started serving us wine (a delicious Argentinian malbec, which is often my variety of choice at home!). Her sister, brother & wife, and her mom's sister were all there, too. It was reminiscent of what my family's huge get togethers used to be like before our family began to spread out and get older. Lots of eating, lots of laughter, lots of noise and LOTS of energy. It was a lovely evening!!
In the morning, Leti and I walked to a corner market for some bread and came back and had a quiet breakfast together. Gianella picked us up around 10:00 or so and we went out to do some shopping. Uruguay is known for its leather products, and I was hoping to find a good leather jacket. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one that fit me well enough to make me say "WOW!" and thus justify the cost. We also found me a Spanish bible (I was having difficulty finding a Reina Valera 1995 in the States) and a good Spanish dictionary. Funny - in the States I have only been able to find Spanish/English dictionaries. I don't want the English - I can do that online. I wanted Spanish definitions of Spanish words. For those of you who have been discussing Spanish dictionaries with me ... I looked at both RAE's and Larousse ... and I decided on the Larousse. I probably could have gotten one on Amazon ... but I really wanted to have it in my hands, page through it, see what kinds of "extras" it had, read some of the definitions, etc. So it will be worth (I hope) carrying it home all the way from South America!!
We met up with another attorney from the Uruguayan network who I had met at the Convocation in October and the four of us had lunch together. More asado/parrilla and red wine. MMmmm.... A delicious lunch - but not enough time spent with friends, as we needed to get ME to the airport for my flight.
Leti's father drove me (and Leti & Juan Martin) to the airport. LAN airlines had asked that I arrive at the airport three hours before my flight. But their counters didn't even open until about two and a half hours before. Ugh! Anyway, Leti (et al) were kind enough to wait with me while I checked in and paid the airport tax (you have to go to a counter down the hall from check-in and pay $31USD per person ... and, yes, they are very happy to take my US dollars instead of my left over Uruguayan pesos!).
I was so sad to say good-bye to Leticia. Who knows when we'll be able to orchestrate another visit, whether it's Leti to DC or me to Uruguay. We've talked about some possibilities. Hopefully it will happen some day soon!
LIMA
I actually started typing this yesterday, but got distracted and ran out of time. I´m about to leave Lima (yes, a VERY short visit here), but want to type about my very short time spent here.
My flights from Uruguay to Lima were uneventful ... had extra time at the airport in Montevideo so I had dulce de leche flavored ice cream (!!) and a coke. The flight connected through Santiago, Chile, but only left me with enough time between to RUN through the airport (like OJ!) to get to my next flight. When I arrived in Lima (about 11:00pm) there were a few hundred people in line for immigration. The room was HOT and stuffy and people all stood toooooo close together. It took almost an hour to get through that line and to pick up my luggage.
It was about midnight when Nina was finally able to welcome me to her home city. :) We took a taxi to my hotel, which is about two blocks from her mom's house. Although my jet lag is usually worse when traveling west, and Lima is two hours behind Montevideo, I couldn't fall asleep. Ugh! I only ended up getting a couple hours rest that night.
Nina walked over to "pick me up" the next morning (Sunday), and we walked to her mom's for breakfast. I met her mom in October when she was in New York, and it was WONDERFUL to see her again. One of Nina's sisters, Katty, also lives there, with her husband Franklin, and their 4-month-old baby Ezra. They're a gorgeous family! Since it was Sunday, breakfast was a big deal. Of course, there were several different breads and cheeses and delicious jams. We also had tamales (YUM!) and papaya and papas fritas and ........ fried blood. No joke. And it wasn't bad. I have been trying to figure out how to describe the taste ... but really can't figure out how to do so. And I can't easily find anything about it online (if you google it, you come up with some really WEIRD websites.....) Anyway - take my word for it - it wasn't bad. I had seconds ... but would probably not make it for myself or want to snack on it........
Due to a miscommunication, we sort of missed church in the morning (confused about the service times). Nina's husband Roberto & her son Robertito went to meet his sister & her family after the service, which Katty & Franklin took Nina and I on a WONDERFUL driving tour of parts of the coast.
Interesting thing about Lima: in the winter there is this thing called "la garua" ... or, "the mist". It's like a thick fog/cloud sets down over the city for several months. It feels like it might be raining a bit (they'll say "drizzle"), but it never actually rains. You may feel wet, but it's really never raining. It's always gray out, and VERY muggy. The temperatures never really leave the 60's Farhenheit.
Anyway, when we decided to take this drive along the coast, I saw the only sun that I saw pretty much the whole time I was in Lima. I don't mean to say that we could see all the way up and down the coast super-clearly. But it was definitely MUCH more clear than I was expecting, and Nina & her sister & brother-in-law were impressed that the sun actually came out (for our drive, specifically). Lima's coastline is beautiful. It curves around quite a bit, so you can see other parts of the city. And there are large (huge) outcroppings of rock cliffs that create a wonderful view. I'll need to visit sometime in their summer months. (Didn't I say the same thing about Montevideo?) :-)
Some other highlights of my short stay in Lima include an evening exploring Miraflores (where we met up with Nina's other sister & brother-in-law Tonya & Kenny) and shopping some of the independent vendors there (although I really haven't bought much here in Peru...) and a night-time view of the coast from a shopping mall that is built into a cliff. GORGEOUS! We have also had traditional Peruvian food a couple of times. One afternoon, we went with some of Roberto's family to a rotisserie chicken place. I tried a local soft drink called Inka Kola ... interestingly, when Coca Cola found that they couldn't get decent sales in Lima a number of years ago, because everyone here loves Inka Kola, they BOUGHT the company. So now, the same Inka Kola is still sold and is just as popular as before. But the profits go to Coca Cola. Hmph!
We also tried these delicious things called "picarones" (singular would be "picarón"). Nina says that some people call them "Peruvian Doughnuts", but that she thinks it's an inaccurate description because doughnuts are usually made from dough that has flour in it. But I think that "doughnuts" IS an accurate description because they are O-shaped pieces of fried dough. They just happen to be made from a different kind of dough. Regardless of how you want to classify them, they're DELICIOUS!! AND, we ate at a Peruvian restaurant where we ate lots of different popular Peruvian foods. We ordered family style, and had dishes like "anticucho" (cow's heart), "riñoncitos" (griled kidneys), and "seco de cabrito con frijoles" (a dish with rice and beans and goat's meat and a delicious, spicy sauce). We also tried several different sauces, including a "chimichurri" (a green sauce) and "salsa a la huancaina" (a white sauce that is VERY yummy!!). The food is DELICIOUS!! Que rico!!
Okay - this post is getting TOOOOooooo long. So I'm going to shut down. Maybe, if I get online in Amsterdam (during a layover) or somewhere else in the next few days I'll leave you with some random thoughts about Montevideo and Lima. I have really loved being in Latin America, and am truly looking forward to coming back!!
In the meantime, our next destination is Nairobi, Kenya. I'll be traveling with Nina. While there, I will be working as a volunteer at Amani ya Juu. If you're not familiar with Amani, please scroll down here to the post entitled "Summer 2009". Also, you can find out more about their organization at Amani Africa. I can't wait to visit Amani again!
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Okay, Lou Ann, I am going to have to charge you $5,000 for using the title of my blog for your post; however, since you obviously understand what Lima is all about (eating, eating, eating), you do qualify as an unofficial American in Lima, so, of course, that cancels out the charges. :)
Glad that you are enjoying your tour of South America -- oops, I see that you are off to Kenya. Hard to keep up with you. You must have energy to burn!
Glad that you are enjoying your tour of South America -- oops, I see that you are off to Kenya. Hard to keep up with you. You must have energy to burn!
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