First Day in Peru

Hola mi familia y mis amigos. (Hello fellow gibronis and….uhm…I mean…Hello family and friends).

I hope all is well. The move out of Seattle was just one ring short of a circus, but some good friends and a few cold beers made it go much better than if I had to do it solo. It was great to see you Houstonians and Abilene brethren last week too. Much love given the last two weeks..I just hope I was able to reciprocate half of it and look forward to making up the other half the next time we meet up.

Here’s a run down of my first full day here in Peru.

I made it into Lima unscathed on Monday night. I got to Intercontinental airport in Houston with no time to spare. I found myself getting to the ticket counter with only an hour before my flight left. Lucky for me, there was no line and the security line was nil. The flight was jam packed and I sat next to a little old Peruvian lady from Lima and a young Japanese fella. Though none of us spoke the other’s language very well, we still managed to crack a few jokes and enjoy each other’s company. I had a window seat and got a little shuteye on the 6+ hr flight. Smooth and steady flight from take off to touch down.

I had some wild thoughts about arriving to Lima. I had pictures of smog, people selling children and fires burning in garbage cans. Come to find out that the airport was really organized and non threatening to a rookie traveler like me. Customs was no problem. After getting out of customs, there were about 200 people waving signs of people’s names and about 20 people asked me if I needed a taxi. I just smiled and said to myself, “Welcome to Lima.” I found the taxi driver and loaded into a little VW-like bus. Thousands of these things buzzing around the narrow streets…exhaust fumes filling the damp stagnant air. A gal from NYC, Valerie, was in the bus going to the same hotel as me. We had a nice chat on the way to there.

I arrived to the hotel in Miraflores at around midnight and everything was set up. Miraflores is a pretty affluent suburb of Lima. The arrangements were perfect…all I had to do was show my ID and it was set. I got my key and made it up to my room, on the way enjoying the staccato walls and brick floors. It has a colonial feel of sorts, but given I’ve never been in a colonial abode, I may be smoking dope with the description…but you get what I mean!?! Open windows here…no screens…no bugs! Pretty neat. Most of the cars out here don’t have mufflers so the noise is a little loud, but not too bad. You can hear the bustle out the window…the murmuring of nearby voices echoing off the old city walls. I turned on the tv as I unpacked and what was on??? The BLUES BROTHERS in English! I was blown away and started laughing out loud. What a way to kick off the trip!

This morning I got up and met my colleague and friend Nihal. Nihal is a senior level engineer and is really sharp. He’s from northern India and has a soft easy going voice. We get along well. The breakfast menu consisted of rolls, roasted chicken, stale cereal, warm milk, an assortment of fruit, deviled egg thingys and some little smokey links. I wound up eating three rolls, some OJ and tried to put down one of the smokey links…not so much on the smokeys. Golder’s office is just a few blocks away from the hotel. All the buildings are built up, not out…restaurants don’t look like restaurants…and hotels blend in as they look like regular buildings. I would have missed the Golder office if Nihal didn’t say where it was. Very different from the separated and sprawled mini malls and office parks back in the States.

Nihal and I spent most of the day reviewing the project to date, checking emails and getting things ready for the rest of the week. Nihal will be here through at least Saturday and maybe longer, depending on how things pan out in the field. I make my first visit to the site on Thursday. Tomorrow I hang chilly and get “indoctrinated” to the project at the client’s offices in town. We strolled our way to a café-open air restaurant for lunch. No one is in a hurry out here. It took forever to get our order in and longer to get our check. Nearly 2 hours for lunch…and we weren’t even trying to milk it! On the way there and back, about 3 or 4 kids tried to get me to give them money…some were juggling tennis balls, others were selling candy or gum. In broken Spanish I asked one of the little boys his name. He said “John Paul” I asked “as in Papi? (Pope John Paul II). He had a smirk and said “yes” I then asked if he went to school to which he said yes…I then closed with “study hard!” That little joker was trying to scam me!

To close my first full day, Nihal and I walked to the water front and ate at Tony Roma’s of all places. Nihal is a vegetarian and most of the places here serve lots of meat much to Nihal’s dismay. At least TR’s had some veggie pasta dishes. They have a gelato stand, so that was awesome. We scored some of that after dinny. Awesome vista from where we ate. Huge cliffs in the distance. In fact, the entire city is built near the edge of this plateau that terminates abruptly at the Pacific Ocean. I caught my first Peruvian sunset over the pacific as it faded away behind a remote island mountain far out at sea. Very nice.

Pictures to follow later this week. Till next time. Take care and God bless.

Scotty Z