Lima: What I Know Now

As our time starts to wind down here in Peru I’ve been thinking what I’ve learned that I didn’t know before we landed way back when. Here are some I’ve come up with.

Fitting In – This seems to be the phrase that let’s you be cool…¿Qué tal? or at least as cool as two gringos in Peru can be.

Napkins are an endangered species. That is the only conclusion I can draw when you sit in a restaurant and are provided a few single ply, see through and carefully folded bits. Even when you buy a package in the supermarket, get them home and they’re all the itty-bitty guys. I don’t know if Peruvians are just neater eaters than us mericans or what but it is tough on me. Tammy does OK cause she’s girl-neat and all.

Hot water. I thought it interesting that our Airbnb place mentioned they had hot water. Turns out it has a mini-hot water heater that we turn on at the fuse box about 40 minutes before wanting hot water. When done we turn it back off. Why turn it off you ask. Turns out that Peruvian electricians figure if a 20 amp fuse is good and 100 amp fuse is better. That is not exactly the way it should work.

Now the shower at our place in Cusco was fascinating. The shower head contained a heating element. You want to take a shower, you hit the on switch and quickly get water running through the head so it doesn’t overheat. You could achieve something similar by looping your hairdryer over the shower head and directing water to run by the heating coils. What could go wrong?

Potatoes loose their luster over time. I guess when you have access to 4,000 varieties, they are going to show up a lot and boy have they.

Vultures are cool but not pets. This is what Tammy has taught me. Sigh. I thought trying to get a vulture to gift me like crows are known to do would really be something.

Language barriers. This was a known factor coming in. Here are situations I’ve run across.

1. You speak no Spanish and the other person speaks no English – these are fairly straightforward to manage. It involves a lot of pointing, gesturing and non-verbal cues. At times the conversation on their side is long and usually just nodding and going along with it works. You can toss in a sí and no now and then just to keep them honest.
2. You speak a little Spanish and the other person speaks no English – these are potentially explosive situations. There are a lot of nuances in the Spanish language and when you think you’re rattling something off and get a grimace or shocked look in return…you find yourself trying to get back to situation #1. This can work in your favor if you understand what they are trying to tell you but it would defeat your purposes so you just stay clueless.
3. You speak a little Spanish and the other person speaks a little English. I had a great conversation with a cabbie on a ride back from Barranco the other day. We were yabbering back and forth. Tammy asked me how much of that either the driver or I understood. What a spoilsport. I take the context of wherever I am and make that the focus of my conversations. It’s possible, however slight, that the cabbie was talking about how bald his tires were and I thought we were talking about drivers ed being required if you get a ticket.
4. You speak a little Spanish and the other person comes back in English. Makes you want to linger just a little longer.

This has been a fascinating trip and we’ve made some new friends, (minus the vultures as noted above.) I know over time we will find some things we miss about Lima but I think we’re ready for the next adventure. I even heard Tammy talking about how she’d like to see a little…wait for it…wait for it…rain!