Practically on my way ...

Yup, I'm in the final countdown, with about 24 hours to go before I head to the airport.

I'm trying to get the final things done for the trip, which mostly consists of not forgetting to get each one done. It seems easy enough a task, but I've been fairly distracted by other things.  Nonetheless, I think I'm in pretty good shape with it all, and ready to start packing this evening while we watch the USA v. Ecuador game of the Copa America quarter finals.

In Lima!

Arrived very early this morning (1:43 am), and didn't get to the house until around 4 o'clock.

We spent today having lunch with the cousins and resting after the voyage.

Airline tickets have been purchased for December.  We'll be spending our first Christmas in Peru as a family, and Liz and I will be having our first Christmas there since 1987 and our first New Year's Eve there since 1991.  Besides, it's been several years since either of the kids have been there.

We're all really looking forward to it!

Back in Ayacucho

 

I'm in Ayacucho, having arrived yesterday for a two-evening colloquium on "Class, Gender, and Building of Peace in Peru".

I'm staying at the rather pleasant ViaVia Hotel, right the main square.

The hotel is located in Colonial  mansion that has been fixed up with funds from Belgium and is run by the ViaVia traveller's cafe and hotel chain  - they even have Belgian beers on sale in the restaurant.

Normally, I'd stay at the family home on Garcilazo de la Vega street, two block from here, but it's never that comfortable -despite being free- so I opted for the hotel and hot showers on demand.

Not much sooner than I had arrived than the power went out and remained out through lunchtime and on into the late evening.

That meant that I missed all of the Argentina-Holland soccer game in the World Cup except for the addiional time added on because they were tied at the end of egulation time.

The game went to penalty kicks, which I had to miss as otherwise I'd have been late to the colloquium. Fortunately, like sio many others, I could keep up with the progress at any shop doorway and window!

Tickets purchased

Yep, we just bought our tickets to Lima for this year!

I've been busy in the last few days and a bit under the weather, which has made my downtime more geared toward rest and recouping rather than blogging.  Hence, the dearth of posts in the last week or so.

Anyway, I am nearing the end of my trip, with about three hours to go before I leave for the airport.

I'll catch up on the posting and photos once I'm back in California, plus there are some things I wanted to post but didn't due to the low bandwith and slow transfer rates that we have available here on our dial-up connection.

Back in Ayacucho

In the predawn hours of the 27th, Susana and I flew to Ayacucho for the Independence Day weekend.  Jacho and Diego had been supposed to join us, but they stalled on getting tickets and the prices of them at the last minute, plus the fact that this year it wasn't a 3-day weekend, finally dissuaded them.

We stayed, of course, in the old family 18th Century house on Jiron Garcilazo de la Vega, a block and half from the Plaza de Armas in Huamanga.

We found the house in pretty good shape.  The front had been re-plastered and repainted a few years ago, and the roof tiles had been repositioned to close up some gaps that had developed, while the ceilings had also been repainted to repair the spotting caused by the leaks in the roof.

The only issue of note was that the floor of the upper room, which used to be Mama Pali and Papa Ramon's, was cracked and slightly buckled, as a result - I was told- of the 2007 earthquake.

Over the next few days, I'll be posting more about our time in Ayacucho.

In Lima!

I got here without any problems or delays, which was great.  Unfortunately when I landed a bit after 11 pm, there were about 5 other flights -judging from the luggage carrousels going- that arrived at much the same time, making for a huge line through immigrations.  Fortunately I got a green light when I pressed the button at customs and was allowed through without my bags being searched.

The weather is surprisingly good for this time of year.  I awoke at 7:30 to sunlight streaming in and the sounds of songbirds and parrots carrying on in the trees below (being on the 13th story, the trees are below not above). 

The morning's remained sunny so far, even though there is some haze and a bit of a fog bank hanging off the coast.  Walking around downstairs, taking care of some errands and having a look around, it actually got kinda hot, what with the tropical sun shinning, even though the air itself is cool and refreshing.  It seems like spring instead of the midwinter that it actually is.

The Resi looks the same, as expected.  The only changes that I've noticed so far are that where the Mi Geon chifa used to be is a new restaurant called Agua y Manto -a play on the word aguaymanto, an Andean fruit similar to a gooseberry-, that the bakery that replaced the Apolo barbershop is gone and in its place is a restaurant -Casimiro- that has pretty much the same menu as Guido's but a better atmosphere, and that the Vivian pharmacy is gone and in its place is a pastry and baguette shop.

Nico's a bit under the weather, so we're taking it easy for now, and waiting to see what we might manage to do in the afternoon.

On my way ...

It's just about 6 am and I'm sitting by the boarding gate at SFO, waiting to board the first leg of my journey to Lima.  I've got the laptop going and I'm posting from the airport - I feel like such a high-tech traveller!

Tickets

My tickets for this year's trip to Lima are purchased!

Arequipa

On the 27th Liz and I, and my cousins and some of my nieces, traveled to the southern city of Arequipa. We stayed there until the morning of the 31st, and while there took in the sights and took an overnight trip to the Colca Valley, currently regarded as containing the world's deepest canyon.

We've now got just over a week left here and so are getting rather busy wrapping up loose ends before we head back to the US.

Tickets to Arequipa purchased!

Unintended side trip: Costa Rica

On the way home on May 2nd, I was forced to make a small and unintended side trip.   The TACA flight I was catching to make a connection in Costa Rica was delayed on its way to Lima from Cusco.  Despite assurances to the contrary, that put us far enough behind schedule that I, and a number of other travellers, were not able to make our connecting flight to San Salvador.   

Luckily -it being their error- the airline put us up in a hotel near the airport and paid for dinner and breakfast.   Unfortunately, the hotel was near the airport. 

The international airport in San Jose is about 23 km from the city proper, and there didn't seem to be much around there other than our hotel, a small, univiting casino, a couple of chain restaurants, and the usual types of business that surround airports - shipping companies, rental lots, Denny's.

It was evening and by the time I got through taking care of all that I needed to in terms of getting ahold of those who needed to be informed in the US it was past 10 o'clock at night, too late to head into town and hope to find much of anything still open.    I had an unsatisfying dinner near the hotel, using the airline voucher, at a chain place called RostiPollo.   It was basically pollo a la brasa, but served with beans and tortillas instead of the French fries usual in Peru.

The next morning I headed off early to the airport, and in the daylight was able to get some of my first and only glimpses of Costa Rica.

One neat thing about the airport was that at the Britt stores -do they have at all of Latin America's airports?- there was a stand with a guy at each hand rolling cigars from Costa Rican tabacco.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

On the leg to San Salvador, to make a connecting flight to San Francisco, the plane was not very full, so I had three seats to myself.  Not having anyone to be disturbed should I get up, I sat by the window and was able to look down at the passing Central American geology below, something I don't usually get to do.

It was rather neat, for example, to be able to look down upon the volcanic islands and shoreline of Lake Nicaragua.

 

Fortunately, the rest of the trip passed without incident, even though the flight from San Salvador to San Francisco was completely full with Salvadoran families laden with bags of Pollo Campero chicken, and Peruvians grumpy at having been delayed overnight.

At one point the airline representatives offered overnight lodging and expenses, plus a $400 travel voucher, to anyone who'd volunteer to get off the flight and catch it the next day.    As much as I'd have liked to visit El Salvador, when the lady approached, I laughed and told her she was simply asking on the wrong day. Maybe next time?

Off to the airport ....!

In Lima

Well, here I am in Lima. I's my second full day and things are going as well as can be expected with the added stress that real estate deals bring.

Jacho and Mito were at the airport to meet me when I arrived - thankfully without further delay than the 16 hours I had to wait because my connector flight was cancelled. I had to switch airports, but they did put me in 1st and business class all the way.

From Liz

Having just arrived in Lima, Liz is given the traditional welcome at Mi Carcochita, in Lince.
Those are my cousins Diego, on the left, and Juan Ramon.

"We´re in Ayacucho, having arrived on a flight that got us here at 6am.

"As it is Sunday, the town was still sleepy and it took us about an hour and four stops to get a cup of coffee and chaplas con huevo. Cafés either weren´t open or they didn´t have bread or they didn´t have coffee or the water wasn´t hot yet...finally our success came the second time we stopped at a stall in the mercado.

"After that Danny and I did a little shopping...trying to find boxer shorts and T shirts that fit him [his luggage did not arrive in Lima with him] was a true treasure hunt, but we had a bit of success. At least he now has clean calzones, two shirts and a tooth brush. We both got some music and I purchased some fresh wawa from Betty's tia. Yummm...

"Siestas for everyone after that...

"Here I am now. Having a great time, but still thinking of you all. Yesterday was El Dia del Pisco and we celebrated like true peruvians, drinking all types of Pisco drinks at the festival in the park in Surco. We collected a whole bag of cups from the different distilleries, and Danny and I made a purchase or two.


"Poor Toya and Willy..we stopped off to have cuyes afterward, but as we were all thoroughly wasted, I don´t think we were good for business, as we had the table right up front. There was talk of karaoke or dancing, but we all went back to the resi and to bed, having to get up at 2:45 to leave for the airport. Ughh.

"The plane had 20 seats...very small, but we were all so tired, we slept (with the addition of some rhythmic snoring from Juan Ramon). I woke up about a half an hour later to a beautiful sunrise over the Andes."

Liz

Liz got here just fine last night at about 12:50. There were only Ceci, Juancho and myself to greet her, as we had all been going full-tilt since we left for Ayacucho more than a week ago and could simply not stay awake a minute longer.

Liz´s first plane was late, and she almost missed her connection. They had already closed the plane doors and were about to pull away, but a LanPerú representative ran through the airport with her and managed to get her on the plane.

We're going to lunch at Toti and Marina's today. My aunt is fixing papa rellena and mondongo. Yum!