Wake Up Call

At 5:30 this morning I was woken up by a brass band playing Happy Birthday outside my window.  I stumbled to the bathroom because I thought it was time to start the day but then I realized that it was still dark outside.  The band’s entire set lasted about 20 minutes. They were pretty good, and exceptionally loud, but I am not certain why they felt compelled to perform so early.

It’s been a long week and I didn’t get a full night’s sleep, so here are some pics:

These are some cookies that I really like. The hand is mine, and the view is from my window.

The Panamerican Highway runs through Piura, and I usually ride along it a few times a day. This picture was taken on the outskirts of town from the front of a van-bus.

The Plaza de Armas, the main square of Piura

Mallrats

Where the magic happens

I divided my first week in Peru mostly between internet cafes and malls. I am the chief web designer for my company, so I dedicate a lot of time to learning html code, making edits to our website, and then refreshing the home page to look upon the havoc I have wrought. My boss and I are also canvassing the human resources departments at several large Peruvian chains to learn more about the hiring process. Our strategy is to visit a mall, walk into a store, ask to speak to whoever is in charge of recruiting, and then conduct an impromptu interview. This marks my second summer of ambush investigation, and I am constantly amazed at the length people are willing to talk to random, inquisitive foreigners.

Not the real Harvard

I haven’t had a chance to look around Piura much, but I found an ice cream shop right on the main square that sells delicious rum raisin ice cream. Interestingly, they serve ice cream cones in a bowl, with the cone sticking out of the top (like clown cones at Baskin Robbins). I did a little observation during my last trip, and I found that one guy ate the ice cream first and then polished off the cone at the end, like a cookie. In my future research trips to the shop I will assess whether this eating process is normal among the local population.  

Hotel Hunting

Last night my boss and I landed in Piura, a city in northwestern Peru, and today one of our top priorities was to find a place to live for the next month.  One of the first hotels we checked out was located in a mansion near the city center. It was beautiful: large, airy rooms surrounded a patio with a small aviary and several palm trees, and the entrance hall was dominated by a grand staircase built of wood and several large pieces of modern art. The downsides were that the rooms were a little dirty, the internet signal was weak, and the entire place apparently had a reputation as a ‘sex hotel’ (I wanted to define what exactly that meant, since this wasn’t a pay-by-the-hour kind of thing that I’ve seen other places, but we had work-related tasks to accomplish today). We passed and the search continued. 

Source of Help

Today two people asked me for advice. The first time was at the Parque del Amor (the Park of Love, located on the cliffs high above the ocean and best known for an enormous sculpture of two people making out), when a girl came up and asked how to get down to the beach below. The second time was at dinner, when a man asked me to help him figure out how to place an order. In both cases, the person who wanted my help was Peruvian (or at least came from some Spanish-speaking country). It’s probably a fluke, but I enjoy travelling somewhere where I am not instantly and accurately identified as an ignorant foreigner.

Obligatory shot of Parque del Amor

High-flying slackliners

Unfortunately, I was not able to help either person.

Lima Norte

This evening I visited a mall called Lima Norte with my boss and some coworkers. The mall is known for being extremely lucrative despite its location in a poor part of town, and the hallways are filled with a mix of major Peruvian brands and occasional (and incongruous) foreign imports like Paris Hilton Handbags.  In front of the building is a small string of food and drink stalls. After scouting the different menus my friends and I grabbed a table and snacked on potatoes and anticuchos (barbecued beef heart). Nearby, a guy sipped on a large drink that had three layers of colored, non-mixing liquid: yellow on the top, red in the middle, and green on the bottom. Next to him a girl attempted to drink a cocktail topped with a large flame that didn’t go out when she blew on it.

Entrance to Lima Norte

On the work front, I’m quickly learning that my fantasy of slipping effortlessly into Spanish after a year without study and several months without practice might have been overambitious. When calling the airport this afternoon I forgot how to say the word “forget” and just sat in silence trying to translate “I forgot my debit card in the ATM near baggage claim.” Eventually the woman on the other end hung up.

And I forgot my debit card in the ATM near baggage claim at the airport.

Peru 2012

Early tomorrow morning I leave for a ten-week research project in Peru. I’ll be working on building a job search company for unskilled laborers that takes advantage of the country’s growing cell phone network. At least I think that’s what I’m doing – like last summer, my plans for the next few months are pretty amorphous. 

I’ll be in Lima for a few days before heading out to Piura, a town in the northwest corner of Peru. I’m really excited to learn how start-ups work in the real world. The next few months will be different from my previous travel experiences (which were oriented toward research and studying), and it will hopefully provide me with some guidance in figuring out what sort of school or work I want to do in the future.

And there should be some good stories. If things get slow, I’ll eat a guinea pig. Stay tuned!  

That means you

Good Memories

Right now I’m sitting on the ground in the international terminal of the Manila airport, a place that offers free wifi but very few benches.  My plane doesn’t leave for another five hours.  That means I have plenty of time to reflect on what I’ll miss most about the Philippines:

1.       The people.  It’s unbelievable how nice everyone is here.  I’ve commented particularly on the hospitality of lenders, but really almost everyone I’ve met has been kind and helpful.

2.       Lack of scams.  When I first arrived I was hyper-vigilant about keeping an eye out for tricksters, but outside of Manila that caution seems unnecessary.  I’ve turned into a very lazy traveler, just passing money to jeep drivers and waiters and assuming I’ll get the correct change, so we’ll see what happens when I go to somewhere less friendly.

3.       Motorcycles.  They’re so fun!  My foray into driving one was humbling and traumatic, but it’s really exhilarating to hop on board with an experienced driver and ride away into the mountains. 

4.       The fruit salad in Dumaguete.  I miss it very much already.

5.       The language.  The people in my three research locations spoke three different languages (Visayan, Cebuano, and Waray-Waray), but all of the languages included enough Spanish that I could usually follow the gist of what interview subjects were saying.  My favorite incident came when a woman said she usually spends money ‘para el abogado’.  I asked her why she needed a lawyer and she gasped – why hadn’t I told her I spoke Visayan?

The scenery is also pretty and the transportation network is good, but I’ll hold myself to five.  I’m currently facing one of the most tiring and constant challenges of the solo traveler: who’s going to watch my bag while I go to the bathroom?

I hope you all enjoyed these posts.  It's been an unexpected, educational and adventurous summer for me, and I really enjoyed writing about it.  I don't know when I'll start up the blog again.  My tentative plan is to return to China (to dreaded Nanjing) in August 2012, but who knows what will happen before that.  Hopefully something interesting will materialize!