Lima: Water fountains to desert and scraps to Louboutin's

I wrote this blog on June 7th but have had trouble for the past few days trying to publish it. Here is it just a few days later!

Yesterday, June 6, was spent at the research institute listening to lecturers and preparing for our first day of data collection. It was a very long day of school, 9-5:30, but thankfully we had an exciting evening to look forward to! Milagros, Isabel, and Katya (Peruvian students) promised they would take us after class to the “Water Park” in central Lima. This was, for most of us, our first true Peruvian adventure! After class we, 11 of the 15 of the US students, hoped on the bus with our Peruvian friends for what we had no idea would be a 1hour and 45minute bus ride. Much of the ride we were standing, or trying to stand, in the over crowed bus listening to the Spanish music that was blaring through the speakers while our Peruvian friends kept warning us to watch our purses. It was quite an interesting experience. There were several occasions where I was certain that our bus had hit another bus, car or even pedestrian.

Very scary.

 

According to Isabel a 1.5 hour commute to and from work each day is common in Lima. I don’t believe I will be complaining any more when I am stuck in Baton Rouge traffic and I definitely won’t complain about Starkville traffic. On the ride home we took taxis and it took 30 minutes!! Only 30 without all of the traffic!

The water park was beautiful! We took a lot of pictures. We met up with Andres, the Peruvians’ friend, who agreed to take a lot of pictures for us.

 

 

 

The trees are awesome for climbing!!

 

 

The fabulous ladies of room trescientos once (311)!

 

This is Peru's futbol stadium behind the fountain. 24 hours after taking this picture Peru beat Ecuador to qualify for the World Cup!  

 

THANK YOU ANDRES!!

 After we walked through the park for over an hour we were SO hungry so we stopped at the street vendor right outside of the park. Katya assured us that this food was safe because the vendors had to have a certificate of sanitation from the municipality. We were all a little wary, but we were hungry and the food smelled good and was cheap.

I had Choclo (corn on the cob) and papas (potatoes). SOO GOOD!! And the picarones (sweet potato donuts) were AMAZING!!

 

Kelsey, one of my roommates, accidently ordered beef heart, whoops. She was a trooper and cleaned her plate. They really are tasty. You just have to get past the initial shock that you are eating heart. Thankfully no one got sick from the street food!

 

Today, June 7, was our first day of data collection which meant I spent all morning weighing and measuring babies in Manchay!!!! They were SOO precious. I will say that this has been the most education part of my trip yet and definitely the most humbling. Jolyn (from Iowa) and I were the only non-Spanish speaking and non-Peruvian people at the site. We were immediately thrown into weighing and measuring the babies and had to learn as we went. The most challenging part, and the most humbling, was not being able to communicate with the mothers of the babies or even the children.  We had to rely completely on our Peruvian partners Milagros and Katya. We could not have done it without them….they definitely carried most of the weight today. I wish I could have taken pictures to share the babies, but my hands were a little tied!

 

My helper, and new friend, Viany

We returned to the research center and worked on organizing our data and preparing for Monday’s data collection. After class we headed back to the hotel to freshen up then headed to Jockey Plaza, one of the nicest malls in Peru and maybe the nicest I have ever been, to pick up a few things and get dinner. This was the most beautiful mall I have ever been to. It was very a surreal experience. I spent all morning in a building with a dirt floor measuring babies that belonged to 20 year old mothers with no education living in houses made of scraps. Less than 12 hours later I was in a mall that sold Louboutin's ($1200 shoes), Mercedes cars, and gourmet food.

 

Manchay to Jockey plaza. Less than 30 miles apart.

After I got over the shock of the mall I decided to visit the ATM to take out some cash for the weekend. Well, this wasn’t the best idea. For some reason the ATM decided to hold my card for “security reasons.” Thankfully shortly before visiting the ATM we had run into three of our Peruvian professors! Some after attempting to call the credit card company and speaking to one person who only spoke Spanish and another with a terrible phone connection, we sprinted through the mall to find our professors. We found them right away and Maria was able to talk to the ATM people who assured her that my card was safe inside the ATM and there was no way anyone could access it because it had been shredded! Oh that made me feel so much better –at lease it was safe from harm! Thankfully I had a backup card with me and it worked for dinner and will hopefully work for the rest of the time.

 

We decided after all of the chaos we would have a treat and we went to dinner at a very nice restaurant in the mall called Tanta’s. Dinner was delicious and we had our first Pisco Sours (traditional Peruvian drink). Of course dinner included potatoes and rice…we just can’t get away from papas Y arroz!

 

 

Aimee, Dana, Lindsey, Kelsey, and I enjoying our Pisco Sours!

 

After dinner we went to a high end grocery store next door to the mall called La Vivianda (I think that’s what it’s called). Quite different from the markets we visted our first day of class. (Which are actually very close to this supermarket). It was just like the Fresh Market stores we have in the states.

 Here is the picture I took before the attendant told me to put up my camera. “No Photos, Por Favor!!”

 

 

The grocery store trip concluded the night. Now to get ready for an Ica adventure tomorrow…Sandboarding, dune buggy rides, vineyard tours, museums, and more. I will take lots of pictures!