"How's Peru?"

Peru is, to say the least, unpredictable. When you want to do something in Peru, you must have alternate plans. And a seat belt. And a bevy of saints.

I like Francis of Assisi, and the patron saint (female) depicted on this freaky amulet I carry with me everywhere. I've toted the thing with me everywhere since 2003, when an wizened old lady pressed it into my hands in the highland Andean town of Carhuaz.

The female saint is depicted on an old syringe vial, sealed with lead, full of preserved jungle slugs and other unidentifiable gross things, no kidding. Everyone in Carhuaz knows who she is: she is the Andean patron (matron? I'm not Catholic) saint of prostitutes. If you saw it, you'd carry it with you too. And if you know me pretty well, you'd know that I freaked the hell out in 2007, when I noticed the vial and made some connections.

I digress. But I'm looking at the vial now.

My friend L., who is home in the EE.UU. now (los Estados Unidos, the United States), found out about Lima and Peru in general the hard way. When she first arrived, there was a land strike: transportation workers refused their duties, in typical Peruvian style, because their crapola pay doesn't adequately compensate their dangerous work. This prevented her from going to Machu Pichhu immediately, which was her life's goal (one, anyway), but that was a good thing, because had she gone on schedule, she would have had to been evacuated. Mudslides and other horrendous flooding-related phenomena forced hundreds of tourists off the mountain, and it's still closed.

L revamped her schedule but was terribly disappointed to reallocate her savings to do stuff she didn't enjoy. She was bummed out the whole trip, maybe barring our trip to the Amazon (what a time THAT was!), and had to stay with me in Lima a LOT. I had to work; that's why I'm here. She was stuck going to museums, most of which were closed.

Lima's growing really fast. I mean, REALLY fast. The Guardian says it grew 6.8 percent in December 2009, depending on how you measure. (If you look on the bottom of this page, you'll see that I installed a scroll bar of Google news for L.A. and Lima. You just have to watch it for a sec.) I, like you, am not a big fan of stats, but Lima is growing fast.

To wit: I've been going back and forth to this country since 2000, I think, for a field school. I always had to pass through Lima for some length of time. Lima was graced with her first Starbucks in 2003, I think. I'm sorta pulling this out of memory, but I bet I'm about right. Now, in my swanky 'hood alone, there are three that I can walk to. I can actually connect to one's internet connection, though I only get one bar. We have McDonalds, Dior, Abercrombie. Chili's and TGIF, in constant competition, have valet parking (which never ceases to crack me up).

One of the only Indian families in Lima are Patel people (the father married a Peruvian lady he met on an airplane, I think, and I apologize for the wording if it's not exactly right). They started a really nice restaurant named Mantra. So we have good other foods too. In fact, Lima's food is HOT now. They call it Andean-nouveau, and it's rather healthy, with quinoa, kiwicha, and other super high-protein grains, along with causa, tacu tacu, loma saltado, and my favorite, ceviche. You can Google these, but I'm putting a recipe up for ceviche, Lia-style.

My big question right now involves ethnic stratification, both perceived, and spatial. While I'm pretty well versed in the history of Limeño slavery (essentially), I can't figure out how the Japanese population (significant) and the Chinese population (allegedly small, but judging by the number of chifas, which are Chinese restaurants, and the ChinaTown, it's not), fit in to modern society. Also I can't find their neighborhoods. I'd love to interview them for my study. I guess I'll ... GO TO A CHIFA! Ding! 

Now I want to refer you to my friend Diego's website, which is at diegoarbulu.wordpress.com. The guy is freaking talented. He's studying to become an international delegate (I think - something very impressive, representing Peru), and he's only 25 (one month shy of 26). He's helped me a lot, but the test is so rigorous that he's run out of time. He's cramming-with-a-capital-C. But check it out. You'll like it.

Chau for now.