Our cook is going to Huaripampa this weekend to investigate the possibility of buying property there, and I am envious. This video of one Huaripampa musical culture is not of the Huaripampa she is going to, and it was filmed in Lima, but it is truly excellent, so I am posting it as a way of singing.
Initially it was unknown what we would eat for the two days our cook would be gone. After much discussion it was resolved that before leaving she would leave food ready for the first day of her absence, and that we would eat out the second day. It is believed that she will be back on the third day in time to make lunch, but I notice she has not confirmed this herself. I think we may have a food crisis on that day, because we are utterly dependent upon her cooking.
Meanwhile, I have learned at last to read and write in the dim florescent light which pervades this country, I have discovered that the water does get hot if you wait ten minutes, and I am dressed in multiple layers against the cold and damp. I have a great deal of small change at all times for taxis, and I am the fourth best person in the house (putting me at the 50th percentile) at giving directions to cab drivers and bargaining for fares.
I am not taking buses or collective vans because many are inconvenient to where I live and I am trying to conserve energy. I still love the animated way the bus and van helpers hawk the destinations and routes. I am not walking (except on the beach and the malecón, which have ocean breezes and offer stellar Pacific views of the kind you know if you have been anywhere from southern Chile to Alaska) because the horns honk so much and the air pollution is so bad now that in most parts of town I do not cover more than a few blocks before succumbing to the noise and fumes.
Taxis, groceries, and clothes are inexpensive here, but prices of books, computers, cappuccinos, gasoline and haircuts are comparable to those of the United States (although I have also seen 98 octane gas advertised at $6 a gallon). My favorite bookstore is the Virrey on Miguel Dasso, and I like the Havanna espresso place next door.
The aforementioned venues are exceedingly comfortable and bourgeois, but the best places to buy clothes are the stores near the central market in Lima and the Gamarra market in La Victoria. I got an interesting tailored blazer in Lima for $30, and I could get a beautiful camel blazer for $45. At Gamarra I could get a full length coat of baby alpaca in an elegant cut for $70.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 