coldhearted scientist وداد

My voyage north has been judged daring and dangerous by the people in Lima. I think so too, although not for all of the reasons they cite. They fear assault, robbery and auto accidents, whereas I only fear auto accidents, and/but I fear these increasingly, based on my recent experiences and observations.

I am in culture shock in Lima – it is cold, gray, urban, commercial, congested, and Third World-ish – oddly Huamachuco, my new paradise, seemed less Third World-ish than Lima to me, and all I lack there is a good bookstore. (I also did not see any L’Oréal products, to which I am currently addicted, but they are soon getting a store which I believe will have them.) And it is terribly cold in Lima at this time of the year in comparison to the sierra – I am chilled to the bone.

Today I have some important travel notes. First, on Huamachuco, because it is hard to get information on it. Next, on banks, because there is information even my astute self was not aware of and I ought to have been, and finally, on important errands to do in Peru.

ON HUAMACHUCO

I have been complaining about the declining quality of the menu of the day, but the juice bar at the end of the calle peatonal (the end away from the square, that is), has a menu of the day for 4 nuevos soles (call that $1.50) that is very good. (My version yesterday included the usual soup, stewed chicken with menestra and rice, and maracuyá juice.) In general, I suspect one should probably now give up, most of the time, on the menu of the day, except in markets, and eat in more upscale places than I usually tend to do if one wants an official restaurant meal.

I am, however, a major supporter of eating lunch in markets. Inelegant though it may be, this is actually cleaner, airier, fresher, and tastier than many restaurants. If you eat lunch, you do not really need dinner, you can just have a merienda in a café, so you can avoid restaurants and restaurant prices entirely, and this is one of the things which enables me to travel, you see.

In Huamachuco there are also three cafés I strongly recommend: LA NONNA, in the first block of the street going from the square down to the market, very comfortable, open 4-11 PM daily, has espresso, sandwiches, teas, and spirits, too, against the cold; DOÑA EMILIA – the bakery and coffee/hot chocolate place, on the calle peatonal towards the end; open 7 AM-11 PM; and DOÑA EMILIA SNACK, Da. Emilia’s daughter’s half café, half restaurant, on the square.

I really dislike staying in hotels which run out of water, for instance, and when it is cold I like hotels which have hot water at least a couple of hours a day. I also prefer to have a window in my room, and I strongly prefer to have at least one lamp with an incandescent, not a flourescent bulb. (These preferences reveal me to be something of a princess. It is not all that easy to find hotels that fit my criteria in these small Andean towns, and this is one reason I recommend camping.) I find that these colonial buildings, unless very nicely renovated, often have really terrible rooms. Low ceilings in a room of unfinished adobe, for instance, just creep me out, especially when the door is also the only window, or when the only window opens onto a busy street and the only way to close it is to close the shutter (as when there is no glass) – I am mildly claustrophobic.

Neither do I like the hotels market people stay in, because they basically stay up all night moving their wares around the patios and getting themselves ready to come and go. There is a lot of clatter and sometimes smelly merchandise (cheeses, animals). You may hear television playing loud through thin walls at all hours, because working people who cannot afford apartments are semi-residing in these hotels. I have also seen these hotels used as places for thieves to move goods through, and I do not want thieves to notice me. Finally, I do not like hotels that also rent by the hour, or that allow people to receive guests.

Because it was a cold and rainy night when I arrived in Huamachuco, because I had not had a window in Trujillo and wanted one, and because I did not know how things would be, I stayed in the HOTEL LLAUTO REAL, rumored to be the town’s best. It cost $18 and was very comfortable; I would stay there again. It had everything I needed and one thing I didn’t, namely satellite television (that was sort of fun, though). It is also supposed to have a restaurant, a sauna, and the Internet, but my impression is that these are only up and running when there is a conference in town. There are two three star places on the way out of town, one of which is called the Los Angeles and has a restaurant called the California, but they do not look interesting. There is a three star hotel near the museum, just of the square but on the side opposite the calle peatonal, which looks expensive but may not be. In a slightly better location than my hotel (just off the square, across from the laundry and next to the best Internet café, on R. Castilla, a street parallel to the calle peatonal), is the GRAN COLONIAL, with a restaurant, rumored to be the next best hotel.

There is also a spiffy looking hotel in the first block of the street going uphill from the square, although I did not check it out. I did look into the patios of the HUAMACHUCO and the SAN JOSÉ, both on the square, and they looked all right – especially the HUAMACHUCO – although I have not seen the rooms and do not know how much noise the front rooms (with windows and little balonies on the square) of the HUAMACHUCO get. Someone told me that the more modern BUENA NOCHE, also on the square, was good, and someone else said it was not. Then there are other hospedajes, but some (although not all) of these look rather tenebrous, at least for me. Finally, there is a new one with a restaurant on the calle peatonal near DOÑA EMILIA, called the KASECI. I found the rooms drab and the restaurant pretentious, and wondered how much restaurant noise would spill into the rooms – but I loved the patio. And there are other places – see this guide I have finally found, with good pictures of the town and its outlying areas.

ON BANKS

I lost my debit card and my bank will not send another one to Peru. Finally I discovered that they would send an ATM card that cannot be used in stores, but only at ATM machines. That is, of course, all I need, but the person on the phone could not imagine this, which was why this piece of information was so hard to get. Now all I have to do is wait and see how long it takes for the new card to arrive – the person on the phone could not tell me whether it would be sent by air or by sea.

In the olden days it was possible to get money from credit cards, but in Huamachuco this was only possible through the ATM machines, not inside the bank. I have online access to my accounts, so I could take money from the card and cover it right away from my checking account, but I do not know the PIN numbers to my credit cards since I never take money from credit cards. A person at my bank suggested I try a casino – you can put cash on a credit card at a casino, she said, and it made sense – but I shudder to think how much they would charge.

In Huamachuco I was told that at an international bank (Huamachuco banks are not banks, they are cajas, savings banks) in a city one could take money from a credit card without the PIN, but I asked one today and they said no. I wonder whether this was because I was at one of those little branches which are inside supermarkets, and whether I would get a different answer elsewhere.

In any case, you need an extra debit or ATM card, and/or the PIN number for your credit card, and/or large cash reserves, because the only easy way to get money here is to have someone out of the country send it to you by Western Union. I tried to send money to MYSELF by Western Union – my bank accounts are in Louisiana, and I thought that by using the Western Union website, I could do it, but I failed, because you cannot send money by Western Union on the Internet if you are physically in Peru, which the website discovered I was (I suppose by using the wicked Javascript). I called Western Union Central in Lima, who said I could send myself money if I went in person to the agency. The agency, however, wanted me to send it by credit card, using the PIN number.

Para colmo my bank – a large and venerable U.S. one – could not tell me whether it had any partners in Peru. So be forewarned, y’all! I am carrying dollars and I am leaving soon, but I am curious to know more about the most competent international bank offices in Lima, whether my bank really has no partners here, and the truth of this matter generally. I am also curious to see when and if my new ATM card arrives here.

IMPORTANT ERRANDS TO DO IN PERU

If you come to Peru, you should bring with you anything you need repaired and cannot get repaired in the U.S. or cannot get repaired there at a reasonable price. This includes shoes, cameras, and importantly, jewelry and silverware of all kinds. (I can give you the name, address, and telephone number of Lima’s best silversmith if you are interested.)

You can also have shoes and clothes made for less than it would cost you to buy them in the United States. And if you are my size (I am tall because I am over five feet, and slim because my stomach does not stick out), all the clothes on the racks are cut for you (it is the same in Brazil). You can easily pick up a high quality wardrobe at a very good price. I mean, if you intend to buy a suit or two, a coat, a blazer, a briefcase and some shoes in the U.S., you could take a trip here to buy these items, and what you saved would cover your plane fare and more.

The best places to shop for fine, tailored alpaca items in Lima are the old fashioned stores around the central market downtown and the Gamarra street market. Beautiful blazers, jackets, and coats go for $30-$70. They are worth much, much more. If you need the sleeves taken up or anything like that, there are tailors everywhere who will do this almost instantly and for a very low price.

Peru also has arguably the world’s highest quality denim and cotton, so you SHOULD buy jeans and T-shirts. Jeans in the market run about $10, although you cannot try them on; in a discount house the same jeans will be $20; these jeans will resemble jeans costing $50 and up in the U.S. You should also fill prescriptions in Peru, they are much cheaper. You should never shop at the department store RIPLEY, it is terribly overpriced, or at SAGA, because it is really just Sears (literally!) – you can do much better.

Things which are more expensive in Peru than in the U.S. – enough so that you should not buy them here – include high quality cosmetics and electronics. Things which cost the same include glasses and haircuts. Facials and manicures are cheaper, but they may not be as good – watch who you go to – and if you get your hair dyed, watch the mixture: a lot of dyed haired women are dyed a dark cellophane red, the color of a candied apple. Important high quality items you should consume in Peru are FRUIT, CHICKENS and EGGS. All of these items, not being artificially produced, have a taste, and the egg yolks are rich, dark yellow, and deep. (It takes six to eight months to grow a chicken naturally, but Louisiana chickens are raised with hormones in six weeks.)

Axé.