An American in Lima

In the last 180 days, the dollar has been gaining in Peru, as this chart shows. Back in September ’08, the dollar was trading at 2.97 Peruvian soles; by March 3, 2009, that rate had spiked to 3.26 soles, leveling at 3.14 by March 17: chart courtesy Exchange-Rates.org Actually, the strengthening of the dollar began before September. In [...]

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I’ve been neglecting this blog lately as a result of work overload — preparing to teach a writing class at UPC, which entails putting together loads of English-language course materials. Last night I got only three hours of sleep, then staggered into a meeting with El Hijo’s teachers at school, where I received a wonderful [...]

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Herpetologists have discovered a new species of frog in the Andes cloud forest. Nobel’s pygmy frog, as it is called, is so tiny that it can sit on a dime, which makes it the smallest frog in the Andes mountain region.

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“There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally” –Lord Stern   Spent a few hours this morning at a group meeting with Mr. Robin Gwynn, the U.K’s newly appointed special envoy on climate change for vulnerable countries. He came to Lima with spokesperson Kirsty Lewis of [...]

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Peru celebrates many days devoted to saints from the Catholic pantheon, but not much fuss is made here over St. Patrick, one of Ireland’s three santos patronales. He is credited with converting the Irish populace to Christianity, a struggle that is symbolized visually as St. Patrick casting down a mass of wriggling snakes (the Irish “heathen” — see [...]

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photos c. Barbara Drake 2009 As I passed through Leoncio Prado park this morning, I caught sight of this municipal worker cleaning the general himself with a hose. A hero/martyr in Peru’s disasterous four-year war with Chile (1879-1883), Col. Leoncio Prado opted to be gunned down by an enemy firing squad rather than surrender his arms. A big [...]

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I’ve just added a nifty map widget to this blog that shows in real time where readers of An American in Lima are located. The widget is located on the right sidebar, below “10 Most Popular Posts” and above the Twitter feed. The orange stars indicate visitors’ city, state and country. A pulsing circle around a star [...]

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I used to think that France was the most food-obsessed nation on earth. Then I moved to Peru. Life halts twice a day in France for the gastronomic liturgies of le déjeuner and le dîner. Then the French people refold their napkins and return to the all-consuming business of being French: ie., being frighteningly exact about money, arguing about philosophy [...]

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yo vinifano, tu vinifanas, él vinifana…. “Parents have homework tonight,” El Híjo announced smugly as he dumped the cuadernos on the diningroom table earlier this week. He turned to me and El Fotógrafo: “You have to Vinifan them.” EF and I counted up the stack and groaned. Nine school notebooks to cover in clear, toxic-smelling [...]

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A young yellow-tailed woolly monkey plays in the rubbish behind a family’s house in Alto Mayo Valley, Peru / photos c. Shanee-NPC Noga Shanee of the Neotropical Primate Conservation group and Univ. San Marco researcher Fanny Cornejo visited this blog a few days ago to share some facts about the yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonax flavicauda), [...]

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Girl feeding pigeons in Plaza de Armas, Arequipa / photo c. Jorge Vera 2008 Arequipa, the White City rimmed by volcanic mountains home to cloistered nuns, virgin sacrifices & this sombre girl in the Plaza de Armas feeding pigeons from her fingertips. – Barbara R. Drake

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I get emails from time to time from people abroad who want to know about resettling in Peru. Is the job market in Peru good, they want to know?  (Tough for a foreigner, unless you’re okay with teaching English at $5/hour.) Can an American buy property in Lima? (Yes.) Is it true that if you put $20,000 [...]

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