An American in Lima

Financial news blog Inca Kola News reported on Sunday that while gas prices in Peru are falling, they’re still a major drain on the wallet for most Peruvians. And when you factor in GDP per capita, it costs nine times as much to fill up in Peru as it does in the U.S.A.
No wonder Peruvians are [...]

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Chef / restauranteur Gaston Acurio is on a mission to bring Peruvian cooking to the world; photo by Karel Navarro

The latest issue of Condé Nast Portfolio features a highly readable profile of Superchef Gastón Acurio, the culinary mastermind behind La Mar, Astrid y Gaston and more than a dozen eateries in South America and now the [...]

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It’s 5:30 in the afternoon here in Lima, and the Peruvian version of Halloween is underway.
In my neighborhood of Miraflores, the holiday consists of big groups of kids running through the streets screaming “Halloween! Halloween!”
Some are wearing costumes, but many aren’t. Every child has a bag for candy, though.
When the children ring the doorbell, they scream [...]

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I knew there was a word for catching a ride on the back of a moving vehicle: It’s ”skitching,” as I’ve just found out.
I posted on some skitchers in northern Peru in ”Dangerous Skateboarding in Peru” (October 30).
Skateboaders in North America skitch rides mainly for the thrill of it, but in Peru, kids do it out of necessity. Skitching rides is [...]

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My eyes popped when I saw this image on Boing Boing, taken from Zeraga’s Flickr pool via Street Use:

 In Perú from Huánuco to Tingo Maria, where the road from the Pacific coast across the Andes finds its way towards the Amazon lowlands. This is near the top of the last mountain pass. From there, a [...]

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This past Monday (October 6), at around 6:50 p.m., El Híjo and I were sitting in the living room when we felt an enormous jolt.
EH leaped from the couch: “Earthquake!”
The rapid shaking last for ten seconds and stopped.
El Fotógrafo emerged from the kitchen where he was cooking a very fragrant Bolognese sauce. His brother was [...]

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For the last 14 months in Peru, the value of the U.S. dollar has been tanking. That trend really hurts when you’re an expat, like me, who still keeps a bank account in the U.S.
When El Fotógrafo and I arrived in Lima in July 2007, the dollar was trading at 3.3 Peruvian soles. We didn’t [...]

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El Fotografo can’t kick this chest cold he’s been suffering from for three weeks. Not even the schlep to Santa Eulalia last weekend could knock it out of his system. So I decided to try a home remedy on him that I read about in Suite 101.

Now EF’s lying in bed swathed in poultices and blankets, just four feet away from me, and the room reeks of Indian food.

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Valley of Santa Eulalia, Peru, which has sun, big rocks and amazing avocado ice cream

There is no sun in Lima during the South American winter. No shifting light. No shadows. No way to tell 8 a.m. from 5 p.m.
Just a flat grey sky that stays put, like lint in the dryer basket.
I wrote about this yesterday [...]

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The sun disappears almost completely. The sky is the same dead grey color, from 8 in the morning to 6 at night.
A strange weather condition called garua invades the city. Garua is a damp, cold mist that hangs in the air like a cobweb and turns the sidewalks into slippery deathtraps.
It never truly rains, however, so the dirt and soot don’t wash away. Buildings, plants, cars, street signs – everything is covered in layers of dust (polvo) made moist by the garua.
Humidity levels climb during winter, intensifying the cold. As the months wear on, the chilly humidity creeps into the marrow of your bones, until you feel like an old carrot left in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator.

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Aug. 19, 2008, Lima: More neighborhood destruction to report, resulting from poorly rerouted traffic from Av. Republica Panama (the old Pan-Americana Highway) into our neighborhood. A beautiful old tree was murdered by a reckless Lima truck driver, who had to get from Point A to Point B in as little time as possible –  no matter [...]

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The body of the teenage boy who drowned in a Lima sewer has finally been found, Lima police announced July 24.
After a 12-day search, the body of Ray Pomiano Villanueva was found in the Huaral district of Chancay, approximately 186 miles from where he fallen into an open manhole. Pomiano, who was trying to catch a bus when [...]

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The boy in the grey t-shirt swept out his arm and arched his torso in an elegant bow-shape as the “bull” charged within an inch of his hip. Then he pivoted on one foot and flicked the cape at his opponent’s head. The red fabric spun and twirled, daring the sharp, curved horns to come closer.
They were two Limeno kids, [...]

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This is one of the most awful events I’ve heard about recently. Lima has a huge problem with people stealing manhole covers, and the streets are becoming hazardous to pedestrians – now fatally, for one Lima teenager.
El Fotógrafo told me about the incident over breakfast. “What a way to go,” he said, shaking his head.
The [...]

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