Our first week in Peru

After stuffing all of our belongings into our car we were off to Philadelphia airport where Layla dropped us off and then went on to visit Meadow and give her the car that we have bequeathed to her.  7 boxes take a lot of time to check in, but all was well and we were off.  However, once we were in Lima we waited and waited and waited for the boxes to come off the conveyor until we were the last ones standing and still no boxes.  When I went to an official looking person and showed her the claim checks, she said basically, "Oh yeah.  They are over there"  Over there proved to be 2 carousels away where they all were, stacked up neatly.  However, we missed our flight to Arequipa and had to wait about 3 hours for the next one  Meanwhile two worker type guys came over and asked me what was in the case and when I explained as best I could since they did not speak English, that it was a banjo, they looked confused.  So I took it out and they insisted on taking pictures with me holding the banjo for their Facebook page.

Meanwhile, we had now way to contact Roberto, who was going to pick us up, so David and I each got into separate taxis with half the luggage each and hoped we would meet up at the hotel.  All was well and we were reunited.  However, we had booked our favorite room which was on the roof and had to bring up 3 of the 7 boxes which had things we needed.  At 7200 feet, that was a chore.

Our real estate agent turned out to be less than helpful and we were stuck!  We certainly were in no mood to sight see, so after waiting two days for her to arrange a viewing, only to be told that nothing was available, we bought the Sunday paper in the hope that we could help ourselves.  Well, that was useless..even though we could sort of decipher the real estate ads, we had no idea where they were and no ability to make calls to find out about the apartments and make appointments to go see them.  So there we were, sitting in the little lobby, utterly helpless, when Erika, a young woman who worked in the hotel and another young woman took us in hand.  Erika took the whole day off, made all the necessary calls, hauled us from one cab to another and found us a great apartment!  Then the owner of the hotel took the following morning off to go with us and the landlord to the notary to sign the lease and then to the apartment where he went over it room by room to make sure everything was just fine!

What a wonderful introduction to Arequipa.  We are in the Omocollo section of Yanuaharra, right in front of a railroad track on which runs infrequent little freight trains.  The unusual thing about our little train is that it crosses a major street without any crossing guard, flashing lights or any other safety precautions but a hoot of the horn!  There is also a flock of sheep that graze next to the train tracks!

We went from a dry cabin in Fairbanks, with no running water and an outhouse to a 7th floor apartment with 4 bathrooms, 2 TV's a doorman and a cleaning lady.  What a hoot!  However, El Misti looms out our kitchen window and the lights of the city twinkle all around us!  Here is a view from the living room And this is a view from the kitchen.  Because the weather is so great, we have an outdoor laundry room with a washing machine and drying rack.and a very fancy bedroom with a blue light over the bed.     Our living room has white furniture which makes me nervous, but also a massage chair which helps me relax!.  Our kitchen is quite functional with a breakfast bar and stools and lovely appliances. And here is our lovely building from the street. 

I take a bus every day to my Spanish lessons and this is high entertainment.  I stand any place along the route and flap my hand when I see my bus.  It slows down, the guy who collects the fare and yells the destination swings down, I swing up and squash myself into the crowd, barely fitting in the door and off we go.  Luckily, I can usually get off fairly soon after I get on and walk the rest of the way to school. because the drivers are maniacs.  There are not lanes, no turn signals, few lights and no rules!

Weather is sublime...sunny, warm, breezy...but very dry since we are in an absolutely high desert.  It gets cool at night.  The folks here have a different sense of warm and cold than do the folks in AK, plus everyone is afraid of the sun.  The result is that everyone wears long sleeves, and light jackets, in the morning and warmer jackets and scarves in evening.  I try to blend in and as a result I sweat! Here is a photo of sunset from our kitchen window

Unfortunately David's office in Arequipa was supposed to be ready around the first week in September, but now won't be ready until October 30 which means that he is in Lima during the week and home on the weekend.  Not fun!