Our Last Days in Huinchos and David's Birthday Party

It was Sunday already, where had the time gone?  Was there anything left to do?  Every time we asked that questions it was answered with another flurry of activity.  Sunday was no exception.  It turns out Sunday is the major market day in Andahuaylas, they turn the entire main street into a market with stalls selling almost anything imaginable, except for tourist stuff, which I assume isn't around because Andahuaylas doesn't get a lot of tourists, especially this time of the year.  We also needed to get to Andahuaylas to buy our plane tickets back to Lima.  We left Huinchos mid morning and got down to town to find the airline office closed, everything else in town seemed to be open on the market day, but not the airline office.  So, after some coffee we walked down to the market and spent a few hours walking around, buying little but groceries for the house, but enjoying the experience.  After that Ali and Victor decided that we should try a local drink called Chicha, which is made from blue corn and seems to be lightly alcoholic, though I'm told it is not - not sure what I believe - but it was tasty and refreshing.  By mid afternoon we were again on a Combi headed back to Huinchos.  We arrived and rested a bit, but soon were visited by a primary school English teacher who some family member had asked to visit us to help with our talking to each other.  It was great - she made it so easy for us to communicate, and both sides were able to tell longer, more complicated stories and have them understood.  She stayed for several hours and then left to go back to town before she missed the last Combi. 

Meanwhile, an extended family football (soccer) game was in the works.  It turns out that the largest building in Huinchos is a covered football pitch and the way you got your time on the field was to get there, put in your name and wait.  The game, featuring David as the visiting, low altitude player, started at 8 PM and went for an hour.  David did well despite the altitude, but had to drop out about 10 minutes before the game ended and waking back to the house wasn't easy on his cramping legs.  We got back to the house, ate a little  and were soon in bed.

Monday was a quiet day, this time really.  We went back into Andahuaylas to get the airline tickets in the morning, walked around a bit, used the Internet at the hotel we had stayed in a few days earlier and headed back fairly early.  We had the usual houseful of visitors at meal time and until going to bed but, all in all it was one of our quietest days in Huinchos, which was good because the next day, Tuesday, Dec. 15 was David's birthday and quite a celebration was planned.

All seemed calm when we got up for breakfast but soon after the preparations began.  Huge kettles of potatoes were cleaned and prepared for cooking, veggies were cleaned and cut, pots of water were put on to begin the preparation of the soups and the meat was prepared.  We helped when they would let us but unless it was pretty clear what was going on we weren't much help.  I'm always in awe of level of organization that goes into such preparations and how those that have done it before just know what needs to be done, even if they have not worked together before. Soon there were four cooking fires going and four huge pots on those fires.  A little after noon people started to show up, it started with a trickle but soon there was a crowd of thirty or forty.  David was told to go into his room before the ceremonies started and after a short while he was introduced as the birthday celebrant with speeches by his father, stepmother and brother.  He was presented with some presents, local weaving and a wall hanging.  Then the food began and it seemed like it would never stop, everyone ate way beyond satiation.  During and after eating, as usual, the talking and asking questions about life began and continued into the afternoon.  A lot of time was spent trying to explain to David how everyone was related, some progress was made but, like everywhere, family trees are difficult.  Then when people had wandered away to walk or just digest lunch a young American and two Peruvians showed up, the American and one of the Peruvians were dressed in white shirt and tie, a sure sign they were Mormon missionaries.  I thought, how ironic, that another American would show up unannounced in such a remote place.  However, as I learned as I talked to them, it wasn't accidental, someone from the extended family had contacted them and asked them to help us translate.  They had just neglected to tell David or me.  As soon as everyone realized what they were there for, they could hardly finish their lunch for all the translation they were providing.  The whole history of David's early life and the events that led to his adoption were explained from many different angles.  These guys were great - they kept at it for almost four hours and because one was American and one Peruvian, one or the other understood the cultural contexts.  At times they had tears in their eyes translating heartfelt statements that had been waiting almost 35 years to be said.  Finally, it was almost 6 PM, and they didn't want to miss the last Combi back to Andahuaylas, so after group pictures they left.  While they were translating, the primary school English teacher who had translated for the immediate family on Sunday arrived.  She and one of her former students, a family member, had prepared a family tree for David,  which helped immensely in understand the family.  We never finished the count but David has between  80 and 100 first cousins!  

Shortly the dancing and beer drinking began - the short of it is that at 1 AM the music and drinking finally stopped.  It had been a long and heartfelt celebration, but needless to say the next day would be quiet - nursing hangovers and sore legs from hours of dancing.  

It was a good thing that we didn't decide to return to Lima on Wednesday, the next day.  No one would have made the plane.  Things were quiet, with lots of naps.  

The next day, Thursday, we were all up very early, some of us at 4:30 AM to get packed and ready of the flight.  Fortunately, the airport was walking distance from the village, there was no space flat enough closer to Andahuaylas for an airport.  So by 6 AM we were walking to the airport with our bags and packs.  There were 5 of us leaving: Victor and Mama, David, Alejandro and me.  Ali would come with us to spend Christmas in Lima with his brother.  It was a bit sad to leave a place that seemed strange to us when we arrived but which, by the time we left had become a home.  As we boarded the plane I looked around at the beautiful Huanchos landscape and felt  that I must come back to this special place again.  I'm sure David felt a similar, and I'm sure stronger emotion - if not for his adoption, this might have been his home. 

Time at Ali's, the Doctor and a Trip to Puna

Though the original plan was to only spend a few day in Huinchos, that plan was soon out the window, David wanted to celebrate his 35th birthday, Dec. 15th, there and when we discovered that he was actually born in the village of Puna, some 14,000 in the Andes and maybe and hour and a half away by truck, we wanted to visit there as well.  Then there were all the relatives who wanted to spend some time with David and learn about his life, and this is not even to mention the pastoral beauty of the village of Huinchos, located on the side of a wide valley at about 11 to 12,000 feet in the Andes.  It is hard to describe the place because as soon as the altitude is mentioned the mind reaches for pictures of rocky peaks and barren landscapes and in some ways, despite the lack of a lot of trees, the landscape is better described as bucolic.  So, anyway we were there for at least a week.

The next day was filled with visiting relatives and with David encouraging them to help him build a family tree, people came and went and meals were served by Bertha, but it was never quiet and one was never alone.  This day, Wednesday, also featured a visit from Aunt Victoria, a force of nature of a woman.  She lives at 14,000 feet,in the village of Puna, which is above the line where agriculture is possible and where herding is dominant.  Her husband has passed away but she still, in her late 60's or older, continues running a heard of over 100 animals, including sheep, alpaca, llamas and cows.  She does this with a few dogs and sometimes some help from young relatives.  She spent the day with us and we were able to learn a bit about her life and she about David's.  We also now knew that we would be able to visit Puna, where David was born, over the weekend.  

Wednesday was also a day of adjusting to life in an Adobe house in a rural village.  The floors of the first floor were packed earth, the walls of course were packed earth, the cooking was done over a clay, wood fired stove in the kitchen, there was one source of water, a pipe in the courtyard and the roofless Adobe latrine was a little ways up the hill.  Ali and Bertha have three kids, a girl and three boys.  In order of age they are: Sayori (the girl), Juan Manuel, Erik Leo, and, the baby, Jhon Edu.  Erik and Jhon Edu were always around, while Sayori and Juan were in school for part of the day, all of them were a joy to be around and fascinated by us and how we lived and what we did.  The day was, like most of our days there, idyllic, a blue sky day, that  clouded over in the afternoon for a bit of rain and then cleared up in the early evening.  During the day the temperature went up to the mid 60's and at night down to the mid to low 40's, or, at least, that is what it felt like to me.  Still a little sleep deprived, I went to bed early, David a bit later, not because he wasn't tired but because he was still the center of conversation and had a harder time getting away.

By Thursday morning, David was starting to get a bit sicker, it had started the day before, with an intestinal reaction to the food or water or both.  By late morning we decided to take him down to Andahuaylas to a clinic to get examined by a doctor.  As is usually the case it was a bacterial dysentery, for which the doctor prescribed a few days of antibiotics and some probiotics.  By the time we left the clinic it was mid afternoon so we got some food and then David and I checked into a small local hotel while Victor and Mama went to her daughters house where they stayed the night.  Late that afternoon, when David was already feeling a bit better we met up with a cousin of his and toured some parts of the city we had not seen before.  We were back to the hotel fairly early, I treated myself to a hot shower, the first in a week and a half, and then a restful night.

The next day we had breakfast with Victor and Mama at the hotel, walked around town, seeing the sights of Andahuaylas, including the church where Victor and David's mom were married.  Later we went to Mama's daughter's house for lunch and to hang out a good part of the afternoon before heading back to Huinchos in the late afternoon, getting back in time for a beautiful sunset, time with Ali's family, supper and with David already feeling much better.  

Saturday was the day we were going to Puna, all of us were excited about the trip, and I was a little apprehensive about how we would manage with the altitude.  A while after breakfast we all piled into the back of a friend truck, with David driving, and headed up the road toward Puna.  The road first went through a larger neighboring village that was heavily agricultural and had irrigated fields, but as we moved out of the upper limits of the village the fields dropped away and the land became primarily natural pasture for sheep, vicuña, alpaca, llama and cattle, all of which we saw along the way.  The road wound relentlessly up through the arid pasture land, dotted, here and there, with lakes until we entered a large spectacular altiplano valley, we were in a pastoral valley surrounded by peaks of the Andes.  Simply amazing!  

Part way through the valley we pulled over, parked and set up cooking equiptment in what looked like it had been a large old stone corral.  Off in the distance we saw a large herd of sheep and alpaca, part of Aunt Victoria's heard.  Some ran, a chore at this altitude, over to greet here and soon she walked over to greet all of us.  She had an Andean slingshot with her which many of the men in the group showed their prowess, or lack of prowess, with.  We settled in, talked, walked around a bit and just enjoyed the day.  A group of us, including David, walked toward the area where we were told Aunt Victoria lived, we never got all the way because, part way there, we met another of David's uncles, Mariano.  Again, it was another of those amazing meetings, two people who knew of each other but never really thought they would meet.  They both looked amazed and touched - they couldn't stop looking a each other.  Another homecoming, this time at nearly the top of the world. We all walked back to the old stone corral, sat down and began to talk, to get to know each other.  After a while it was decided that we needed meat for lunch, Aunt Victoria offered a sheep and thus began one of the more astounding shows of competence I have ever seen.  Within an hour and a half a sheep had been wrestled to the ground, tied up, brought back to camp, slaughtered, butchered and cooked.  At times there were five or six people working on the sheep, everyone knowing what needed doing and no one getting in another's way.  Lunch was delicious.  But by the time we finished eating it was getting toward late afternoon, storm clouds were building up and we were in a open truck.  So, we quickly cleaned up, packed everything in the truck, bit goodby to Victoria and Mariano and started back.  Somehow we dodged the storm, though at times I was sure that we were about to be soaked, and got back to Huinchos, tired but happy.  Another chapter in David's search for his birth family completed.

To Andahuaylas and Huinchos

It was about 1 PM when we left the house on our way to the Molino Bus Terminal to catch our 4:20 bus to Andahuaylas, and it was a good thing we left early, traffic was terrible and we didn't get there any to early.  We checked in, greeted some relatives who came to see us off, once again, we weren't clear who they were due to language difficulties.  Soon we were on board a very new and quite comfortable bus, wide seats and plenty of leg room, and were wending our way through southern Lima, picking up passengers at Molino substations as we went.  Finally, we broke free of the city and began moving along the coast south of Lima.  There were many villages and towns and not a few large factories and warehouses along the way, but the most dominant feature was the aridness of the landscape.  I had read that much of coastal Peru was dessert but the landscape we were moving thru really made the point.  Except for areas that were irrigated everything was a shade of brown and in most areas the hills came right up to the ocean.  This was the last thing we saw as the light slowly faded into dark.  Within an hour of nightfall we turned east and started up the hills into the mountains.  It was easy to tell in the dark that this was happening, as the road was a series of sharp curves and hairpin turns, which kept us sliding from one side of our seats to the other and before the night was over created a good deal of motion sickness in the bus. Not so pleasant.  For David and I it was a long mostly sleepless night, though it seemed that most people on the bus despite their motion sickness did not have trouble sleeping not even waking up for stops in a few big Andean cities..  Finally and slowly dawn broke and we began to be able to see a beautiful mountain landscape full of adobe houses and small farms.  

After dawn it still took us several hours to pull into the bus station in Andahuaylas, but we had finally arrives and we stumbled out of the bus in a sleepless daze and faced the day.  Soon relatives of Victor and Mama greeted us at the station, bundled us into a taxi, driven by a relative, and we were off first to the central market to buy supplies, then to the house of Mama's daughter to say hello and finally, towards noon we started out of town, up the hill, toward Huinchos.  As we traveled the road, which was under major construction, Victor kept getting calls from the family in Huinchos, we thought it was only that they were worried about our trip, but as we pulled up to a corner in the town, just off the highway, we discovered the reason.  There were at least 50 people, mostly relatives, a band and fireworks waiting for us.  They had been waiting there for several hours, but that didn't dampen their enthusiasm to see us as we pulled up.  As soon as I realized what was going on I hopped out of the car so that I could get pictures.  David got out of the taxi and was immediately embraced by his older full brother Alejandro.  They were both in tears, unable to believe that after nearly 35 years they were again together.  What followed was a stream of hugs, smiles and tears, accompanied by music from the band, as nearly all the people gathered were relatives or close friends of the family.  Also there was David's paternal grandmother, who was in her 80's and still spry.  After a time of greeting the crowd starting walking the three or four blocks to Ali's, what everyone calls Alejandro, house.  The parade was led by David, his father Victor and his grandmother, sometimes joined by Ali, while the band played and people laughed and cried.  It was quite a sight.  (Soon I will upload pictures , but if you want to see them before that, check out Katie Huffling's page on Facebook - she is David's sister.)

We arrived at Ali and his wife Bertha's house to lunch and a celebration that went on and on, pictures were taken, conversations, such as they were with our seriously broken Spanish and the fact that many only spoke Quechua, and just adjusting to the new surroundings kept us occupied and somewhat unaware that we were seriously sleep deprived.  Toward evening we went to the town cemetery where David's mother, Simona, was buried.  It was another touching moment in a day of them, first David knelt at the grave alone his head bowed, then he was joined by his brother Ali and his father Victor - a family reunited.  Then, other relatives joined them for pictures and after a time a tour of relatives' graves in the cemetery.  And the band was still there, playing local music - at one point they handed their instruments to David, Ali and I, and we faked it as best we could.  After a time we began to leave the cemetery and assembled for family and friends pictures just outside.  Then we walked back to Ali house, a two story adobe building where we would be staying, and continued learning about each other, eating and listening to the band playing.  It turned dark out but things just went on, at times waves of tiredness engulfed us, remember we hadn't slept on the bus, but it was hard to break away.  Finally sleep came with the band still playing.  

Time With the Family.

After a late lunch with David's family, it was decided for us that we would be staying at their house in Huaycan, which was fine with us, and that David's half brother, Jesus, would go with us to the hostel to pick up our backpacks and check out of the hostel.  We were soon on our way in a taxi which, by the way, cost us about half what it would have cost had we rented it.  We once again had a tour of Lima from the window of our cab, got to the hostel, checked out, and were quickly on our way back.  We got back to Huaycan before dinner, were shown the room where we would stay, we are pretty David's dad and Mama moved out of the room to give it to us, but there was no fighting that, so we accepted it and settled in.  The house was pretty simple, as you entered the front door you came into a sitting room/dining room area, behind that was the stairs to go upstairs and a corridor that led to a bathroom, a small bedroom and the kitchen area.  In the sitting room/dining area the walls were finished and painted and it was furnished with a large couch and a large dining table and chairs, the table sits at least 10.  The back sleeping room was furnished and the kitchen area had a stove and refrigerator, but was not like a typical western kitchen.  Upstairs there were three finished bedrooms, including ours, a small common area and two rooms that were still being finished.  Of the three bedrooms, one was ours, one was used by a couple, the husband of which was one of Mama's sons, Richard, from a previous marriage and a room in which Jesus and Mama and Papa's son Raul slept.  The steps went up another flight to the mostly open roof, which served as the laundry, a common area and,in a roofed over part, a room for Uncle Felix.  It took us a while to find out exactly who everyone was, and every now and then, we still aren't sure we have it right,  So here they all are:  Mama and Papa: Victor and Dionescia.  Their children: Raul (16), Monica (14) and Jeremy (a girl) (12).  Mama's two children from a previous marriage who live there: Jesus (25) and Richard (?) with his wife.  And Uncle Felix, our guess to his age is somewhere in his 60's.

Just the information above, when the commonality of language is small is hard to get, and to be sure it is correct.  So, everything we learned was very slow going, that is until, late on our second day there, we learned that Richard had wifi and it was ok for us to use it.  We got the password from Jesus and now we could use Google Translate as well as check email.  

In thinking about how to tell the story of our time in Huaycan I decided not to do it chronologically, because that would take away from both the intensity of the learning we, especially David, were doing and the fact that there were few activities that were significant.  Mostly, we hung out with whoever was around, asked questions, were asked questions and all of us tried our best to answer what we thought the questions were.  There was always talk around the table, there was especially always talk when Raul was there, he has this insatiable curiosity that wont stop.  If we weren't talking at meals we were talking on the rooftop while doing laundry, or sitting on the couch in the living room, or one or two or three would come into the room to talk.  The whole thing got a lot easier when we discovered we had access to the internet.  Using translation programs or online translators made it easier but it still was tough in some situations, where we were not sure what they were asking or they didn't understand our  answers because that lacked knowledge of US social customs.  The growth in all of our knowledge was slow and incremental but it did happen, slowly we began to understand at least the outer level of each other.  Sandwiched between all this were activities, like the day Monica and Jeremy took us for a walk around town, including a local animal park, and the central market, which was fascinating for me and really a new experience for David.  Or, the day I was doing my laundry on the roof when David, Mama and several others came up and we got to talking about the Guinea Pigs, a local delicacy, that they were raising on the roof.  We also talked about Huaycan, which had been described to us as a slum but which they described, and I observed to be, a sometimes dangerous but generally safe community transitioning slowly from poverty to lower middle class.  It climbs hills so steep that you wouldn't believe they could be built on and parts of the area seem to blend into the dunn colored landscape, except for a few brightly painted buildings.

All along one of David's hopes was to visit the place of his birth which is in a village in the hills above the town of Andahuaylas, a Andean town at almost 10,000 feet.  This was one of the first things he mentioned when he met his family in Huaycan and they immediately agreed that it was a good idea, so planning began quickly, mostly arranging for Victor to take some time off from work.  By Sunday it had been decided that we would leave late Monday afternoon on a bus from Lima, a trip that turned out to be 14 hours.  So during the day on Sunday we rode a minibus to the cross country bus station to get our tickets, they needed to see our passports to sell us the tickets.  That evening there was a spirited hour long family soccer game at a pitch across the street with nearly everyone in the family participating.  David family and he had moved a long way toward each other since we knocked on the door three days before.  Though the time was short the intensity was amazing - both David and I agreed that it seemed more like a week or two had gone by since we arrived.  

The next morning was more talking, packing (the trip was planned to last three or four days) and then goodby's to the family members who weren't coming along.  It was only Victor and Mama, David and I who were going.  The rest had to stay behind because of school, jobs or just to take care of the house.  

Finding a Family.

Friday morning we were up just after 6 AM, washed, dressed and out the door of the hostel before 7 AM.  We walked the familiar route to the Metropolitano, found the boarding area for our bus, pushed on and were soon speeding our way to Barranco.  We arrived at the station near the missionary compound, walked the few blocks to their gate and rang the buzzer, and rang it again and again, finally it was answered and we were told that the priest was not there, we were not about to give up and rang it again and in our broken Spanish tried to explain that we had an appointment, no luck.  We tried again and this time also knocked on the gate, the knock was heard by a priest walking in their garden and he came to the gate, let us in and directed us to where we could find Father Adrian.  After a few other false starts Father Adrian finally heard us talking and came out to greet us - it turns out there is a new cook who was answering the door that morning and she hadn't been well trained.  It didn't matter to us we had found our guide and he was willing to go with us to the parish in Huaycan where David's father lives and there turn us over to a parish priest who might be able to find the address in the maze of streets that is Zona J in Huaycan.

Soon Father Adrian, an Irish priest who was both good humored, determined and knowledgeable about Peru, where he has served for almost 40 years, had us in a taxi and then a series of buses as we wound our way across Lima.  We could have never figured out the buses we had to take to get there unless we had lived in Lima for a long time.  Finally, we left our last bus and switched to a minibus, and in15 minutes exited in front of the parish church compound of Huaycan.  Father Adrian led us inside and within a few minutes we were talking with a French missionary who worked there.  As soon as he made the transfer Fr. Adrian was off  to a parish where he assisted about 40 minutes back.  The French missionary, whose name unfortunately we never got or forgot, excused himself but was back in a few minutes with the parish registry which contained the name of David's father.

Minutes later we were in a combi, a van minibus, which we rode a few minutes up the hill, Huaycon is built on steep hills, really the foothills of the Andes, just outside Lima.  At a spot the priest recognized we jumped out and started walking up and down streets checking address plates on the houses, after about five minutes of this we found a plate that matched the return address on a letter David had gotten from his father.  There was nothing else to do but knock on the door.  The door opened and a teenage woman, David's half sister, Monica, opened the door and the priest began to explain why we were there. Halfway through the priests explanation she realized who David was, you could tell by the shock on her face and she said amazed "David".  David said "Si", the priest backed away with a smile on his face, and what followed was an extended series of hugs, with Monica then David's stepmother, who we have called "Mama" since that first meeting, and David's stepbrother, Jesus.  The rest of the family including David's father were away, either at work or school.  The priest left with our effusive thanks and we all went inside.  We sat around their dining table and began to try to talk to each other.  David, thank goodness, had high school Spanish which began to come back quickly, I had very little Spanish but an ability to communicate in some kind of sign language that sometimes works but cant go very deep, and David's family had bits and pieces of English.  After a half hour or so the door opened and David's father, Victor, walked in quickly.  David and he saw each other, David jumped up, they hugged, held each other at arms length to look at each other, hugged again and continued this for several minutes.  The whole room was full of people with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes.  

David's Arrival, Seeing More of Lima, and Beginning the Search for David's Family.

So I've barely gotten started on this blog and I already feel like I am way behind.  Today is Saturday and I left off writing on Monday and a lot has happened.  Lets get started.

On Tuesday I got up, had breakfast at the hostel and decided that today I would try riding the Metropolitano, the high speed, dedicated lane bus service, to Barranco in the far east of Lima, along the Pacific Ocean.  I wanted to go there because the order of priests, the Mission Society of St James, that facilitated David's adoption had their Peru headquarters in a compound there.  I had recently found the correct address by emailing the order at their main office in Boston.  I walked several blocks across a park and some city streets to the underground facility that housed the Central station of the Metropolitano, figured out how to buy a prepaid card and load it with a credit, not as easy as it sounds because the instructions were all in Spanish and my Spanish is poor to none, and went to the gate that buses to Barranco left from.  The line to board was relatively short so I felt sure I would get on the next bus, not so - the buses were extremely full, and pushing in was all but impossible for any but a few.  Finally on about the fifth bus I got in and was on my way.  The ride was great and fast - no stopping five times per block to pick up passengers - only a quick stop every few minutes at a raised station platform to pick up and let people off.  Soon, after about 25 minutes to a half hour, I arrived at my Barranco station, exited the train and started in the direction that my map program indicated I would find the road that the St James compound was on.  To my surprise everything went smoothly and soon I was standing in front of the compound door, I rang the buzzer and was let in and pointed toward the office where I waited for someone to find the receptionist.  She soon arrived and in my broken Spanish and her broken English we established that David and I would return in two days, Thursday, to see one of the priests who spoke English and who might remember David's adoption.  It was all very smooth, especially for a visitor to a country he didn't know and who didn't speak the language.  I stopped in a little shop on the way back to the Metropolitiano and had coffee and a sweet roll to celebrate my success, easily got back on the metro and was back at the 1900 Hostel before noon.  

David was to arrive from the states at around 10:30 PM and as I had promised to meet him at the airport with a cab.  I knew it would be a late night so I decided to take a nap after my morning excursion.  I woke up a few hours later and went out for lunch and a walk, a nice meal at a ceviche restaurant and a walk around a different part of Central Lima.  I got back to the hostel, read a bit and talked to some new friends and soon it was 8 PM and time to leave for the airport.  In a little more than and hour I was at the airport and settled in for the wait.  David's plane arrived early and he soon popped out of the door from security and when I noticed him he was looking around a bit worried that he saw no one to meet him, a feeling I know well from many arrivals in different countries.  I called to him, he saw me, and we greeted each other.  He was in a great mood, probably amazed that he was finally back in his country of birth.  We gathered up his things, found our taxi driver, loaded up and were soon on the road back to our hostel in Central Lima.  David turned out to be even more excited about being in Peru than I had initially guessed.  He never stopped smiling or being amazed by what he was seeing the whole way back to the hostel, at one point he was half out of the taxi window taking a picture of the passing scene.  We arrived, checked him into the room, went out to get a late pizza and then had a beer at the hostel and talked till 1 PM.  

We both slept in a bit the next day, had breakfast and decided to go for a walking tour of the historical center of Lima.  It was a laid back day as we walked around, watched a rally of pensioners against government cuts, no shades of home here, visit centuries old churches, the old central square, the Plaza de Armes, from where the Spanish Viceroys and now the Peruvian presidents rule and where we watched the changing of the guard ceremony at the National Palace, strolled down pedestrian streets, ate lunch, and visited the Museum of the Congress and the Inquisition.  I still have no idea why those last two were grouped together in the same building, except that maybe they both met in the same area.  After a pleasant and full day out we walked back to the hostel, napped, had a few beers and dinner, talked to some of the other guests and were in bed at a reasonable hour.  The next day we had to get up early in order to get to Barranco to see if there was a Padre from the Mission Society of St. James who could be of help to us in finding David's father.  We had an address for his father from another of the mission priests who was unfortunately on home leave but we had been warned several times that it was notoriously hard to find addresses in the far flung poorer section of Lima where his father lived.  Everyone we talked to told us to seek help before we went there on our own.  

The next morning we rose just after 6 AM and were at the Metropolitano Central Station by a bit past 7 AM, just in time to push our way into a train to Barranco.  We arrived at the Barranco station and easily found our way to the St James compound, but when we rang the gate bell we got no answer for a long time until finally a cook, who spoke no English, came to the door and it took a bit of asking in our broken Spanish to get her to understand that we had been told to return in order to talk to one of the English speaking priest.  Finally, we were directed to the priests dining room where we met one Father Adrian, a friendly Irish priest who was probably in his late 70's and who had been serving in Peru for nearly 50 years.  We explained our problem as clearly as possible and, more or less, begged for help getting to the area where David's father lived.  We had found the right priest - as soon as he clearly understood our problem, especially our lack of good Spanish, he directed us to come back at the same time the next day to go along with him on the ride to his parish, he said he would make a detour for us and take us to the parish hall in the area called Huaycan, where David's father lived.  Father Adrian said that he thought that, from there, someone at the parish hall could help us locate the exact address.  He also told us that the area we were going to was vast and that addresses were particularly hard to find because it was still being built up and expanded.  It was great news - as much as could have been expected - and we left very upbeat and excited about the prospects for the next day.  

As we walked back toward the Metropolitano we realized we were hungry - we hadn't bothered to eat before going to the St James Society, so we changed direction and walked toward the downtown of Barranco, but it turns out that early breakfast isn't a big thing there.  There were plenty of restaurants but none of them were open.  Finally, we found a street vendor selling tea and egg sandwiches near another Metropolitano station and we chowed down, while trying to figure out what to do next.  We decided to go to the next town along the ocean, Miriflores, which is know as an upscale beach town and take a walk down to the beach.  Again, we found out some things are more easily said than done.  After about an hour of walking through streets filled with high rise apartments we finally came to an overlook where we could see the ocean, several hundred very vertical feet below.  We walked along the park the wound around the cliff's edge but found no paths down, clearly we were going to need transportation down.  So we found a taxi and took a tour of the beach area below the cliff.  It turns out most, maybe all, of the beaches are rock not sand, not quite the thing for strolling or sunbathing.  After our beach excursion we had the taxi let us off at a flower market we had seen earlier from the bus.  We spent some time strolling around looking at all the plants and cut flowers and as we were leaving noticed a little lunch place attached to the market compound and chose to eat lunch there.  After a good full lunch we walked over to the Metropolitano station and headed back to hostel.  At the hostel I rested and worked a little on this blog, and David joined a free hostel walking tour of the old city.  David returned a few hours later and was having a Pisco Sour, the national, and strong, drink of Peru with the rest of the walking tour group when I joined him in the common room/bar.  I had a drink with him, we played pool a little, had dinner and slept early.  The next day, Friday, we figured might be a busy day.  

The Hostel, Getting Some Rest, Meeting Travelers and Exploring CentralLima.

Because my flight arrived early in the morning the trip to the 1900 Backpacker Hostel was pretty quick, just over a half of an hour, about a half or a third of what it would have been if the morning rush had started in earnest. We arrived at a beautiful old building in Central Lima, a mansion that has become a hostel.  The taxi driver helped me with my backpack up to the main floor of the hostel where I paid him for the ride and checked in. My dorm bed wasn't available yet, people were still sleeping, so I got a simple breakfast at the hostel and sat down to await the availability of my bed.  It soon became obvious to me that I was going to sleep and is wasn't going to matter if it was in a bed or on a couch in the hostel lobby.  So, I asked the guy at the desk if there was anything available, even if it wasn't exactly what I had reserved, he looked through his computer and, sure enough, there was a bed in another, slightly larger dorm.  At that point i really didn't care, I just wanted to lie down and sleep, which I very quickly did.  Today, three plus days later, that Friday is a bit of a fog, I remember getting up several times, going for a walk, sleeping again, eating, sleeping again, and finally sleeping for the night.  My built up tiredness and the lack of sleep on the plane exacted their price, actually quite a comfortable price.  Nothing like sleeping when you are really tired!

I must have met a few people at the hostel on Friday night because I remember having the hostel free breakfast, coffee or tea, juice, bread, butter and jelly, with a few new friends on Saturday morning.  One of these new friends, Sonia, a woman from Australia, who spends much of her time doing volunteer work after natural disasters, Nepal, South Carolina, Dominique, and I ended up touring around a good part of central Lima during the day on Saturday.  When we started walking I wasn't sure how far I would be able to go, my knees and hips have been giving me trouble lately, but six hours later I was still moving when we got back to the hostel, maybe not as well as I would have liked but moving nevertheless.  We had seen a lot of historic central Lima, tried out a few places to eat, and taken a bus tour up Cerro San Christobal, a mountain outcrop that stretches nearly to central Lima and has spectacular views of the city.  From the top you begin to realize just how big Lima is, the population was at 8.5 million in 2007.  We couldn't see all of Lima because of the fog, the city gets very little rain but also has very few blue sky days because of the fog.  It was a good day that I topped off with a few beers at he hostel bar before crashing into my bunk bed at about 9:30.  I was beginning to feel like I was on the road again.

Sunday was mostly a day of rest, time in the beautiful and incredibly well used Lima parks, there is one just across the street from the hostel behind the Lima Art Museum, and a bit of computer research into the national and local buses.  I also spent some time checking on flights from Lima to the various parts of the country that I would like to visit.  Distances are long here and in some cases it is going to make sense to take the bus one way, in order to see the countryside, but possibly not both ways.  Also, there is at least one city in the Peruvian Amazon that has no roads in, so it's either a plane or a riverboat.  I ended the day with a meal in the little local eating place two doors down from the hostel.

Monday turned out to be another day of getting the lay of the land.  Sonia was preparing to take a bus to Ariquipa and wanted to check on a few of the different bus companies, most of whom had kiosks in the underground Mall that I had walked by several times without even realizing it was there.  I went along mostly because I was incredulous that I had been able to walk by it so many times without ever recognizing that it was there.  It was filled with people and the area around it had lots of street entertainment - lots of fun.  The rest of the day I filled with walking explorations to different parts of the central area and a checking out of the high speed dedicated lane mass transit bus system, really impressive, and really crowded - but so are the NY Subways.  As I've spent a few days here now I've become impressed with the city, at least with the parts I have seen, and the work they have obviously been doing to make it more livable, parks, transit, etc., and with the people who seem intent on their work during the week, but who seem to know how to enjoy the weekends when they flock to the parks and malls to stroll and enjoy the day.

Let's Get Going

Getting Away and Getting to Peru:                jim on 11/29/15

It has been about two years since I've traveled overseas, the last time, and my last blog, was when I traveled to Nepal and taught conversational English in a Buddhist monastery there, I got home from that trip in mid January of 2014.  This time I'm headed in a different direction, South, to Peru, Ecuador and Columbia.  I've been busy with all kinds of projects over the last two years and it was time for me to break away again, get some rest and learn about another part of the world, where I have never gone before.  Whereas in Nepal I traveled alone, this time I have a group of friends who will be joining me for different parts of the trip and who, I hope, will join me in writing this blog.  I'll introduce them quickly here and then let them write what they want about themselves and their thoughts as they travel:

      David Huffling:  David is one of my housemates in Acworth, he has been living at the house for two years now and has become a good friend.  David was born in Peru, his mother died when he was only two months old and he was put up for adoption.  He was adopted by the Hufflings in Acworth's neighboring town of Alstead and has lived there and in Acworth since his adoption.  This will be his first trip back to Peru since he was born almost 35 years ago.  David will be arriving in Lima in a few days, Dec. 1.

Jerry Lieblich:  I know Jerry through my friendship with a Yale a capella group, the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus.  We met when he was still in school, became friends when he spent a summer with us in Acworth and have kept up our friendship through occasional visits, me to NYC where he has lived the past few years pursuing a career in writing for the theatre, and he to Acworth for a break from the city.  Jerry will be arriving just before Christmas.

Lizzie Fox:  I know Lizzie because of Jerry, they have been dating for a while now, I'm embarrassed that I don't know how long.  But regardless of how long it's been, it has been a pleasure.  She is a caring and gentle person who is a pleasure to be around.  She is a graduate of Williams College and is pursuing a career in acting in NYC.  Lizzie will also be arriving just before Christmas.


I'm sure many others will be introduced in this blog as we travel and make friends, but these are the only ones I knew about before I left the US a few days ago.  And leaving certainly wasn't easy.   Getting through my list of projects to finish before I left was a real challenge and finishing the list was probably a fiction, but I think I got most of it done, I'm sure I'll find out when I get back.  But the day finally came, Tuesday, Nov. 24; I got up early, 5:30 AM, to do my volunteer work, cooking breakfast in this case, at the Acworth Village Store, I snuck away around 9 AM and went back to the house to pick up our other housemate, Paul Weir, in order for us to drive together to the NY/NJ area, he to spend Thanksgiving with relatives and me to continue over to NYC to spend a few days,including Thanksgiving with my close friends (family really) Shannon, Jamie, Lillias and Beatrice.  It was great to have those days in the City with few responsibilities before I left and it was great to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family before heading to Kennedy Airport for my 10:45 PM flight to Lima.  The flight was uneventful, always a good thing, and I even got a little sleep.  As much as I have traveled I still don't sleep well on planes.  It was scheduled to be an eight hour flight but, I think, we cut a little bit off of that, and it was straight south, which surprised me when I first realized it.  I always forget how far eastern South America sticks out into the Atlantic, enough to make the Peruvian west coast straight south of the US east coast.  Nature's little illusions.  

Dawn was breaking as the plane touched down in Lima and I was surprised as I looked out the plane window how dry the land surrounding the runway was.  I shouldn't have been surprised, I had read a few times that much of the Peruvian coast is desert or near desert, but somehow it had never sunk in.  Not many flights arrive early in the AM in Lima so our flight had the airport pretty much to ourselves which made all of the arrival activities go smoothly.  All that remained was to walk out of the security area to locate the cab that the Hostel I was staying at, the 1900 Backpacker Hostel, had promised to send for me. I asked for a pickup so I didn't have to fight with the hoards of taxi drivers wanting to overcharge me and take me to a place where they got a good commission.  As soon as I walked out I saw a guy with a sign with my name on it and the name of the hostel, it couldn't have been easier.  I know getting out of the airport sounds like a simple thing, but I have always believed that it is the hardest part of traveling, you are tired and a bit confused and then you have to negotiate a mob of people all wanting your attention.  It made me very contented to find my driver and start my trip to the hostel and to discovering Peru.