I live in Perú: Near Central America

I live very near Central America. No I am not exactly geographically challenged. I know that the Peru is nowhere near Central America. I live in the Miraflores District of Lima, Perú. I am sure. What is ironic and surprising if you will is that of all the 8 million or 10 million inhabitants of Lima (depending on whose estimates you use) I live just a few block from Central America Plaza.

Why is this funny? Well not is it only geographically confusing to say I live near Central America. It is also ironic. As I have lived many years in the actual Central America, mostly recently Nicaragua but mostly in Costa Rica.

In this plaza you find all the flags for the various countries, except Belize. I do not think many people count poor Belize as Central America. Though it must be.

 The flags are not the only reminder we are now in (near) Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica & Panamá. A statue to honor General Francisco Morazan, the liberator & father of Central America also stands guard over the park.

While the food, climate, language and people are different in Lima from Central America. 

I only have a 5 minute walk from my apartment to take a short visit to my beloved Central America.

It is so good and it is so Wong: A little advertising with your festival

Sunday night the skies in the Miraflores District of Lima, Perú lit up with fireworks, shiny bikini-clad women and floats that would make Lady Gaga look tame.

This is the XXIV Gran Curso for the Peruvian Independence Holiday (later this month)…sponsored by the Peruvian-based Wong supermarket chain.

The entire area around the the famous Kennedy Park overflowed with people who wanted to watch the parade and other events associated with the upcoming holiday and the store marketing plan.

While the floats were interesting, the woman were beautiful and the high school bands gave it all they had

…I could not help but notice that this seemed like one big marketing fest. Every float was a giant banner hawking a product…thinly disguised as a float or adornment.

My personal favorite was the giant Cristal beer drunk…that is blatant marketing but I can easily forgive it. It is beer.

To make the streets even more crowded all the bars were full of beer drinkers watching the Copa America soccer (futbol matches).

While this party is completely manufactured by advertisers for consumer consumption, it is fun. People enjoyed themselves. Even I had fun.

I say bring on the pre-packaged consumer made fun.

Yes you can have phone service, No you can't: Getting Connected in Peru

Finding cell phone and home phone/cable/internet service is a daunting task in any country. You would think it would be easier here in Peru since there are basically only three cell phone providers and two companies that have home service.

Since I am in the process of getting my residency card or CE (carnet de extranjería), I can only use my passport to make purchases and open accounts until my residency is approved. It is not a problem to get a prepaid phone which is the small flip phone you see below. Anything more than that is a hassle.

However, I wanted to use my iPhone which was NOT unlocked because it is an iPhone 4. I had to get a special device to use it which took about two weeks to find. That is a story unto itself. The three phone companies are Movistar, Claro and Nextel. 

Movistar is a company from Spain. Claro comes from Mexico. Nextel is the same as Sprint and works on a radio system. The only companies that sell the microchip I needed are Movistar and Claro. After going to four Movistar offices they finally told me I can’t get one without my CE. Claro offered me a “monthly” plan but required a two month deposit and I couldn’t use the deposit money until the third and fourth months. So one company refused service and the other offered a no contract monthly service with a four month commitment. Crazy but I finally got this service.

For home phone/internet/cable service Movistar offered me a special discount. They made my contract and took four copies of my fingerprints and told me they would install in two days.  After four days I went to the office to ask what had happened. Then they told me there was no record of my contract. I then filled out a new contract. The company then called to say they were “oversaturated” in my neighborhood and could not offer service. So then I contracted Claro. After two home visits to review the cables in my apartment they finally installed service. That same day out of nowhere Movistar (the company who said they were “oversaturated”) came to install cable and internet as well. I informed them that they had refused me service. They also had no record of that. Oh well, I guess you gotta laugh. I finally have home phone and internet.

Because of my lack of credit in Peru I was only able to get the 99 Soles ($36) per month plan. Be jealous…from the picture below you can see that I do get 3 Gigs of 3G Internet but only have 39 Soles ($14.18) of talk time and 40 text messages per month.

I am finally connected with home phone, cable & Internet as well as Iphone 3G service. Life is good.

The 4th of What? Just another day in Peru.

Happy 4^th of July to all the folks back home. I am in Peru where today is also the 4^th of July; but it of course is not a holiday here. Peruvians celebrate independence later this month. Today, it is simply the 4^th of July, just another day.

The front page news here on major paper today, El Comercio, discusses the upcoming presidency of newly elected Omanta Humala and of course as you can see below the schedule for today’s matches in the Copa America.

Today the 4^th of July is like any other busy Monday in Peru.

As I walk by the university campus where I work (Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola) I see flags. Part of me looks instinctively for the US flag on the 4^th of July. It is of course not there. I am in Peru. I see the university and Peruvian flags.

I have not been in the United States for many Fourth of July holidays in the last decade. I have spent most of them in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and now Peru. I am still an American at heart. A gringo if you will. Hell, I might even go to McDonalds and have a hamburger today to celebrate. Happy 4^th of July from Peru.

I have moved to Lima, Peru

I have recently moved to Lima, Peru. I always knew I was a Southerner but this is a little farther south than I had planned on. I received an incredible job offer at the USIL –Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola. That is why I chose to move to Lima.

I will start writing about my experiences being a white, male living in Lima. I will blog about my experiences in the country, with my new job and travel within the country. This does not mean that I will stop blogging my experiences in other countries as well.

I recently found an apartment in the very nice neighborhood of Miraflores. Though it is on the other side of the city (and it is a giant city) from my work, I chose to live here because Miraflores is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences here in Lima. It is a vibrant, incredible city. Today I move into my new apartment located a couple of blocks from this really cool lighthouse.

Amarillo: Texas Just Like In The Movies

Watch for rattlesnakes. This was my last view of West Texas as I drove away.

I have officially left West Texas…twice. That is right. I have lived in and left the city of Amarillo twice in my adult life. The first time I lived in Amarillo I worked as a reporter/anchor at the local CBS affiliate NewsChannel 10 (www.newschannel10.com).

The second time around I worked as an Assistant Professor of Communication at West Texas A&M University www.wtamu.edu  in nearby Canyon, TX. I never thought I would live in the Texas Panhandle once, much less twice. Yet, both times (3 years each) I have grown a lot as a person and have been changed for the better. Amarillo is located in the northwest corner of the state, somewhere between Dallas and the North Pole (live a winter there and you’ll understand).

Amarillo is what I say should be the cultural capital of Texas. I am not speaking of high culture (though Amarillo has more than its share of art, music and theater) I am talking about the image of Texas that tourists want to see.

Amarillo is what everyone envisions when they hear the name Texas. Folks this is where cowboys live and work on ranches, where the steak comes in 72 ounces and Cadillacs really are planted into the ground. Sunsets really do fill up the horizon. And they are beautiful. You really can almost hear the soundtrack to cowboy a film as you take in the surroundings.

It is true everything is bigger if not better in Texas. I remember when I worked here as a news reporter and a talk show host needed an entire episode to discuss the big hair women have here. This where I learned the term “jacked up to Jesus” when referring to woman’s hairdo. The hair and cowboy hats are not the only things when come in giant sizes. The people of Amarillo have the biggest and kindest hearts of anyone I have ever met. The TSA agents are actually kind at the airport. These are simply the nicest people in what I argue is the nicest state in the US.

To be honest with you I didn’t want to write this post. It will not be my most eloquent writing. I am just simply too close to Amarillo to write about it objectively. I mean that as a compliment to the folks in the Texas Panhandle. I have decided for now to live elsewhere; but I will always carry a special place in my heart for the sight of tumbleweeds blowing across the road, the sound of a West Texas howdy with that heavy twang and I will always savor the taste of steak cooked just right.

I hope that you sing along with cowpokes and eat at the Big Texan. Visit the Cadillac Ranch. Hike the incredibly beautiful Palo Duro Canyon. I most of all encourage you to meet the natives. Their hair and their hats are big, but their hearts are even bigger.

Visiting the Swabian region of Germany: Getting to know Stuttgart

I recently had the opportunity to visit Stuttgart Germany. I arrived in late January to what felt like a blistering cold. I spent most of my time at a nearby small town but I did make it into Stuttgart for a couple of days. The city is located in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.

 I arrived by train on what was a scenic and beautiful journey.

It was really cold so I mostly stayed in the city center and did not stray too far away from the central train station. This is a beautiful and prosperous region of the country. This area of German is referred to as the Swabia. This is well-to-do section of the country. It is home to manufacturing and car production (think Mercedes-Benz & Porsche). As a result, there are many places to do some upscale shopping.

As with other parts of Germany, Stuttgart is experience an influx of immigrants. Many of these immigrants come from Turkey. As you can see below the influence of Turkish immigration is visibly represented by the many Turkish Kebab restaurants located throughout Germany.

Germany is cold much of the year (especially for me, a Texan). As a result much of the country has mineral bath saunas where families relax and warm up from the cold. I visited one of these baths in the small, picturesque town of Böblingen about 20 minutes south of Stuttgart http://www.boeblingen.kdrs.de/servlet/PB/menu/1248367_l1/index.html. The picture below shows a long line of folks waiting their turn to enter the hot baths. The visit costs about 20 dollars but trust me it is worth it on a cold, German day.

At the Stuttgart airport I got one of my best laughs in the entire country. Germany has very liberal attitudes toward sex. Sex shops and erotic stores are everywhere. However, I did not know that the condom machine also sold sex toys. Don’t worry the picture is not too graphic.

 

Auf Wiedersehen Germany! It was a fun and educational trip.