First Impressions of Lima

I suppose I was expecting something like Ghana when I stepped off the plane in Lima late Friday night.  You know… a bit of pushing to try to be the first ones off the plane, maybe some cutting in line, loading a cramped bus to make our way from the plane to the airport entrance across the tarmac, a mad dash to the immigration lines, chaos at baggage claim…you get the picture. But instead, the Lima airport was incredibly calm and orderly.  Our stroller came off the plane quickly, there was an elevator waiting for us to get us to the immigration lines, ok, there were some long lines but the best part was that they have reserved special lines for parents with young children! They don’t even have that in the US. So we sped through immigration and onto baggage claim where the bags were already on the belt. We quickly found our bags and went off to customs. Again, there was a special line for families with children, which we sped through and we got the green light, which means you are free to go with no questions asked! It was a really different experience than arriving to Ghana to say the least.

Valerie and Yves, Alan’s sister and brother-in-law awaited us in the greeting area and we got the bags loaded and were off to our apartment with no traffic…well it was almost 2 am so that explains the little traffic.  The neighborhoods changed as we drove from the airport to the upper class neighborhood of San Isidro where we will be staying both temporarily and probably permanently once we find an apartment. For now we are renting a 2-bedroom apartment several blocks from where Valerie and Yves live with their two children. Again, there were striking differences between where we lived in Ghana, one of the best neighborhoods in Accra, and this neighborhood. Even in the night, you could tell that well-maintained sidewalks lined each street, there were traffic lights and walk signals that tell you the amount of seconds you must wait before it is your turn to cross, manicured golf courses and parks were visible, and most impressive were the beautiful and modern high rise apartment buildings.  One of these turned out to be our temporary home on Camino Real, a busy commercial street in the heart of San Isidro.  Our new digs are on the 21^st floor of a 22-floor building.  We’ve got amazing views of Lima, the mountains in the background, and the ocean (when it is visible through the dense fog).  It is a perfectly comfortable furnished apartment and will serve us well for the next two months.

Our first weekend has really been a chance for us to get our bearings, catch up with Valerie and Yves, who have been fabulous hosts in their city so far, and start stocking up our apartment with the necessities.  We have explored the wonderful grocery stores all within a few blocks of our apartment, each one better than the next.  This is another huge difference from Accra, which I will really enjoy…being able to find a wide selection of meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, and imported goods, and most of them can all be found at one store which cuts down tremendously on the time spent shopping! Of course we’ve heard of great little markets and specialty stores that I’m sure I will get to know eventually but without a car at first, it will be wonderful to just walk to the store and get what we need for dinner.  We also explored the big mall here in Lima with Valerie and Yves on Saturday.  It rivaled Any Mall USA and maybe even surpassed it some ways…well at least in its selection of gourmet ice cream and frozen yogurt shops. The Peruvians apparently love their ice cream.  Another striking thing about Lima are the large amount of American or international chains visible.  You have Burger King, McDonalds, Pinkberry, KFC, Starbucks, TGI Fridays, Chili’s, and tons of major upscale and mid range clothing lines.  This is different from Accra and even Bogota, which is the only Latin America comparison for me.  We got to try one of these chains out today…TGI Fridays and I can’t even remember if I’ve ever been to one in the US! We went with Valerie, Yves and their kids.  All seemed pretty similar to what I would expect in the US, except my beverage, which was a local Peruvian drink called Chicha Morada. This is the non-alcoholic version of a purple corn-derived drink.

This week should hold a lot of exploration and new things for all of us, as Alan starts work on Monday, I will start working on a long list of “to-do’s” to help us get settled, and Eli, well he will be busy taking it all in and getting used to Teletubbies in Spanish.