Disconnected

I should explain that my disconnectedness from the blogosphere recently has been completely connected to the trials and tribulations of acquiring Internet in our apartment.  We are still in our temporary apartment (but not for long...we are all set to move into our new place when our things arrive and get cleared from customs, hopefully next week) and our "temporary" existence here in Lima has proven a bit of a challenge when it comes to the Internet. We are operating off of one of these modems that plugs into your laptop and magically connects you to the Internet. We're borrowing the modem and its corresponding Internet plan from my brother-in-law.  It served us well but it turns out we surf the web more than the plan intended for us to and so we quickly ran out of space and time on the modem.  So I figured, "no big deal," I'll walk myself over the the provider's offices, about 15 minutes away, and see how to add time to the modem.  After two trips over two consecutive days to the offices, each visit lasting less than 2 minutes, I was turned away after my shoddy Spanish explained what I was looking for.  First, I needed my brother-in-law's DNI (or national identification number) to do anything which I didn't have.  So I called him, got the number, and then they told me in fact, I cannot do anything, he has to do it himself. And because it would have been such a hassle to have him go to the office to make changes to the plan, I thought maybe I could just buy my own modem and have my own plan.  So day 2 I walked over again, with my passport, figuring that would suffice since we don't have a national identification number yet (with no resident visas), but sadly, my US passport would not cut it and I was told there was no way I could purchase my own modem.  After a few internetless days and feeling frustrated that I had no way to communicate with the outside world, not to mention Alan was in a far away city for work, I decided there must be other ways that new expats and travelers can access the Internet in this country! And at last, after a little Internet research at my sister-in-law's house, I discovered that the other provider here in Peru offers prepago (or pre-paid) modems with no national identification number needed. So we are back in business, sort of. The Internet connection speed is a bit slow to say the least, that is when it is even able to connect. So not much skyping for now and no pictures on my blog either.

But I can report we continue to explore and like what we see around Lima. We've taken small excursions out of the city and slowly made our way into some other neighborhoods including a neat little area called Barranco that has a bohemian feel and is a common place for young people to spend time. Alan has made it a bit further than me making a few trips by plane to the nearby cities Cusco and Arequipa for work.  He's already started hunting for the best handicrafts and prices and returned from his trip yesterday with embroidered pillow cases and sandals for me! Alan's parents are in town visiting now too so we've gotten to enjoy the Lima zoo, some nice restaurants, and the city's beautiful parks with them. Eli got his first Peruvian haircut last weekend which we had done at a kids salon in the grocery store here. He got to sit in a plastic toy car and watch cartoons while they cut it which was barely enough distraction to avoid a meltdown. I've been taking lots of pictures with the hope that once we move and it is easier to share them, I can do so.