It was the first time I got naked with a man in a long time, and it didn’t go the way I wanted. Yes, I was visiting a skin doctor, something well overdue after my move to Lima, Peru, a place where the sun radiation is equivalent to living in a microwave oven. I was at the Delgado International Clinic […]
Camino Barranco
Winging it in Oxapampa
If you see a little Smoke-colored Pewee in Oxapampa, Peru, don’t call your doctor. Call a birdwatcher. Yes, a bird watcher. A smoky-colored pewee is just one of the three hundred bird species that will blow up your Merlin phone app in this high jungle bird mecca of Peru. Who named these birds in Oxapampa? Who knows. But you got […]
Brutiful: Torres del Paine
On a Christmas, thanks to a shaky WIFI connection, I watched my sisters take part in a cookie decorating contest. Obscene amounts of frosting were being smeared over ginger-men, the winner of receiving upwards of five hundred dollars. I smiled at the Christmas festivities, thinking, why am I not there? That’s because I am here, and so is the Torres […]
End of the year, End of the world.
Some may think life slows down once you are eligible for AARP discounts and the highlight of your day is posting your WORDLE score. But this last year? It was insane. I survived (not necessarily in this order) moving from China to Peru, even though my boxes didn’t arrive until six months later, a concussion, a torn ACL, and the […]
Buenos Aires
Imagine if you could put the architecture of Europe into a blender with a charred steak and a tropical climate. That’s Buenos Aires, Argentina. The city is a breath of fresh air, yet incredibly peaceful, considering it’s three times the size of Manhattan. Huge parks are buzzing with parrots and other birds you may have only seen on the Travel […]
Rimac Close Up
Rimac is not on the videos you see posted on YouTube about Lima, Peru. Actually, Rimac is one of the areas in Lima you are warned not to visit, unless you are accompanied by a few buff guys, which I was. This vibrant districts is also home to one of Lima’s shanty towns that bring a bit of color to […]
Fa-la-la-la-llamas
It’s Christmas in Peru. Everything is decked in green and red, but you still can’t find an ugly holiday sweater. That’s because Christmas arrives in the summer, along with llamas and wiseman bringing gifts of sunscreen. No partridges in pair trees, just parrots in palm trees. And Santa takes a bus, that is, if there isn’t a transit strike. Truth […]
I went to America for a week and all I got was a lousy concussion?
“Ginger! Ginger!” I heard my friend call. I was by my luggage ready to go to the airport, luggage that was bulging with fifty pounds of “Can’t Get This In Peru” whatnot. Chocolate covered cherries. Maple Syrup. Barrels of Costco vitamins, wash clothes, Good N Plenty, and Expo White Board Markers. Except I wasn’t standing by my luggage, I was […]
Why I Walk
Seventeen thousand four hundred steps. That’s enough to work off the calories consumed from a grilled banana. That’s also the number of steps I walk to and from ICSLima (the school where I work) and my abode in Barranco in the Smirnoff Vodka building, formally known as the Pepsi Sabor Building. How long is the walk? About fifty-five minutes each […]
A plumber and a prayer
Life in Lima can be just as ordinary as life anywhere. Sure, there’s occasional earthquakes to shake things up in Peru, buses lit on fire during a city-wide transit strike, parents of students getting kidnapped, and dogs better dressed than their owners. But the daily grind? It’s no more exciting that what you’d experience in Schaumburg. My hiking group is […]