Beach bums

We’ve enjoyed South American springtime this week on Peru’s northern coast, close to the Ecuadorian border, just outside of Máncora. Our hotel is about 40 minutes away from Máncora proper if we walk up the beach, or 10 minutes by mototaxi on a sandy road that is begging to be graded. 


It has been divine to be here. We are right on the ocean, with the attendant sounds of waves crashing into the beach. It has been a wonderful backdrop to everything – every meal, every conversation, every falling asleep and waking up.

The weather has been ideal, probably mid-70s as the high every day, with sunny skies and less humidity than Lima. This is the low season, so we haven’t seen many people around our hotel or on the beach. Apparently high season will start around December, when summer begins. I think that is also when the prices skyrocket, so I’m doubly glad for our beach time now.


While it’s been quiet, there’s been a lot of activity that we’ve witnessed, if not participated in. Two dogs trade off security duties here; we see them on their rounds… or during their naps. Horses trot down the beach. Vendedores walk down the beach in pairs or threes, selling hats, sunglasses, cover-ups, magazines, newspapers. Pelicans ride the air currents just above the waves. Crabs scurry to and from sand holes. Sam pointed out a whale jumping several days ago. Fishing boats are plentiful. An occasional sighting of a lizard has me excited, a reminder that we’re in the desert.

Pelicans riding the air currents

We’ve spent the week being very low-key. We haven’t needed to do much, so there is a luxury in opting to do nothing. We eat, we play on the beach or in the water, we sleep. Repeat. Sam has been especially diligent in reviewing his Spanish notes. The other night we saw a sky full of stars – a new sky view for us, southern hemisphere constellations – and the Milky Way was even visible!


Our food is mostly fish and seafood, so fresh and delicious. We even get to have multiple cups of coffee in the morning, a luxury we’ve missed, and the coffee as strong as we’d like it, which is super strong. I was confused the first morning when we went to breakfast. Where was the coffee? I asked our waiter. He pointed to a tiny pitcher, the kind you’d put cream or milk in. I hadn’t even looked in that, not having considered that coffee would come in such a small container. There was a larger container of hot water. You mix it to taste. That tiny pitcher is enough for Sam and I to each have a cup of very strong coffee – again, divine. It seems so logical that everyone can mix it to their own strength preferences.

Tiny pitchers of condensed milk and coffee

We’ve consolidated the need to go into town for groceries, diapers, bus tickets as much as possible. It’s been nice to limit the town exposure, since I’m not sure I would enjoy being there more than we have been. 

Main street Mancora, full of mototaxis

Mancora is apparently a year-round surfing hotspot, and we saw a fair number of surfer types on our town days. Sam decided to take a surfing lesson, so below are a couple of pictures of him in his surfing glory (he’s the one riding a wave in the background)!

Simon loves funny things right now, things I’m thankful that he’s enjoying, like putting on sunscreen... and rubbing it in on others. 

This morning I read a quote I’d scribbled in my notebook earlier this year when I was reading Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams: On a day like today when the air is dry and smells of salt, I have found my open space, my solitude, and sky. So fitting!

Up close and personal

Peruvians have a different idea of what constitutes personal space than most North Americans. I frequently find myself taking a step back until I realize there’s no place to go! 


An outrageous and funny version of this happened this weekend when we were on a bus en route to the beach. Simon was sitting on Sam’s lap when WHOOSH, the woman in the seat in front of Sam practically plopped into his lap as she leaned her seat back as far as it would go. It missed hitting Simon by an inch or so. He was unfazed. 


A little while later she reached her arm up over her head and dangled it over the back of the seat to get more comfortable.

After awhile, Simon started playing with all that irresistible jewelry. They were inches from his face, after all. I had mixed feelings about that: I wouldn’t normally condone that behavior but I also thought she was asking for it, knowing full well there was a little kid behind her. It must not have bothered her, however; she never woke up or moved!

The path you choose can make the difference

Our walk to school has been a great introduction to Lima, as well as serving as a good symbol of how to adapt to a new place. Here are images that have stuck with me during these walks.

The first week of classes, I took the same route every day, the one we’d been shown our first day. It’s along a giant street with tons of traffic (and therefore, tons of pollution).

This represents just how off my idea was of our “neighborhood” of Miraflores. When I hear the word “neighborhood”, a very specific picture comes to mind. I think of it as a walkable area that contains a mixture of homes and businesses, and is off the beaten path a bit. Miraflores, however, is a city within the giant city of Lima. Check out those skyscrapers! I think it’s big enough that I’m guessing you could spend your entire life in Miraflores and not need to go to another part of Lima. This is only our first month here, though… who knows what we’ll think in another month or two.

Note that Starbucks has valet parking…. And that it is full!

This giant freeway divides one section of Miraflores from another. The intersection that is at the end of this bridge gives me the most dread, as there is too much unpredictability with the drivers for me to feel comfortable (yet) dashing across the street. Sometimes I’ve waited for the light to change several times before I take the chance to cross. Other times I just wait for enough other pedestrians so that I can be part of the flow. Most of the time Simon is on my front or back in a sling or soft backpack carrier, so that gives me an extra incentive to be supremely careful. I've seen people skateboard along with the cars and buses in the street, so perhaps this is just another example of something I'll get used to. I'll keep you posted on whether I choose to take up skateboarding!


After several days, Sam found a new and quicker way to go to school. I found a new way the following week. (Since our classes are at different times of the day, we don't walk there together.) It’s amazing what a difference walking a block or two off of the main drag can make in the noise level, amount of exhaust in the air, and the types of things that I notice. On the giant streets, I’m more focused on getting there, quickly; on the side streets I notice the interesting things.

It’s not very visible in this photo, but there is a giant jade plant/tree in this cactus garden. I thought it was an anomaly but now I see giant jade plants everywhere.

This is Simon’s favorite part of the walk, since we sometimes stop and play here for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. I am really impressed by how many parks there are. They are nice and well-maintained, and we have gone park-hopping every day.

Isn’t this a beautiful tree? I had walked under it a number of times before I really noticed it. Its flowers hang upside down, so if you get underneath it and look up, you see this:

Sam and I both love Spanish-style or Latin-American style architecture, so there is lots to swoon over here.

We dream about someday having a home that opens into an interior garden/patio. Who knows if this house has that, but it has other things we love – bold colors, cool flowers growing on the house.

Tai chi is really big here. There is a group that practices in the park closest to our home, and Sam and I have each been with Simon during some of their practices. Simon likes to mimic their movements by waving his arms in the air and bending his legs. It’s very cute. The other day they were practicing to an instrumental version of “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”. At another park, no matter what time of day it is, every time I pass by I see at least one tai chi group (and sometimes there are four different groups!) practicing. Maybe once we get settled in our apartment there will be a tai chi group that we can participate in too… although we’ll be the youngest by about 30 years! There is a group doing yoga in this picture, although it's not very easy to see, unfortunately. While yoga isn't as prevalent as tai chi, yoga is pretty popular in this park in particular.

I love different images of La Virgen, which I imagine is very prevalent in all Latin American countries. Peru is 90% Catholic. I don’t know yet which Virgen this is, but I am drawn to the bright colors. Apologies for the weird angle on the picture; it's on the side of a doorway, set back from the street.

Squint through the gate and you'll notice a statue of a naked crouching man. Isn’t this a little creepy? Sam pointed it out to me one day as we walked by. In person, the statue is much closer and is also much bigger. If it were nightfall and you walked by, it would be easy to think there was someone leaning forward about to pounce on you. Luckily there is the gate… but I think it’s a pretty cool statue too. And it's underneath another one of those funky trees with the upside down flowers!

Poco a Poco

Warning – although I had mentioned that I’ll try not to have super-wordy posts, I reserve the right to have lengthy ones at times… and this is one of them! Hopefully I’ll include enough pictures here to break up the wordiness. (A side note about the pictures: Blogger is driving me crazy because I can't place them correctly without throwing off the text somehow - anyone who has tips to share, please do!)

Here we are at the end of another week, and poco a poco things are feeling more familiar. I see some of the same families at the park each time Simon and I go out. We’ve been piecing together different parts of our neighborhood and finding new ways to get places. Certain things don’t seem so strange anymore. 


Time has started speeding up again; it had slowed to a tiny crawl there for a couple of weeks when I wondered each morning how we would possibly make it through the next 18 hours or so. It’s one thing to have a lot of time on your hands and no place to be as a single person or as a couple. There are cafes to sit in, journals to write in, books to read. But with a toddler, a lot of our energy has been split between going to our classes & exploring Lima with going to parks and finding ways for Simon to play and run around. The house where we’re staying has an elderly dog, Argos, who Simon is simultaneously in love with and terrified of. Simon has also enjoyed playing with a fire truck that the señora has loaned him. It’s fun to watch his delight in riding it as well as his elation when he actually pets Argos. 

Simon is mimicking all the sirens he hears and is experimenting with different ways to use his vocal chords. He picks things up so quickly right now. Everything, such as: saying “chao” and “bien” (not super clearly, but about as clearly as he says other words), mimicking the hand motions of the señora and her son, climbing the ladder at the park, handling a very full glass of yogurt and drinking it carefully… I am consistently wowed by him. 

Each week our schedules have changed a bit as the school figures out which teachers are available when, and matches that with our one requirement that we cannot be in class at the same time (since one of us must be able to be with Simon). My class has stayed pretty constant, with the same teacher and fellow student as the first week. Sam’s gone from private classes to a group class back to private classes, with a new teacher almost every week, and a different class time every single week. It’s a good way to prepare us for constant change, no? I’m impressed with Sam and his tenacity at learning Spanish. He started studying in earnest at the beginning of this year, and has improved rapidly since we’ve gotten here. He starts up conversations with our housemates here, never mind if he has the grammar or vocabulary right. I admire his attitude and am trying to copy it more. I’m the one who obsesses over getting everything right. Ah, whatever. I’ve been able to realize that I am learning, improving, and I have ten more months to work at it full-time. How excellent! 

Earlier this week, I was seriously considering taking a break from Spanish classes. The biggest reasons I could come up with to not do this were: I need to keep learning Spanish and it provides some structure to my day. But my two-hour class was grammar, grammar, grammar, with the same tired examples thrown in. As in, we’d learn a new structure and then Julie and I would both be asked to provide examples. It was fun to be practicing the subjunctive and getting a better handle on when/how to use it, but our imaginations were limited and so we’d provide similar examples for everything. “If you won the lottery, what would you do?” “If I won the lottery, I’d travel around the world.”

Mexico is my comparison country, as it’s the only other country I’ve really traveled in as an adult; I’ve traveled there half a dozen times over the last 15 years, with stays ranging from two weeks to almost four months. I took Spanish classes for a month in the beautiful city of Guanajuato and loved the mix of grammar and conversation classes with topical classes such as Mexican history, literature, economics, and muralism. I was working on my Spanish at the same time that I was inspired by different, quirky facets of beauty in Mexico’s culture.

So I was a bit tired of grammar-only classes. I wanted more of Peruvian culture mixed in with it. Luckily, the day that I was ready to quit and go find another language school for next week, we ditched the grammar and had an incredible conversation about poverty in Lima vs. the U.S. While I am very much just beginning to learn about the rampant poverty here, it was fascinating to hear my teacher’s views and that of the other student. We joked about getting back together in six months to compare our reactions and solutions then… and while it was said laughingly, I do wish we could have that conversation.

The next day we had a similarly intense conversation about Steve Jobs, his 2005 commencement address at Stanford, and our goals and priorities in life. The following day was full of how to figure out when we are getting ripped off because we aren’t Peruvian and possible responses (“Look, if I were Peruvian, you wouldn’t charge me extra. Tell me the right price and I’ll pay it!” While I’m nowhere near having that flow off of my tongue, especially in an argument, it was great to practice.). Our teacher did an excellent job of integrating all that grammar practice in the context of each of those very real conversations. This is the class I wanted. So I left the week excited for one more week of conversation between the three of us.

I’ve been keenly missing my La Leche group in Indianapolis; this amazing group of women is one reason why my transition from being a way-over-full-time nonprofit fundraiser and manager to being a full-time mom went so easily. I found so many impressive examples of mothering and several good friends there, and nearly every week Simon and I had some sort of La Leche gathering, including a playgroup I started as a way to help more moms like me connect in between meetings. While there is a La Leche chapter here in our neighborhood, it meets just once a month, and occurred the day before we arrived in Lima. So while I know that it’s just a matter of time before our lives begin to include friends, busy-ness, and volunteering, I’ve been missing having friends for myself and familiar playmates for Simon. He plays well with the other toddlers at the parks, but he is really eyeing their cool toys and makes a go for them as soon as he has a chance. 

We have one more week of classes and the homestay, followed by a week off. Then we move into our apartment across the street from Manos Amigos and begin volunteering with them. We are really looking forward to that! While living at the house has been fine at times and excruciating at others, it has definitely helped me look forward to the next stage of living here, even though there are some things I’ve been worrying about (of course!). Once we have a little more distance between us and our current living situation, I’ll write about it and more of the humor will come through. For now, here’s to one more week of classes, meandering around our neighborhood, and yummy food!

Traffic in Lima, aka Tengo Miedo

As I mentioned earlier, our walk to school is about 20-25 minutes. On our first day, one of our housemates walked us to school so we’d know the way. I was surprised at how big the streets were, how crazy the traffic was, and how hard it was just to cross the street. This, especially, since our Peru guidebook specifically mentions how the streets in our neighborhood are "pedestrian-friendly." Ha!

In the States, generally, the pedestrian is king. Cars may be annoyed with you if you step out in their path, but they’ll stop. They don’t grant you that courtesy here. If you’re out in the path of the cars/trucks/buses and you don’t scramble to get out of their way, well, good luck getting to the hospital.

Lanes and traffic lights seem to be mere suggestions for how to behave rather than a law to be followed. In the middle of heavy traffic, I’ve seen any number of right hand turns from the left lane, left turns from the right lane, and left turns – across multiple lanes of traffic – on red. Cars pull out in front of trucks that are barreling down on them. Motorcycles have narrowly missed hitting me on the sidewalk as they buzz around us pedestrians to jump ahead of cars and buses at lights. And last night a car drove on the sidewalk to skirt some of the heavy traffic! Somehow this works; we’ve only seen the aftermath of one accident so far. You could not pay me to drive in this traffic! (And for some odd reason there are lots of people who feel comfortable riding bicycles or even skateboarding in this chaos!)

The image that perfectly encapsulates this for me right now is a crosswalk sign. Picture the traffic sign for a crosswalk in the States. It’s a quasi-stick figure adult and child, walking across the street, right? Here’s the crosswalk sign in Lima.

Note that the stick figures are sprinting. Someone brilliant has also stuck a sticker on the bottom that says, “Tengo miedo”, which means “I’m scared.” Me too!

Food and music for the soul

We’d heard that on Saturdays, a small market sets up outside a park about 10 minutes from our house. And what a cool market it was, full of organic produce, rich coffee, handcrafts, tamales sold by nuns, and even a bakery that had a number of gluten-free concoctions! 


There were perhaps 40 vendors and several hundred people stocking up for the week. I wanted to buy a piece of all of the gluten-free goodies, but that would have wiped out our food budget for the whole month – they were pricey. One slice of gluten-free lúcuma cake was 9 soles, which is about $3.50 or $4. 

In front of the gluten-free stand.... heaven!

But hey, I’m a celiac who rarely encounters treats I can actually eat at our own farmers’ market in Indy (since they always use white rice flour, which I also cannot eat, as a substitute for wheat flour). And here there was a chocolate cake jammed with fresh strawberries. Quinoa cake with tropical fruits. Empanadas filled with potatoes and other vegetables. And all of it gluten-free and white rice-free – wouldn’t it be practical, nay, wise, to spend a month’s budget on those treats?!? 

But the best was yet to come. We took our coffees and treats into the park and played with Simon. A group of people were practicing tai chi; another group was finishing a yoga session. 

Later, the tai chi folks busted out swords, too

A small crowd of families was gathering nearby, and we watched as some musicians set up shop and distributed instruments to the toddlers and little kids. For an hour, we enjoyed their music and the delight on the faces of the kids and the musicians. It felt wonderful to be included in such a joyful experience. 

Joyful sounds in Parque Reducto

I’m hoping this becomes a Saturday tradition for us, although when we move to our apartment in several weeks, it will be a trek to attend. Still, it’s something to look forward to… even if I’m not going to eat all the gluten-free delicacies!