Máncora, Perú

Well, it's official. I now have another stamp in my passport, this time from Ecuador. It's good thing. I was running out of days on my Peruvian visa. Now that I have left and re-entered the country, I have another 90 days, which will last me through the first week of January.

Our trip started in Máncora, Perú, a touristy beach town on the northern coast of the country. To arrive, we took a 20 hour bus ride along the Pan-American highway. This highway is a challenge for the imagination. Stretching for approximately 29,800 miles, this highway runs from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina and is interrupted only by 54 miles of rainforest between Central and South America. (Is anyone else sensing a new project coming? I can already see the book title - Traveling the Pan-American: one woman's journey from Alaska to Antarctica.)

Here's the thing about Perú: You forget that a huge part of the country is just desert, especially along the coast. This bus ride reminded me of this fact, with force. Mounds of lightly colored rocks and sand were the most common scenery from the bus, although an occasional elevation change would bring either small peaks or dust fields depending if we rose or fell. Ironically, the last movie we watched on the bus ride was Rango, an animated film chronicling one desert town's struggle for water.

We disembarked into the sunny, fresh air of the beach - and immediately were surrounded by mototaxi drivers hawking a ride to any one of the many hostels in the area. The mototaxi drivers receive a small commission from the hostels for every guest that they bring. When we, as five clearly non-Peruvian females, stepped out of the bus, they swarmed like hawks. Pretty soon we were in a circle of mototaxi drivers, all offering the exact same offer: 1 sol to any of the hostels in town that offer a commission. After trying to politely tell them to back off, to no avail, we ended up shaking them by just leaving the site and starting to walk around the town. I prefer this, really. It was an opportunity to see a little bit of the town and get a feel for it. We ended up finding a clean, comfortable hostel for S/. 15 each night/person, which works out to about $5 a night, without any commission.

Right now is still the winter season in Perú, so there aren't that many people traveling. It was wonderful for us. While the town was populated, it wasn't overly crowded. And we could enjoy our time in Máncora and the sun, just sitting on the beach. Because of some sort of climate/geography effect that I still don't understand very well, Lima is covered in clouds for the winter season. Days with sun are extremely rare: for the first month I didn't see the sun at all. The beautiful, warm rays of Máncora's beaches were all we needed for a day of relaxation.


We found a wonderful breakfast place a few blocks down from our hostel. The only option, called desayuno, is eggs with two rolls, your choice of coffee or tea, and a naturally made fruit juice. Delicious, simple and cheap. Our second morning, we wanted to return to the same breakfast joint, but it was full (it seems the locals like to eat there too). We did find another shop that offered the same meal, but sadly, the food wasn't as good.

On our second night in Máncora was the Perú-Paraguay world cup qualifying soccer game. Perú has a perpetually terrible soccer team. The country hasn't been in the world cup since 1982! Still, Peruvians are proud of their soccer team, and this year, the country has the best soccer team they've had in 20 years (so I've been told). During the game, everyone was glued to a television. All of the bars and restaurants were full of people just watching. Store workers would just leave their stores to go watch a neighbor's television. The best part was when Perú scored, which happened twice. The entire town would rise up in yells and whistles, people banging on tables, free shots being passed around. It was a sight to see the entire town engaged in the same activity at the same time.

After Máncora, we headed to Ecuador to cross the border. See the upcoming next part of this blog post for that trip report.

I'm not late, I'm on Peruvian Time.

Some of our good family friends from Maine, the Tinkles, were late for everything. It was such a common event that we gave their time of arrival a specific name: "Tinkle Time." They would come late to dinners, to meetings, and even to events at their own house.

I thought I was done with Tinkle Time once we moved to Minnesota, but instead I have found that here in Perú, time is a even more of a suggestion than for the Tinkles. Professors begin class 15 minutes after the scheduled time. Even better, the professors don't even enter the room until 10 minutes after class began. Students are free to enter the classroom until 20 or even 30 minutes after class began.

I had a fieldwork trip for my ecotourism course for which our professor made a point to remind us to be punctual. A few seconds, the professor clarified that "punctual" meant at the latest 15 minutes late. On the day of the field trip, the professor didn't even show up until 10 minutes after the designated time.

The sense of time here is just a microcosm of the attitude that pervades Peruvian life. Things are more relaxed - you are hard pressed to find people walking quickly down the streets, even in the business district of San Isidro. Although Lima is 8 million people, approximately the size of New York City, people don't rush to appointments or plan activities back-to-back. Students pass hours just sitting with friends on campus. Businesspeople walk slowly down the street to meetings. The only place you really feel the sense of rush is driving - with the insane level of traffic on the streets, drivers are impatient to go.

This slow sense of time also creeps into a larger attitude about life. I don't think I've lived in Perú long enough to categorize that attitude of Peruvians, but I can tell you what I have noticed about the USA. The American viewpoint stresses achievement, doing, accomplishing. You should be involved in activities and pushing ahead in your work. We value the sense of satisfaction when you accomplish something, when you finish, or when you meet a goal. At Madison, I myself take courses, work one or two jobs, belong to multiple organizations, and live an active social life. I feel much more accomplished, comfortable and satisfied when I have things to do, places to go, and people to see.

The relaxed pace of life in Lima has been a great learning experience for me - how do you slow down your life, and when you do, what are the things that you really value? In the United States, I work to have everything that I want - relationships, studies, involvement in the community, satisfaction and accomplishment, art. In Lima, with the slower life pace, I have to choose which of these I really want. Rather than cramming everything that I want into a day, I am forced to elect which values I want to focus on most.

Living in Perú has made me realize that I don't like the Peruvian concept of time very much. I crave the sense of purpose and accomplishment that I had in the States. I like to do and go. I enjoy the sense of being busy. But living here has been a great experiment for me in the art of slowing down. I've even started to pick up the sense of time here in Perú. Here it is, 2:01 on a Monday afternoon, and I've got a 2:00 course. But it's ok. I'm not late, I'm on Peruvian Time.

If you want to be a badger, then come along with me...

…all the way to Lima, Perú. As I’m sure you know, yesterday was the Wisconsin-Nebraska football game. Us Badgers here in Lima weren’t about to miss out on one of the biggest games of the season, so we headed to The Corner, an American style sports Bar that plays international sports games. We ended up taking over about half the bar with our red shirts and Wisconsin chants. We celebrated “first and ten Wisconsin”, counted push-ups, and even jumped around in between the third and fourth quarters. I'm not quite sure what the bartenders thought of us, but since we were paying, they just let us be. Our touchdown celebrations we quite rowdy, as you can see below.

We met some fellow Wisconsinites at the bar, including one fellow with a Brewers shirt, a couple from Madison, and an older woman who googled “sports bar Lima” and showed up at The Corner. By the beginning of the second half, we were all buds, cheering and groaning together as we watched the game. There were also some Nebraska fans there, who took a good-natured ribbing from us throughout the game. We tried to get them to pay our bill at the end of the night, to no avail. This Nebraska fan (in black) ended the night in (fake) tears.

This game is my new favorite game day memory. I’m still amazed by the ability of the Badger spirit to bring together a group of people in comraderie a continent away from the game.

We finished out the night with a rousing rendition of “If You Want to Be a Badger”, because we know that even here in Lima, everyone wants to be a Badger.