Lima: It's Not Just a Layover

Allyson and I just returned from Lima, Peru.  And the number one question we got from people was, "Where are you going after?" See, most people only visit Lima as a stopover on their way to Cuzco and/or Machu Piccu. They don't see much use in visiting a city of 10 million people when there are Incan ruins and Andean mountains to visit in the same country.  I can understand that.  But to visit ruins is to visit a country in the past.  The way past.

I think that to understand a country, you need to visit it's cities. I'm an urban traveler, being a city kid myself.  I have nothing against sights outside cities.  But I find it odd that people would skip over a place they have to go through anyway.  It would be like not spending time in London, and proceeding straight to Stonehenge.

Lima is a city of 10 million people.  Larger than any US city.  Also wild when you realize that Lima had only 1.2 million people in 1960.  You can see that the city has had trouble building infrastructure to meet the demand.  They recently started a BRT system call El Metropolitano that takes you across the city in special lanes without any of the traffic.  They also have a subway, which isn't really a subway, but more of a light rail.

So why visit Lima?  Well, that can be answered quite easily.

And...

Oh, and also....

So, food and drink is king in Lima.  And it's cheap.  Now, let me define cheap.  You can eat Pollo a la Brasa in Lima for around 10 soles.  That works out to be around $3.  But you can also pay more for a great dinner with incredibly fresh seafood for around 100 soles per person.  That works out to around $40 each, which might not seem cheap.

It's funny when you travel internationally to countries with a weaker currency than yours.  You end up comparing costs in their currency.  I was all "200 soles for dinner?  That's crazy!" but then I realized that $80 for wine and incredibly fresh seafood and dinner is a steal.  You hear that Americans! Stop trying to be cheap, because you'll end up eating stale churros and saving all your money to then spend double it in America.

People still think Peru is dangerous.  They remember the Shining Path, who were eliminated over 10 years ago.  While they were active, it was common for many people to hire private security for their homes or stores.  That tradition continues meaning that there are men in uniform all over the place, some armed and others not.  This sadly means that most tourists only stick to Miraflores and Barranco which are the two neighborhoods that all of the guidebooks recommend.  Lima is more than that.

I had the opportunity to take a tour with an outfit called Capital Culinaria run by a couple named Samantha and Lucas.  You pay $125 and spend about 5 hours eating food, trying new fruits and vegetables and also making cebiche and pisco sours.  It was awesome.  And highly recommended.  It really opened our eyes to the culinary destination that is Lima and helped shape our trip for the remainder.  Also, Sam and Lucas are really wonderful people and Allyson and I had dinner and wine with them the night after the tour.

That's really what travel is all about.  Building relationships.  I hope to post more specifically about different areas of Lima.

Greetings from Pest

So we're on our third night in Budapest.  Our hotel is on the Pest side of the Danube.  They just opened up their Christmas market right behind the hotel, which is really nice.  I remember a similar one in Prague.  Mulled wine always is a great treat.  Tomorrow I'm going for a run along the Danube.  Partly because I haven't run at all this week, but mostly so I can use the phrase "when I ran along the Danube" in conversation. 

Interesting things about Hungary:

• They've gotten the fuzzy end of the lollipop.  Beaten by the Ottomans, choosing the wrong side in WWI and losing half of their country, siding with the Germans only to have them invade and kill all their Jews in WWII, and then to have the Russians introduce them to concrete as architecture and dreary propaganda
• The escalators on their subway are really fast.  And they work.  Do you hear that Metro?  They not only have escalators, but they are speedy.  Odd that the capital of Hungary can get this right, but not the capital of the US.  
• At the Xmas market today, we bought some sort of pizza like thing except is was sour cream on warm dough with a topping.  Allyson got sausage.  I got cracklins, which is supposedly a Hungarian specialty.  I loved it, and I hope to never find out what cracklins are.  
• It gets dark here really early.  Like 4PM early.  And cold.  It's no wonder goulash is the national food.  Cheap and hot. 

Tomorrow is a tour of Memento Park to check out communist statues, and then a dip in the famous public baths.  Oh, and tonight we went to a great place called the For Sale Bar where thousands of people have left business cards.  I didn't have any of mine.  But I added our names to my friend Chuck's.  So if you see a Booz Allen card with the word "Blumpkins" written on it, that was me.  

Green Mountain Boys

I'm up in Vermont until tomorrow.  My journey here began with a flight on US Air from BWI to Philadelphia.  The air time of the flight is literally 19 minutes.  And I still got a beverage in first class.  This of course is the terrible irony of the free upgrades on US Air.  I only get them when it doesn't matter, like 19 minute flights.  5 hour flights from California?  Hells no. 

I also wanted to alert my 7 readers that I have found one of the most amazing culinary delights I could ever imagine.  Pulled pork inside a cheddar and scallion muffin.  No, seriously.  I would like to warn you that this is not the same thing as a pork muffin, which I learned through googling is:

a small chubby person with fire red hair, freckles, and milky white skin. Damn, look at that pork muffin with the pokemon backpack. I'd like to take him to a family reunion barbeque and introduce him to my aunt gracie.   The good news is that it's a small chubby person, ottherwise this would totally define me.

You are Here. (Here, clearly, means Nirvana)

I'm in Oakland for work and called some friends of mine who live in the area, and the guy invited me to meet him at his office for lunch.  Normally, I'm not big on office food.  But he works at Google in Mountain View.  If you don't know about this office, it's called the Googleplex.  And it's amazing.

The buildings all surround a large quad, and while waiting for him there, I noticed I was standing between the sand volleyball court and the lap pool with the Google lifeguard.  And there were all these fixie bikes around in Google colors that employees just rode from building to building and left for someone else to come out and use.  In each of the buildings, there's a room with a coffee machine with beans that grind while you wait, and free Coke and Pepsi products.

And then came lunch.  We walked over a bridge and got to the cafeteria.  Which had all kinds of incredible food.  The food all had descriptions and ingredients.  The ingredients were highlighted green, yellow and red.  Green for healthy, yellow for not so much and red for delicious.  I made my own salad with ingredients I didn't even understand and never are in a normal salad.  I also got a shrimp cocktail shooter, a sausage and halibut wrap and a wonton with steak on it.  I washed it all down with a sage and grapefuit concoction that was freshly squeezed.  Here it is....

My friend worked in an office with 3 other people, all managers.  Well, it's apparently a Yert, because it had a canvas ceiling.  And they had lots of Four Loko, which apparently is necessary for keeping the Google site up and running.  It was easy to see why people are so productive and like working here.  It's because they treat their employees very well and in turn they bust their ass for the company.  It doesn't hurt that they get stock options and as of the closing bell today, their stock was at 581.84.  A video they made of their complex is pretty cool.

The real pleasure from the day was getting to see my friends and their daughter, Taliesin.  (Yeah, its a Frank Lloyd Wright reference, and he dared his wife to name her that)  Friends and perhaps another glass of that sage and grapefruit juice.

Seattle

This is Seattle, Washington.  I've now been here three times.  Twice for pleasure and once for work.  Allow me to go over a few things from this city.

• It rains here.  You knew that.  But you probably didn't know that the rain usually only lasts about 20 or 30 minutes and then passes.  So while its a place to carry an umbrella, it's not some sort of depressing, always raining wasteland. The Boston Globe actually posted instructions on how to build an ark after 14 days of straight rain in my former home.
• If you come here, and you like cheeseburgers and you might like bacon on your cheeseburger, you must stop at the Red Mill.  They have a stack of bacon.  It looks like this. And it's the most amazing bacon you have ever tasted on another piece of meat.  I wouldn't lie to you.  I promise.  The onion rings are tasty.  Cash only, hipsters.
• The Space Needle is cool.  But it costs $18 a person.  Save the money.  Instead, hit up the ferry to Bainbridge Island for $7.10 per person round trip and get an awesome view.  I'll post some photos of that when I get home.  But it's way cool. 
• My favorite bar there is the Bookstore Bar in Downtown.  It's super cozy and they have a great happy hour with full-sized entrees for $5.  Be careful though.  I came here with clients last week and thought I'd buy some drinks to be friendly (note: I was using MY money,  not the company's) and when I searched my pockets through the dull fog the next morning, found a credit card slip for $135.  So it can add up.  I will expound on my cop tip for drinking with lots of friends in another post. 
• And if you are looking for a place to stay, I highly recommend the Arctic Club, which is actually an old club in downtown that they renovated and now flies under the Doubletree/Hilton flag.  So you get the warm cookie.  The rooms are great and if you're gold or diamond with Hilton, you get free breakfast.  Good times.  And their mascot is a walrus. 

Pictures courtesy of Flickr

These guys must have gone to Suffolk

Tonight finds me on the Left Coast in lovely Commerce, California.  You've never heard of it.  It's easier to just call it LA, since it's in the sprawling metropolis, a few cities away from downtown.  My hotel overlooks these outlet malls, called the Citadel, and they're shaped like a fortress.  Odd place.  It looks like this.

We were driving to In N Out, for dinner.  (Double Double, Animal Style, in case you were wondering) We happened to pass through the City of Vernon, CA.  Their motto is "Exclusively Industrial".  I thought that was an odd phrase, certainly discouraging residents.  But the more I thought about it, perhaps high on burger juices, I realized that this city was brilliant.  You have all the tax base with none of the services.  No schools, or parks departments, or any services that whining residents care about.  You'd have tons of money to do whatever you wanted.


And, after some internet research after dinner, it turns out that they pretty much did whatever they wanted.  And their city manager was collecting a salary of $800,000.  Oh, and they have a population of 90, people.  See, people tell me government is not where the money is.  Idiots.

Erin Go Bragh

Greetings Sports Fans, 

I just viewed Michael Clayton, which I enjoyed very much.  There were three actors nominated for Oscars in it.  Tilda Swinton (supporting), for the big corporation's chief counsel.  Tom Wilkinson (supporting), the batshit attorney. And finally George Clooney, the protagonist And of the three of them, Swinton won.  I'm not sure why.  I mean Clooney was Clooney so that's not hard to figure out.  But Swinton was on the screen for not a very long time and didn't blow me away.  

What I did enjoy was the feel of the movie and the pace.  And the credits.  Now mostly the credits are where I jump up and eject the Netflix disc, or try and get busy with the girl I've been plotting to make out with since the beginning of the movie.  But in this case, the credits end with him (Clooney) taking a cab ride through midtown during the day.  There is something cool about watching him just sitting there, the camera focused on a guy in the backseat that seemed to be a good place for the movie to end.  

You know how at the end of the roller coaster there's that long stretch where the air brakes come on and you get to yell at each other "Awesome!" or "Let's go again!" or "Mrs. Hansen, Tommy got stung by a bee and dropped his Epi-pen on that last loop."  I think that part of the ride is like the credits in a powerful movie.  They allow you to sit there and take it in, before getting up and getting back to reality.  And I liked the way the director here chose to do it.  Well played.  

This blog is even worse on video

So my friend Tory made an insightful comment that the only food you eat that actually comes from the area between the asshole and the testicles is in sausage. So what did I have last night? You got it. I made a very small movie, which is not very good. And it's brevity betrays the fact that it took forever to put together. I now have complete appreciation for Waka and his Lunchbox. So here is my first attempt at showing you my dinner. I think this might be an occasional feature here.


Oh, and it's super early. But this is what time you need to get up to be in Springfield by 7. I tell you, the state gets my dedication for a bargain.

I have no honor

In a shameless plug, I would like to mention that one of my reviews was chosen as Review of the Day on the local Yelp page. It was for pizza at this fine place that I've written about.

Good pizza.

Happy Easter

I was tempted to write in "Hoppy Easter" but that was too cliched. And I got to do it here anyway. I've had two Easter dinners and three Easter desserts in the past 24 hours. First, last night, Chuck and Sara were kind enough to invite me to their place. Where Ross and I dined with them and most of Sara's family. They had driven in from Missouri. Great people. The highlight was playing pronounce this town name, with us swapping Missouri towns and Massachusetts ones.

Then today, went to the roommate's family's Easter Dinner. Had more ham. I'm not getting the whole ham thing. Is it because we were denied ham on Friday that we gorge ourselves on it on Sunday? So that was good. Two screaming kids, hopped up on Easter candy. It was like birth control for me. And then off to the roommate's girlfriend's family place for dessert. More family. More cake.

To bite off Chief Joseph, I shall eat no more forever.

So I'm sure you're wondering what else. And I didn't want to just regale you with tales of ham. So I found this example of a very poor employee. If you're ever late with a report, don't do what this crazy bitch did. I don't care how late those TPS reports are.

My life has been changed

So tonight I went to a place called Chez Henri which is in Cambridge, off Mass Ave. It's best known for it's steak frites, mojitos and the very famous cuban sandwich. Tonight I had a mojito and a daiquiri and the cubano sandwich.

This sandwich changed my life. I even wrote it on the credit card receipt I signed. This sandwich could make me attend church. The ends of the sandwich has these pieces of crispy goodness, cheese and ham. Tears are streaming down my face as I write this.

I contemplated going straight to bed so as not to sully this evening.

This is heaven.