We're almost there...

 The fun of moving in...

Saturday  10;00 AM The delivery of the bottled water, dispenser, and stand arrived and we now have 20 liters of agua and a delivery service for more when needed. Next we are waiting for our bed to come sometime around noon,
Laurie wanting to make some espresso with our new Espresso
machine she found that the electrical outlet was not installed. She talked to Pimpo, the supervisor about this. First he offered to give us a extension cord until they put in the outlet. Laurie said, no way so the next thing we knew the handy man was installing the outlet. One would think that it's working. NOT. When we turned on the unit the over head light came on and the light switch stopped working! Very weird. Armando seemed to know what happened and within a few the outlets were just that and the light switch worked as it should.
Then a little after 12noon the men arrived with our bed and 2 wardrobes. They look great.
Time for lunch and after lunch off to a huge appliance store for a Microwave.
 Now some might say, "Big deal so what's so great about all of this?"   We now can sleep, eat, and have cappuccino,  in our newly rented house. Right on schedule! Next a TV.

Another Busy Day Ahead?

It's 8:30 in the morning and The Tall Guy has already gone to the corner bodega to buy water (for the coffee) and rolls. He has also dropped off our laundry at the lavandaria on our block. Here I am with my first cup of coffee, thinking about all the stuff we're going to get done today!

Noche de Arte

We actually took time off today to do a cultural thing!

Evening Walk

What it looks like walking from our new place down the boulevard in the evening

Unwrapping the New Furniture!

We did it! What a day. Went out for breakfast, ordered a bed and wardrobes. They won't be ready til next Saturday because we special designed them. Then we bought a dinette set and a sofa with matching chair, all of which were delivered to our new place this afternoon. After some shopping down the street for some miscellaneous household things, we stopped in the supermarket cafe for a bite to eat and came home, beat but excited that we accomplished so much in one day. Tomorrow - who knows? We're on a roll ...

Scenes on the Way to Breakfast

For Larry & Madelle

For our friends Madelle & Larry, who had great Peruvian asparagus for dinner and wondered if we can get it here.

We're In...

We are now long term renters living in Miraflores, Lima. It was an eventful day. We signed the contract and paid the rent and were given the keys. Not only that, the landlord Augusto is letting us use one of their stove's and frig's. until we get our own. Their workmen scrubbed and polished them till they looked like new. We are being made to feel like family. The big surprise today came when the cable people arrived to install our TV, wireless, and phone. We had only gotten the contract with the cable company the day before! It was a long day and after being in the house with no furniture for 6 hours Laurie was beat. The phone works, the TV lit up, and we have access to high speed Internet. Not too bad for day one.   

Peru declares Bike Transportation a National Priority

Good idea, given how overcrowded and crazy the roads are! But there are a lot of really nice bike paths available, including the one in the picture, which is Av Arequipa. Arequipa is the boulevard which runs in front of our new place - all the way from Miraflores to Lima centro. Our section of it has a much wider and more beautiful walking / biking path, as you can see from pictures I've posted here on the blog before. Read the article here.

Good News for Our US Friends & Family

Non-Stop Miami to Lima flights - starting in December!

When Your Stomach is Feeling Poorly...

I think it's important to lie around all day and post pictures to your blog - well, and maybe take a break long enough to go out for ice cream ...
Anyhow there are a bunch of new pictures below that we took along the way over the past couple of weeks. There were the troubadours in the park on the 14th, the market on the 13th, the bookseller on the 7th, well anyhow, a bunch of stuff. We were so busy enjoying making new discoveries that it took a while to post the pictures. We miss you all!

Monday (if anyone is interested)

This is a lay-a-round day so far. Have had my second cup of coffee, we bought some great, ground fresh coffee, from a very nice cafe called Arabica.
All though the rest of Lima is up and about, traffic is normal, horns blowing, car alarms going off. Why do all car owners have their alarms set so sensitive? The slightest vibration and all hell breaks loose!  A typical morning for the working people. rush, rush, rush.
The laundry has been taken to the Lavandaria, stopped along the way back to pick up some items at the corner store.
Not sure how the rest of Monday will go, but for us this is good enough. to be continued... 
 

Meeting friends...

It's Sunday and a good day to meet with new friends.

Arabica Espresso Bar

Another great find - fabulous pastries & coffees...
And coffee beans to take home -
Guess what our apartment now smells like! Wow!

Sabor y Vida

Another cute place for lunch

$3 - Relaxing music - Good food

Another Park for Walking - Los Olivos

Just a few blocks from our new house!

Lunch

There is always a work-a-round in Peru...

This happened in one of Lima's large department stores. If you have been following our buying adventures you know that we have been  out pricing house hold things and today was no different. While we were looking at bedding for the guest room, (if you visit us you will be so comfortable in the guest bed.) Up till now we have just been looking and checking prices, but today things were on sale! Laurie found the right sheets and pillow cases and it was a two for 1 sale!
Okay, here's where it get interesting...off we went to the check out counter. The women behind the counter said, "Do you have one of our credit cards?", Laurie answered, "No we don't have one of your cards". "Well, the sales person replied, if you don't have one or our "tarjetas" then you can only get one set of sheets at the regular price. By now Laurie is sad and upset. They were just what she wanted and the savings was great. Then the sales lady noticing Laurie's sad face, said, can you pay with cash? Yes was the answer, and I can still get two sets for the price of one, Laurie asked (she was very puzzled by this time). Yes was the reply. So Laurie handed over the cash to the sales lady and we waited. .......nothing happened, the sales lady waited on another shopper, still waiting. Then the work-a-round happened. Another shopper came up and after some conversation with the sales person, the shopper turned to Laurie and asked if Laurie wanted to use her tarjeta to get the 2 for 1 sales price. After a little thought Laurie realized that this is how the sales person gets around the "no card" problem. They ask one of the shoppers if they would charge the two sets of sheets and the sales person gives the shopper the cash that Laurie had given her. The kind shopper gets points on her tarjeta, we get two sets of sheets, and the sales person gets a sale.
The department store is happy and no harm done. Neat. no?

Walking thru the Hood

You Never Know What You'll Find...

While Walking Thru Parque Kennedy

Troubadours in the Park-Try Playing It Full Screen

The $3 Lunch

Fuerza Chile!

Like the rest of the world, we were glued to the television whenever we were in the apartment. What an amazing accomplishment to actually rescue all of those guys! Increible! How wonderful to actually have GOOD world news!!! I am so impressed that those guys were able to survive all that time down there - and then were able to come to the surface in that skinny little tube without going stark raving mad during the trip!

Mercado de Surquillo

I Love Markets!

Donatello

So is it a conspiracy or what?
Every Spanish-speaking country seems to come up with a different name for cow stomach lining. Even weirder, this time I got through about half of it before all of a sudden I realized what it was! I mean how was I to know that "Cau Cau" was going to be tripe stew? And it wasn't even bad! I was very happy to try guinea pig. I was thrilled with the flavor of goat. I've eaten a lot of other stuff, including raw fish, and been very happy. But I never really wanted to try tripe - and somehow I keep getting tricked into it. But really, it wasn't bad.

Good Night, Lima

Moon from our Terraza

On the ship...

Oct 12th, our shipment is on the ship and the ship sails tonight. Not sure how long the trip will take, they say three weeks, but what ever it takes. Then the time for our shipment to go through customs then bringing it to our new home. By the time we actually get out stuff we will have been in our house about a week or two. We should have most of the new furniture in place by that time. Our second time at this, you would think this is a common stuff but it's not. We are starting over and this has been an exciting time for us. (to be continued...)
The Tallguy.  

The Power Shopper!

Can't believe we did all this shopping this afternoon!

Furniture for guest bedroom, couch and chair for living room, table and chairs for eating, computing, etc. Here you see me relaxing in my big new comfy chair. If you want to see the rest of our new stuff, you'll just have to come down and be our guests in our new guest room!

Empanadas !!!

4 Blocks from the House

AND they have delivery service!

Proud Day for Peru

Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize 

 

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping

We've been in the stores today and it's starting to hit me how many things we need to find to buy for our new home. Have you seen the pictures of those big empty rooms?!!! As all of you who know me know, I am NOT a shopper! Suddenly I realize we need a bed, mattress, pillows, sheets, pillow cases, blankets, dishes, pots & pans, coffee maker and other kitchen things, towels, shower curtain, shower mat, something to sit on, something to write on, the list seems never-ending. Help! I need a personal shopper/planner/designer.

Views from "This Month's" Apartment

Guess I haven't mentioned before that from the terraza of our apartment we can see Huaco Pucllana, which I wrote about here on our first visit to Lima, back in December 2008.

The Bodega (Corner Grocery Store)

We seem to have at least one of these places (sometimes 3 or 4) on every block.

Entrance to the Complex

Walk Down the Boulevard from Our New Place to Town

Our Next Home

 We're planning to sign a lease for this house tomorrow.

Click here to see more of our new home

Getting the Laundry Done

Distance from apartment to nearest laundry - 1/2 block
Cost of washing, drying and folding 3.5 kilos (7.7 lbs) of laundry and having it ready for pick up the same afternoon - 15.6 soles ($5.50 US)

Nobody Said It Would Be Easy

How can getting a cell phone be this complicated? Which company? Which phone? Which program? Pre-paid or Post-paid ?How do I add time? How do I know how much time I have left? How many of those digits am I supposed to dial? How And I have to do all this in Spanish. Maybe I don't really need a phone.

Breakfast at Cafe Haiti

 Sunday morning...

As soon as I get my ass in gear and take a shower, and dress, Laurie and I will amble over to Buen Gusto. They have the best coffee and things to eat. (will add pictures when we get back). (several hours later)... we didn't make it to Buen Gusto because today is election day and they were closed. Poor Laurie, went ahead of me to discover the place closed. So she had to turn around and start walking back. We meet as Laurie was turning a  corner. We desided to walk to Parke Kennedy and see if Cafe Haiti was open and it was. We sat at an outdoor table and had a very nice brunch. 
Gene (Tallguy)

Kitty Kats for Sister Sue