Living in Tumbes has made me realize what I love and hate about living Miraflores (in Lima).
Love about Miraflores: having hot water and taking a nice hot shower
Hate: paying extraordinary amounts of money for rent and utilites (by Peruvian standards since it costs $350 to rent a 1br in Miraflores and 150 soles ($50) in Tumbes)
Love: being next to the beach (even though it's rocky) and watching surfers
Hate: that it's rarely sunny to enjoy going to the beach. Tumbes is always hot and sunny but we're inland from the beaches. After our trip to Mancora last weekend, however, I will say that cold showers feel good on your sunburns!
Love: friends with cars and motorcycles so that you don't have to worry about being run over on a mototaxi or being stuffed into a combi
Hate: the traffic in Lima; it's just like LA!
Love: not having guard dogs barking all night
Hate: listening to car alarms going off instead
Love: having a kitchen and microwave. you can only eat out for so many meal and when it's all rice and no veggies it get a little frustrating.
Hate: paying gringo prices at the tiendas and street vendors
Love: going dancing at the clubs
Hate: paying 20 soles to get in
Love: going for a run along the Malecon and the ocean rather than run stairs in my apartment in Tumbes
Hate: breathing lots of car exhaust
Love: sushi
Hate: over-priced food and menus (a set salad or soup, entree and desert for one price) since you can eat menu here for 5 soles ($2)
Love: good coffee since everything here is instant
Hate: paying for it - in a country that produces a lot of coffee you'd think it's be next to free but all the good coffee is imported from America and has imported prices.
Love: speaking English
Hate: being able to speak in English. Only Heather, Miranda, Colin and I speak English in Tumbes
Love: not having to wear bug spray because the mosquitoes eat you alive. I also love not having little bugs in my bed, and tiny ants climbing on my stuff and in the sink and shower.
Hate: how urban Lima is
Love: not throwing my used TP in the basura (waste basket)
Hate: thinking about where all my garbage goes - hopefully it's not in the big dump pile in the shanty town by the river...
Love: 24 hours/ 7 days a week electricity and never having to deal with power surges
Hate: 24 hour internet because I can work the entire day and never leave my apartment
Only two more days in wonderful Tumbes. It's growing on me even though there are only 4 reasonably good restaurants that Heather and I frequent for lunch and dinner on a rotating basis. I'm sick of going out to eat all the time, taking cold showers and not running every morning but I'm going to miss the blue sky and hot sun and the wonderful field workers. I will probably be back in March for a few months but we'll see...
Hasta luego!
Showing posts with label tumbes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tumbes. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Puerto Pizzaro and Mancora
Puerto Pizzaro
Puerto Pizzaro is a small fishing town 8 miles from Tumbes. The combis that I take to get to the Proyecto all go to Puerto Pizzaro so yesterday I decided to take the combi and not get off and explore Puerto Pizzaro. I had no idea what to expect and four hours later I was overwhelmed and stuffed. After arriving I was swarmed with men in neon green shirts who work for the motorized tour boats. I wasn't expecting to go out on a boat, I just wanted to walk around and explore, but after the 6th man came up to me to show me photos of the crocodiles, Isla de Amor (where lots of honeymooners go), and Isla de los Pájaros (where the Magnificent Frigget bird nest), I thought maybe I should go check out the mangalares (mangroves). I stopped to take a photo of the fishing boats (see photo) when a nice older man asked me if I'd like to go out on one of those boats. In Spanish, he explained that he has a motor/row boat and for only $10 (much cheaper than all the neon green t-shirt guys) I could have him take me on a private tour. The only stipulation was that if I liked it then I would tell my friends to go to him in the future.
It was the best $10 I've ever spent on a tour. I had my own wooden boat and 70 year-old guide, Juan, who took me on a romantic ride through a labyrinth of tidal channels to a crocodile farm. Then we went to see the frigget birds and then to the Island of Love where I sat next to the water and ate a big plate of chicarrones (fried calamari, fish, and shirmps) and listened to the waves.
The mangroves are a very important food source for numerous species of crustaceans, molluscs, fish and fauna and humans enjoy conchas negras. The tides change dramatically and by the time my tour was over the channel to the crocodile farm was too shallow for motorboats.
Thousands of magnificent frigget birds nesting on the island. Males have bright red breasts and the chicks are white. Quite an incredible site!
Mancora
Two hours south of Tumbes, Mancora is one of the greatest beach/surfer towns in Peru. My friend Heather who I'm working with in Tumbes and I went to spend the day in the sun and swim in the Pacific Ocean. My friend Miranda decided to meet us there and we had a great night (and day) in this surfer town eating delicious seafood, drinking Piscos and bad Peruvian beer and dancing at a club on the beach until 5am. It was a great day in the not-too-hot-but-feels-great-85-degree-sun if only my three applications of SPF45 would have been more effective! I'm totally fried (but really only in the places I forgot to reapply sunscreen). I bought a couple sarongs and Heather bought an awesome hammock for only 50 soles ($18) at the cute markets. I love Peru!
Me, Heather and Miranda enjoying some Pina Coladas at a restaurant on the beach.
Next week
I have one more week in Tumbes and then I am going to Lima for Halloween and to meet my boyfriend Seth there. We will be going to Cusco, Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, and Puerto Maldonado for the next two weeks.
Puerto Pizzaro is a small fishing town 8 miles from Tumbes. The combis that I take to get to the Proyecto all go to Puerto Pizzaro so yesterday I decided to take the combi and not get off and explore Puerto Pizzaro. I had no idea what to expect and four hours later I was overwhelmed and stuffed. After arriving I was swarmed with men in neon green shirts who work for the motorized tour boats. I wasn't expecting to go out on a boat, I just wanted to walk around and explore, but after the 6th man came up to me to show me photos of the crocodiles, Isla de Amor (where lots of honeymooners go), and Isla de los Pájaros (where the Magnificent Frigget bird nest), I thought maybe I should go check out the mangalares (mangroves). I stopped to take a photo of the fishing boats (see photo) when a nice older man asked me if I'd like to go out on one of those boats. In Spanish, he explained that he has a motor/row boat and for only $10 (much cheaper than all the neon green t-shirt guys) I could have him take me on a private tour. The only stipulation was that if I liked it then I would tell my friends to go to him in the future.
It was the best $10 I've ever spent on a tour. I had my own wooden boat and 70 year-old guide, Juan, who took me on a romantic ride through a labyrinth of tidal channels to a crocodile farm. Then we went to see the frigget birds and then to the Island of Love where I sat next to the water and ate a big plate of chicarrones (fried calamari, fish, and shirmps) and listened to the waves.
The mangroves are a very important food source for numerous species of crustaceans, molluscs, fish and fauna and humans enjoy conchas negras. The tides change dramatically and by the time my tour was over the channel to the crocodile farm was too shallow for motorboats.
Thousands of magnificent frigget birds nesting on the island. Males have bright red breasts and the chicks are white. Quite an incredible site!
Mancora
Two hours south of Tumbes, Mancora is one of the greatest beach/surfer towns in Peru. My friend Heather who I'm working with in Tumbes and I went to spend the day in the sun and swim in the Pacific Ocean. My friend Miranda decided to meet us there and we had a great night (and day) in this surfer town eating delicious seafood, drinking Piscos and bad Peruvian beer and dancing at a club on the beach until 5am. It was a great day in the not-too-hot-but-feels-great-85-degree-sun if only my three applications of SPF45 would have been more effective! I'm totally fried (but really only in the places I forgot to reapply sunscreen). I bought a couple sarongs and Heather bought an awesome hammock for only 50 soles ($18) at the cute markets. I love Peru!
Me, Heather and Miranda enjoying some Pina Coladas at a restaurant on the beach.
Next week
I have one more week in Tumbes and then I am going to Lima for Halloween and to meet my boyfriend Seth there. We will be going to Cusco, Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, and Puerto Maldonado for the next two weeks.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Buenos Aires and Tumbes
I am exhausted. I arrived in Tumbes less than 24 hours after arriving from Buenos Aires on one of the best vacations of my life! I have lots of work to do and I can't wait to get experience working in the field here but first a quick summary of my trip to BA.
-Thursday: arrived with 5 girls to the hostal and ate at Cafe El Federal in San Telmo.
-Friday: toured the old mansion and now museum El Zanjon. Very cool. Ate at a cafe on Defensa in San Telmo and for dinner got dressed up to go to Bourgognie in the Alvear Palace Hotel - super fancy and expensive but the best meal I can remember.
-Saturday: Ate delicious sushi in the tea house at the japonese gardens and then watched Argentina's Natonal team sneak by a horrible Peru soccer team in a world cup qualifier game while it was POURING rain!
-Sunday: San Telmo antique markets all day with tango in the streets.
-Monday: Met fellow Fogarty, Lisandro, and his wife and wandered around Monserraut and San Nicolas and then went to the Recoleta markets outside the famous Recoleta Cemetary where Evita is burried. Flew home in the evening, did laundry, uploaded photos, went to a few meetings in the morning and re-packed for Tumbes.
Lots of peaceful (and entertaining) protests in Buenos Aires during Ferria de Colon (Columbus Day).
Delicious ice cream on Calle Florida
This is 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the WORLD! 11 lanes wide with a HUGE obelisk at Ave de Mayo.
Tumbes
The Proyecto Eliminacion de Cisticercosis has established a great place to do research in Peru. Fieldwork here is easy because of the great work they have done over the years. Quick background, Tumbes is the northern most district in Peru and where I am staying is only 30km from the Ecuador border. The Proyecto is on the PanAmerican Highway (yes we hitchhike the PanAm to get to and from here) and is a few acres surrounded by acres of rice fields (and lots of mosquitoes). There is a brick wall outside and inside is a clinic, a lab, a pig pen (where they are slaughtering pigs right now to study cysticercosis), a soccer field (of course!), a three story building with the first two floors are offices with lots of computers (and wireless internet) and an apartment on the third floor. There is another guest house with screens for windows and a kitchen which is where my friend Miranda is staying.
I am staying in an apartment with the neurologist from the Proyecto in the neighboring town 4km down the highway. Tumbes is a small city but has a main plaza and a few hotels and even fewer gringos (Americans). The community has lots of smaller neighboring towns and the whole area is very poor. We are measuring kids height, weight, body fat, and talking to families and having them fill out a questionnaire to assess whether El Nino has an impact on stunting children. I've never been in a place like this. We ride around in mototaxis which are motor bikes with carriages on the back. A nice dinner costs $3. We measure people's wealth by the number of animals that they live with. In one household you can have many families with all their animals (ducks, pigs, donkeys, etc).
Today we went to two schools, a primary school and a high school. It was very fun but it is hot and humid here and i was dying! Tomorrow I am going with the field coordinator, a RN, to do home visits to finish some questionnaires and then meet up with the other two field workers to do more measurements. These women are very nice and we hire a driver to take us and the equipment around all day for $20 (which is a ton of money). None of them speak any English! I'm already getting better. Hasta luego.
-Thursday: arrived with 5 girls to the hostal and ate at Cafe El Federal in San Telmo.
-Friday: toured the old mansion and now museum El Zanjon. Very cool. Ate at a cafe on Defensa in San Telmo and for dinner got dressed up to go to Bourgognie in the Alvear Palace Hotel - super fancy and expensive but the best meal I can remember.
-Saturday: Ate delicious sushi in the tea house at the japonese gardens and then watched Argentina's Natonal team sneak by a horrible Peru soccer team in a world cup qualifier game while it was POURING rain!
-Sunday: San Telmo antique markets all day with tango in the streets.
-Monday: Met fellow Fogarty, Lisandro, and his wife and wandered around Monserraut and San Nicolas and then went to the Recoleta markets outside the famous Recoleta Cemetary where Evita is burried. Flew home in the evening, did laundry, uploaded photos, went to a few meetings in the morning and re-packed for Tumbes.
Lots of peaceful (and entertaining) protests in Buenos Aires during Ferria de Colon (Columbus Day).
Delicious ice cream on Calle Florida
This is 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the WORLD! 11 lanes wide with a HUGE obelisk at Ave de Mayo.
Tumbes
The Proyecto Eliminacion de Cisticercosis has established a great place to do research in Peru. Fieldwork here is easy because of the great work they have done over the years. Quick background, Tumbes is the northern most district in Peru and where I am staying is only 30km from the Ecuador border. The Proyecto is on the PanAmerican Highway (yes we hitchhike the PanAm to get to and from here) and is a few acres surrounded by acres of rice fields (and lots of mosquitoes). There is a brick wall outside and inside is a clinic, a lab, a pig pen (where they are slaughtering pigs right now to study cysticercosis), a soccer field (of course!), a three story building with the first two floors are offices with lots of computers (and wireless internet) and an apartment on the third floor. There is another guest house with screens for windows and a kitchen which is where my friend Miranda is staying.
I am staying in an apartment with the neurologist from the Proyecto in the neighboring town 4km down the highway. Tumbes is a small city but has a main plaza and a few hotels and even fewer gringos (Americans). The community has lots of smaller neighboring towns and the whole area is very poor. We are measuring kids height, weight, body fat, and talking to families and having them fill out a questionnaire to assess whether El Nino has an impact on stunting children. I've never been in a place like this. We ride around in mototaxis which are motor bikes with carriages on the back. A nice dinner costs $3. We measure people's wealth by the number of animals that they live with. In one household you can have many families with all their animals (ducks, pigs, donkeys, etc).
Today we went to two schools, a primary school and a high school. It was very fun but it is hot and humid here and i was dying! Tomorrow I am going with the field coordinator, a RN, to do home visits to finish some questionnaires and then meet up with the other two field workers to do more measurements. These women are very nice and we hire a driver to take us and the equipment around all day for $20 (which is a ton of money). None of them speak any English! I'm already getting better. Hasta luego.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
It's not about winning or losing
Today was our second soccer/futsal game with the team that I help coach, San Fransico. I woke up early (8am) and took the usual combi to the shelter/orphanage. Usually with traffic it takes me an hour to get there so I plug in my iPod and listen to Coffee Break Spanish and jot notes in my a notebook.
I arrived shortly after 9 and all the boys were yelling "Gringa, gringa es aqui!" "The American is here!" The private combi/van was supposed to show up at 9:30 to take us (me, Eduardo and his wife, and the 8 boys) to the game but by 10 I was getting a little worried. The kids were starting to get restless and kick soccer balls at each other and over the orphanage wall so that they would have to tell the security guard to open the 15 foot black metal door and they could have a chance to run away. It never works and I think they lose more balls that way.
Anyway, the combi arrived and it took us another hour to get to the orphanage where we were playing (for our 11am game). Good thing I got up so early! So I live in a posh area of Lima. All of our roads are paved and our houses have roofs. The area we went to for the game was in the north of Lima. We turned off the highway onto a dirt road with lots of burning trash, super skinny dogs, bodegas (convenience stores) with gates shut, lots of street venders selling fruits and vegetables, and little three wheel buggies transporting mother's and children around the neighborhood. The brick buildings that surrounded us looked like they were never finished being built but they were and people lived there. Their clothes hung from clothes lines on the roofs and an occasional satellite dish meant someone could watch the Premier league futbol (or maybe American Football, who knows) on their TV tonight.
The orphanage walled in but once we drove inside it was much nicer than I expected based on the surrounding area. A dozen small houses with lots of grass and trees a central futsal field. We played 5 versus 5 futsal on a cement court that was about the size of a tennis court. We lost the game 3-6 after hitting the post no less than 8 times and giving up three goals on turnovers by passing back after a kick-in (John Leaney would not be happy as he always told us, "Always throw it down the line."). The kids were pretty upset but got over it once we got back in the combi and they could look at all the pretty girls on the street and drink their Coca Cola - both are a treat when you are locked inside an orphanage all the time.
In work news...
I have been very very busy working on a few data analysis projects. Not only am I learning Spanish but I'm learning Stata and SPSS syntax. AH!
On a high note, I just found out I'm going to Tumbes for a few weeks in October (after I get back from Buenos Aires with 6 American girl friends) to work on a field project there. I will be helping collect anthropomorphic measurements on children as part of an El Nino study but more importantly I am going to be learning how to set up my own project in Tumbes, work with locals on data collection, and get to know this very rural town where NO ONE will speak English (except of course for the three other gringos who are there working on pig slaughtering and chronic obstructive respiratory disease studies).
Why Tumbes? You might ask. Well a number of years ago a researcher from Peru did a great job setting up an epidemiological study on neurocystercercosis and has been collecting census information on the area. It's a great size, we have data on everyone who is born and who dies, who moves in and out, and ever have all their animals accounted for. Tumbes is located on the beach and the ocean is warm and the sun is hot. It will be nice to get out of Lima for a bit. I can't wait!
I arrived shortly after 9 and all the boys were yelling "Gringa, gringa es aqui!" "The American is here!" The private combi/van was supposed to show up at 9:30 to take us (me, Eduardo and his wife, and the 8 boys) to the game but by 10 I was getting a little worried. The kids were starting to get restless and kick soccer balls at each other and over the orphanage wall so that they would have to tell the security guard to open the 15 foot black metal door and they could have a chance to run away. It never works and I think they lose more balls that way.
Anyway, the combi arrived and it took us another hour to get to the orphanage where we were playing (for our 11am game). Good thing I got up so early! So I live in a posh area of Lima. All of our roads are paved and our houses have roofs. The area we went to for the game was in the north of Lima. We turned off the highway onto a dirt road with lots of burning trash, super skinny dogs, bodegas (convenience stores) with gates shut, lots of street venders selling fruits and vegetables, and little three wheel buggies transporting mother's and children around the neighborhood. The brick buildings that surrounded us looked like they were never finished being built but they were and people lived there. Their clothes hung from clothes lines on the roofs and an occasional satellite dish meant someone could watch the Premier league futbol (or maybe American Football, who knows) on their TV tonight.
The orphanage walled in but once we drove inside it was much nicer than I expected based on the surrounding area. A dozen small houses with lots of grass and trees a central futsal field. We played 5 versus 5 futsal on a cement court that was about the size of a tennis court. We lost the game 3-6 after hitting the post no less than 8 times and giving up three goals on turnovers by passing back after a kick-in (John Leaney would not be happy as he always told us, "Always throw it down the line."). The kids were pretty upset but got over it once we got back in the combi and they could look at all the pretty girls on the street and drink their Coca Cola - both are a treat when you are locked inside an orphanage all the time.
In work news...
I have been very very busy working on a few data analysis projects. Not only am I learning Spanish but I'm learning Stata and SPSS syntax. AH!
On a high note, I just found out I'm going to Tumbes for a few weeks in October (after I get back from Buenos Aires with 6 American girl friends) to work on a field project there. I will be helping collect anthropomorphic measurements on children as part of an El Nino study but more importantly I am going to be learning how to set up my own project in Tumbes, work with locals on data collection, and get to know this very rural town where NO ONE will speak English (except of course for the three other gringos who are there working on pig slaughtering and chronic obstructive respiratory disease studies).
Why Tumbes? You might ask. Well a number of years ago a researcher from Peru did a great job setting up an epidemiological study on neurocystercercosis and has been collecting census information on the area. It's a great size, we have data on everyone who is born and who dies, who moves in and out, and ever have all their animals accounted for. Tumbes is located on the beach and the ocean is warm and the sun is hot. It will be nice to get out of Lima for a bit. I can't wait!
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