Filed under: Personal, Society, Sports | Tags: Ebbets Field, Hot dogs, New York, New York Times, Sports
A friend of mine at college has a high school friend who’s in Peru this summer. He sent the two of us an email to introduce us. Here’s how he described me: “Pete is a sports-loving traveller who also happens to enjoy fun. He’s from New York and therefore loves hot dogs, baseball, the Mets, culture, tall buildings, and does not like parking.”
That I am a New Yorker is probably not the source of my love for hot dogs. That I love baseball might better explain why I crave plastic-encased mystery meat. Regardless, I love baseball, New York, and — of course — hot dogs.
So it’s no surprise I loved the op-ed piece in today’s New York Times by a former hot dog vendor at Ebbets Field, the storied home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, about the old days of ballpark hot dogs.
Filed under: Travel | Tags: Buses, Crocodiles, Cysticercosis, Ecuador, Guayaquil, Huaquillas, Lima, Mangroves, Pan-American Highway, Peru, Piura, Quito, Tumbes
[Note: I've heard the call for more photos, and I'll begin posting more. But because I'm adding this from an internet shop where I can't upload photos, this post unfortunately has none.]
I last wrote on the fourth, in the afternoon. I forgot to mention how much I missed the festivities at home that day, as I did more and more as the day progressed. By the evening, I just wanted to be home, anywhere in the country of my birth, to watch fireworks and eat barbecue. But this year I knew I’d have to do without. Instead, I had a joke of an Independence Day celebration with a friend of a friend I met that night. My new friend [sorry for the awkwardness; I’ve decided to keep names out of all my posts here, in case people I discuss prefer not to be written about online] had arrived in Lima only about a week earlier, and she’s spending the next two months here. Missing home together, we had dinner, talked about traveling and living abroad, and enjoyed enough Peruvian beer with enough American spirit to feel we had done something minimal, and all we could do, to celebrate the holiday. It wasn’t very patriotic, but it was a fun evening. I was very happily surprised to meet someone who wanted to talk about the impending FISA disgrace as much as I did. (more…)
Filed under: Travel | Tags: CT scan, Cysticercosis, Ecuador, Enfermeria, Johns Hopkins, Peru, Tumbes
Yesterday I was introduced as “un estudiante de enfermeria de la universidad de Johns Hopkins en Filadelfia.” I also learned all about cysticercosis and saw my first CT scanner. In Tumbes, Peru.
Tonight I’m going to Ecuador.
Filed under: Travel | Tags: 28 de Julio, Independence Day, Lima, Paint, Peru, Slums
July 28th is the Peruvian Independence Day, and I’m looking forward to the celebrations later this month According to Jose Rivas, my guide from a few days ago, preparations for the festivities begin at the start of the month. In a show of patriotism or national can-do or something, the government gives some of the country’s poorest money to repaint their homes, he said, explaining why some of Lima’s slums are very colorful this time of year.
Filed under: Travel | Tags: Lima, Peru, Cusco, Inti Raymi, Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Aguas Calientes, Huayna Picchu, Jose Julio Rivas Ramirez, Ayacucho
Don’t worry, my sister got out of the hospital fine. She was released after thirty hours, when they finally took her off the IV, replacing the drip with nine days of pills and a laundry list of foods to avoid. The affair was first scary, then aggravating, and luckily—finally—over.
She was released on the 23rd, and the 24th is Inti Raymi, the annual Inca festival of the sun. My sister remarked that we Americans don’t get nearly as excited for our annual holidays as the Cusqueños seemed to be for Inti Raymi, and I tried to explain the discrepancy by arguing that we have New Year’s, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and how many religious holidays, so we split our holiday excitement over half a dozen days throughout the year. Inca-loyal Peruvians, on the other hand, have one major event. I was happy to share my expert wisdom on the differing importance and nature of public celebration across cultures. My mathematical answer showed how little either of us knew about the phenomenon occurring around us. (more…)





