July 14
My writing the night before turned
into more than “a bit” and I was still zonked out while Anabelle took in more Miraculous Ladybug and Rosa brought her Mom to the bank.
As it was “Peru shirt day” we snapped a
bunch of pictures around the house.
After soundly trouncing me (yet again) in Doctor Whuno, Anabelle
accompanied Rosa to the laundromat. On
the way, a woman called out Rosa’s name, and my daughter’s first thought was a
psychopath had found them. (I assume
this is my fault.)
It wasn’t. (A psychopath that is, it probably was my fault.) Instead it was someone Rosa went to school
with who currently lived in Canada, because the world is small and life is weird. They also stopped for some Yukitas.
That’s Peruvian street zeppoles for my
Italian family playing at home.
On our way we passed the pink and
black SBA building where the local Futbol (soccer) team met. I was trying to figure out a Spanish acronym,
turns out it stood for “Sport Boys Association.” The Pink Panther graffiti was their mascot. I assume they do not use assault rifles on
the field, but you never know. They take their Futbol pretty seriously down
there.
We also passed a building two doors
down with the entire interior collapsed and several stone buildings with wooden
towers on them. I’m waiting for someone
to realize Assassins Creed Peru is a
no brainer.
We all menu’ed trying openers like Causa
Chicken Salad and Ceviche. They went next
door to get us the Coke Zero that was on their menu for Anabelle and the rest
of us shared a giant Inca Kola bottle Abuelita’s friend gave us. Woo!
Rosa and her Mom got Chaufa again. In
an attempt to further confuse me she said it was much less like the Chifa
version than others we had, yet it was much more like the Chinese food I was
used to at home.
Anabelle had Tallarín Saltado, liked
the beef better than the chicken she’d previously tried, but still preferred “Sara’s”
at home. I had Arroz con Seafood. (I’m
paraphrasing.) I think it was good, but I was a little too focused on avoiding
snails to remember the taste of the experience.
It was kind of a light grey day, or as
Peruvian winter weathermen call it, “Sunny." We walked over to sight see at Plaza Grau a
bit before heading home.
We packed up our queen air mattress
because we knew Rosa had bought one there. However, we had forgotten that we
exchanged the big one we bought for a twin when we realized we only needed the
plug for our queen. Rosa took that one,
and I used my “sleep anywhere” superpower to spend my nights unconscious and mashing
the green cushion thing again.
While we fiddled with mattresses,
Anabelle played a couple of Uno hands against a stuffed owl. Sadly, the owl did better against her than I usually
did.
For our trip to Miraflores, Rosa
called the really good cab company.
After three quarters of an hour with no one showing up, she called the less good but actually appearing 555 cab company and they
came to take us.
It was a big step up in vehicular transportation
for us. The car not only had a digital
dash and reverse cam, it had power locks and windows. These were all things we
hadn’t seen since leaving the States.
A new ocean side highway had opened,
and we had a fast and scenic trip along the Pacific to Miraflores, a.k.a. the
snooty Lima neighborhood.
This wasn’t another “I have water please,” moment; Rosa and Anabelle were confused as well.
Having solved the mystery, we passed
through the famous “Cat Park” marveling at how completely they replaced one
furred predator with another.
It was obvious to Anabelle and I how
upper class this section was, since it was the only place in Peru we saw my
wife dutifully follow the crosswalks and signals.
In one of the many newsstands, I saw a
couple of extremely well crafted die cast Star Trek ships, (A Klingon D-7 and a
Jem’Hadar fighter, for the geekly inclined) packaged with little
magazines. A few blocks further, and a
bit down from the corner, I spotted more. Wandering over I saw the two previous
ones, plus a Klingon Bird of Prey and an Enterprise. I'm not sure which version of the most
famous ship it was, because while I was noticing the Enterprise I was also
noticing the only Spanish speaking members of our group had crossed the street
and continued on.
Muttering a hurried, “Yo tengo agua,
por favor,” to the vendor I ran to catch up.
Our family motto of “Ooh, churros!”
rang out as we passed a bakery. They
were filled and quite delicious. About a
block later we passed Manolo, a place famous for churros. We mentally marked its location for the trip
back. Since I already had mentally marked the Star Trek ship location, it made
it easier to link the two.
With no intent to buy anything, being
drawn into bookstores was a purely a genetic response. We spent a much longer time in an Inca store,
which had souvenirs far cheaper than the market. So much for haggling.
Bleah.
We stuck with blueberry and a
strawberry Pink Panther Paw, and they worked fine.
Down in a hidey hole at an unconnected
side of the lower level, we found what I first thought was a toy store. It was actually a baby store, which Rosa
picked up immediately from the cribs and car seats in the front window. I was
distracted by the back wall of LEGOs, hence my confusion.
As usual, LEGOs were way more
expensive than at home, but contrarily unusual, there were open mini-figures to
purchase without a markup. I’ve never
seen that in any country. Not only that,
but there was a sign proclaiming a two for one sale.
My eyes were drawn to one and I
pointed him out, “Hey! Corn Man!”
It was a guy in a full body corn on
the cob costume, screaming.
OK, he had a big mustache that looked
like an open mouth from afar, but I still think it’s funnier if he’s screaming.
Figures in hand, we ascended back to
the food court and restaurant level. Anabelle had been determined to have KFC
at one point on the trip in a show of patriotism. We hovered around it for a bit, while Rosa
and I determined what we would eat.
Patriotism or no, I wasn’t squandering
the amazing culinary opportunities of Peru.
While hovering, I noticed the nearby Bembos had removed the veggie
burger from the menu in the intervening years. It looks like my
gastrointestinal disaster was a prank on their part.
The two of us eventually convinced
Anabelle to side with us on the Fantastic Food versus Country Loyalty
Debate. The fact that Tanta Quechua had
the menu out front in two languages helped.
As the place started as a bakery, the
bread served while we ordered convinced us all of the wisdom of our
decision. The ocean view seats helped
confirm that.
Our happy to have refused KFC daughter
had a Pot’o’Lasagna that topped every Italian restaurant she’d ever been to.
Anabelle’s recently acquired warm
beverage addiction led to what was later referred to as “the tea fiasco.”
At first she was thrilled to be
brought her own little stone tea pot.
The thrill sank quickly once she tried it and discovered the strong
taste of lemon.
At some point I should mention, lemon
tea was on the menu, and not ordered.
Rosa confirmed the lemon-ness, and
called the waiter over. He was excessively puzzled as he specifically put the
non-lemon order in, and checked the tea bags himself.
Then he poured himself a little, his
face dropped and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Except of course he said it in Spanish,
which is:
“Yo tengo agua, por favor.”
He returned, apologized, said the
folks in the kitchen get a little excited sometimes, and added lemon to the
pot, and presented Anabelle with a new un-lemon stone teapot.
She liked it as much as the food, and
the two and a half cups, coupled with her being used to decaffeinated tea at
home led to multiple outbursts of “Corn Man!” during dinner.
Some of that was probably definitely my fault
too.
We went back to the hidey hole, picked
up Corn Man (WOO!)
and she also bought two ghosts from the horror side that I
thought she was originally going to pick, but she said she didn’t like.
Toy figure shopping in our family is
always complicated.
The whole time she was in there, I was
cracking up at the concept of the Sasquatch with a Camera mini figure. Rosa, enabler that she is, reminded me we
weren’t coming back. Unsurprisingly, I walked back in after the Corn Man
purchase
(as my family was embarrassed to walk in a third time) and picked him
and a Gargoyle up to add to the village from the two for one side.
We went back up, took a couple of
pictures on the roof at night and started walking back to Kennedy Park.
Luckily, someone had purchased the
Enterprise I had seen while we were at the mall. I say luckily as research when
I returned home revealed they were part of the Peruvian set of the Eaglemoss collection. Their own website showed thirty beautifully detailed, die cast star ships in the collection. While excessive, the number wasn’t
insane…yet. A little more digging
revealed their site only showed the tip of the iceberg. Not counting special
releases, sets and oversize offerings, the group of (all amazingly differentiable)
ships in the line was well over a hundred and fifty.
On the positive side, my set of a
couple dozen little Hot Wheels Star Wars ships doesn’t seem nearly as nuts now.
On the negative side, my internet
searches means every single website that has ads taunted me endlessly with-
“Hey Jeeeeeeeeff… look at these
awesome Star Trek shiiiiiiiips…they’re sooooooooooo shiiiiiiiiiiny!!!!!”
On the even more negative side,
Eaglemoss more recently started a new figure line based on Aliens and Predator (which
are absolutely gorgeous) with bonus Spaceships from those franchises in the
Premium Subscription (which are wicked awesome), and the ads are taunting me
with them as well.
I doubt I’ll ever own them, because if
I ever get a financial windfall that would allow me to consider dropping over a
grand and a half on this franchise…I’m getting a custom, production quality
Predator costume.
Please help me.
Reaching Manolo (Ooh! Churros!) we had
our second sampling of the day. I’d have
wondered if being full from dinner dulled the taste of them to make us not
believe they were truly worthy of famousness.
However, a couple blocks later, we
passed the place we stopped in the morning and, “Ooh! Churros!” They were just as good as earlier.
Honestly, I'm starting to think my
family has some sort of choux and brown sugar triggered Alzheimer’s.
Back at the Cat Park, Anabelle pet a
friendly and receptive one while Rosa called the 555 cab again. We crossed the street to a Mia Pharma to wait
for the pickup. Anabelle found another
cat there that was slightly less receptive.
All of the park residents are healthy and friendly to humans, but this
one had a clear expression of “Do not fuzzle my feral hunterness” while being
pet.
The cab came speedily and before we
knew it we were stuck in traffic on the ocean road. Occasionally he drove over on the side, but
nothing overly crazy.
Fortunately, He and Rosa both knew the
area and the layout of the new thoroughfare.
Following the direct route home would have passed through a zone of “Muy Peligroso.” He exited a little
sooner, when the highway side campfires were fairly sparse and only needed to
pass through a moderately sketchy section.
Kids were playing soccer in the
street, much like kids at home play baseball or football.
Unlike home, there was no cry of “Car”
and “Game On” to mark the pause required by our passage. Instead, they
continued playing uninterrupted, with one of them executing a deft pass between
our moving tires to his team mate.
Before passing out from the long and
event filled day, we downloaded the pictures, and played with Corn Man and
friends.
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2 comments:
Corn man is pretty awesome.
Thank you. We were easily captivated by his power.
Or maybe it was the caffine.
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