The Muddy-Pants Diaries

28 October 2005 (Friday) – Lima, Peru

Danitza arrived at Percy’s home to deliver my glass items. However, as I had to go with her to buy the silver fittings for the glass jewellery, I simply left them at home without looking.

If I have to buy silver, I should buy them in Peru as here, they MINE silver. But still, I could not buy everything, it will cost too much and I still need money for survival for perhaps another month! I looked through my glass creations. Wow, some of them turned out quite nice but perhaps half of them were so-so or downright awful. I guess this is the element of surprise that I like about this craft. You can never know for sure what to expect… the colours changed after baking, the colours spread around and mixed everything up, sometimes there are bubbles, some big, some small, sometimes no bubbles. So, you can never be sure until they all come out after more than 24 hours.

We tried the various silver fittings and I bought just enough for my budget and eagerly returned home to check out the rest of my creations. The display plate turned out rather nice. I also adore the ash-tray and the candle-holder, but the soap dish was a little off. The salsa dish was alright, but I guess I do not quite fancy the black outlines. Wow, I am so excited as I already have a lot more ideas in my head. I guess I am really going to continue this craft when I return to Singapore.

I sat down and stuck the silver fittings to my glass jewellery to make rings, necklaces and ear-rings. Oh, they looked rather nice.

Later, when Percy’s mother came home, I gave her the display plate. She was delighted. It was too big for me to carry but I was more than happy to give it to the family that had been feeding me and taking care of me… well, my Lima family!! I later also gave a pair of earrings to Emiko.

At 9 or 10pm, Percy’s mother, her friend, Dante and I prepared to go to a restaurant where folkloric dances were performed. We called Emiko, who was still at work, the poor thing, and she was game to join us as well. So, we drove to pick her up and headed to this restaurant called La Candelaria in Barranco.

Wow, the restaurant was nearly full. Folkloric dances from all over Peru were performed to great ‘live’ music and much enthusiasm. The Peruvians and tourists were all very responsive and spontaneous.  Whenever the music played for the floor, everyone ran up excitedly to dance. There was no hesitation at all. It was great to feel the energy here! Percy’s mother loves dancing and we, except Dante who refused to dance, got up and danced to the folkloric music or merengue or whatever.

The compere went through the entire restaurant asking foreigners which countries they come from. Estados Unidos… Holanda… Inglaterra… España… Portugal… Suiza… Panama… Chile… Colombia… Tailandia… SINGAPUR… Argentina… etc…

Later to our surprise, a tray of flags was brought out. The compere asked representatives from each country to come out to collect their flags. I guessed there would not be a flag for Singapore. For, what are the odds that another Singaporean had been to this restaurant previously for them to prepare a flag of ours. Indeed, they even had a flag for Thailand but no flag for me… Still, the compere remembered SINGAPUR and beckoned me to come right up to the floor, apologizing on behalf of Peru, that they had no flag for me. Haaha…

Now, here’s the funny bit. The compere wanted us each to perform our country’s traditional dance!! The music started for the Chilean lady and her hankerchief dance called Cueca… Wow, very sporting of her! Then, samba for the amazingly svelte Portugal lady who was superb in her rapid and sexy samba moves… The Colombians did a little cheesy cumbia… The Spanish guy faked a flamengo… The Thai girl tried her best with some graceful moves but the musicians had no clue what Thai music was and simply played something which was what they thought to be Oriental-sounding. The Argentines circled the floor with a slow tango… And thank goodness, for the rest of us with seemingly no traditional dances, we did YMCA. What a fun evening!! My final night in Lima and I was one of the stars of the evening… haha…

26 October 2005 (Wednesday) – 27 October 2005 (Thursday) – Lima, Peru

I had these two days free because my course instructor Danitza was busy in an exhibition. But I also had to wait at least 24 hours for the glass to be baked and cooled. I would only see them on Friday. I hope they look OK!!

Percy had time today to give me a spin around the various districts of Lima, from Barranco to Lima centre to Miraflores to Chorillos and back home in Surco. Previously, my knowledge of Lima was just the colonial Lima centre, my hostel and the horrible area around the bus companies in Paseo de la Republica. Now, wow… I was surprised at how pretty some parts of Lima is or has become.

I remembered the colonial Lima centre to be busier with more low-lifes and was more grungy-looking 6 years ago. Now, it is clean, with pretty spotlights, an artistic sculpture near Rimac River. It is really a very pleasant place now to walk around and relax. Of course, when we looked out at Rimac River, under the bridge, we spotted some piranhas. These are, of course, NOT the flesh-eating fishes. These are young boys, perhaps 8 years old to mid-teens, who attack people, mainly tourists with all their baggages, by jumping on them in a group of… well, anywhere between 4 to 20… and ripping everything off from the victims in minutes. Yep, much like how piranhas attack in groups and devour the victims of all the flesh in a matter of seconds. Really, there is nothing you can do if the piranhas attack you. This is a rather famous form of robbery here in Lima.

When I first told Percy about this kind of robbery, adding that that was why I fear Lima and did not originally plan on coming here, Percy laughed it off, saying that Lima is safe, nothing bad had ever happened to him. As it turned out, I learnt from his brother and sister later, that yes… nothing bad had ever happened to THEM… but to Percy, he had been robbed uncountable times. In fact, he was nearly kidnapped about 5 or 6 months ago by a gang who mistook him for a rich boy, as he has some friends who are really rich. Thank goodness, the police arrived just in time. Naturally, the police then asked Percy for some money in return. Sigh… corruption corruption corruption.

Percy had explained to me what each of the items in the embelm of the Peruvian flag represent and when he finished, I had asked him in jest, “And corruption is represented by?”.

Despite insisting that Lima is ‘safe’, when we reached the Lima centre, Percy quickly took off his watch and asked me to do the same and he kept them in the glove compartment. We were in a car! But still, Percy assured me this step was necessary.  He too had had his watch and cellphone ripped off from his hand while sitting in a car before. 

Anyway, as for the other districts, they are modern, clean and look rather peaceful and pretty. The borderline between a good and bad neighbourhood is very obvious sometimes. Here on this side of the road, I could see really lovely-looking grand houses. But, just right opposite, I would see the incomplete dodgy-looking houses of the poor in pueblos jovenes (like favelas in Brazil) built up the hills.

That evening, I had a really great time chatting with Dante, Emiko and her boyfriend Angel over dinner. It was just fantastic getting to know each and everyone of them, their likes and dislikes and other idiosyncracies. The entire family was just fantastic! All of them were so concerned about me and made it a point to take turns to take care of me and help me. They were terribly interested to know about Asian cultures, Singapore, confirming the rumour of those horrible food in Asia. In Percy’s absence, they joked that Percy is like the little mouse in a Warner Brothers cartoon where each time his friend asked him, “What should we do tomorrow?”, the little mouse would cry out, “Let’s conquer the world!!”. Yep, Percy’s ambition is to conquer the world. When asked about it later, he corrected… not the world, just South America would do.

Wait a minute… on closer observation, Percy does bear a slight resemblance to Dr. Evil, Austin Power’s arch enemy, but with hair. I can just imagine Percy stroking his pet dog, Mirko Lopez (really, that’s the dog’s name), and proclaiming, “We hold the world ransom for 1 million dollars!!” Heheee…

The next day, after breakfast, I chatted with Percy first until noon, before Dante came home, and then I chatted with Dante til 6pm. Wow, 8 or 9 hours of non-stop chatting for me at the same spot and in Spanish as well! Incredible that we had so much to talk about!!! I told them about reading auras and it turned out, Dante is something of a psychic as well. He sometimes can see apparitions, and for his school’s exams, he always knew which questions would come out. So, his ‘last-minute’ friends always implored him for exam tips. As I explained how I was taught to read auras, I asked them to try.  Percy could not, but Dante got it right away. He said my aura was violet, oh great, that’s my true colour for being a 7… the colour of spirituality.

I also learnt from them so much about what happened to Lima and Peru in the 1980s and 1990s where there were terrorists and bomb attacks everywhere all the time. They also described what happened during the 1997 terrorist attack on the Japanese Embassy. Gosh, I certainly did not know that the army went to the mountains, kidnapped the best miners to build tunnels under the embassy. These poor miners were not told anything, they were just told to start building tunnels here. The clueless families of the miners thought they disappeared and died. The terrorists were surprised when the army entered the embassy from underneath and killed them all. We made a joke that people from Lima, if they had survived here, they can survive anywhere. However, it was not so true for some people… recently, there had been some news about 4 Peruvian students who were killed for racism reason in Russia. Poor things!!

In the evening, I had an appointment with another Hospitality Club member, Raquel, and as Percy had to go to school, he instructed Dante to take care of me. Wow, see? I have two bodyguards here in Lima! Dante drove me to the meeting point at Cine El Pacifico in Miraflores and soon, Raquel arrived. We persuaded Dante to join us and we went to a pizza place.

Raquel herself was thinking of making a 6-month trip next year. So, when I wrote to her asking for accommodation, she was very keen to meet me, seeing that I, a single woman, am doing a trip like what she intends to. I encouraged her, telling her that it is a great way to travel and she will have a fantastic time meeting people all over, especially people through Hospitality Club. Be open-minded with lots of positive energy and you would attract amazing people all the time! And anyway, we also concluded that if she is from Lima, she can survive anything anywhere. Naturally, she was worried that it might be difficult for her to find a job when she returns. Well, I have the same worry as well, so I cannot for sure tell her that everything will be fine, especially since I think the situation here in Peru is much more different than in my country. Anyway, one really has to do this sort of travelling, that is for sure. I am sure things will all work out in the end.

24 October 2005 (Monday) - 25 October 2005 (Tuesday) - Lima, Peru I spent these two days at Danitza's workshop learning how to make the glass items and jewellery using the method called vitrofusion. She taught me how to clean ... [Continue reading this entry]

23 October 2005 (Sunday) - Huaraz to Lima, Peru I left Huaraz on the morning bus to Lima. We crossed the high plateau for a while, surrounded by yellowish-green licho grass and soon, we could see the gorgeous Cordillera Blanca in ... [Continue reading this entry]