There's nothing 10 soles can't fix

I was recently headed north of Lima for a little day trip outside the city when my friend driving the car suddenly slammed on his brakes when there were no cars around. I asked him what the problem was and he said that the video cameras that they set up to take pictures of speeders had just caught him and he recently received a ticket in the mail for doing 50 kph in a 45 kph zone. I was really surprised because I had never noticed that there were even cameras set up around the city. I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea. Now I know that this already exists in the US and I am sure in lots of other countries, but it works even better in Peru. In Lima, the traffic is horrible. No one respects traffic laws. I once went backwards on an onramp to the freeway because the taxista changed his mind on the route he wanted to take. Just the other night I was coming home from Miraflores and one side of a very busy street was closed, so the cab driver went about 1/4 mile down the wrong side of the street. Sure there were detours signs everywhere directing him the other way, but that was too much of a hassle. The thing that surprised me the most was that no one honked. People honk at everything here, but not when someone is cutting you off or driving the wrong way down the road, but rather when you are stuck in stopped traffic.

No one has any respect for the traffic laws, lanes, or lights. Why should they? Everyone has to look out for themselves and if you can run that red light and you don't have to wait another 3 minutes for it to turn green, go for it. If you happen to get caught by a police officer, go ahead and 'resolve' the problem right then and there. No paper work involved. I luckily have never had to do this, but I have seen it done. The going rate is from 10-50 soles ($3.40- $17) for speeding, running lights, drunk driving... I can't really blame the cops for taking bribes, they can easily double their salary. 

With the cameras set up, there is no option for bribes. You are sent the ticket in the mail with a picture and it is already done. If the government can then take the money that is made off the tickets and start paying the police force more, then maybe they will be less encouraged to take bribes and start giving out more tickets, which, in return, will make more people respect the traffic laws. Now I know that is maybe too idealistic, but I do feel like it is a start to a huge problem. 

I have only been put in an uncomfortable situation where someone expected a payment that I felt was not merited. This person harassed me constantly to meet this contact that he had, a potential supplier. He called and emailed me nonstop until I finally agreed to meet his contact. At the end of the meeting when we were going our separate ways, he looked at me and asked how much I was going to give him. The interesting thing is that on the way to the meeting we were having a discussion about how, when making contacts, the seller has to pay for the contact and never the buyer, so I figured that this was one of those cases. I had no idea what he was expecting, so I asked him very straight forward what he wanted. He didn't give me a number and said that what ever I thought was appropriate, so I have him 10 soles for his cab ride back to his office. 

Confusing Things in New Countries

I have been thinking of all the thousands of blogs entries that I want to do and the same theme keeps coming up.... how to survive the first few months in a new country. Now I have to say that I thought I could totally handle it and that integration was going to be easy for me. I mean, I studied international business... that prepares me to live in a foreign country and start my own business, right? I have traveled around the world by myself in places where I didn't even speak the language and I managed to feed myself. Although one time I was on a tiny island south of Shanghai and I did only eat bananas for a couple of days. The only food there was sitting in large red buckets outside the restaurants alive and you had to pick it out and tell them how to cook it. Normally I am all for adventurous food, but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to pick a random sea creature that I could not identify and somehow sign to them how to cook it. Oh please, chop off its head first, take out the bones, and then fry it please! I could on the other hand buy bananas and knew how to eat them.  

So, I get to Lima and I luckily had arranged the two hardest parts: apartment and job. I lived with a 70 year old woman named Betty, and had gotten a job working 55 hours a week at a travel agency for minimal pay. The rest, I thought, would be easy. Just needed to get around, feed myself, make friends, and somewhere in there come up with a brilliant business plan. I will cover getting around. 

So there are two modes of transportation: taxi and public transportation. Taxis are pretty straight forward. Stick out your hand and the cars will start to line up. Now there are the legit taxis and the gypsy cabs (I named a purse after a long conversation I had about these gypsy cabs. http://www.emilimehandcrafted.com/Items/gybsy-cabs.html).  If you take taxis in Lima, you will ride in a gypsy cab. They aren't bad, just not so official as I was used to. A few words of advice for getting cabs. First, ask someone else how much a cab to your desired destination would cost. Cabbies love to rip off gringas. If you have an idea, then you can negotiate. Trust your instinct. If the cabbie looks like a crack head, don't get in the car. Make sure they have their license plate painted onto the side of the car. If it is late at night and you are going alone, get someone to wait with you for the cab. There is a whole game you have to play. For example, if I am sending my friend off in a cab, I look into the cab driver's eyes and then I look at the license plate number and I look back at him with a very stern look like, I see you, I know your license plate number, and don't even think about hurting my friend. I take this very seriously.  Then run inside and write down the number in case your friend goes missing. Once you get in the cab, if it is a station wagon, make sure to check the trunk area. There have been stories of people hiding in the back under a blanket. Once the cab starts going they grab you and steal all your stuff and basically do whatever they want. If you get worried that the cab is taking you in the wrong direction, ask him to tell you how he is going to get there, even if you have no idea what he is talking about. The key is faking confidence. If you sound like you know what you are doing, they won't mess with you. That is the easy way to get around, but if you need a cheaper option...

There are combis, coasters (pronounced custer and named after a brand of medium size buses), and buses. Combis are the small van looking vehicles, coasters are the medium size buses and buses, well, you can figure out. They all have the streets they go down written on the side. If you don't happen to know which streets you need to go down (which I never do) then you have to ask the cobrador (the guy inside the bus that takes your money) or I found the people that stand at bus stops with their clip boards are often the best to ask. These people record the times of the buses that have the same routes and will shout out a few numbers to the bus driver and the cobrador which lets them know the timing of the buses in front of them. The cobrador will then throw them 20 cents. Often it is in the street where they will then have to dodge traffic and risk their life to pick up the coin that the jerk cobrador chunked at them. Once you have a destination in mind and the courage to take a bus, find a bus stop. Good luck. The thing is some bus stops are labeled and some are just popular spots where people wait for buses. Bus drivers stop to pick people up when and where they feel like it, so if you know what bus to take, you can flag one down anywhere and they might let you on, but you are better off finding groups of people who are waiting for the bus and they are more likely to stop and you can ask where they are going. Once you are on the bus, find a seat, but don't sit in the back where all the sketch balls hang out. Also, try not to get on a bus that is too crowded... I have been sexually harassed by a guy who conveniently was pressing up against me because the bus was oh so crowded and then I finally turned around and realized that he was just doing it because he was a sick old man. If that happens start shouting at him and ask him if he has a problem. The key is embarrass him. (I didn't do that, but I would now) You also don't want to get on a bus that is totally empty. Ok, so there are people on the bus, but not too many people, you know more or less where you are going and you are on your way. Now, get ready to be entertained because this is where all the magic happens. 

Take a look around... the bus is in the far right lane and there are four lanes of traffic, but you all need to take a left. No problem! Just go ahead and take that left and cut off all the traffic. In Peru, you do whatever you feel like (and so does everyone else and that is why there are problems). Need a little music, just wait for some kids to come and play their tins cans for you and sing. Some of them are really good (and some not so much). You might get lucky and get on the discoteca bus where they are bumping all the club music or maybe the latest love ballada will be blasting in your ear.  Hungry? Dried corn, nuts, candy, and other random items are offered either on the bus or from people walking down the street. Just stick your hand out the window with a sol and you will get something delicious in return. If the vendors get on the bus and sell something, then they tip the cobrador. Need a little drama in your life? There are plenty of people that will get on and tell you the saddest story you have ever heard, but don't cry or you will have to fork over a couple of soles as well. When it is time to pay your fare, just guess at the amount to give them, because if you ask they will always charge you more and always pay with the exact amount because you will never get change. Sometimes they will give you a little receipt to prove that you paid, but sometimes not. Are you ready to get off yet? Ok, scream BAJA!! You can say, baja paradero (stop at busstop, if there is one) or just pick out a random inanimate object and say, baja chifa! (Chifas are Chinese/Peruvian resturants and they are all over Lima. I am not a huge fan but always eat at one because they are cheap and abundant).  Now, get off. 

Hope you enjoyed this lesson on transportation in Lima. More to come. 

A little background

In 2007-2008 I was working at Hewlett-Packard as a software sales rep and getting my MBA at night at CU Denver. Life was pretty good considering... I was making money, I didn't have to work overtime, I could take public transportation to work, I had a beautiful apartment in downtown Denver, I had fabulous friends surrounding me, but I couldn't seem to stay happy. I think that is a totally normal problem for the average human being... not being able to appreciate what you have and constantly finding reasons to dislike your life, but I was just bored and was not getting the challenge I was looking for. So I came up with a plan to travel around the world. I quit my job in Jan of 2008 and started on my adventure. 

My plans entailed Peru, Costa Rica, Japan, China, then a massive US road trip. My first stop was Lima, Peru. I had plans to go to Costa Rica for 3 months and since I was going on airline miles, I knew I could make a stopover for free (if you don't know about this little trick and you plan to travel internationally, you should know that you can make one stopover for free as long as it is within the same travel region). When I was planning my trip I did one of those close your eyes and point to the map type of things and thought that Peru sounded interesting and I should go there. 

I arrived in Lima and had a few days to kill before I went to Cusco. I loved Lima immediately. I welcomed the chaos and was lucky enough to stumble across upon all the most beautiful parts of Lima during my aimless walks in Miraflores and Barranco. I spent a little less than three weeks in Cusco. I was fascinated by the culture and the people. I took some Spanish classes that ended up being more like Peruvian culture classes. I then did the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and started to become even more enamored with the country. I stopped over in Lima on the way back and went out with a friend I made on my first stop in Lima to my now favorite bar (where apparently all my brilliant plans are formed) La Noche in Barranco. We started talking about my life goals of starting a business. I said that I really wanted to provide the world with beautiful things using my creativity and then we starting talking about what Peru had to offer. We started talking about the manufacturing industry in Lima and all the talented artisans and the free trade agreement. I had not considered moving to a foreign country to start a business before this night, but something about the combination of pisco sours and achieving dreams resonated with me that night.  I left the next day to go to Costa Rica and I just felt so happy. I felt this beam of energy coming out of me and these wild thoughts of getting up and moving were starting to sound less and less crazy. 

I arrived to San Jose late that night and then got on a bus early the next morning to go to the Guanacaste region.  I couldn't stop thinking. I kept looking at out the window and my feelings kept getting stronger and stronger and I decided that I was going to move to Peru. 

I continued my travels through Costa Rica, Japan, China, and then my amazing road trip with my fabulous friend Danielle (yes, the scarf is named after her http://www.emilimehandcrafted.com/Items/danielle.html).  I came back to Denver for a couple of weeks, did a triathalon, then moved to Peru on August 12th 2008. I already had a job and an apartment lined up for when I got there that I found on Craig's List. 

I ended up working at a travel agency for about 6 months. I worked so much and really didn't get much going with my business, but I did start to learn about the culture and how to survive in Lima. I was getting frustrated because it wasn't going anywhere and I couldn't really think of what I wanted to do for the business. Lima had tons of clothing manufacturers, but that wasn't what I wanted to do. I then was wearing my chullo (hat with flaps) one night and it dawned on me. Everyone commented on this hat all the time and I thought of all the knitters I had come across, plus all the amazing alpaca I had seen and Emilime was born. 

Here I am with the chullo with Danielle during on road trip. We are at Crater Lake in Oregon. 

I started a blog

I have been seriously considering starting a blog for awhile. I have lived in Lima, Peru for the last 14 months and started a business and everyday brings new adventures, experiences, mistakes, and random activities that I find entertaining and interesting. I hope to share things that I have learned along the way. 

Emilime is a handmade accessories line. Essentially I come up with designs, then travel around Peru to find the artisans that can best produce the product and then work with them so they can creatively use their knowledge of their craft to make the product as well. It is a total collaboration and that is what makes the product work. The collaboration of my knowledge of the market in the United States and my sense of style and their knowledge of actually making the product is a brilliant combination. I have built this business from scratch with scattered knowledge from my random jobs and my undergrad degree in Spanish and Business and my MBA. I have had to do lots of work and learn lots of things the hard way. Today my mind has been filled with ways I can market my business for free. I think the biggest strength of my business is that I am so personally connected with everything involved, but then after thinking about it for awhile I realized that the connection was not being related to the end user... the people who buy the products for the store, so I hope this blog will help give stories to all those people out there that buy the Emilime products to know how much love and energy goes into everything so they can truly appreciate what they have bought and are wearing.