Lima... 2. Day

Hello and here we are again, after a night in my Hotel there was a breakfast I really liked but to soon comes one of the waiter to give me a paper with questions about the breakfast... well I do answer those question always, but I had just began to eat... that did not delight my day much, but otherwise... The walk through San Isidro and Miraflores could start.... Both are part of the same District, and it's really a good place where my hotel stands, right to me there is the old olive grove and behind a shopping street. The Olive grove is very long and is in San Isidro. Since 1959 this park is under conservation. Antonio de Rivera, a former mayor of Lima invited the olive 1560. It is said that just three of the many plants he put on this place survived. 1730 there was already 2000 olive trees on this place... Today it is said, there are about 1500 trees and many of them are hundreds of years old. Of course there are a lot of birds to find and it's a famous place for weeding pictures, and a park to take a walk in fresh air and it's a quiet place.

Well my walk was just like my feet took me. I did not plan anything and just wanted to see as much as I could from the live of people in Lima and the architecture, to see the people who work and to smell the air- well it stinks... smog.. big big smog...
So I was talkin' to strangers, like a security man who really was nice and to woman in stores like we have here to.. Those little stores/ shops, where you can find everything you need.. o.k. next to everything. After seeing the part with poor living... here in Miraflores is really the better part and the more successfully living. And guess what... remember what I wrote about the flight to here, when I saw down to the earth? Sweden...yes.. while I was walkin' between the shopping street and the olive grove I suddenly stood in front of the swedish consulate- general! Is this a sign? Far far away and here I stood next to my second home... Jesus!

Guanahani street

But if you think you could shop much in the morning...No no no... they start very late, like it used to be on southern countries... the same in Spain, Italy or ..just name it... shopping is better after siesta... also, after three or four o' clock. So I went up and down the streets, was in the church of Santa Maria, which closed exact 12.00 o'clock, like they do here everywhere..so attention dear Tourist... wanna see a church from the inside, go inside before it is 12:00 and lunch time!

You know, away from it's traditional background, people here are catholic. So Maria and Jesus have a big part in the live here, but the Pope in Rome is not so important... the people here listen more to bishops of Peru. The pic by the way shows the view from the top of my hotel and the church St. Maria.

On the top of the hotel we had also a swimming Pool but because the weather and the environment I decided not to go in... No idea to swim.
As a blond haired man, it is absolutely clear that no one things I am from Peru, but sometimes they think I am from USA or England... but maybe because I smile next to all the time, people on the street used to greet me, say hello...
The peruvian are mostly not very tall... So it's obviously that I am a tourist. An other thing you see is, the better job they have the bigger they grow and the more they seem to take care of hair and teeth and modern clothes. Otherwise they wear the traditional cloths and do any kind of work, from selling food to newspapers, to fruits on little cars, selling self made things you can wear or eat.
Lookin' at the cars who makes the air really unfresh... you see all, from new, to old, very old, Mercedes, VW, Volvo and also beetle, the old once... Cars you cannot really drive, but they do... You wonder how... But when you want to drive a taxi... their are so many... official they have three different classes. The cheap in which you will not really like to drive as a tourist, cos these cars are falling apart, then the middle class, which is the one you should take- but be sure to call them fro a hotel or airport- because there're a lot of illegal taxis- and then we have the luxury version... expensive, with leather and air condition... Aren't they no busses? Oh yes there are but oh so small, fast and different to catch, old and new and I did not get it how to pay, only that they stop everywhere if needed... full of people are they, that is not to oversee.... Jumping in and out of those busses... Well this is my first time, I decided not to try.. next time maybe with a little Spain in my luggage. Yes spanish lesson is a very big advantage! Learn it before you come here! Your guide may speak german or english, but the most will not be that good and if you want to take some steps of your own.. you better speak spanish.
But one thing I must absolutely confess.... after all this writing of dirt... the streets are very clean... it's so clean! Everywhere you are... no matter rich, middle class or poor area...part of the town.. it's clean. That is a good thing in a town which has about 8,5 mill to 10 mill. people living inside...No one really knows the true number, but it never felt to big for me...

view on my hotel from the side... 

view from the top of my hotel on the olive grove and behind

And after I took a break at lunchtime I took a walk to... the Pacific Ocean... How could a man not want to walk to the beach! I went to west and past churches, parks, houses and a lot of little stores to finally see water, surfer, waves, to smell the salty air and feel the wind breeze...

church on the Av. Santa Cruz

Park Blume

So I went about an half hour from my hotel to come to see green and blue.. and my favorite flower growing on the cliffs next to the beach... and then of course I had to take the stairs down- which do not have nowhere an banister, which makes it a bit of an adventure, but maybe just for us in old Europe. ;-)
I was so happy that when I went down the stairs and saw the beach... I had to laugh... not because I was soooo happy, it was because some kids did some things... like kids sometimes do... cld be teenager too who've done this but to see a big penis down there was like: " Don't take it too seriously!"

morning star- my favorite flower

Highway and tsunami escape routes

..... and here it comes.... the big fella ;-)

What now then? Sitting on the stones and saying hello to Japan?!
Well, like this exactly and a walk on the beach and then back up the stairs into the town, to the hotel...
Walkin' along the shopping street Av. Conquistadores, but did not buy anything, just little food and water and tea on a little shop for everything... On the beach they have made big walking areas and also with irrigation, they planed flowers, grass and trees... cos like I said before.. it nearly never really rains so it is enough for the flowers, plants and trees... just raindrops... and a lot of fog... 

keeping or makin' a wave?

flowerbeds are made like the pics of Nazca

Back in the hotel I had Indiana Jones in Mexico.... accident? No! But nice...smile...:-)
The room service is very nice here, because she disturbed me at lunchtime, she came back and gave me a chocolate. To be true, I had no problem with getting disturbed. She just wanted to do her job... And what I never had before, there is a bell on the door from my room.. this is really luxury.. or? But I had to pack my things myself. 
Oh and for all the smokers in the world... smokin' is forbidden in the hotels... The law number 28705 says that every hotel had to be smoke free. So if you smoke inside then you gotta pay a minimum of 200,- Dollars to the hotel extra, so they can rearrange the room to non smokin'.
Otherwise... I did not see much people smokin' at all and in the stores I even did not see much cigarettes. 
At least, I dedicate this blog to my friends in Sweden.. I may be far away, but I think of you... Love.. 

LOVE & LIGHT

Holiday.. Germany - Peru

I leave my last wotkin' day in the morning, while the sun is going up. I got my coffee and a bagel on the way home. Not much time to stay home cos I had to run to the office to get some of my copies certificated... Copies of my passport and so... just in case to have something with me, if the original will be stolen or lost... who knows... a journey is an adventure... everything can happen, god and bad.
On the office they actually write on the copies that they are not for official use, no document of evidence... proof.. but that's what they are for... how stupid is this bureaucracy. Well just 10,- euros for getting a sign and a stamp on the paper. I guess I have to be grateful that it did not cost more then this. But then, after all is said and done.. I still had the sun... really a summer day alike. So time for shopping new shoes for the journey, which can get dirty... wet.. and are good to climb a stair, a hill, a tree.. whatever... and of course... and multiadapter, cos nowhere is really to read if you need one and which one... I mean I have to upload my mobile from time to time... it's modern times... And so I can surly travel with this multi thing in many countries now... gotta do it, that's for sure..:-)
What do I need more... a bug spray... they say there are Mosquitos... in the jungle.
Then it was time to do all things.. you know like clothes and toothbrush into the luggage. Was not that much at the end.. I do not travel with a lot... us not to do this.. sometimes they wonder if this is really all- at the airport...

So the afternoon and night was quite right to make a walk into town, with a friend, who should keep an eye on my flowers and post.... So we went to the middle, the centre, if we can call it like this in Berlin, cos to be true, there is no real centre, but  some kid of a middle and in this middle there is the museum island.. with and little garden in front of one of those museums, which are old, beauty and always word a visit. Hundreds of birds- starlings... who fly in the sky, first just a view, then more and more and in little groups... no idea where they come from, but they fly in circles, fly up and down and then it became spectacular... before sunset they started to fly to the chestnuts trees. We have around  a half dozen standing their. So those birds came in, landing on the branches and oh my... they came more, and then some and then more, and then some.. more and more like it never could end, like the trees would get bigger.... Over my head they came arriving, landing into the crowns of the trees, never to have a problem to fid some space to sit down, but kid, they twitter, as loud they could, and the more they get they louder they became.... I mean, their was a man, sitting next to us, telling us that this is a colony about 25.000 birds... seems pretty much, but after sitting their an half hour I absolutely believe this is possible, cos they where still coming in, in little or big groups... like troops ... I just could shake my head... unbelievable and fascinating.... but it became darker, so we went on to see another little project in town, not far away... where once a castle stood, their is now some kind of lawn, park and because Berlin is getting 775 years old, people made some history visible, in the way... mmh they made a Berlin card, a plan of the town on the crown with big let's call them Lollipops, where you can stand under and read some stories... well of course a lot will be missing, but then, the most seems to had happen in the middle of the town...  

So after a long long night, after the first holiday day... I did not really sleep, but was white a wake to start the fly... and yet, right when the sun rises , the aircraft started. Of course in Berlin things sometimes don't go the way it was planed... I mean the tram was not coming like they wrote on the internet, the airport should have been history now, but yes, I sat there in the morning with a far to expensive Cola, sitting on a bank and watching the people go by... Tegel will last a while... guess it can be 2- or 3 years more, no matter what they say now...  But watching the people makes you see, that the world has come to be more, well when you look at the shoes and most peoples clothes... they became more like everyone else... I mean the style has become very similar. A lot of mixing styles actually and a lot of sandals, as if it could not be cold in the aircraft. But also 3 or 4 bottle collectors are on the way and it seems everyone from the stuff knows them.. they talked to them once in a while. And then watching the stuff, doing the daily work, like cleaning the windows, open the coffee bar, writing on the computers, talking to strangers... makes me wonder, why we have so different wage... A Bus driver has to do a hard work, like the window cleaner or the captain... who did it became so crazy and different and difficult? Well... something to discuss later... now it's time for holiday.. the fly to an foreign country, via Madrid... in Spain...
Fro high above Spain seems to me like the moon, so white and then so read and yellow the earth... with hills, lookin' like crater... The airport is absolutely different to the one in Barcelona, which I know quite well. But so I miss my green Sweden just the moment we landed... Well it's not an dead area... their are grass and a big rabbit went o to seek food, like it seemed to me.
The airport may be very big, but I must confess..is very structured... Just you need some time to come from the national part to the international part....

national part Airport Madrid

looking to the international part Airport Madrid

tower of the international part of the Airport in Madrid

The Fly self, the journey was not very interesting. The guy sitting next to me- I had an window place, like always- was a man from Peru, but he barely spoke english or german at all and the smelled a bit... could have been worse, but was not much of a talkin' friend.... The food was o.k. the cake was horrible bad, but seems everyone eat it, just as it would be the last meal they will ever have... crazy world we live in.... ! But it was vegetarian we could get too- so I will not say much more.... to this...

While flying over the rainforest, the jungle, I remembered what a friend home pleased me to do.. bring some leaves with you back to Germany, dead leaves of course, we want no one in danger or getting arrested... Lookin' down out of my window, the river are really going like a snake moves... but because we had some clouds who made it hard to see all, I just got a little peace of the big green down there on earth to see...
And then finally after 12 hours of being in the air, I touched the ground again in Lima... 
Peru, here I am! 
The airport is in the north of the town, next to the port for all the big ships from all over the world. The temp. is mild, and before I can leave the airport, we all have to fill out the immigration notes.. Home in Germany, they all should sleep.. Six hours back now for me to the time from home... But oh my, so many, so big luggages... I had to wait and wait and wait... and wait... but in the end, i got my own luggage back into my hands and outside is my guide waiting to pic me up and drive me to the hotel. She is actually very nice, speaks very good german and learned on a school of switzerland. Well lucky me. It is always kind o luck with your guides. She actually knew about Tegel and was asking me about it... The way to my hotel in the district Miraflores takes about 45 minutes. We talk about eating, children, economical and biological food... what we can do and are doing now... That it next to never really rains in Lima, well it rains, but this is not really wetting the ground, so the flowers and trees have to be irrigate. Just now it is the last winter days time.. spring has arrived and the summer is to start soon.  No idea to swim in the ocean, but if you are a surfer, you'll have fun... that's for sure. 
Much like in Berlin, you'll find a lot of construction areas... feels like home already, but yes, when you come from the airport you also see, that Lima has a lot of poor people.. you don't see the slums, like they used to write in the traveler books, but you see, they are not rich and yes, from the 8 to 10 million people here- nobody knows exactly how much population Lima has...- half of them are poor and Peru has 30% unemployment. The democracy may be here to, since a long long time, but because of corruption and terror, their is less money around here. 
The most buildings are little, just two or three floors high... mostly not done... unfinished... But on the other side, it remains me much of Israel, Spain and Fuerteventura... it seems their is a kind of typical houses in warm and not so rich countries...
El Olivar.. is the name of my Hotel, in Miraflores.... a three star plus hotel.. and I can only recommend it... Next the hotel is an old Olive grove. 
My guide said that the peru people have completed with the colonial time. It's past and they where not the only victims... well, except in Cusco it is said, that the people are still a bit more traditional thinking... and more proud of the time before the colonial time, before the spanish and portuguese came. 
But back to Miraflores.. it is one of the better districts and here are the middle class of Lima and the lower upper class people living. A lot of little stores, but better once. A lot of coffees and restaurants. And a lot of security... And Attention: have always some Dollars with you for tip... most people need them to get the wage better, but when you eat somewhere in an restaurant 10% is what you should put on the table, or more if you want.... not 25 to 29% - that's what you can read in the travelers books... otherwise, one or two Dollars as a tip is always right, and smile.... !

So... the night has started and the TV News are on...I'm in my room and feel really good. Enjoying a warm bad and then yes, it's the 1. September.. so the News are all about the 11. September in New York. All TV channels? No... we have a traditional soccer game going on... So I went down to the bar and their they are... the guest, the stuff, all together watching in fever the game Peru against Argentina... It's actually a long time ago I had time to watch a soccer game at full length.  It's a real good play and some fouls, which where not so nice... at the end 1:1 it stood... but I had the feeling of ..now I can go to sleep and dream sweet. :-)
Oh .... you should absolutely bye some water bottles... you can drink the water in the hotel, but it tastes bad... you won't have another sip of it.... 


LOVE & LIGHT

grilled chicken

Remember when it was so hot in summer?
Was not everywhere all the time so hot I know but then... just imagine a hot summer day, where most of us are not able to do anything.. I mean when it's so hot, you better stay home, wants to be just in the shadow, when you need some fresh air, ice cream and feel lazy all day long, when you sweat whatever you do and when you sweat too, when you do nothing at all...Imagine how you feel... 
Did you ever thing how an animal feels then? Your cat, your dog? Yes laying and doing next to nothing.. you can really see how weak they are, how much it takes them to do something.. even eating is just a lot of work for them... right...
And now think about the animals you eat!
Where are they before you have them on your table? Right- in a stable, maybe in a barn... but most have their homes in a sticky and unloveable -yes let's call it what it is most for them.. a container.
Do they have air condition? Mostly not. Can they get out, when it's getting boiling hot inside... Mostly not - well if you just have a small stable, then mostly these animals are lucky to go out and a cow and a horse is mostly also able to come out but a chicken? Most chicken stay inside in the battery hens. Not able to move much... chicken need to have space, yet room to spread their wings, because this is the way they can cool down the body temperature. But you know- we know -most of them have next to little space to do that, so they open their beak and pant like a dog. But that is absolutely not enough. Because this way their circulation is only able to be stable a few hours.
Oh yes the farmers have something on the ceiling, which can distribute water over the chicken.. Well problem is, this system can only cool down a bit and the hotter it get's outside, the less it helps and the air gets to wet too. And that's why every summer, thousands of chicken, turkeys and ducks die a heat death. Well, I was never thinkin' about that before I read about this in a newspaper. 
So the questions came up once again.. how many rights do the animals have? How much are they worth for us... Seems like nothing.. 
Why do they not let them out? God point, the thing is... it seems to much work and it also seems cheaper to keep them inside and let them die then to lose them by letting them out. So no wonder that their is for example a mass extinction in Austria or Germany or USA when trying to get a little fresh air, because the animals kill each other, because they crush one another just to get little fresh air which comes through under a little door column. 
The journalist who wrote an article about this was asking the veterinary department and the ministry about the numbers of dead chicken and co in summer.. they all had just a guessing... and the numbers they gave where just so little or they just said.. "Oh just a few..." but what are a few, when 4000 till 12 000 chicken dies in one hot summer day????
Why are they no numbers? Because the farmers must not tell the ministry how much they lose and only the companies transporting the dead animals give out numbers when they're high.. but the thing is, they usually don't do ...it's custom and of course business and money. 
So it seems inside comes no fresh air and outside comes no information. And yes the numbers could spoil the appetite. 
So, still wanna eat chicken?

LOVE & LIGHT

Terror of a mobile...

To be true it's the terror of many... owners and their very own mobile... or better the newest one...

Well I like to have my own too, it's a very nice little thing you can call and write with and make some pictures...it's absolute something I think which can make your live easier but then... It's everywhere.. seems everyone has one... also the children... why do have 5 year old children a mobile?

 My nephew, when he was not even two years old, he knew how to scroll, how to touch, how to put a mobile on and off, how to find the pics and how to make pics with an iphone. 

And then everywhere I am, no matter is it in a tram, on the street, in an restaurant, in the cinema, in the closet, waiting room... just name it... there is someone with a mobile, talkin' or playin'...

Even at work the stuff is using these things. And I wonder, can't we really, can't we live without them anymore???? Seems like these things became a part of our body and we wonder how and when the computer will tell us how to live? I mean we are so afraid of computers being out of control, having there own "mind" and thinking, that they learn.... and then we could be victims of them... Well, we already are... the computers already learn and think, it's just a simple way they do, but they already do and no one is afraid and even aware of that.. seems like that... 

I mean why in gods name do we have to write an SMS in our workin' time? Why do we write them when we talk to each other, no matter if it's part of the work or in an restaurant? Why is this thing more important then the work you do or the people on the other side of the table? Why can't so many leave their very own mobile home the time they work? Mankind had always survived without these, so why do you thing you could not anymore????

And then, why must it always be the news model? I mean look at the pic down, millions of old cell phones are landing somewhere. We have more of them already as garbage as people living on earth.

Seems the industry has made us very stupid just to follow them and do what they say.... oh we're such slaves... must be bit stupid... blind and lazy... 

Oh I am sure you have a lot of reasons why you have to do what they say and act like a fool. You really have enough to defend yourself but let's be honest... and true... no one needs them... simple -and all the things you can do with them.. well the most you don't need and oh those apps... do we really need them... ? Most of them absolutely not! I mean... why must everyone know where you are? Why do you need a weather app? 

Test have shown, that the most are not even sure to keep you save when you walk around... you know, all the numbers you have inside them, all the massages you have not delated, all the secret codes you use... most apps don't protect them sufficient. 

Well, these are just some though I have,, especially when I drive to work or when I see some of my stuff... or when I am on FB... 

I for myself have not the news model and mostly my mobile stays home. I only have it with me, when I wanna meet someone after work. Well my live is functional and I never really miss my mobile the most time and instead of playing on it and waste energy I read. 

LOVE & LIGHT

Diane Arbus

Just now there is an exhibition in Berlin in the Martin Gropius Building...
They Show pictures of the very great talented women Diane Arbus. 
It's an exhibition I can warmly recommend. 
Most of them are portraits, but the she shows a lot more too, like pics of poor people, children with down syndrome, or she shows rich people and a lot of outsiders from the 60's and 70's...  Just as people and politic was and still is and the shadows she brings into light. She shows beauty, where you never thought it could be. You can watch old ladies smoking and talking and they show so much power... She shows that even Disneyland can be beauty without being kitsch.  But above all this she shows that there is humor, where you never expected it to be and that naked people can look natural and beauty without being a model. I must confess that she has a lot of very god pics and rare is it that I enjoyed an exhibition of just black and white photos so much. 
If you are able to visit the Martin Gropius Building in Berlin, do it now.. till the 24. September is time to enjoy this wonderful exhibition.

Diane Arbus
A widow in a bedroom, N.Y.C., 1963
silver gelatin print, 20 x 16 inches,

LOVE & LIGHT