And Work Took Me Places…

15 July 2011 by Leave a Comment

A lot of my international travels have been part of or enabled by work.  Whether is being asked if in 24 hours I could leave for Helsinki to spend 3 weeks there in the middle of winter, or whether the miles accumulated by years of sometimes-weekly travel have allowed me to go out of the country for vacation, work has always been a key factor in my exploring.  I would say it is second only to my zest for travel and exploring!

As part of this reflection, I thought it would be cool to capture where all have I been to related to work whether for a one-day meeting to year+ assignments.  Here it goes!

GERMANY

In Germany, my discoveries were how great German food is (not just the ones I had known like wursts).  Also, my colleagues made it a point of making sure they were showing me places like beer halls and good restaurants and that hospitality -no offense intended- took me by surprise, especially when compared to other countries where I had expected a warmer culture.

Sulzbach/Bad Soden (outside of Frankfurt, Germany)

Dusseldorf (Germany)

Munich (Germany)

FRANCE

I have been to a good bit of France but for work these two sites were it.  In the Riviera, I enjoyed being by the beautiful waters of the Mediterranean and yet seeing the Alps at a distance, staying in Cannes or Nice, depending on the week and the mood!  Paris, well, what can I say.  An incredible city even if it was hard to develop social contacts due to the long hours at work and perhaps the language barrier (I spoke basic French then; medium after I left there and focused on learning the language).

Paris (France)

Sophia-Antipolis (France)

View from the terrace of the apartment building where I lived in Paris!

THE NETHERLANDS

Basically shuttling between client offices in both towns.  I was amazed at how small the country is and yet how exotic it felt to me.  Den Haag much more subdued than Amsterdam.  Amsterdam, just phenomenally interesting.  Getting to work with the Dutch allowed to see how their cultural traits are unique and how some of the stereotypes I had heard of showed up in work settings.

Den Haag (The Netherlands)

Amsterdam (The Netherlamnds)

OTHER EUROPE

The rest of the European work sites were of shorter durations than the ones above with the longest being 3 weeks.  But they all allowed me to explore each of the places and/or visit with friends who lived in those places.  Work definitely gave me a good opportunity to see more of Europe.  How else would I have spent 3 weeks in Helsinki had it not been for work?!

Geneva (Switzerland)

Oslo (Norway)

Vienna (Austria)

Helsinki (Finland)

London (UK)

Madrid (Spain)

View of Oslo Fjord

LATIN AMERICA

My experiences in Latin America have been phenomenal.  Perhaps the cultural affinity or the approach to life, especially in Brazil, but I have seldom been disappointed or failed to enjoy my stay.

Chile trumps all other places in L.A.  by sheer duration of my work experience there (over a year).  I had worked there many, many yrs before (check my other blog entries) and I got to see more of the country in that year.  What a beautiful country!

In Peru, I got to explore more off the beaten path locations by the nature of the work assignment.  I got to see many places the average tourist sees and many they would never get to.  And, I got to enjoy the food of Lima which is just outstanding!

Brazil offered me good food and great fun besides the work.  Spending weekends in Rio or going out for the nightlife of Sao Paulo, Brazil never disappointed.

Sao Paulo (Brazil)

Quito (Ecuador)

Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Santiago (Chile)

Lima (Peru)

Cuzco (Peru)

Puno (Peru)

Huaraz (Peru)

Panama City (Panama)

Mayaguez (PR)

Church in Barrio Bellavista, Santiago

AFRICA

Here I definitely got to see some diverse places from Muslim and Arab Egypt, to deep Africa in Tanzania, to cosmopolitan cities in South Africa (I visited Cape Town too but not for work).  I have enjoyed the unique experiences each offered whether it was visiting HIV/AIDS patients in the rural areas around Mwanza, to going for food in very local places in massive Cairo, to getting into the history of apartheid in Joburg.

Johannesburg (South Africa)

Cairo (Egypt)

Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Stone Town (Tanzania)

At the Apartheid Museum in Joburg

CANADA

I got to spend a LOT of time in Toronto and had a lot of fun with a great crew of Canadians whose key contribution to my skill sets was to have me start calling a puck “puck” and not “the thing”.  I also learned that I needed better pacing drinking Canadian beer as it was stronger than the American variety.  Finally, I learned how to curl (as in the game/sport).

Toronto (Canada)

Montreal (Canada)

What has been your most interesting and rewarding international work experience??

Filed Under: Random Thoughts..., Travel Stories Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Exploring the City and Region of Cusco (Cuzco)

11 September 2008 by 3 Comments

Cusco may be better known for being the launching point to Machu Picchu (MP) but the city and its same-name region hold a LOT more in store than just MP and the Inca trail – so make extra time in your schedule to explore!  I flew to Cusco, the older continually inhabited city in the continent, from Lima on a Saturday morning (read more about Lima on my earlier entry https://ilivetotravel.me/lima/).

Arrival in Cusco

Arriving in Cusco, which is around 11,200  ft (3,400 m) high, is an experience because of the very thin air.  Thankfully, it was clean which was a welcome change from Lima.  It was actually hot that morning under a beautiful blue sky.

Upon getting to the hotel, I was offered mate de coca (coca tea) which helps the body adjust to the altitude (though I wonder if it is more about one not feeling anything; I didn’t perceive any different sensation out of drinking the half-cup size portions). I also took my altitude sickness med for nausea, lightheadedness, etc. (I didn’t have the symptoms – it was a preventive measure). All day long I had the slightest of headaches. Other than that and shortness of breath when walking up flights of stairs, I was OK. However , you are recommended not to do anything for a couple of hours after you arrive.  Once I got to my hotel, I felt tired and actually slept about 1.5 hrs (deep sleep as I would have late that night too) until my Cuzco city tour was to pick me up later that afternoon.

Cusco is quite a picturesque and pleasant town.  I liked it a lot.  Its main square (“Plaza de Armas”; there is one in practically every Latin American town) has really beautiful architecture.

Architecture near the main plaza or square in Cusco (Cuzco), Peru

Building by the main square in Cusco

Church on the main square in the town of Cusco (Cuzco), gateway to Machu Picchu in Peru

Church in the main square

Local couple taking a stroll in the main plaza of Cusco (Cuzco), Peru

Local couple taking a stroll in the main plaza

There are sights to see within the town itself and around it.  The city tour showed me the key sites in an afternoon (the Corikancha which was the most important temple in the Inca empire in the city center; Sacsayhuamán, an Inca complex in the outskirts of the city; etc.). After the tour, I had time to stroll about as I pleased but I pleased to eat and go to bed…  BTW, in Cuzco, as in Lima, hotels had 110v outlets; I have had Blackberry access; there have been ATMs everywhere.  Traveling is so much easier these days than 20 years ago…  (Here is a quick link to a clip from the ruins of Sacsayhuamán, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and what makes the construction of it so impressive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH6HtFKz63E.)

Corikancha in central Cusco, the most important temple in the Inca empire

Sideview of the Corikancha in central Cusco

Getting to Machu Picchu

The trip to Machu Picchu (which was built around the year 1450) can be done in several ways.  One can certainly do it on one’s own.  There are a few things to coordinate and I didn’t feel like dealing with all that given the altitude “sickness” (slight as it was, you feel drained the first day) and the fact I was going solo and only had one day – I could not afford mistakes…  There are tons of tour companies that will coordinate logistics if you are not inclined to do it on your own.  Due to work constraints keeping my MP visit to one day, I went with an organized tour (the company, “Nuevo Mundo” went above and beyond for me).

Modes of travel include the Vistadome train (roof is partly glass so you can see more and not feel enclosed) which takes 4 hrs.  My train left at 6 AM with my pickup at 520 AM.  There were later trains but I needed to go as early as possible.  Waking up around 445 AM wasn’t an issue as I crashed at 9 PM the night before out of sheer exhaustion…  Another way of getting there is hiring a helicopter and getting there way faster – for a price.  Finally, one can spend a few days hiking the Inca trail that the Incas used to take to get to MP in its heyday.  Secondary trails are being developed and I am sure they would be better than the more popular one…

I had met some interesting folks on the city tour and ran into them again on the trip/tour to/of MP; they were neat people to hang out with and it made the tour a little more enjoyable.

At Machu Picchu…

(I realize tons has been written about MP. so I won’t try to re-write the great American novel…)  Visiting the ruins wore me and others out. There are steps to be walked up and down and, though MP is lower in altitude than Cusco, it is still about 8000 ft (2,430 m) high. I strongly recommend that if you want to see it, see it sooner rather than later!  However, you can see it at any age, you will just have to go slower or perhaps arrive 2 days ahead to better acclimate.  There was a man who, I estímate, was around 80 yrs old (and who didn’t look younger than his age) and he was doing it!

One recommendation I was given but could not do was to stay in the town at the base (Aguas Calientes) so you can go back up to see sunrise (if it isn’t foggy which I heard it was that day) and to hike up to the famous mountain you see on the shots you see of MP (which is NOT Machu Picchu; when you see the famous pictures of MP, you are standing on the mountain called MP; this other iconic mountain is called Huayna Picchu). The picture below does not show that there are fairly decent looking hotels in town!

Town of Aguas Calientes in Peru, gateway to Machu Picchu

Street in Aguas Calientes

Me? I hope to come back and go up that mountain and then see the rest of the Sacred Valley which probably can use a few days to explore.  I have heard a good place to stay is the town of Ollantaytambo; people seem to like it a lot (I just drove through it on the way back to Cusco).

The standard and obligatory picture of MP!

My impression of MP? Tourist trap? Amusement park? Overrated? Most absolutely not.  It is as impressive and magnificent as people say it is and it exceeded even what I envisioned encountering. It is a powerful place due to the history, the architecture/engineering feats, and one of the most beautiful natural settings on earth.

Some structures in Machu Picchu are tilting and in danger of collapse - Peru

They are called ruins for a reason!

Terraces in Machu Picchu, Peru

Terraces in Machu Picchu

At the end, we visited the market and I had a slightly different experience. While you have to haggle, two things they didn’t do:

  • Be pushy or be “cat calling” you to come to their stall; when they did it was very soft and they only did it once
  • They didn’t run after you when you walked away to sell whatever object you had tried to haggle on; they left you alone and/or they had a price point after which, they were just not interested. I kind of liked seeing that as they seemed proud of their goods and didn’t seem to feel they had to make a sale if they didn’t get what they wanted.

Visits to Economic Development Projects

I visited some development projects my organization had worked on. It was neat to see, as I saw in Tanzania, how my organization makes a difference. My first week in Lima I heard everything about our approach in Peru and was impressed at how progressive they were in advocating the governments at various levels to take on their responsibility, and in building the government’s capacity to do so. The scale of poverty in Peru, while it can be extreme, takes place in a country with more human capacity and better infrastructure than sub-Saharan Africa.

Kiwicha field near Mollepata, in the Cusco region of Peru

Kiwicha field near Mollepata

The organization was working to help mountain communities diversify their economic activities so not all are farmers or so those that are farmers don’t all plant the same thing (which depresses crops’ prices).  Also, they receive help to find products that aren’t commodity (say, in the textile industry) so they can reach and be successful in international markets, since China and India can produce things cheaper than countries like Peru. They can differentiate their products from the mass scale production that takes place in Asia by producing better designsor distinctive (not mass-produced) products, by developing organic produce or things that can address more discerning developed world consumers (think premium coffees vs. Maxwell House – no offense to any M H drinkers!). Anyway, the economic activities I saw were:

  • an artichoke farm (new product being grown in the region and sought after by the U.S. and European marketings), growing proven varieties and continuing to experiment with new ones
  • high quality and design textile workshops where the women can work from their homes to produce for the larger entity they belong to and be able to pick up kids from school and take care of them (vs. being at a factory for the entire day) with minimal disruption to their work activity
  • jewelry artisan workshops producing (or trying to) for the international market.
Jewelry artisan in Cusco (Cuzco), Peru

Jeweler-maker apprentice

Textile worker in Cusco (Cuzco), Peru

Textile apprentice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artichoke farmer in Urcos, in the Cusco (Cuzco) region of Peru

Artichoke farmer in Urcos, in the Cusco region

Filed Under: Peru, South America Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lima – Impressions of an Old and Large Imperial Capital

8 September 2008 by 2 Comments

NOTE:  This is the first of a series of posts that relate my experiences during a 5-week trip to Perú earlier in 2008. 

Arrival in Lima

I arrived in Lima in a direct flight from Atlanta.  The airport in Lima is very modern but the lines were long, especially landing at midnight US time. The taxi ride took about 30 minutes and I finally went to bed around 1AM.

The hotel, as many hotels around here, is a standalone operation. The building itself looks like from the 1970s. You would be amazed at how little concern for safety there is in the design, something probably that would not pass muster in many places… I can open the window (which is over 6 ft wide) almost to the full extent but the worrying thing is that the wall below the window is about 2.5 feet tall. Yikes! All you have to do is trip on some shoe left around and, sayonara room and hello gravity!

Low wall on the window of my hotel room

Said low wall on the window looking out from my 11th story room

View from my hotel room

View from my hotel room

Hard City to Move Around

The first work day started with the car that was supposed to pick me up not showing up. It was to be an omen for later in the day when waiting for a taxi to take me back to the hotel took 2 full hours by the clock!  This all was a good reminder to not expect things to be like they are at home – always a good reminder.

I was advised against renting a car due to all the construction going on re-paving streets. I was told the government decided belatedly to tear them up and re-do them ahead of an upcoming international summit – but they were doing most of the work concurrently making driving even more chaotic in this labyrinthine town. However, I also suspect that even with perfectly paved roads, the city road layout was confusing enough that I would not want to drive on them!

Street on the outskirt of Lima, Peru on the way to the highway to Huaraz

Street on the outskirt of Lima

The Parts of Town Where I Operated

The area where I stayed was called Miraflores. It is a very nice residential area. Not an area of mansions per se but lots of high rises, nice streets, etc. The hotel, as most places around here, does not have A/C or heating. It seems the weather is fairly mild for the most part. With the windows open, the climate in the room is quite nice but you get the traffic noise. After a night, you are used to it so it isn’t as bad as it may seem (plus I always have earplugs handy!).

A street corner in an older part of Lima

Work is in another district called Jesús María (“Jesus Mary”, kind of odd-sounding even for a Catholic like me…) with a lot of old houses that have, for the most part, been converted to offices but which retain a lot of architectural charm.

Building in Lima, Peru near the Jesus Maria area

Old style building near work

Near work is an old ministry building (about 10 or 12 stories high and monstrously large) which has a very large crack running through the outside of the building caused by the recent earthquake in Pisco – the building has been condemned, thankfully, but the building sits there as a reminder of the risks Lima runs as a large city in an earthquake-active zone…

My First Lunches – A Great Sign of What to Expect in Lima!

On my first day, lunch was at an early 130PM… I was starving! There was nothing around work so a colleague drove me to a restaurant where I committed 3 cardinal sins in the span of 3 minutes. The restaurant was very nice and my colleague told me not to worry… My 3 sins were:

  • eating sauces that were cream or milk based (milk here is not always pasteurized)
  • eating raw fish (ceviche)
  • drinking a lemonade that I didn’t see prepared with bottled water.

If there was a good time to teach me a lesson this should have been it… 36 hours later, I was still good – whew!! Of course, a good restaurant would not be a problem but I was still a little out of sorts to remember that with it being my first day in a new country with little sleep, and in a new work situation…

Another day for lunch we went to a home-style place that had a nice and complete lunch for 8 soles (about $3). It was delicious (chicken soup was the appetizer and it isn’t the run-of-the-mill chicken soup!). With prices like these, I knew I was going to eat like a king!

A Lunch I Will Never Forget

I tried the traditional mountain / Inca delicacy at lunch one day: guinea pig. It took a bit for me to accept the idea I was to take a bite of it but a coworker invited me to her restaurant, her treat, and I could not refuse the hospitality. I made sure I drove a deep work conversation during the lunch so I would not think of what I was eating.

Yes, folks, it tastes “like” chicken though it has less meat on it (some say rabbit but I disagree, though it has been 25 yrs since I had rabbitt…). I was lucky enough (God takes care of me) to mention to my colleague that I didn’t want to see a picture of one before eating it. Boy, was I glad I said that flippantly! When ordering, my colleague was kind enough to specify to the waitress to bring it without the head on mine and on hers. Can you imagine if that had shown up with a head??!! I would have likely gagged.

A Couple of Interesting Areas of the City

  • The area of Barranco is a beautiful, seaside part of town. It is just a few minutes from Larcomar, the mall hanging off the cliff by the Pacific Ocean, and offers quite a few options for dining and shopping.

 

Barranco

  • I visited the Lima city center at night. It was VERY impressive. Colonial architecture on a grand scale which makes sense since Lima was in effect the capital of South America (more or less) during the colonial times due to the riches of Perú. It was very well policed, lively, and I felt safe.
  • My hotel was in Miraflores, on Ave. Larco which ends at the JW Marriott and across from it, Larcomar, a shopping center with lots of restaurants overlooking the Pacific Ocean from its perch on what seems to be a cliffside.  Cool place to go.
  • Miraflores has a park, further inland than my hotel, on Ave. Larco that is very charming with a plaza and neat architecture around.  There is also a GREAT and big place to buy arts & crafts from Peru nearby (Mercado Artesanal, close to Narciso de la Colina).  Finally, lots of shoe shiners who, for like 40 cents, will do a great job shining your shoes!
Miraflores Church on Ave. Larco in the Parque Central de Miraflores

Miraflores Church in the Parque Central de Miraflores

Building on the Parque Central de Miraflores in Lima, Peru

Building on the Parque Central

Getting a shoe shine in the Parque Central de Miraflores, Lima, Peru

The after (left) and before (right) of the well-priced shoe shine!

On the Road Again

I found out on the first day I was not to be based in Lima as I had understood before the trip. In fact the first week was the only full week I was to spend in Lima. The flipside was that I was going to get to see the country!

That first weekend I was to leave for Cusco, the base for going to Machu Picchu, to spend 3 days visiting projects and, over the weekend, go to MP (as a tourist). Originally I was planning to see MP at the end of the trip but since the local office had decided I should go to Puno (which is higher than Cusco), it made good sense to go to Cusco before Puno to acclimatize first to Cusco which would then make acclimatizing to Puno a tad easier.  I liked the plan because Puno is up at 12,421 ft (3,860 m)!

– Read about my Puno visit here and here.
– Read about my Cusco visit here.

Some Random Observations and Musings about Lima

  • I got to try a Peruvian Malbec wine while in Lima.  I haven’t had wine so sweet without it being supposed to be sweet! Clearly sugar was added to the wine by the “winemaker”  to cover its poor quality… I couldn’t finish it. Of course it cost only $4 – you get what you pay for. I was just hoping that good, basic local wines would exist. I switched to water…
  • The city streets are kept very clean of trash and all streets have street signs with their name (not something I have seen consistently outside of US/Canada/Europe)
  • Though the city is very polluted, it is not as bad as, say, Beijing.
  • They have this dish called tacu tacu which consists of smashed beans and rice served with beef or seafood. I tried it with seafood. Though I don’t eat calamari and other seafood items, I ate it ALL, except the octopus. The sauce was superb.
  • They always serve a plate full of corn kernels to snack on while you wait for appetizers or food. It is a different type of corn than regular corn (it is larger and whiter) and they toast them and put some salt on it. It is quite nice.
  • Oh, and did I mention I worked close to Chewbacca from Star Wars? It took me a few days to realize the Chewbacca noise I heard every 15 mins or so was a creaking door around the corner from where I sat…
  • Finally, Peruvians are super nice!  I would love to see more of this beautiful country and its great and proud people.

These are my impressions and experiences in the bustling, large, and noisy city that is Lima, Perú.  What have been yours??


Filed Under: Peru, South America Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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