Life in Lima

I think Michael enjoys life in Peru. I also guess he can’t remember life in England. There are always lots of friends and family around to play with him and often someone, me, Rocio, Aunty Sonia or Granny Noemi, to take him out somewhere with them. He happily goes off into the city on Granny Noemi’s back for instance if she is going to buy hat making supplies.
He also sees a lot of his cousin Kerly and they play very well together.






We had to do another of our dreaded trips to Lima recently. Everything in Peru is so centralised in Lima that we end up having to go there a lot for different legal stuff. This means an overnight bus trip, getting there around 6 in the morning and then spending all day hurrying from office to office, being messed about by the incredibly arrogant and confused staff. Going from one side of Lima to the other in taxis and often making no real advances on our jobs, then paying for a hotel so we can try again the next day. It is proving very hard for me to get my “Carnet de extranjeria” my foreigner’s card that gives me residency and the right to work. At every stage they invent a new problem for us to solve. Currently I am officially a tourist in Peru with a 90 day visa. Each 90 days I must renew my visa. By far the easiest way to do this is by leaving Peru, perhaps by going to Chile for one minute, and then returning to get a new 90 day visa on re-entering Peru. Last time Bob and I went via Lake Titicaca into Bolivia, spent a day in La Paz and returned to Peru, no problem. Except according to the computer records held in Lima there is a problem. I never left Peru! I did in fact return but I never left. It seems someone on the border didn’t enter my details in the computer system as I left Peru and even though my passport looks fine and has all the stamps their computer records must be mended before I can progress with my residency application. This will take a month or so and cost me money. Of course we can’t stay in Lima for a month so it involves another stupid waste of time and money returning to Lima later.

Well here is Michael looking a little sweaty after another night sleeping on the bus.