August 9, 2009

Hi! Tomorrow is the first day of school. We can’t wait! It will be fun to get started, although I must admit, the extended vacation hasn’t been so bad. Our personal taxi-driver, Cristian, picks us up at 7:00 to take us to school. Last week, it only took about 13 to 15 minutes each day…not bad but with schools back in session, I think it may take a bit longer from now on. We met Cristian the first week when the school sent a car to pick us up. We liked him, were impressed with his clean and tidy Yaris, and asked him if he would take us to and from school each day. He seemed enthusiastic to have a “regular” run, and gave us a file with his resume and copies of all of his licenses the next day. Very together! So far, he has been great, even with the less than regular schedule we’ve kept so far. We were supposed to start school on Aug 3, but the Ministry of Education postponed the opening of all Peruvian schools as a precaution against any further swine flu issues, so his patience with our daily schedule changes has been fabulous.

The hard part of our commute so far is it’s been hard to guess what time to tell him to pick us up. We’ve picked times, but have found that we have to go when we aren’t totally ready to leave. We were going to tell Cristian this week that we would only need him in the morning, but he beat us to the punch. He got a job that he has been working on for three months as a driver for the government, so he will only be available in the morning from now on. He is really pleased that he got the job and it works out perfectly for us, too. I think they picked a good one!

Other transportation has been fine - we have been walking tons, and taking street taxis the rest of the time. Knock on wood, good luck so far. There are no meters in the taxis, so you have to negotiate a bit. Times like that, I wish we didn’t look like the gringos we are…easy for prices to become inflated quickly! We usually have to bargain for a cheaper fare since we’ve been told what local Peruvians pay. We have walked away from some who wouldn’t come down, and other times, drivers have driven away because they didn’t like our price or don’t want to drive as far away as we live - usually if there is a ton of traffic. I wish taxis were metered, but we are getting to practice Spanish as we negotiate and once we get in and head across town.

We discovered that we can take the Administration Bus home from school in the afternoon. This means we have to leave school by 4:40, but there’s no charge and we just have a quick 10-15 minute walk from our bus stop. Not bad! Not terribly different from having to be ready in time for Cristian, but it’s working out!

That’s it for our transportation update. Hope everyone is doing well and that we get internet at our apartment soon. Wishing either of us knew enough Spanish to call a hundred times every day to bug them.