Love & Light and everything bright...

26 Jun 2010

 Updated Feb 4, 2010

Back in Peru for Annual Pilgrimage...

...this time, with Elizabeth

FROM LIMA, PERU

 

(click on thumbnail images to enlarge)

Exploring Lima on Our Own

Laptop R.I.P.

FROM LIMA, PERU, Jan 22 - This morning, my laptop seemed to give up a ghost.  I tried everything I knew in an effort to resuscitate it to no avail.  So I sent out this SOS from a hotel computer:

FROM LIMA, PERU 

Hello everybody.  This is just a short note to let you know that my laptop died unceremoniously this morning.  I have not given it the last rights as yet, pending an effort by a local tech who is attempting to repair it.  

Meanwhile, I am sending you this message from a public internet cafe and my gmail.com account to let you know not to expect `business as usual` communications from me until I get back home.  Unless, of course, I find someone here in Lima who can fix my sick puppy.

I will try to check my webmail at least once a day for any important messages.  But even that may not be possible when we get to the Sacred Valley of the Incas and Holy Mountains, where we are heading tomorrow. 

So if there is something really urgent that you need to contact me about, please CALL my cell phone +1-602-703-2111. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Bob Dj.

After that, Elizabeth and I took the laptop to a "computer doctor" we spotted yesterday.  It was within a walking distance from our hotel.  The tech rep sounded knowledgeable about Toshiba laptop.  He promised us a diagnosis within an hour.  Which later turned into a six hour-surgery.  We used the time to do some more sightseeing around Lima.

Huaca Pucllana

During our yesterday's tour of Lima (see A  Tour of Lima, Jan 21), we were intrigued by Huaca Pucllana, a 2,400-year old settlement near the San Isidro district of Lime.  Yesterday's tour guide only pointed to it, but did not dwell on it.  So we took a taxi to it and decided to explore it on our own.

Our tour guide

Large square

Watch carefully for diagonal brick lines as earthquake protection

Site still being escavated

Our guide

On top

Llamas and alpacas

Alpacas are smaller

Mock prehistoric figures

Ancient and modern Peruvians

Ancient residents of Pucllana

In the museum

Water Show in a Lima Park

Another thing we learned during our yesterday's tour of Lima was that there was a new water park with an evening light show that seemed worth checking out.  So we headed out that way this evening by cab.  It was a lovely evening and the show was certainly worth visiting.  Check it out...

On our way back, we learned from the taxi driver the reason some cabs have their license plate number painted on the car.  These are apparently legitimate cabbies.  There are apparently lots of fly-by-night taxi operators in Lima, a city of 8 million, who are not above robbing their passengers, especially single women.  One female Peruvian friend told us later on that she always makes a mock call to her Mom on the cell phone before entering a taxi, giving "her Mom" the cab driver's number.  That's when shady drivers take off, seeing she would not be an easy victim.

Another thing that we concluded about Lima, a city which never sees any rain, is that the air is terribly polluted.  I felt like gagging on our way back from the water park on, what seems, like the city's only freeway. There were innumerable ancient buses and trucks that were spewing out pollution at an alarming rate.  Even some of the busiest Asian cities, like Bangkok or Hong Kong, don't come close to Lima in terms of bad air quality.  Frankly, we could not wait to leave.  Three days of two too many to spend in such a polluted place.

Laptop R.I.P. - Trashing and Thrashing a Computer

When we arrived at the "computer doctor's" place, the look on the technicians face said it all.  He could not revive the patient.  He wanted to try a few more things but we were out of time.  And I was out of patience.  The nicest thing about the situation is that, since his efforts were unsuccessful, the technician did not want to charge me anything for his time and trouble.  Amid all this chaos and pollution, there was evidently a higher level of morality than one could have expected from a repair service in the U.S. They would have charged me for their time, regardless of the outcome.  So I gave the Lima tech some money in as reward for his honesty and integrity.

When we returned to our hotel, I told Elizabeth I did not want to carry the dead Toshiba carcass with me the rest of the trip.  Which meant I had to literally destroy it, lest some clever Lima resident decided to resurrect the still functioning hard disk with all my data on it.

The execution took place in our hotel room...

... whereupon I disposed of the Toshiba body parts in two separate Lima trash bins.

"They don't make them anymore like they used to," as they say.  I used to be able to keep my old laptops for backup for 10 years.  This one, however, barely lived past its fifth birthday.  Oh well...

And that's all she wrote from Lima on this Friday, Jan 22.

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