I changed banks recently, moved from a Peruvian bank to a multi-national headquartered in Canada. The new bank’s online platform works well for the most part but I noted an interesting anomaly when I went to wire some funds overseas. Nothing nefarious on my side, just trying to get what little bit of savings I have out of Peru before the commie government takes over later this month. As an aside, the talking heads are now saying that the incoming commie government isn’t really commie, it’s just a guy who ran on the communist party ticket. Either way, I feel like my little bit of savings – taxe ..read more

Early evening in the rainy season, APU Pitusiray touching the sky as I take the scenic route home from the bakery ..read more

A retired policeman went to visit his hometown a few hours outside of Cusco. It’s the kind of small town on a river gringos like me tend to romanticize. A simple way of life, fresh clean air, picture-perfect scenery, all that we miss in our hectic modern lives. But while life in the small town sounds idyllic to a gringo with a steady foreign income, it isn’t all milk and honey for the people who were born into it. Working the fields is hard and poverty is very real. Alcohol abuse and family trauma are common. We gringos also like to hallucinate that food in the Peruvian countryside is fresh an ..read more

Years ago when I had recently moved to Cusco we were out walking behind Larapa. There’s a gated neighborhood behind Larapa where the elite and millionaires of Cusco live. While we were lingering around the gate a taxi pulled up and 3 school-age girls jumped out. Patricia: “I can’t believe it.” Me: “huh?” Patricia: “These girls, they go to that school?” Me: “huh?” “That school”, as Patricia recognized the girls’ uniforms, was EESPP Santa Rosa. I had no idea at the time but EESPP Santa Rosa is a unique school in Cusco. It’s a public school but unlike all other public schools in Cusco it’s consid ..read more

If I’m not mistaken today is the day the Peruvian congress will debate a proposal to suck private pension funds up into the public treasury and vaporize them. In the words of those advancing the proposal it sounds more noble and nuanced. The proposal is to create new public entity “Autoridad del Sistema Integrado de Pensiones” (ASIP) which will manage pension funds that are currently managed by large private entities. The current system consists of private (individual) accounts, the proposal by the congressional committee (Comisión de Reforma de Pensiones del Congreso) led by a Carmen Omonte i ..read more

Just a quick calculation on my part, if you see any serious errors or omissions please let me know: MINSA is currently reporting 18,589 deaths in men over age 60. See page 5 of the data, the actual nr. will probably be higher when you open the page as the data is updated regularly. The OpenCovid-Peru project is showing that the total COVID-19 death toll in Peru, based on analysis of death certificates filed, is likely to be about 2.4 times higher than the fatalities reported by MINSA. In my opinion that is a reliable estimate. That would put the actual death toll among men over age 60 around ..read more

Happy New Year! Like everyone I hope the turn of the calendar brings good things. Love, hope, healing and solutions to the big problems of the world as well as the little issues in our own lives. Speaking of problems of the world, let’s start with one that’s easy to solve. The new house we live in here in Calca has a fine solar powered water tank for the hot water supply. This baby is glorious. I mean, it’s a bit of a drag in rain season when the sun may not show for 3 days straight but on a sunny day, we’ve got hot water ranging from scalding hot on the low end to microwaved lava on the high ..read more

Merry Christmas to one and all. May 2021 bring love, hope and healing after the trials of this past year. Stay safe and stay strong. Nothing 2020 throws at us can be construed as a reason to break this habit. Enjoy ..read more

I had no idea what I was buying the other day. We’d set out to buy a new bicycle for our son Milan and ended up walking half way around Cusco. The first bike store we’d gone to was closed, the second store was closed, on our way to the third store we got side-tracked into the Post Office, a vain attempt to find an Ali Express package that went missing back in March. Long story short we found a Specialized Peru bike store around the corner from the Post Office and out of their last 4 or 5 bikes in inventory(*) they actually had the right size for our son. I had no idea Specialized was a brand n ..read more

Vaccine buyer dude(tte): “Hi Minsa, we need some money to buy the COVID-19 vaccine.” Minsa: “Fill out the request.” … Vaccine buyer dude(tte): “Here you go!” Minsa: “No no no no. You have to take it to Mesa de Partes, around the corner over there.” … Vaccine buyer dude(tte): “Hi Mesa de Partes, I have a request here for some money to buy the COVID-19 vaccine.” … stamp stamp sign stamp finger print copy of DNI … Mesa de Partes: “5 to 7 business days” Vaccine buyer dude(tte): “Sweet, so in 5 to 7 business days we get the money to buy the COVID-19 vaccine?” Mesa de Partes: “No no no no. In 5 to 7 ..read more