bienvenidos

Welcome back, folks. It's been a long time. Sorry I've been so out of touch - it's been a rather crazy year that went sort of like this:

Boston-San Francisco - Boston - Lima - Boston - New York - Philly - New York - Boston - London - Nice - London - Boston - Baltimore - San Francisco - New York - Boston - Seattle - San Francisco - Boston - London - Boston - Lima.

phew! So yes, I've been struggling just to stay sane. Apologies. My luggage has also been struggling and I now have an awesome new green plaid bag. I know you're jealous.

So I'm now back in Lima, for a month, working to try to wrap up my project which is about 50% me working and about 50% pushing my collaborators to move forward on their pieces of the puzzle.

Not much has changed in Lima since I was last here. Fujimori is still in jail. Traffic still stinks, The food and people still rock. I still am the canary in the peruvian gastrointenstinal-illness mine. I'm still not a very good surfer. The sunshine here is still glorious, and strong.

What is different? They are building a municipal bus line, as well as a light-rail line. The bus line is slated to be done by (no coincidence) the upcoming municipal elections, and the rail line is being built privately by a Brazilian company. Perhaps next time I come traffic will be much improved!

Also, they are putting in "semaforos inteligentes ", timed crosswalk lights, around town. This has mildly reduced the number of places you have to suicidally run across the street trying not to get hit by traffic. A big step in the right direction, since I have it on good authority from Colin that Peru leads the world in traffic accidents. Which somehow made me realize that, being single, I am far more likely to get hit by a car this month than to wake up next to someone special. Awesome.

Chau chau