Lima Ups and Downs

Earlier in my travels I had the opportunity to meet a delightful couple living in Lima. They invited me to contact them when I arrived. We went out for lunch. Two things struck me about the lunch that I think are worth mentioning.

1. The first was their marvelous ability to smilingly bargain with the taxi driver until the fare came down to something reasonable. (The restaurant we went to was a dozen blocks away.) For starters, as a gringo, I start out with a severe disadvantage. The taxi driver will start out quoting a price that he could not begin to say with a straight face to a local. Second, I can´t duplicate that no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners bargaining rap that they and other locals are able to engage in.

2. The second thing was Rossana is the co-owner of an audio-visual equipment business, if I understood correctly, and is in charge of the administration of the entire business. This is the day that she decided the bills/invoices needed to be sent out. In the states or in Europe, you would put 20 bills in the mail and by the first of the month, most of them would come back with a check enclosed. As big and as modern as Lima is, they are still burdened by an antiquated and corrupt postal system. In other words, it´s a typical Latin American postal system. There´s no guarantee when or if a letter will ever arrive, and certainly not a return envelope if it contains money or a check.

A number of her customers simply make direct payment into her business account. For those who don´t, she has to collect the payments. So, today, after lunch, even though she´s the head of the administrative side of the company, she had to ride micro-buses all over town delivering bills. In so many small but incalculable ways, we in the first world are so fortunate to have the infrastructural advantages that we do. This is just one small example.

The postal system or lack thereof may be a downside to Lima, but the pharmacies are definitely an upside. Every one uses a pharmacist like we in the states would use a doctor. You describe your symptoms to the pharmacist and he/she dispenses the appropriate medication. They usually tell you all the pros and cons of the meds and tell you which brand is cheaper, etc. In addition, many of the drugs that would require a doctor´s prescription in the states are dispensed without one here. However, that isn´t the best part.

For the past couple of days, I´ve been bothered by a typical head cold....stopped up sinuses, runny nose, the usual. I went to the pharmacist to ask for something and she gave me ibuprofin and something (an antihistamine?) for the clogged sinuses. Each came in a box of about 24 capsules apiece. She asked me if I took two a day of each, how many did I want? I said six. She promptly opened up the box, took out some scissors, and cut up the foil in such a way as to parcel out 6 capsules apiece. She then charged me about 70 cents. Now THAT´S the way to run a pharmacy!

A side note about etiquette in Latin America. It´s considered super gross to walk around with a dirty handkerchief in your pocket, blow your nose in it, and stick it back in your pocket. Much more acceptable is to blow your nose on Kleenex and then deposit the kleenexes in the nearest waste can. However, everyone knows that it´s close to impossible to carry around a box of kleenex, and the little packets don´t last very long. So......everyone carries around a roll of toilet paper using it as kleenex. I´ve asked several locals if it was considered kosher to do so, and was assured that it definitely is. The extra added benefit is you never know when you might have another use for it!! With that, I think I´ll go powder my nose.

Hasta luego!!