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March 31, 2005
"Interesting impact on someone you don't even know"
A friend whom "you don't even know" has started a weblog, with the first entry available here. I'm flattered, but the newspaper I used to write for is the little Post-Tribune of Gary, Indiana, not the Chicago Tribune. By the way, there is no spell-checker on this blog, and I think that there is at least one misspelling in each entry. (Yes, I'm aware of the mispelling in this entry!)
Posted by adrianjo at 07:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 30, 2005
Don't confuse El Papa with La Papa
With the Pope's health failing, I've put together a few pics of El Papa's life in Krakow and Rome.
Karol Wojytla was born in 1920 in Wadowice, a city just outside Krakow. At age 18, he moved to Krakow and enrolled at Jagiellonian University, the large building shown below:
While enrolled at Jagiellonian, Karol lived in the house on the right in this photo. His apartment has been converted to a small museum, which contains his desk and skis (he apparently preferred Head brand.)
Karol's apartment was immediately below the Wawel Cathedral, a 14th century cathedral on a hill inhabited by people for 15,000 years. Several of Poland's kings are buried there, as is Thaddeusz Kosciuszko, the hero of the War for American Independence. It was in the crypt of this cathedral that the young Karol said his first mass. The picture is of the bones of prehistoric animals that hang at the doorway. As long as the bones remain, the cathedral is protected.
Here is a crowd on a Sunday in October last year gathering at San Pietro's Square in the Vatican City to hear the Pope bless the crowd. I took the picture from the top of St. Peter's Basillica.
Karol's light is still on (top center)...
Posted by adrianjo at 07:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 29, 2005
Cracker Barrel
There has been a lot of talk at school lately about who is running for VP positions in the various clubs. A few of our cluster have been elected to VP positions in clubs like the Investment Banking Club and the Retail & Luxury Goods Club. As for me, I'm running for VP of Crackers in the Wine Society. Please vote.
Posted by adrianjo at 06:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 27, 2005
Did they say "LOL" in 1973?
I don't know why, but I'm laughing a lot at the old-timey game shows on GSN today. From Match Game 73: "Sitting Bull says, 'Me no likem them tribe. They not scalp hair from head; they scalp hair from ___.'" Brett Butler answered, "nose."
Posted by adrianjo at 03:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 26, 2005
Of fruits and vegetables
The lawyers at Powerline have an interesting discussion of the Schiavo case, arguing that Michael Schiavo had $1.1M to spend at the trail court level gaining a determination of "fact" that Terry Schiavo wanted to die if she became a vegetable. In short, Michael Schiavo essentially out-lawyered the Schindlers at the trail court, and this became very tough to reverse. In general, it's a good point about the law: when the trail court decides something as fact, it's nearly impossible to overturn it.
The parents obviously had no idea what they were up against until it was too late. It was only after the trial that they started going around to religious and right-to-life groups to tell their story. These organizations were very supportive, but by that point their options were already limited because the trial judge had entered a judgment finding that Terri Schiavo would not have wanted to live.
On the specifics of the Schiavo case, however, I diverge with Powerline. Michael Schiavo is a bit of a fruit, living with another woman and even having kids with her. Even so, it's hard to make a case to anyone without their head buried in the Bible that a braindead person would want to live. (When my grandmother ended up in a similar situation in 1988, we said our goodbyes and made the compassionate choice before the law could get involved.) It's entirely possible, perhaps likely, that even with the best lawyers, the Schindlers would still have lost.
Unrelated matter: As I write this, I find another annoying commercial. This one is for Wm Wrigley Jr's Big Red chewing gum, showing a car getting lifted by an electromagnet. In the commercial, coins and a watch are attracted to the magnet. In fact, only ferrous (iron-based) metals are attacted to magnets, and US coins contain no ferrous metals. Watches are rarely made of ferrous metals, which rust. Typically they are nickel, silver, or other non-iron metals. In fact, both watches and coins will pass airport metal detectors, but not hand wands.
Posted by adrianjo at 09:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 25, 2005
Comments are allowed... finally!
I think the comment issue is finally fixed. Because of comment spam issues, I've not been allowing comments. Now you can comment, and I encourage comments, but after signing-in, you need to hit "refresh" when you're sent back to this site.
Posted by adrianjo at 10:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Going on holiday has a positive ROI
After the hugely-disappointing and way-too-Frommers 1000 Places to See Before You Die, I was dead to reading travel books. Today soon-to-be-author Sheena recommended Adventure Capitalist, written by a guy who took his SUV through 116 countries and 152,000 miles (or roughly 6X around the world) and surveyed the business climate along the way.
Traveling to a place is a great way to learn the business climate. For example, it's hard not to notice how trendy people dress in the Baltic states, suggesting an underlying desire to spend disposable income on consumer goods and thereby generate an economic expansion. In Peru, by contrast, the corruption of the police force suggests risks to investing. (Interestingly, Transparency International ranks Peru only the 67th most corrupt country in the world, but notes that Peru's police force is especially corrupt.)
Right now I'm working on Lonely Planet San Francisco in anticipation of a visit there, but Adventure Capitalist will go into the queue.
Posted by adrianjo at 08:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 24, 2005
How to count to 100
If you want to start a controversy, ask someone what defines a country. If one has been to Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia, Reunion, French Polynesia, Miquelon, and France, has he been to one country (France) or seven? If one has only been to Greenland, has he been to Denmark? What if he has had his passport stamped but never left the airports?
The world authority on matters like these is the Travelers' Century Club, a California-based organization of folks who have visited 100+ countries. Counting countries is hard enough, so I use their list to determine my status as "58% of the way there." TCC rules state that airports and ports of call count as "visits," as do overseas departments, inhabited islands with local governments at least 200 miles from the mainland, breakaway republics, and separate emirates/nations/etc within a federation. Needless to say, this is quite controversial even within the membership, such as in 2003 when the breakaway republics of Kosovo and Transdneister were added. Nonetheless, I defend the TCC's country list and rules, since by any normal man's definitions, I would have only been to 40-something countries.
By the way, the TCC's youngest member is 2 yrs, 8 mos. Yes, at not even three years old, young Lani Shea made it to her 100th country (San Marino) and qualified for membership. Crazy, huh?
Posted by adrianjo at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 23, 2005
More photos from Peru
Here are more photos from the Columbia-Wharton trip to Peru, courtesy of Patrick. Seem them all here. Click the image for a larger shot.
Group overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Lima.
Group at the Presidential palace in Lima.
At Astrid & Gaston, widely regarded as Peru's best restaurant, with Deirdre (W'99) and Ilian. We're looking forward to eating some yummy guinea pig.
Viola! Guinea pig! It's yummy. According to Peruvian paintings, they even had guinea pig at the Last Supper.
This picture is so cute, I can't resist putting it up. Will, from Lima, hasn't seen his Peruvian girlfriend in a while, and they indulge in a little PDA.
Group at the Inca Temple of the Sun in the city of Qosq'o.
Group showing some school pride at Machu Picchu.
Here, I jump into a raging river down which we were whitewater rafting. The bridge wasn't too high. I think I'll have to go back and jump the Mostar Bridge.
Whitewater rafting down a tributary of the Amazon. I am at the front, right side of the boat.
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March 22, 2005
Cruelty on parade
In my travels, I've seen some pretty sickening animal abuse, which I won't discuss here. Sometimes, though, it's not necessary to travel far:
In a quirky NYC tradition, the elephants walk through the Midtown tunnel on the east side and across 34th St to Madison Sq Garden since their holding containers cannot fit through the train tunnels or pass over the bridges.
There's nothing quirky about it. Ringing has long marched the elephants through town; it's a marketing gimmick designed to earn them free media, and it's done in every city they attend. This is done even though elephants' are tropical animals who are exposed to dangerous cold.
Of Ringing's 60 elephants, 44 were captured in the wild. What a cruel fate for these captured animals. Ringing has a long history of animal abuse and running afoul of various animal welfare laws.
It's also a ridiculous claim that an elephant's container can't fit into Manhattan. Many modular components of highrises that arrive pre-assembled (including I-beams, elevator lifts, chillers) are far larger than an elephant container and still make it in. If something can't make it into Manhattan, it can't make it onto any road that has standard-height bridges or onto any standard-gauge train.
Of course, there are many circuses that do not use (or abuse) animals, such as Cirque de Soleil. It would be nice to think that in our society we wouldn't need to abuse animals to be entertained.
It's bad enough that circuses have a miserable record of cruelty to animals. It's even worse that they lie about their marketing gimmicks.
Posted by adrianjo at 09:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 21, 2005
Always keeping a stiff upper lip
Neiman needs a store in New York City. After my NM wallet was stolen in Peru (see entries below), I went to buy one online, only to be confronted with both sales tax and a $15 shipping charge. I know I'm not a typical free-spending NM shopper, but $15 is too much Needless Markup. So I had an "online chat" with a Neiman rep to see if I could get it at Bergdorf Goodman, a Manhattan store frequented by folks like Paris Hilton:
Elliot Schelske: Thank you for contacting Neiman Marcus Online. How may I help you?
Adrian: could you tell me if item NMOS5_M4670 is available at Bergdorf in NYC?
Elliot Schelske: Unfortunately, we do not have an inventory of the Bergdorf Goodman stores. The only way to be sure if they have this item would be to call.
Adrian: do you know what is the closest NM to manhattan?
Elliot Schelske: The closest NM store to Manhattan is probably the White Plains/Westchester store.
Adrian: thanks, i'll try to make it over there
Adrian: by the way, you need a store in manhattan. i was shocked when i moved here and you don't have a store
Elliot Schelske: Was there anything else I could help you with?
I guess that this is Neiman's stiff-upper-lip way of saying, "screw you."
UPDATE: Bergdorf does carry this wallet, with a polished rather than matte finish. After Neiman has owned Bergdorf for 17 years, one would think they could at least integrate the inventory systems.
Posted by adrianjo at 01:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 20, 2005
Would you like McChateau with that?
In the annals of strange politics, the strangest recent event is Valparaiso's mayor (derided by his election opponent as "too religious") walking hat-in-hand to Indianapolis to ask his friend the conservative guv'nuh for more three-way liquor licenses. The proposal is for the State to grant more liquor licenses in downtown areas "with a historic courthouse and historic jail." This is a bit like Chicago asking for something exceptional for "all Illinois cities with buildings over 1200' in height," but it gets the immediate job done.
However, as the Post-Tribune points out, Indiana's blue laws in general need overhaul:
Not only do we support Costas’ proposal, but we encourage the Legislature to take a hard look at the state’s liquor laws through an interim study committee. Many changes are needed.It wasn’t that long ago that Indiana restaurants couldn’t serve liquor on Sundays. While that has changed, there are other questions. Why is it that someone can drink in a tavern or restaurant on Sunday, yet they can’t buy alcohol at a package liquor store to take home? That makes little sense in terms of drinking and driving. And why is it that a grocery store cannot sell cold beer?
Back in Valparaiso, Costas's goal is to create a fine-dining district. With a limited supply of licenses, prices have risen from $95K a decade ago to $250K today. This effectively stops anything but fast-food restaurants and cafes from opening, since few people eat a fine dinner without wine. With Rome having McDonald's operating as a "restaurant-bar", we can only hope that Indiana's puritanical legislators will at least allow a few restaurants to open and sell Courvoiser in all Indiana downtowns "with a historic courthouse and historic jail." And maybe the Legislature will look a little bit broader, paving the way to McBars in Hoosierville. Then again, maybe this is where the Mayor will draw the line.
Posted by adrianjo at 03:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Russian tanks rolling down Flatbush Avenue
The New York Times does its best to put a brave face on the poor turnout at local anti-war rallies yesterday. Some 350 people--loony even by liberal New York standards--turned out in Times Square, and a few more rallied in Harlem and marched down Malcolm X Ave banging bongo drums. Some managed to get arrested outside military recruitment centers. The news showed a nearly-empty sheep meadow in Central Park with a reporter desperately trying to make a story out of nothng.
In Algoma, Wisc., a total of 8 people turned out for a rally, with similar sprinklings of rallies around the country. They'd do something similar even as Russian tanks rolled down Flatbush Avenue. If the MSM and Chuck Rangel were right that the war has been a "quagmire," "debacle," or whatever, one might think that more than a handful of crazy New Yorkers would turn out to say, "see, I told ya so."
But they didn't tell us so. The success of democractic reform in the Middle East--in Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, and (of course) Iraq--is hard for even a loony New Yorker to deny. And Americans know that war can be messy; Reconstruction, for example, was a two-decade hash that makes Iraq look like a kerfuffle. But the Civil War and Reconstruction were worth the effort to free a people, and the Iraq war is a small price to pay for freedom in the Middle East.
Posted by adrianjo at 10:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 19, 2005
I'll still be able to vote Republican
If I end up like this, just let me die.
Posted by adrianjo at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 18, 2005
Spread this crack
Crude closed at a new high today, and it was quite an event to watch. Serg (aka Monte Christo) arranged a visit to the New York Mercantile Exchange, the trading pit where the worldwide benchmark price of a barrel of oil is set. The crude pit consists of perhaps 100 traders standing on risers around a circular pit, all shouting their orders or using hand signals to arrange trades with each other. The center of the pit has a circular hole about 6' in diamater, in which sits a fellow wearing protective goggles. Within a minute of each trade (each of which may be for millions of dollars of oil), the traders throw a trade card directly at the guy with the goggles, who then records the transaction so that funds can be settled. In the last two minutes, the market explodes with traders desperately trying to close positions--each may have hundreds of thousands dollars of oil contracts to buy or sell in two minutes. A scuffle even broke out--the exchange actually fines $5000 whenever traders engage in fistfights. But hey, when you've just lost $100K on a trade, what's another $5K for clocking the clerk who caused you to lose $100K?
Once trading closed and crude had firmly settled into a new record high, we proceeded to a training room where we were instructed in the ways of open outcry trading. We were given badges (I was "XAP") and orders to execute. Orders in hand, we went to the natural gas trading pit, where the market "opened" at 5450 and we began screaming buy and sell orders at each other, using hand guestures to arrange trades, desperately trying to buy or unload contracts. Some of the experienced traders joined us, such as FTGY (short for "Fat Guy") and GRZ, a 21-year veteran nicknamed "Grizzly" who started as a clerk at age 19 and worked his way up to owning his own trading firm and perhaps making seven figures. (There are legends of high-school dropouts who come to the exchange and make $50M in a year, then disappear.) I learned that I'm probably just an OK trader... I managed to make $25 when I saw lots of buy orders flood the market and bought ahead of the orders. However, I was tentative in confirming orders, and this once led to my selling FTGY 15 contracts when I only had 5 to sell. (It's possible to sell what you don't have, as long as you buy what you sold by the end of the day.)
Other interesting facts:
- One of the NYMEX's more interesting products is the "crack spread." When a barrel of oil is refined (or "cracked"), it separates into components like kerosene, gasoline, heating oil, and asphalt. Thus, the crack spread is the difference in price between a barrel of gasoline and a barrel of heating oil. Naturally, the crack spread desk lies between the heating oil ring and the gasoline ring.
- A trader might employ four clerks to take orders from customers, with a really good clerk making six figures and a bad clerk costing the trader $100K plus if a mistake is made. After the cost of his seat (currently around $18,000/month), the clerks are the largest expense, followed by the phone bill (perhaps $5,000/month for a busy trader). There are typically 5 to 10 color coded phone lines, each of which streches to the pit.
- Word on the floor is that crude may hit $100/bbl. With OPEC producing within 1M bbls of its 31M bbl/day capacity, refineries operating at capacity, and demand continuing to soar, there is nowhere for prices to go but up.
- The commercial for Wendys' fruit-and-yogurt product is stupid. The traders who rush into the restaurant are giving signals to sell, not buy.
Posted by adrianjo at 08:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 17, 2005
Whipping ass and taking names
There's a picture out there of me wearing a Fez and carrying a whip. When I obtain it, I'll post it.
Meanwhile, there are media reports that a big project I did as a consultant is about to be unwound. Whatever happens, I'll never forget Fran at the Best Western.
Here are pictures of two swashbuckling bachelors on a swing through Morocco. (More info: bachelor #1, bachelor #2.) A tophat and cane would complete the look that would get them into a Broadway musical.
Posted by adrianjo at 03:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 15, 2005
Peru photos are available on ofoto
Here are two links for Peru photos. This link has most of the photos (including pics of me), which I suggest you to view with the captions. This link has only the horseback riding event (not including pics of me).
UPDATE: Very good photos from Patrick are here.
Posted by adrianjo at 08:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 14, 2005
I don't want the Bill for these Gates
Here are two pictures from the Gates exhibition in Central Park, taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's terrace. The timing of the Gates project was particularly opportune, as the February/March snow covered Central Park's usual ugly winter mud and brown grass.
This is me with Misty from Sonoma County and Kate from Teachers' College at Columbia.
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My strategy is to laugh
My job title for 39 months before coming to Columbia was "strategy consultant." I never got better than a B+ in a management class at Wharton, despite graduating with Latin honors. And at Columbia, I can't manage to break the mean on a strategy exam that covered an industry in which I did high-level corporate strategy for two years on four projects here and in Asia. No consultant worth his salt would ever go to a client saying, "I've performed a Porter's Five Forces analysis" on your industry, as the answer key suggests. I just have to laugh.
Posted by adrianjo at 01:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 12, 2005
Three cheers to Will
LIMA, PERU. After landing in Lima today (from Qosq'o), a good number of us were ready to stay at the airport and hop the next flight home. It was a draining week both physically and mentally, with most of the group doing a four day hike along the Inca trail and the rest settling for city tours and day hikes, such as when I climbed the mountain behind Machu Picchu. Being robbed during the Black Jesus procession last night did not help my mood. Rumors circulated that the head guide had also declared that he will not lead future MBA tours after he got an earful at yesterday's botched rafting trip. And today Citibank in Lima told me that there was nothing they could do and that I could not even withdraw money from my account without my ATM card.
Fortunately our Limeño amigo Wilfredo knew exactly the medicine we needed--lunch at a great non-gringo seafood joint, lots of local alcohol, and massages. So three cheers to Will for being such a great host! (Y tambien a todas las damas hermosas que nos acompañan, as Will likes to say.)
I will also propose that we toast tonight to all our sunburn and peeling skin, be it on our ears, forehead, hands, or nose, as a bit of sunburn despite prodigious use of sunscreen is sign we had a good spring break.
UPDATE: Here is a link to where we had dinner.
Posted by adrianjo at 07:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 11, 2005
My contribution to the Peruvian economy
QOSQ'O, PERU. A few days before September 11, I was walking to Sears Tower, looked up, and observed that it would be pretty easy to fly a small plane into the building and maybe do some damage. Today I was in Qosq’o’s Plaza de Armas as the town gathered for a parade led by the local Cardinal, there was quite a heavy police presence and I thought, “Even with all those cops, I bet there are still pickpockets working this crowd.” I was right.
The parade was to return a black-skinned Jesus crucifixion carving to the local cathedral, and the carving was led through the streets as thousands of onlookers followed it and a human chain of police officers held back the crowd. The Cardinal passed, and then a truck carrying the black Jesus. As it passed two feet from me, the crowd went wild as flower blessings were thrown. The pushing was like when Yasser Arafat’s body was led through Palestine, only with less firearms here. There was a massive press of bodies, hands everywhere, and I emerged sans wallet.
The loss of the wallet was twice as costly as the loss of the modest cash it contained, though I may ask the salesman at Neiman who sold me the wallet if Neiman will replace it as a goodwill guesture. We’ll see if I succeed.
Fortunately the tourist police were just swell. (I went with the local guide.) They started by blaming me for carrying a wallet in my front pants pocket (generally the more secure pocket). Then they wanted a bribe in order to give me the report that night, and the price of the bribe kept going up as more cops started paying attention to the conversation. If the bribe were not given, I would have to wait till Monday to go to the bank, buy a paper, and return to have the report put on the paper. Gee, that’s helpful when my money was just stolen. As the guide explained, “here in Peru, things are done differently.” No wonder the guidebook reports, “more tourists are robbed in Qosq’o than in any other Peruvian city.”
I guess that after seeing parts of 58 countries, being a victim of a crime once is probably a good record. Now, to the people in the office taking over-unders on my being a victim of a crime while living in Harlem: does this count as crime #1?
Posted by adrianjo at 10:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 10, 2005
I beg of you: don't give to the beggars
It is raining gatos y perros in Aguas Calientes--this is wet season in the rain forest after all, and it rains very hard here. Fortunately we had a good view of Machu Picchu this morning, but I want to write first about my annoyance with people who give money to beggars, of which Peru has no shortage.
Today a little urchin in colorful attire ran down the mountain from Machu Picchu yelling "adios" to the tour bus as it descended at each switchback. He then boarded the bus and asked for tips. The tourists were enthralled at how "precious" and "cute" the urchin was and generously donated. It is common for such "precious" kids to make so much money that they drop out of school and become full-time beggars. They can easily make more than their parents and end up forced by the parents not to go to school in order to beg. If 20 people on the bus gave a dollar each, the urchin earned $20 for a half-hour's work, or $40/hr, a fortune by local standards.
The same people who gave generously to the "cute" urchin deplore child labor (which this is) and think kids should be in school, but their donations belie their convictions. If people want to support the poor in places like Peru, they should donate to any of the reputable non-religious charities that operate here. Encouraging kiddie begging is not a way to help either the beggar or the larger society.
Posted by adrianjo at 04:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 09, 2005
Pardon me señor, I'm looking for a lost city
NEAR MACHU PICCHU, PERU: The last three days have been spent in the Sacred Valley, a long and narrow valley about an hour's drive from end-to-end that lies roughly between the lost Incan city of Machu Picchu and the Incan capital at Qosq'o. The term "valley" is a bit misleading, because the valley is high enough (9000 to 10000 ft) that acute mountain sickness can still result.
The villages of the Sacred Valley lie among Inca ruins--temples, forts, etc. Unfortunately the grandeur of the Inca empire, once South America's most powerful, was plundered by the Spanish in the 1500s. The lost city of Machu Picchu remains, as it was only discovered in 1911. (As the guide said, "if the Spanish had found out about Machu Picchu, they would have built a church atop it.")
Most of the Sacred Valley is impoverished, with most people living on subsitence agriculture or selling handicrafts to tourists. Many of the roads are dirt, and many of the houses are mud or adobe. Instead of fences, the people keep animals out of their fields by planting large cactuses and yuccas around the fields. Still, the people are friendly, with a craving for good desserts. Unfortunately the valley is also a trap for pollution, and the people (and tourists) have a high exposure to it here in the summer. Emissions standards are non-existant here, and the people have built their houses such that the floors are below the roadgrade. Because velocitized hydrocarbons are heavier than air, a nasty soup of car exhaust and wood-smoke with a paint-thinner smell settles down into the houses (and house-front internet cafes) of the valley. Last night I fell ill from a combination of altitude sickness, overexertion (doing a 12 mile hike through the valley), dehydration, and pollution--an illness I'm still trying to recover from.
The local Indians (the Quechua people) are quite colorful and friendly. The old women carry their belongings in rainbow sheets, and the children generally wear very bright traditional attire (even in the back alleys where tourists are greeted with a nervous "hola"). They have a tendency to mob tourbusses with baby llamas for photo ops, but the mothers say (in Spanish) things like, "do not harass the tourists, be kind." I would prefer that these kids be in school, but at least the mothers know that harassing tourists isn't a good way to support the local economy. I´ve also learned that a little Spanish goes a long way in terms of ability to get around and be friendly with the local people.
At Machu Picchu (the lost city of the Incan royals) today, I learned the power of a cloudburst in the rainforest. Machu Picchu isn´t technically in the rainforest, but storms from the Amazon regularly blow in now that it's rainy season. We're going to try again tomorrow, and I'll talk more about the city once I have a chance to see it all. And lots of photos when I return.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention the greatest annoyance about travel in Peru: money. Yesterday a guy who runs an internet cafe (really two computers in his front room) rejected a one Nuevo Sol coin because he thought it was fake. Who would possibly fake a coin worth 30 cents? And how did they do such a good job that I cannot tell the difference? It happens even in high-end places. Astrid y Gaston (see previous entry) rejected a $20 for no apparent reason (it was perfectly fine), and a woman at the market today rejected three $1 bills because of tiny tears. The coup-de-grace occured tonight when a high-end restaurant here said that $1 bills only are worth S/ 2.5, when the exchange rate is S/ 3.28. But bills larger than $5 exchange at the prevailing rate. Countries that aspire to be considered developed economies cannot nit-pick and anger tourists over dollar bills.
Posted by adrianjo at 06:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 06, 2005
¡Hey Sacsayhuaman!
QOSQ'O, PERU. I arrived in Peru on Saturday and today am writing from an internet cafe in Qosq'o, the nearest major city to the ruins at Machu Picchu, which I will visit on Wednesday. The keyboard is terrible and i'm running on very little sleep, so this will be brief. We spent yesterday in Lima, where the highlight was a fabulous French-Peruvian dinner at Astrid & Gaston, which is perhaps Peru's best restaurant. Dinner featured baby goat leg, baked guinea pig, shrimp rizotto, scallops in the shell, and local specialty desserts. (Tonight I had alpaca... tastes like beef.) Dinner went from 7.30 to midnight, and the wakeup call to come to the airport for Qosq'o came at 3am, so i need to return and get some sleep! Eventually I will have tons of pics to share.
The highlight of today may have been the visit to Sacsayhuaman (pronounce it out for a fun surprise), an Inca temple-fortress located high above Qosq'o (which is already at elevation 11,200 ft). I despise group tours, so when the guide started going off about Americans' obsessions with Pizza Hut, Cluster Y´s favorite Aussie and I split the scene and climbed to the top of the fortress to enjoy the views below.
We also paid a visit to the cathedral, a massive triple-nave complex built atop an Inca temple destroyed by the Spanish. The Quechua Indian guide was not thrilled with the use of Incan stones to build a Christian cathedral, but he did give a good description of the various devices used by the Spanish to make the forced conversion of the Quechua easier to swallow. One was a crucifix with Jesus wearing a Quechua dress rather than a loincloth. Another was a crucifix painting attributed to the 15th century Flemish master Jan van Eyck (famous for his masterpiece The Adoration of the Lamb in Ghent). However, the Christ figure in the so-dubbed van Eyck painting has a very feminine body, which the Guide argues is done to convert the Quechua, who believed that the chief diety was female (Mother Earth.) Therefore, the painting could not be by van Eyck and is probably of local origin.
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March 03, 2005
It was fun...
The pleasure was mine.
Posted by adrianjo at 08:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I'm going to Inca you a letter
I'm getting ready to go to Peru for spring break, and entries on Transatlantic Zeppelin may be a bit less freuquent over the next week. Meanwhile I'll Inca some entries in the blog as often as I can.
In other news, I went to the post office today and the line was, as usual, quite long. Finally a manager came walking by, and a guy pointed out, "hey, did you notice that all tellers have their 'this window closed' signs up?" No wonder the line wasn't moving! I wish that this were only at the Post Office.
In other news, one of the things I was excited about getting away from by moving to Harlem was tourists and tour busses. Unfortunately there is quite a fascination with our little historic district and the surrounding area, and the tourists are out in full force on the weekends. Today, it was a different kind of tourist: a film crew from NBC filming a movie. They blocked off Malcolm X Ave and some of the side-streets in the historic district and lined them with old-timey cars like would have been seen in the 1960s when this area of town was enduring race riots. They also filmed in Lenox Lounge. This sort of tourist I don't quite mind... the old-timey cars were kinda cool.
Posted by adrianjo at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 02, 2005
Forget taxis
Forget the taxi--this is how I'm going to travel.
Posted by adrianjo at 06:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Funnies on CNBC
CNBC (called by a former girlfriend, "that stupid stock channel you watch") sometimes does something funny. When Martha Stewart went to jail, they found Lizzie Grubman at a soiree and asked her for advice for Martha. Lizzie wasn't terribly interested.
Today they showed a 24-lb lobster pulled off the coast of Maine with the note that "PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wanted the animal left alone, whereas PETA (People for the Eating of Tasty Animals) had a different opinion."
Posted by adrianjo at 09:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 01, 2005
The middle east grows up
The news out of the Middle East has been surprising to everyone, myself included. Democrats, in particular, have been caught with their pants down as the Bush Doctrine grows increasingly effective. And, of course, they have yet to propose a better way of defeating terrorism. Consider what has happened since the war in Iraq:
- Libya disavows being a rogue state
- Iraq has its first election in 50 years with turnout that exceeds American elections
- Egypt declares its first multi-party election in a generation
- Lebanon rises to kick-out Syrian occupiers
- Saudi Arabia joins the war on terror and seals its border with Yemen
- Turkey rejects Islamic laws like the adultery prohibition
- Afghanistan goes from 13-century warlordism to holding a tremendously successful election
- And today, 2000 people march against terrorism in Iraq
With all this happening, it's hard to deny that the war in Iraq hasn't proven beneficial for the stability of the middle east. No wonder Democrats are in a funk.
Posted by adrianjo at 05:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack