Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

As traffic gets increasingly worse all over Metropolitan Lima and motorists become more frustrated Peru's President Alan Garcia voiced a question that many Limeans have asked themselves.

Why doesn't Mayor Castañeda have construction workers working at night? The president suggested that three eight-hour shifts be organized so Lima's main roads were repaired more quickly.

To confirm what many have complained about - that workers are not working at night - El Comercio daily sent reporters to find out which construction companies were making progress while the rest of the city slept.

According to the daily, minimal work was being done throughout the night. Reporters went to the city's main streets such as República de Panamá Avenue in Barranco and Petit Thouars Avenue in Lince.

While it was reported that little work was being done during the night on avenues such as Javier Prado, the daily affirmed that no work was being done in other parts of the city.

Petit Thouars Avenue in Miraflores, Arequipa Avenue, Jiron Lampa in downtown Lima as well as Emancipacion Avenue were streets found to be completely abandoned at night.

Despite this, Engineer Carola Cuadros, project coordinator for Lima has assured that avenues such as La Marina, Arequipa, Petit Thouars and Javier Prado will be ready by October 31.