Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

News that cables hanging from posts in Miraflores were going to be removed and placed underground was lauded by many and received especially well by neighbors that assured that the cables were "visual contamination".

According to reports issued by Telefonica and Luz del Sur, one of Lima's main electric companies, moving these cables underground will generate additional costs that customers will have to assume.

"The cost of underground cabling is eight times as expensive as aerial cabling. This would increase the price," assured Hans Berger, a spokesperson for Luz del Sur.

Berger stated that 70 percent of Miraflores' electric cables were already underground and explained a 100-percent underground cabling system would be more expensive for customers.

Furthermore, the spokesman explained that placing the cables underground meant that the company would have to dig holes in the street, which could take longer than the municipality had ordered.

According to an ordinance published in Peru's official gazette, telephone, cable and electric companies have 18 months to put all of their cables underground.

Telefonica added that the majority of houses in Miraflores were not equipped to have underground phone connections and explained that residents would have to make certain adjustments.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Students at the University of San Marcos took more extreme measures on Tuesday after realizing that the Municipality of Lima was not going to stop constructing a bypass and new road next to and on their campus.

Assuring they were shocked and offended that the municipality had demolished one of the university's walls to continue construction of a new road, students blocked two blocks of Venezuela Avenue and attacked construction workers with rocks and sticks.

Furthermore, students raided the university's administrative offices and demanded that the university void the contract it had signed with the municipality.

Students affirm the destruction of the wall leaves the university unprotected and open to criminal acts.

They have also explained that construction work would affect archaeological ruins next to the campus.

Municipal authorities claim there are political reasons behind student riots, stating that the wall is to be rebuilt in 20 days.

Furthermore, municipal representatives assure a contract was signed between district authorities and university representatives several months ago.

A similar riot took place in May, when students went up against Peru's national police with rocks and sticks. The country's national police responded with tear gas and threw rocks as well.

Riots left several police officers wounded and a group of students detained.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Labeled as "visual contamination" and a "spiderweb of cables", telephone cables in an upscale Lima district will soon be removed and placed underground.

Residents in the district of Miraflores, one of Peru's most touristic areas, have complained that an excessive amount of telephone and electric cables in their district is making the streets look unattractive.

In response to these claims and other concerns, the district's municipal council has prohibited the installation of more telephone and electric cables and has ordered that all cables, which are currently on posts, be placed underground.

According to an ordinance published in the Andean country's official gazette, district authorities have given electric and telephone companies 18 months to take their cables down and place them underground.

It was reported that the majority of cables were old and unused. Furthermore, it was noted that the majority of them were hanging below the permitted safety height.

Enrique Flores, a consultant for the district's Urban Infrastructure Department explained that 70 percent of the cables hanging on posts were old and not in use.

"We are talking about thousands and thousands of meters. What is good is that Telefonica has already committed to organizing its cables. They are already removing cables that are not being used," said Flores.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Each person in Lima generates an average of almost 21 kilograms (46 pounds) of garbage per month, revealed a technical environmental study done by the National Statistics Institute (INEI).

"In the month analyzed, the total solid waste from 40 districts that was taken to landfills reached 158,566 tons," said the study.

According to the country's statistics institute, Lima has a population of 7.6 million - leading to the conclusion that each resident generates approximately 21 kilograms of garbage per month, reported Andina news agency.

Furthermore, statistics showed that when 2008 figures were compared to 2007, a 7.1 percent increase was registered in the generation of garbage per month.

When analyzing which districts produced the largest amount of waste, Cercado de Lima was at the top of the list with 14,690 tons.

The top five districts also included San Juan de Lurigancho (14,017 tons), Comas (11,681 tons), Ate (11,193 tons) and San Martín de Porres (11,051 tons).

Other districts that generated large quantities of garbage are Santiago de Surco (7,588 tons), La Victoria (7,501 tons) and Los Olivos (6,276 tons).

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

After a Lima journalist had finished eating his BigMac and was exiting a McDonald's in the upscale district of San Borja, he noticed that rats were crawling around the outside of the restaurant.

Alonso Molina, a photographer and journalist for a well-known magazine in Lima was shocked to see the rodents crawling around the outside of the restaurant as he was getting into his car.

The photographer had his camera with him and began shooting away as the rats came and went.

In all, the photographer took 90 pictures of the rodents outside the McDonald's on Guardia Civil Avenue.

Molina exclaimed that it was urgent for the owners of this restaurant, who have been identified as "Operaciones Arcos Dorados de Perú S.A.", take immediate action and rid themselves of the infestation.

In an exclusive interview with Terra News, Molina told reporters that the rats were circling around a sign that read "Non authorized personnel not admitted".

In response to the news report, McDonald's has assured that the pictures were taken in a remote part of their parking lot which is adjacent to a waste area.

Click here to see Molina's pictures

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Even though temperatures began to drop and the sky got grayer several months ago, winter had not begun. The cold season officially begins today at 7 p.m.

With misty days, dense fog and decreasing temperatures, people in Lima have already gotten a taste of this year's winter.

The situation has been much worse in Peru's highlands, where residents have experienced hailstorms and temperatures as low as -15°C (5°F). 

Over one dozen people and 5,000 alpacas have died because of low temperatures and freezing weather before this year's winter even began.

SENAHMI, Peru's national weather service affirmed that this year's fall season had had temperatures that were lower than what was normal for that time of year.

Forecasts for this winter season in Lima include temperatures below 13.5°C (56.3°F) and less than twelve hours of sunlight a day.

According to weather reports, humidity is to increase between July and September as more drizzle and fog are seen more frequently throughout the capital.

Furthermore, it was reported that the capital would experience much more drizzle in August and September.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Eight people were seriously wounded on Wednesday morning when a taxi driver lost control of his station wagon and plowed into a crowd outside of a Lima hospital.

The taxi driver had just dropped off a passenger at the Neoplastic Hospital in Surquillo when he lost control of his vehicle and ran over a group of people waiting in a line outside of the hospital, leaving them all laying on the concrete.

The eight people he hit, several of which where thrown several meters into the air, were seriously injured and had to be aided immediately.

They had been waiting in line to get a hepatitis B shot, which the hospital was administering to the public in a tent it had set up in the parking lot.

Police attributed the shocking accident, which took place at 9 a.m., to a lack of vehicle maintenance. The driver, Walter Antonio Cortez, claims the car's acceleration pedal had gotten stuck.

According to police reports, he was not under the influence of alcohol.

All eight people were admitted into an emergency hospital in Miraflores.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

There has been a significant increase in the theft of manhole covers in Lima, reported SEDAPAL, one of Peru's largest water companies.

The water company has expressed its concern over the thousands of thefts not only because they will have to replace them but because the open manholes are extremely dangerous to citizens living near them.

According to reports issued by SEDAPAL, 2,224 manhole covers were taken in 2006, while 2,597 were stolen the following year.

The most alarming rate is in 2008, when 1,530 covers were taken in the first five months of the year.

The Lima-based water company affirmed that if theft continued at this rate, over 3,000 manhole covers will have been stolen by the end of the year.

The majority of the iron covers where stolen in Lima's northern most districts such as Carabayllo, Comas, Independencia, Los Olivos, Puente Piedra, San Martín de Porres and Ventanilla.

For example, the manhole covers from the first to the sixth block of Micaela Bastidas Avenue in Comas were stolen in one day last week between 4 and 5 in the morning.

According to SEDAPAL, thieves take them because they are made of iron and can be sold on the black market.

The company has reported that it is replacing stolen covers with ones made of concrete or fiberglass.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Catholics and other worshipers in Lima are finding new, more modern ways to attend church and receive religious messages.

In an article published in the Wall Street Journal, the international daily explains that a new generation of churches is using franchise marketing to spread "their own brand of religion".

Instead of searching for converts to a mainstream denomination, independent churches are forming global organizations anchored by a single leader, said the WSJ.

This has been the case in one of Peru's most upscale districts.

Ovalo Higuereta's Alcazar movie theater, which is surrounded by a Starbucks, a McDonald's a T.G.I. Fridays and a Chilis, is transformed into a branch of Reverend Troy Gramling's Florida-based Flamingo Road Church on weekends.

Almost 3,000 miles away, Gramling, who has a weekly attendance of 8,000 at his church in Broward County Florida, records sermons on DVDs to be played for congregations in Peru.

Affirming "The religious market is saturated in the U.S.", Manuel Vasquez, co-author of "Globalizing the Sacred: Religion Across the Americas," explains that pastors are now reaching overseas to increase their congregations.

According to Philip Jenkins, the author of "The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity", seven out of 10 Christians will live in Africa, Latin America and Asia by 2025.

For now, approximately 300 Peruvians are pleased with Mr. Gramling's 9 a.m. Spanish service, which is translated live, and his 10:30 a.m. English service.

Worshipers in Peru assure Gramling is their pastor and state that even though he is on a movie screen, "Sometimes you feel he is here".

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Glaciers melting at a record-breaking pace and the forecast of little rain has worried and put water companies in the Andean country on alert.

SEDAPAL, one of Peru's largest water companies, has warned that the country's water supply is at risk.

Guillermo Leon, the president of SEDAPAL, announced that the company has officially put out an alert, stating the water supply is at risk because of shrinking glaciers and forecasts of little rain.

He explained that Lima's water could be rationed in 2009 the way it was in 2004 if Peru's water reserves are not administered more efficiently.

In a recent report released by Peru's El Comercio, it was revealed that the government's "Agua para Todos" (Water for Everyone) program was adding people to the country's water system without increasing its supply.

The program will have introduced over 900,000 new families into Lima's water supply system by the end of this year without having found any new sources to meet this demand.

The daily also pointed out that while there were people in Lima's poorer districts that lived on 36 liters of water (3 days for a family of six) there were others that used thousands of liters on the same necessities.