The Last Week - An Update from Home

I'm home from Peru! I got in on Sunday evening after spending my last week in Cusco. We ended up getting to make the 2 day trip to Puno to see Lake Titicaca last weekend, and it was really cool!

I didn't post last week due to some internet problems, but after the 2 day bus ride from Piura to Cusco, we made use of our last weekend in Peru by going to Puno to see Lake Titicaca. It was another overnight bus ride (so three in a row!), but well worth the trip. We were able to go to Uros, which are floating islands. They are islands that were build on the lake and made out of a straw/reed type substance. People supposedly live on them, but I think it is primarily a tourist trap. It was still very cool to see though.

Then we continued on and stayed the night on an island. They don't have any hostels or hotels, so we stayed with a family. There was no running water or electricity but it was a gorgeous island and our family was very nice.

We came back to Cusco the next day and started out last week of work. Unfortunately, the survey team, whom we had hoped would be able to help us, was spread out in rural areas all over Cusco doing field work. We therefore, had very little success in getting lenders in our last week. Instead, we did a few borrower interviews, outlined our final report, and enjoyed our last week in Peru. We did some souvenir shopping, spent some time in the Sacred Valley, and I finally tried cuy (guinea pig). I'm not sure why cuy is so popular there. It wasn't very tasty, it was served in its complete form (you could see the head!), and its even expensive by peruvian food standards...overall, an experince, but not one I ever need to repeat again.

Then on Sunday, I packed up all of my things and headed home! This week I'll be writing my final report, enjoying the rest of my summer, and getting ready to go back to school. I can't believe how fast my time in Peru flew by, but I had an amazing trip and hope I'll be able to go back again!

feliz fiestas patrias!

Today is independence day in peru! Everyone is out playing futbol with their family and friends...makes me sad i missed the 4th of July, bbq's, and fireworks!

We're heading back to Cusco tonight. We've decided that we've utilized all of our contacts here, and it's time to head back to Cusco. We got 21 interviews total in Piura! It was awesome. We were so successful because we had contacts that knew moneylenders. Because we were put in touch with lenders by people they trusted, they were more willing to do the interviews. We're hoping to use the IPA survey team that is now working in Cusco to use a similar strategy for our last week there!

To get back to Cusco, its a 15 hour bus ride tonight to Lima. We then have a 20 hour bus ride tomorrow from Lima to Cusco. It's going to be a long 2 days, but I'm excited to go back to Cusco for the last week here! (We may try to squeeze in a 2 day trip to Puno to see Lake Titicaca...we'll see if we can make it happen!)

Things I'll miss about Piura:
- CEVICHE! and all of the other delicious, cheap, and abundant seafood options
- having a gym a 1/2 block from my hostel and not being looked at like I'm CRAZY when I go running
- sea level oxygen levels...i'm going to miss being able to breath, especially when working out
- everyone we've met here, they've been so hospitable and welcoming and helpful!!

Moneylenders, ceviche, and running.

I'd like to start this post off with a shout out to Laura Hagen. She forced me to write this, so I figured she should get some credit.

Ok, what have I been up to lately. Moneylender interviews, eating ceviche, and working out. Literally all I do. Its been fun though. I've been keeping really busy and feel as though I have a great sense of purpose. I've also recently given into my sweet tooth and have been eating my fair share of baked goods from the panaderias that tempt you ever 1/2 block or so.

Yesterday, a guy that works for PRISMA, an MFI in the area, took us to do more interviews. We went all the way to his 'zona' to do a few rural interviews. This included going about an hour and a half on motorcycle. Something I can easily say I never want to do again...on the way back, we got pulled over by the cops b/c the license plate on the motorcycle wasn't right or something. Anyhow, instead of getting a ticket (which would have entailed going to the police station for a few hours), my driver instead just paid off the cops, and off we went. Yay corrupt police forces in developing country!

Today we're going to this big arts market about 15 minutes from Piura. We heard they have great food there too, so I'm excited to check it out. This week is fiestas patrias (or rather, their independence day). Its officially on Wednesday, the 28th, but we've heard that everyone takes off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Hopefully we'll be able to get some more work done before enjoying the holiday!! We're planning to leave Piura probably on Friday and head back to Cusco for our last week. I'm states-bound exactly 2 weeks from today!!

P.S. I haven't taken any photos in Piura yet, but if/when I do, I'll post something interesting to look at...

Piura

We got to Piura this past Friday evening. We went from Ica to Lima (5 hours), then hopped on a bus 20 min after getting to Lima that took us all the way to Piura. It was supposed to be a 15 hour bus ride...but we got slightly confused so it ended up being longer. We thought that Piura was the last stop of the bus we were on, but we were wrong. We ended up going 4 hours north of Piura, before realizing that we had gone too far (nobody was anouncing stops along the way, apparently we're not supposed to be tourists, and we're just supposed to know where we are at all times...). We had to get off and go the 4 hours back. In the end, we were on a bus for about 30 hours, great fun!

Piura has actually been very successful moneylender-wise though! Juan, the IPA project director here, has been incredibly helpful. We had 2 interviews the first day we were here! Then today, we had a meeting with the PRISMA microfinance office. They were great. Two of their loan officers spent all morning taking us around to moneylenders they know and we got FIVE more interviews! We have been completely blown away. The people in the north are known for being more open and friendly, but I can't believe the impact its having on our work. We have a few more promised interviews in the next few days. Pushing our interview total in Piura far above that of Cusco, in only a few days!

Today I also tried ceviche for the first time. I haven't tried it yet because I assumed I wouldn't like it because it has onions (and I have a great aversion to onions). However, I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out raw fish 'cooked' with lemon and covered with onions is actually really good!

Another fun fact is that I traveled around all morning on the back of a motorcycle. I had 1/2 promised myself I would never ride on one b/c they look so dangerous, but I make exceptions when it comes to moneylenders...so off we went. Turns out that its actually pretty fun! Also the loan officers are really nice guys who invited us to go to the beach with them this weekend. The beach is only about 45 minutes away from here, and the weather has been pretty nice (even though its winter) so we may go.

The only downside of Piura is the vast amount of mosquitos. I have over 20 bug bites on my face, and literally too many on my arms to keep track of. I don't even see them, but they seem to really be liking me :(

Nasca and heading towards Piura

After not having enough success in Ica, our research director requested that we move to a different coastal city called Piura. Its on the northern coast of Peru, so we have a cumulative 20 hour bus ride ahead of us (4 hours to Lima then 16 from Lima to Piura). Our director wants us to go there because there is an IPA office in Piura, which she believes will be helpful in having us find moneylenders. I am doubtful about this for two reason, 1. we had an IPA office in Cusco, and even though they tried to help us find moneylenders there, it didn't result in any type of moneylender jackpot and 2. we have spoken with the IPA people in Piura, and they do not seem to know anything about informal lending (although they have been very supportive and will try to be helpful when we are there!). In general, I just think informal moneylenders are going to be hard to find whereever we are, whether we are somewhere with an IPA office or not. Therefore, though I am hopeful about the prospects in Piura, I'm a little bummed out that instead of going south and getting to see Lake Titicaca (probably the only real complaint I have about this change of plans), we instead are heading north.

On a different note, we decided to take the 2 hours bus today to see the Nasca lines! The Nasca lines are are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert of Peru. They are a big mystery because nobody knows how they got there (though Mike and I speculated that its probably a tourist agency hoax ha). The only way you can see them is by going up in a plane. The planes are TINY, and even today, when the weather was perfect, I got a little motion sickness. To make me feel better, they gave me a cotton ball with alcohol on it to smell. I thought that was pretty weird! Up in flight we saw 11 differnt figures, there was a big spider, a condor, a hummingbird, a monkey, and my favorite, the astronaut. Some were harder to see than others, and I only managed to get pictures of a few!

Islas Ballestas and Huacachina

SEA LIONS!

PENGUINOS!

PELICANS!

Today, we took the day to accomplish some touristy ends (as moneylenders don't usually collect on sundays anyways). We woke up early and went to Pisco/Paracas to see las Islas Ballestas. They're known as 'the poor man's Galapagos Islands'. We could only see the from the boat we were on, but it was still cool to see penguins, LOTS of different kinds of birds, and sea lions basking on these big rock-like islands off the coast. We had a good time, and as you can see, I had befriended some pelicans by the end of the trip!

Once we got back to our hotel in Ica, we decided we should check out the nearby city of Huacachina during our downtime before the world cup final. Turns out it was a pretty cool place. There are huge sand dunes there (we still don't really understand why) and a pretty artificial lake plopped in the middle of the tiny town. We enjoyed watching some people attempt to sandboard down the slopes, then hiked down watched Espana's victory over Holland at a restaurant in town. Overall a very enjoyable day.

We had plans to leave Ica tomorrow and head to Nasca. However, our research director has decided that we should stay in Ica for a few more days and try to take down some borrower interviews. We're a little bummed, because there really isn't much to do in Ica. But, we're going to work hard the next few days so we can get enough data to leave soon without feeling too bad!

Ica

We've been here in Ica for 4 days now. Luckily for us, the hotel we're staying in has wifi. It has essentially saved us, since there is absolutely nothing to do in Ica (aside from looking for informal moneylenders) and the streets are dangerous at night.

The people in the markets here have been much friendlier than they were in Cusco. They actually invited us to a meeting at the market where the merchant association discussed issues they were having in the market. Since then, people appear to be trying to help us talk to moneylenders. We met with one, who turned out to be a HUGE talker, and between two days talked to us for about 4 hours. Of course the information we wanted to get out of him, he wasn't interested in divulging, but he did give us an interesting overview of his business and the type of personality this type of profession requires. He also informed us that most other moneylenders in the area were jealous and guarded people who often used violence to ensure repayment. Because of this, he told us they would either refuse to speak with us, lie to us if we spoke with them, and in general, be semi-dangerous to approach. We're taking that information with a grain of salt (considering they are his competitors) but also proceeding with caution.

We were also suprised yesterday to find out after interviewing the Caja Municipal de Ica, that these quasi-banks actually don't collect repayments daily in Ica. In Cusco, we found that banks (and these cajas) have changed there business model to target the market base that generally goes to informal moneylenders. The banks in Cusco send representatives to collect loans from the people in the market daily, to make it easier for these clients to repay. Here in Ica, however, the Cajas do not do this. We speculate it is because it is more dangerous to collect here. We heard that some moneylenders bring guns when they come to collect, and some banks that tried to collect daily at the markets were robbed shortly thereafter.

After finding out this information, we think that some people in the market are lying to us. Many people told us that they only work with the banks, though clearly if they are repaying daily, that is impossible. We think their lies are a mixture of protecting both themselves and us from the moneylenders here. Yesterday, I was sitting with a lady waiting for her to introduce me to a moneylender. While I was sitting there, a lady came up to her, collected money, signed off a card that said "prestamo" at the top, then moved on. I asked her if that lady was from a bank, she shook her head at me, then proceeded not to explain why I wasn't allowed to talk to her moneylender. About an hour later, she told me the lender we were waiting for must not be coming today, and that I should come back a different day. Clearly, she didn't want me to talk to her lender, though I'm still not sure why.

We're not sure how much longer we need to stay in Ica. We're thinking of moving onto our next coastal city either tomorrow or early next week. We'll probably either go to Pisco or Nasco next.

Heading to Ica

We have decided to go to Ica, a town on the coast of Peru. We leave tonight at 7 pm and are taking a 14 hour bus. I'm bringing my laptop in hopes that I can find some wireless there and get some work down. We've heard that the coastal cities aren't as safe as Cusco, but hopefully with diligence and some luck we'll be ok. I'm going to miss the creature comforts of being settled in Cusco, but our research has hit a bit of a dead end here, so it will be nice to be somewhere else in that respect. I plan on getting back to Cusco around the 24th. We're hoping to spend a week on the coast, then head down to Arequipa and over to Puno. I'll then have 2 weeks in Cusco (to do research in the surrounding little towns) before I head back stateside.

Not sure when I'll have internet to update again, but hopefully soon!!

Machu Picchu - July 2

I came back to Cusco on Tuesday and spent the day catching up with what had been going on here and organized what we wanted to do for the week. Vanessa and mom flew in the next afternoon. I went to the markets in the morning then met up with V and mom to see Qorikancha, a big Inca ruin right in Cusco. Then I went to do an interview with a moneylender and they toured the downtown area. We met up for dinner, tried alpaca meat, and Vanessa tried her first Pisco Sour.

The next day I went early to Chinchero, a town about an hour from Cusco and tried to see what the lending scheme was like there. We found that informal lending wasn't very common. Banks from Urubamba and Cusco have sent representatives to offer loans there, but there aren't any bank offices in the town. Instead, when people need capital for their businesses, they form ROSCAs or lending groups. They all put in a set amount each month (say 10 soles), and one person from the group gets it each month. The pot rotates from person to person. Some groups even pay interest into the pot, so if you got the pot last month, you have to put in an extra 5 soles the following month. At the end of the year, everyone benefits from the accumulated interest. We though this was very interesting, but because they don't have actual moneylenders there, we probably don't need to go back.

Mom and Vanessa spent the day seeing the Sacred Valley (Pisaq and Ollantaytambo), and I met up with them in Ollantaytambo. We stayed the night there, then woke up early the next morning to catch the train to Aguas Calientes. From Aguas Calientes, we took a bus up to Machu Picchu. It was gorgeous. We walked around in the ruins in the morning then hiked to the Intipunku (Sun Gate) and the Inca drawbridge after lunch. It was a lot of fun and a really good day.
The next day we went back to Cusco, then went up to see Sacsaywaman. Only Vanessa could go in because me and mom didn't have a boleto, but they are still pretty from the outside (being my third time seeing them from outside...). On the way home from Sacsaywaman, I almost got robbed! I bumped into a guy on the street and he took my wallet out of my jacket. I yelled at him, and he turned, looked at me, then dropped it and kept going. It was kind of a rattling experience since I have felt very safe here in Cusco, but I guess its a good reminder to always be paying attention.

Mom and Vanessa left this morning for Lima. My research director has been pressuring us to find a new location to do some research, so Heather and I were looking into that today. We're thinking of going down the southern coast, then maybe cutting in to see Puno and Lake Titicaca. We may be traveling for about 3 weeks total, though we're not sure yet.

La Amazonia

Got back yesterday from the Amazon. We stayed 2 days in Iquitos, the biggest city in the world with no highways connecting it to anywhere and 2 days in la selva (the rainforest). We had a great time. It was incredibly hot and humid there, but definitely worth the trip.

The first day we walked around the very small downtown then went to the Belen market. Its a famous market, which was overflowing with people. I went in to try to do some research. I was mildly successful and was able to talk to several people about informal lending in the jungle. We ate dinner then enjoyed the air-conditioning of our hotel.

The second days we took a boat on the Amazon into the jungle. We went to the lodge we were staying at (no air-conditioning, but well-equipped with mosquito nets to keep the bugs out) and ate lunch. After lunch we trekked through the selva, mike ate a bug that tasted like coconut, we went to a serpententario where they had monkeys and snakes and sloths to play with, we went on the boat to look for pink river dolphins (we saw a few from afar), swam in the amazon, then headed back for dinner. After dinner, I wasn't feeling well, but the rest of our group went off to look for alligators at night. They tell us we didn't miss much, as they didn't find alligators but did encounter a surplus of mosquitos.

The next day we woke up early and went bird watching. We saw a lot of cool birds, and I loved how tranquilo the morning was. After breakfast we headed to a local village. They told us about their tribe, then we danced with them a little bit before trekking back to our lodge. We then ate lunch and headed back to Iquitos.

The fourth day we went on a city tour. We also went to a manatee conservation center. We got to feed a baby manatee some milk! Then we took a tour of the zoo and saw some very large jungle animals in very small cages. We also checked out the artificial sandy beach and headed back to do some souvenier shopping before catching our flight back to Lima.

Some fun things about Iquitos:

- they don't really have normal cars there, because with the heat, non-air conditioned cars would be unbareable...therefore open buses, motorcycles, and mototaxis (motorcycles with an open cart attached to the back for passengers) fill the streets...i really liked the motortaxis...

- they have floating houses. some people build houses on the amazon and live out there on the water. according to our guide, 'they bathe in the water, cook with the water, swim in the water, and drink the water'...i was very surprised that they can actually drink the river water...

- i would say, on average, everyone in iquitos eats about 3 ice cream cones a day

- we took too many pretty pictures to load here, but dispersed are a few

Hospital --> Lima

The altura was a bit too much for Mike. The second day he was here, there was a huge nationwide strike in Peru. We couldn't do much as no cars were allowed on the roads nor out of the city. So we decided to go on horseback to the 4 ruins close to Cusco. It was gorgeous walking around on the hills by Cusco. We stopped several times as our guide gave us the history of each 4 sites.

By the time we got back, however, Mike wasn't feeling well. We had scheduled to leave on a 4-day trek to Machu Picchu the following morning at 6 am. After having dinner at a friends house, we turned in early. Mike then proceeded to sleep talk all night and began to burn up from fever. He was also coughing which I thought was weird. When I tried waking him up at 5:30 to go on our trek, he was babbling about 'needing to win' before we could leave. After calling my mom, I decided to cancel the trek, let him sleep for a little longer, then go to a clinic. At around 9 in the morning, he was completely unresponsive. I would try to wake him up, then he would blink at me, roll over and go back to sleep. I had a doctor come to check him out. After seeing a blood oxygen level of 45% (most people in Cusco are around 90-95%, most people at normal altitude are 96-99%), he told me he had to be taken to the clinic immediately and put on oxygen. We had to carry him downstairs and to a wheelchair. Luckily the clinic was only 2 blocks from my house.

After spending the day in the clinic, the doctor told us that we had to get to Lima as soon as possible and that there was no other alternative. Mike had liquid in his lungs, and if he was taken off of the oxygen, his oxygen level would plummet again. Medical evacuation could have cost as much as $90,000, so the very amable doctor said he would fly with us to Lima on a commercial flight. We left the next morning, and Mike was connected to an oxygen tank the whole time.
We're now in Lima. The 1st day we had to just relax, but now Mike is feeling completely fine. We went to a soccer game, Cristal vs some other team. The players were kinda lazy, but the singing and enthusiasm of fans at a Latin American soccer game always makes it worth the trip. I also tried to go some research here yesterday. People are not very helpful. We were in a mercado, and people would straight up just not talk to me when I told them I was an American student. I think because of the high microcredit infiltration in the city that informal lending is more looked down upon here. After a discouraging day in the city, Mike and I made the impulsive decision to go to the Amazon.

He was bummed about not getting to see Machu Picchu, so we thought this to be a good alternative. I have also heard that because of the lack of alternative forms of credit in the Amazon regions that lending there is very informal. I'm hoping to gain some info before leaving and to talk to people while I am there.

Thats about it. I've heard the Amazon is amazing, so will be posting some photos after I get back (this Saturday)!

Mike is here!

Mike got in yesterday morning! He was pretty tired all day though because he had a pretty terrible flight path (about 30 hours of travel total!). There was a festival in the centro yesterday so we stopped by for a little while. Lots of school aged kids were dressed up in traditional Peruvian clothing and dancing in processions in the streets. We also went to the market in search of moneylenders. We found a few but none of them were very interested in talking to us. We also ran into someone from a small bank. It appears that some banks have seen the need for smaller daily- collected loans for people in the marketplace and are sending agents to collect repayments daily. Its very interesting that banks are seeing the demand for these loans and are taking strides to fill this gap.

There is a huge nationwide strike today and tomorrow, which I believe to be against the export of domestically produced oil to other countries (though I'm not entirely sure). Absolutely everything is closed down. No cars or buses are allowed to be on the streets and most stores are closed. People are marching around making bonfires and blowing whistles. We were going to try to utilize these 2 free days then the weekend (so 4 days total) to take a trekking adventure to Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, however, the tourist agency called us late last night telling us that one of the towns we were going to pass through in the jungle also decided to strike, so we have to postpone our adventure. Hopefully we'll still get to do something fun, and obviously we'll still be visiting Machu Picchu this weekend!

Week 2

After getting an e-mail from our research coordinator asking us how we were doing and if we had some field notes we wanted to send her, we decided to buckle down and start trying to make contact with moneylenders. We had a person in our office call the first three moneylender listings from the newspaper, and after three refusals to meet with us, decided it was best if we tried calling instead. With this we got relatively better responses. It seems as though people feel more comfortable talking to foreign students than stranger Peruvians (who may be trying to get them in trouble) about their business. We have called several and a few agreed to meet sometime in the coming week. I imagine its going to be harder to get an actual time to meet with them, but its encouraging that they didn't just hang up on us.

One of the people that we actually did meet with told us that he didn't have time for an interview, but if we explained what we were doing to him, he could ask his "head moneylender" boss if it would be ok to meet with us. We're hoping to hear from him by tomorrow. We also called and met with this very nice lender who gave us great insight into how his moneylending business operates. The first day we met with him he had to leave after 30 minutes, but agreed to meet the next day. We went up to a touristy site and brought some food to munch on while talking to him. He seems very friendly and could be very helpful in contacting other lenders as well.

We also went to 2 different markets hoping that some of the people selling things in the market would help us find some lenders. Though a lot of people were very helpful and informative, they all seemed to think that moneylenders came by at different times, so we weren't able to meet with any. We plan to go back to the markets to try to gain contacts from there.

This past weekend was good though. We made dinner on Friday and Saturday night at friends apartments and just hung out. Also Saturday afternoon, we met with a moneylender at Sacsaywaman, a ruins site, but didn't get to go in b/c we hadn't boughten a boleto turistico. It was still pretty from afar. On Sunday we took a bus up to Pisaq, ate some dinner and enjoyed the market. It was a very nice market, the most touristy I've seen here, with some nice alpaca gear and lots of silver jewlery. We're going to go back to the Pisaq market to do some "work" when Mike's here.

Yesterday was slightly less successful. We had to buy bedding for our rooms, which ended up being more of a hassle then we expected it to be. It takes small things like needing a blanket and not knowing where to go that reminds you that you are indeed a foreigner. We're hoping to get a few calls tonight from the local MFI we're working with regarding setting up interviews this week.

Here are a few photos from Sacsaywaman...the highly requested llama photo and one from the ruins (from the outside, since we couldn't go in...)

Found a place to live!

After my last post, I promptly fell very ill from altitude sickness. Apparently only waiting 3 days before going on a 3 mile run at 12,000 feet isn't enough time. I was pretty sick the next two days, nauseous/headache/couldn't really eat/sleep, but have since then recovered and am doing well!

We finally found a place to live too! After searching all weekend and almost deciding to stay long-term in a hostel, we were put in contact with a British economist who does freelance development work (and knows people from IPA) who has a few extra rooms. It has hot water, internet, a kitchen we can use, and two extra bedrooms. The only problem is that one of the bedrooms is suuuuper tiny, but we'll make do. It's nice to not be vagabonds and to have somewhere to go, we'll probably move in either tomorrow or the following day.

Work was put on hold yesterday while we searched for apartments, but we've still been making some progress. We've found that "prestamos de dinero" are actually advertised in the local newspapers. People offer to give money with TV's, computers, kitchen appliances, ect used as collateral. I also saw cars being accepted today, which makes me wonder how many cars a lender can rack up while extending these loans. Another interesting thing we've come across is called 'anticresis'. People actually give up their houses or apartments or even just rooms of houses in exchange for money. If they default on their loan, the creditor can seize the entire house/apartment/room (though I'm not sure how the room logistically works out...). Some are sad to read because they are giving up their house in order to pay for medical expenses. This is, again, all advertised in the local paper.

We're not sure on the legality of these things, what is the interest charged on these loans, or how the collateral actually works, but we hope to be able to talk to some of these people in the coming days. We're not sure if they are going to talk to us, but we're hoping to woo them over with our bad spanish before they hang up on us. We don't really have a second plan of attack yet, so hopefully this works out.

Day 4

I've been in Cusco now for 4 days. I've been pretty busy getting used to the city, meeting some cool new people, getting going on my research, and apartment hunting!

The first day we looked at two apartment options. The first was unfurnished, soo undo-able, and the second was more of a mulitple room set than an apartment, the kitchen was on the roof, and she didn't have enough rooms available. The following day we didn't really have any better luck, so we're going to try to look at some more options today. For the mean time, we're staying in the IPA Cusco director's apartment for the next few days (b/c he's on a trip) until we can figure something out. This apartment is really nice, and it has internet. The only down-side is that a crazy cat that is actually kind of demonic lives here too. Last night it somehow turned on the faucet, so I woke up to a some-what flooded bathroom at 6 am. Cool cat.

Work has been going well. We have written and translated our survey, and have gotten a few leads on ways to get in contact with moneylenders. I think we'll start talking to people on Monday.

Highlights thus far. I've met some pretty cool 'gringos' here, and a lot of them are working either in my office or in some type of MFI, so we're all kind of on the same page- which is conforting in a new city. Also, the second day I was here, there was a 'feriado' (holiday) for Corpus Christi. All of the differnt zonas in Cusco have a saint which they paraded from their centros down to the Plaza de Armas in the middle of Cusco. There were TONS of people everywhere. We went up to a 2nd story bar to watch all the commotion from a pick-pocket safe location (see attached photo).

Also, my highlight for today has been finding a place to run. There is this great stadium-like area with a bunch of cement soccer fields, a pool, an indoor basketball arena, and a big track and field. It's only 2 soles (about US$0.70) to use the field, so I went out this morning to check it out. It was nice, breathing was a little tricky, but it was good to get out there and get some endorphines flowing again!

Well thats about it, our landlord came to change our lock this morning because I guess the key to the outside door that everyone in our building has, also opens our apartment door, so he decided that was a bad thing. We're waiting for him to get back, then going into the city to do some apartment shopping/looking around!

Made it to Cusco

Just landed in Peru, and I'm sitting in the IPA office here in Cusco! Cusco seems nice so far, not as urban as I had expected, but I believe this office is about 20 blocks from the center, and as I've only been here about an hour, I haven't seen much yet. The air is a little thin, but hopefully adapting to being 2 miles high won't be too hard!

Bogota was really fun. It was nice to visit with family and soak in a few days of spanish before jumping into my internship. I ate at a few yummy restaurants that my 'primo' Mauricio took me to, visited Bogota Beer Company de nuevo, and went to a concert to see my 'primita' perform at her university. Overall a very good visit. I've attached a photo from BBC; we went out to celebrate Diego's 20th b-day (about a month late...).

Pre-Departure

Hello all,

I wanted to (and I have to) create a blog this summer to track the on-goings of my internship in Peru.

I leave in 2 days, and I'm very excited. I have bought everything I need, and I have started to pack everything up. I am actually taking a pit stop between L.A. and Peru to visit some family in Colombia. I'll be in Bogota for 3 days. I get into Cusco (or Cuzco...I've seen both spellings multiple times), Peru on June 2nd. I will be there until August 8th!

In Cusco, I will start my research for the summer. I am studying informal money lending in Peru, aka meeting and interviewing people that lend money to those whom either choose to or are unable to get loans from formal banks. I will be asking them about the interest rates they set, the number of loans granted, the value of the loans they lend, their target markets and screening protocols, among many other things. The idea is to study their business model and to track any trends that can be found in the informal lending sector. I am doing this research with the organization, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). They sent interns last summer to six different countries to do the same study. The goal is to collect definitive research on money lending around the world.

I am going to try to study at least three different regions throughout Peru (one rural, one urban, and at least one that has microfinance influence) in order to gain a more encompassing view of the sector. I am working with another student Heather, who goes to Yale and will also be starting her senior year in the fall. We have also been in contact with the IPA office in Cusco, and they have seemed very helpful thus far.

At summer's end, we will be writing a report on the aspects of money lending practices that we have discovered and identifying themes and conundrums in the business. We also will compile a STATA-compatible dataset of the data gathered during the research. We hope to get into contact with money lenders quickly after getting there as we only have 10 weeks to do all our research!