In the morning I got up at about 6.15 a.m. and decided to go jogging. After a quick glance to Google Maps I decided to try to reach the beach area which I estimated to be about 5 kilometers back and forth. It was seven in the end, but really nice. In the morning there is not much traffic, at least not in the smaller streets of Miraflores, I met a lot of other people jogging, walking or otherwise exercising. At the beach there are lots of sports equipment and everything can just be used for free, which I consider to be pretty cool and will definitely integrate into the next jogging tour on the weekend 🙂 Thanks to Google Maps I didn’t even get lost, what usd to happen to me in Munich.
Today my right to IBM went really smooth, knowing the right number I immediately found the right bus and it wasn’t even crowded. Door to door I need about 1 hour and it costs s/. 1.50 which is about 0.45€. At IBM I’m getting to know more and more people although the language barrier is a slight problem sometimes. Most of them speak good english and I do understand a good deal of Spanish, but speaking is still quite difficult.
Another challenge I underestimated was finally buying a SIM-Card to get mobile internet and be able to call collegues for a reasonable price (my O2 roaming was at 3 € per minute). I had been to Wong several time before, but the phone shops were always quite crowded. Now I realized I would have to wait so I joined the line. I decided to buy a prepaid Movistar card, because the internet package is way cheaper than with Claro (at a lower volume limit which is ok for me). I did not expect any verification, but luckily I had my ID with me which had to be copied and the SIM card had to be activated using a difficult procedure of sending SMS messages to certain numbers containing the ID number. Still that’s not enough, the SIM card only works for 2 weeks during which I have to present my ID at the headquarter of Movistar (no joke) for it to continue working. Fortunately it is only a few blocks away. Additionally I discovered that the SIM-Card only works for Edge, not UMTS, but well I am in Lima.
Yesterday I was lucky again to get a ride home, today I had to take the bus which was really crowded, so I had to watch my Thinkpad, but of course nothing happened.
I already have good list of things for the weekend 🙂