Searching for donuts...

Saturday was an interesting day...I forgot to tell the room service (yes that's what I called it:P) that I was going to sleep in so low and behold at 7:45AM they roll up with my breakfast.  I barely make it to the door and get it open in my bleary eyed state and she looks at this disheveled guy and knows immediately I should come later tomorrow.  Some how I manage to convey to her that she should come by at 10AM on Sunday.  I go back to bed immediately and don't get up until 9ish.  Even then it takes nearly an hour for me to get myself going...that was how badly I didn't want to work. 

I make it to the office and do some work before we head off for lunch.  Before going to lunch I learn that the network is going down at 2pm so I should just go back to the hotel and work from there.  This is a great idea, because I'm not sure if I have told you guys but there is massive construction going on in the office building.  It is driving me insane.  When I say construction I'm not talking about hammering I'm talking about constant drilling and pneumatic hammers.  Continuously.  Friday was abysmal.  I thought my head was going to explode.  I can handle the hammers, paint smell, and all the other noises.  What I cannot deal with is the drilling.  Somehow whatever frequency they are drilling at shakes me to the very core.  I'm talking worse than fingernails on a chalkboard which I can deal with.  This was like pure misery.  So Saturday lunch...yeah I had Inca Kola...it was good.  Interesting stuff.  Tastes kind of like bubble gum.  I know at least one person reading this is cringing and I know exactly who she is.  Back to the office.  Sorry about the disjointed post, but it's all stream of consciousness.  I leave the office and go back to the hotel.  I attempt to work and realize they are painting the hallway.  The desk is in line with my door and the paint fumes are coming under the door.  I go and lay down and pass out.  I'm out for 2 hours.  I wake up in time to get a call that it's now dinner time.  I swear this is all I do.  Eat.  Sleep.  Work.  Well until today, but you already read about that. 

We make it to Cafe Beirut, which has some great Mediterranean food.  I love it.  Falafal, hummus, tabouleh, etc.  Somewhere in our conversation during dinner I mention how walking around the other night I saw a Dunkin' Donuts.  I can hear the gallery.  I'm in Lima and I want Dunkin' Donuts.  Yes.  This past week there was a welcome breakfast for the new employees that had been promoted for a few weeks.  They were going to have donuts.  I was excited.  Then Friday I decide to come here.  Naturally, I'm disappointed.  I get over it.  Until I see it.  You know the sign.  I have a weakness for donuts.  There I said it.  So began the search for donuts.  I could have gotten by without searching and waited until I returned to the States.  However, my manager was adamant.  For lack of a better phrase he was on a mission from god.  I was given a tour of the area with the idea that we find a donut shop that he knew was in this mad tourist area.  The area was Parque Kennedy.  Lots of bars and restaurants.  We made are way through the park to a street known as Calle de Pizzas (Pizza Street).  It was literally that: a street of pizza restaurants.  Apparently it is preyed on by women of all kinds looking for tourists and looking of money.  So we went through and I wasn't impressed.  We continued on looking for a donut shop.  Along the way we made our way back to Larcomar.  At Larcomar we found a Dunkin Donuts only to find out that it was empty.  We began to head home along the water.  The manager stopped at his place and we continued on to our area.  Along the way we passed the Dunkin Donuts that I had originally seen and it was open.  My manager later asked me why we didn't get any.  I told him that it was midnight and those donuts had been made at least 15 hrs earlier; I could wait. 

So now a few mental notes I made along the way.  First it's amazingly safe out along the water at 11pm.  We've already discussed the cozy couples along the walk and there they were again.  I know if I was out this late at night along this stretch I would feel a little uncomfortable, but they didn't look it at all.  Clearly it was safe since there was regular police patrols and plenty of security guards in nearby buildings.  Next it was very clean.  As clean as many American cities and easily comparable to Singapore.  Finally on the walk from Parque Kennedy to Larcomar we passed some kind of electronics shop or computer repair place.  They had in front of their building embedded in cement old computer parts.  Monitors (without the glass), motherboards, and who knows what else sitting in cement on the ground in front of the shop.  Odd.