IAS 2009 Live

IAS 2009 Live

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. I was glad that I could still see it the day it came out, despite not seeing it at midnight! I went in my 'muggle' t-shirt I got from the HP exhibit in Chicago :-) It turns out that people in Lima were excited to see it too, because the 8:10 and 9:30 subtitled AND dubbed shows were sold out! I ended up seeing the 11:00 pm show... which means that I got to wait around a lot. Interesting fact: the translation of the title in the the Spanish version is variously written as both Harry Potter y el Misterio del Principe and Harry Potter y el Misterio del Principe Mestizo. This is interesting to me because the first just says '...and the mystery of the prince' and the second says '...the mixed prince'. 'Mestizo' can mean 1/2 Spanish and 1/2 indigenous, or just mixed in general in Latin America. In the English version, the 'half-blood prince' is actually a play on words that doesn't translate. Too bad, but I think a good try for cultural adaption.

I ended up going to the bookstore that was in the movie theater complex and getting a great Lima map (it shows the block number so I can find practically anything!) and a book of Peruvian myths and legends in Spanish. I still had a ton of time so I got some helado de lucuma, or lucuma ice cream, which I have never found outside Peru. It's got a unique flavor that I like!

The movie was of course great. I hadn't re-read the sixth book before seeing it, so I couldn't pick up right away what things were missing, aside from a couple memories of Tom Riddle, some quidditch, and a major fight scene in the end in which a character gets hurt and it plays a role in the seventh book. It demonstrates how the Weasly family has sacrificed for the overall story, but they also added a scene that showed the Weasly house burning down, which had the same effect. The scene in which everyone raised their lit wand near the end was also different than the book, and I thought better. They also had an annoyingly high number of scenes that demonstrated teen angsty love. I didn't remember it being so annoying in the book... Overall, it was a good night and I had fun, even though I was by myself :-)

Map of Lima Locations

View Lima Locations in a larger map

I'll update this as I visit new locations!
Here's a link: http://bit.ly/LimaMap

Pura Vida! Our trip to Costa Rica

After a long year of full-time grad school and working 40+ hours/week, I needed a vacation! Gonzalo and I discovered a cheap flight to San Jose, Costa Rica and decided to go for 6 days, 5 nights. We stayed in San Jose the first two nights, near the Arenal Volcano the next two nights, and again in San Jose the last night.

We are very fortunate that we speak Spanish, because I think that made our trip a lot more smooth and we got a lot of great advice from local people. Our fitst night, we walked to the closest grocery store to our hostel and saw a few things we hadn't seen before, especially in the produce section. We asked a fellow customer what some things were and she showed us a bunch of yummy fruits. We also saw a pastry in the bakery with a filling we had never heard of, and the baker walked us over to the produce section and showed us what it was! Additionally, whenever we asked for directions, recommendations for restaurants or routes to take, we got more information than we were even asking for. Pura Vida indeed! (pura vida = pure life, or something like 'pure living')

We ended up renting a car for two days, which was totally worth it. It was a Daihatsu, a brand we'd never heard of, but after the trip and the crazy roads we sometimes found ourselves on, we were wondering how to buy stock in it! There was plenty of room for two and it was a manual transmission and 4-wheel drive, which was absolutely necessary more than once.



The highlights of our trip were ziplining, visiting the Arenal Volcano, and driving around Laguna Arenal. We didn't get a chance to visit either coast this trip, but we've already made up our minds to return to Costa Rica. The Caribbean/Gulf coast is supposed to be great for ecotourism, with the Tortuguero national park (tortuga=turtle). The Pacific coast is the more touristy coast with the nicest beaches and surfing. That's where my sister and her fiancee are staying on their honeymoon in September - we're so jealous!!

Las Palmas Restaurant in San Jose, Costa Rica

We ate at a second Peruvian restaurant in San Jose on our last night there. It was far worse quality-wise than Machu Picchu. It was more expensive (it cost $40 US!) and the food just wasn't as good.

I had a large vegetable soup that was way too salty and a fresh limeade. The limeade was really delicious, but so were all the fresh juices we had had in Costa Rica to that point. Gonzalo had some fish and it was ok. When we asked how they made their ceviche, they said they made it with vinegar (not fresh lime juice). EW! Obviously we did not order it.

If you're looking for Peruvian food in San Jose, Machu Picchu, despite the super-dorky name, is your best bet. Read my review of it here.