Just like that! We have a date!
Some of you have requested that I capture the steps we are taking
in order to prepare for this journey. Of
course, I am happy to oblige, and welcome anyone who may be planning to embark
upon your own personal ‘expat’ experience to take pieces of what has worked for
us so far and incorporate it into your own adventure. Considering that for the last eight years I
have worked for a company that researches and shares Best Practices and Benchmarking
metrics, it is easy for me to get on board with this request. So here it goes; the long and short of
it…well…the first part anyway! :-)
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| Looking out from the Temple of the Condor at Machu Picchu |
*****
Before I dive into the ‘whos’, the ‘hows’ and the ‘whats’ of our
move, I should take a quick second to address the number one most often asked
question we get.
“Why
Lima?”
As mentioned above, we get asked this
question a lot, and the answer can be summed up in two words:
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Virgilio Martinez's Central, No. 4 on San Pellegrino's
Top 50 Best Restaurants in the World.
Lima, Peru |
The. Food.
Nestled amid the Andes Mountains and Amazon
Rainforest, Lima has access to some of the most unique and freshest produce in
the world, which creates an amazing food culture that locals are not only
rightfully proud of, but ecstatic to be actively entrenched in. To them, food is everything, and their ardor
for showcasing Peru's beautiful country through their ingredients is
endearingly apparent in nearly every conversation you have. For LJ, the food hooked him right from the
start. However, for him to get me
fully on board, he had to do a little more convincing.
Step One: Convince your Wife. Fully Convince Her
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| Corvina Ceviche and Parihuela near the Mercado Surquillo |
After we made the decision to set
our sights on Peru we quickly jumped into action and began to develop a game
plan. And when I say 'we' I fully mean LJ jumped into action and began to
develop a game plan. I, on the other
hand, scurried into my typical ‘denial
mode’ method of operation: I completely ignored any and all attempts to
talk about our decision. It quickly became clear to LJ that he still had some convincing to do.
Two years ago, we traveled to Peru
on our Honeymoon. Our initial goal, of
course, was to visit Machu Picchu and the surrounding valleys. (If you haven't been, this trip is a bucket
list must!) We rented a motorcycle and spent a little over 2 weeks
exploring, eating, gallivanting, and generally soaking up the tiny rural
villages speckled amongst the beautiful Peruvian countryside. It was the most amazing, exquisitely
picturesque honeymoon either of us ever could have hoped for. It was the journey of a lifetime.
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| Machu Picchu |
I’m fairly certain it was around
this time that the thought of us one day moving to Peru initially nestled its
seedling roots into the depths of LJ's ever-active brain. Although I knew Peru would always be a magical
place for us, I never imagined living there. Let's face it, I am a Houston girl. A sane person who has spent my entire life in
a place that has always felt like home.
My family, my friends, my job, my life are all in Texas!
Ever
the artist, LJ began to quickly incorporate little snippets into daily
conversation in order to build the credibility of his whole little ‘moving to
Lima’ idea.
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Mijuna Wasi, our favorite restaurant in
Santa Teresa, Valle Sagrado, Peru |
"Hey, did you know Lima is the 3rd largest
city in the Americas? Nearly twice the
size of Houston, it’s not rural at all…its incredibly modern!”
“It says here that Peru currently has one of the
fastest growing economies in the world!
Did you know that?"
"You've always loved living in Houston’s
Heights neighborhood, right? Well, there
is a district in Lima called Barranco that is
very similar: It’s a historic, artsy community, with a population focused on
preserving the old culture and architecture of the city. We should check it out. I think you’d love
it!”
"You know what? Lima has a huge surfing population,
people come from all over the world to
surf the Peruvian coast! Wouldn't it be
fun to do a surf-shack themed restaurant?"
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Trying to try Cuy (guinea pig) in Cusco.
Sorry guys. Can't get on board with this yet. Or ever. |
Oh
trust me. There are plenty of these
examples, but I think you get the idea.
Haha!
Try as
he might, I still had a million questions for every fact he threw at me.
“Where would we live? What kind of houses do they have there?”
“What about my family and friends? How many of them do you think will actually
come visit?”
“What about Winston? What would we need to do to ensure he could
go with us?”
“Would I feel safe? What is the crime like there?”
I could
go on for days with all the, ‘what abouts’, ‘what ifs’ and ‘what woulds’. They traipsed about in my mind as if they
were little ballerina fairies in a performance of Peter-Pan, drunk on the pixie
dust of responsibility and worry.
Eventually, it became apparent that we would need to make another trip. This time we would stay in Lima, and truly
explore the livability of this historic city in order to determine whether this
move was something we could feasibly do without ruining our marriage.
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| Roads? Where we're going we don't need... roads. ;) |
Step Two: Trek
back to Lima a Second Time
I can't stress enough how
pivotal this second trip was to us. Be
it opportune luck, well thought-out prowess, shared passions or synchronous
serendipity, the connections we made were nothing short of miraculous. A dear
friend of mine once told me to pay attention to the small, repeated signs and
coincidences around you, as this is God trying to communicate directly with you.
I wish I could
lay out for you the many fortuitous happenstances that came to pass during this
second trip. However, doing so would turn this blog into a book, and that's a
task for a later date. ;) For now, it will have to suffice for me to say that the events which started as quick introductions
led to suggestions which in turn led to friendships which led to connections
and climatically led to a path so clearly and undeniably laid out that we knew
this trip was divinely set in motion eons before we could even mutter the words
"buen viaje". By the time we
boarded the plane back to Houston I knew it was only a matter of time before
Peru would be our new home.
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| The Hot Springs in Santa Teresa, Peru |
Once we were back in the
States, it was time to dig into the details so that our dream could really
begin to take shape. How much capital
would we need? What kind of food should
we serve? Should we open another food
truck, or should it be a brick and mortar restaurant? Are we absolutely certain we’ve fully explored
all the areas of Lima that may be feasible? What about work Visas, how do they work? Should we ship all of our kitchenware over or buy everything once we get there?
As the questions kept climbing on top of one another, creating a
mountain of trepidation higher than the mighty Machu Picchu itself, we packed
our bags once again.
Step Three:
trek back to lima… Third Time’s a Charm
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| Our Machu Picchu Tour Guide |
Yes, you read that right.
I know it must seem like a third trip was a bit
excessive. In fact, at one point we had
decided against it, figuring that we should save the expense of yet another trip; just get to Peru and let
everything work itself out. I mean, it
had worked out for us so far, right?
Well, if we were just moving
to a foreign country, that would be one thing, but we were moving to a foreign
country and investing our lives
savings (and then some) into a business…in a foreign country. A country with a notoriously byzantine
bureaucratic system of foreign rules, regulations and policies. Thankfully we were advised to go ahead and
make the third trip, and quickly realized not doing so would have been a vast
and costly mistake indeed. We found out
some things this time regarding getting the business open that could have been
fairly steep stumbling blocks had we just jumped in head first. This third trip was really essential to our
success in Peru.
Looking back, if we were
to call the first
trip 'Honeymoon Heaven', and the second trip 'Crystal Clear Kismet', the third
one would be dubbed 'Restaurant R&D'.
Through targeted discussions
with multiple people, both inside and outside the restaurant business, we
received priceless advice on what to look for, what communities would work best
for our concept, and what to incorporate that would help make our restaurant
appealing both to locals and to fellow expats.
We finalized our company name and concept, explored local markets, and
deepened previously made friendships. We
also hired Sergio Vargas, an immigration attorney who was referred to us on the
"Living in Lima Expat Support" Facebook group. Hiring Sergio was one of the best
decisions we have made yet and brought with it the realization of this trip’s
importance in the overall scheme.
Wrangling your way through
the ins and outs of starting a business from scratch can be quite overwhelming,
even in your native country. I have no
doubt it would have been nearly impossible without Sergio's advice, insight,
and experience. Thanks to him, we will
have our Carnet Extranjerias (Green
Cards) ready when we get to Lima in July.
We already have our company set up and registered, bank accounts opened
and we can immediately sign contracts upon arrival. These are things that take a couple of months,
minimum, and had we not gotten a jump start, we would have been spinning our
wheels, caught up in bureaucratic red tape.
There are countless intricacies that we would not have known of or
thought about on our own.
Even with all that we have done, I realize this is only the beginning. From here, it is full-speed ahead, and the
countdown is on. Still to come: purging,
packing, shipping, purchasing, renting, opening, marketing... oh yes... this
story has truly only just begun. I'll do
my best to capture it all and share pivotal lessons learned succinctly as
possible. So make sure and check back
in. It's sure to be an adventure.
:)
