All good things must come to an end

It was a bitter sweet moment when I placed my foot back on American soil. I was happy to be returning home to see family, yet I already missed the food, weather and people I met in Peru.

GLOBASE was an amazing experience to take my MBA skills and apply them to a business in Peru. Working with Mili Blume and her staff was a mutually beneficial experience. I learned about the Peruvian business climate, exportation strategies, and how businesses compete on a local level. Hopefully, Mili benefited from our consulting recommendations in attending trade shows, e-commerce, and inventory management. I cherish my relationship with Mili and hope to remain in touch with her for a very long time.

Finally, I cannot forget to mention the two highlights of my trip; Machu Pichu and Paragliding. I am forever thankful for the opportunity to see one of the 7 Wonders of the World as well as having my heart beat through my shirt while floating 300 feet above the ground below.

The next time I got to Peru, I will bring my wife and consider buying only a 1 way ticket!

Guess who?

Our hotel hosted a surprise guest for a private party tonight...Marc Anthony, a.k.a. Mr. Jennifer Lopez. Although he was here in our hotel, we had a scheduled event to meet one of our distinguished alum. I must admit, meeting Marc Anthony would have been nice, but we had a great time meeting Alphonso Brazzini, a Kelley School of Business alum from 1969. Mr. Brazzini is the owner of the JW Marrriott here in Lima. Senor Brazzini is an amazing host and shared many of his personal stories with us. His hotel is the best in Lima and has hosted President Bush on several occasions. As a matter of fact, Colin Powell was staying at this hotel on the day of September 11th. Spending the evening with Mr. Brazzini at his beautiful hotel is another example of the great time we are having in Lima, Peru.



BTW, you can check out the JW Marriott in Lima here:

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/limdt-jw-marriott-hotel-lima/

My first time...

Today was a day of firsts. We traveled to lunch with our client, Mili Blume, and dined at an upscale traditional Peruvian restaurant. Marcos ordered a very exotic dish complete with cow stomach, cow heart, chicken heart and assorted other meats. Mike Seeger opted for the swordfish and Lucia Chen had fried porkchops.

Now it's time to guess what I ate? Okay, okay, I admit; I did not have anything too exotic (a variation of steak), but I did try the swordfish and chicken hearts! The chicken hearts were not too bad-they actually tasted like sausage.

The second first I had was venturing to a custom tailor. My roommate Eric and I purchased 2 custom dress shirts each. The feeling of getting measured by a tailor for perfectly made-to-fit shirts was awesome. I may end up going back for a custom suit...who knows?

Photos as promised

Various photos from our travels thus far:

Why we are here

Although this is spring break, the real reason we are here is for our GLOBASE project. GLOBASE is a course that matches up a small Peruvian company with MBA students from Kelley. Yesterday we met with Apomipe, which is a non profit agency that serves rural companies in Peru. We had a presentation from Inter Cooperation which is a division of Apomipe which specifically works with natural resources in Peru. You can see more about them here:



http://www.apomipe.org.pe/contenidos/que_es_apomipe.php



My team is working with a silver jewelry manufacturer, Mili Blume. I will fill in the details about her shop later today. For now, check out her website at:



http://www.miliblume.com/



After Apomipe, we decided to go back to the hotel to change clothes and then depart for dinner. Several members of our group found several restaurant choices about 1/2 mile away. The weather was great, so we decided to walk instead of taking a taxi. After watching a beautiful sunset over the Pacific we decided to eat at Magoe's restaurant. The restaurant was situated high on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We couldn't ask for a better location.



The group all ordered the local drink favorite-a Pisco. I am not sure what is was made of, however it was quite tasty. Dinner was a variety of ceviche, calamari, and kabobs. The food was by far the freshest you could imagine. I also became aquanted with Cusquenos, the local beer-similar to Bud Light.



After dinner, we decided to make a "quick" stop at the casino. The interesting part about the casino is that they do not accept soles (the local currency), they only accepted American dollars. It really didn't matter because I only ended up donating my $25 to the Peruvian economy.



Next up...the details from Mili Blume. Buenos tardes!

Oh how sweet it is ...

Well, we finally made it to Lima! Our hotel, Casa Andina, is pictersque.

So of course a few of us just could not get a good night sleep w/o checking out the town ...

We found a 24 market and decided to purchase water, juice and some fruit ...
A Brazilian friend of mine suggested we try golden passion fruit also know as maracuya. The aroma of this fruit alone was inticing but the taste ... Oh how sweet it is ... the taste was perfect - a blend of the bitter, in the seeds, and the sweet in the juice--

... Until tomorrow

Lo siento...

"Lo siento, digame in ingles por favor." These were my first words when we landed in Peru. I was apologizing to someone for my lack of understanding because they were speaking too fast in spanish. Stepping foot onto the South American continent for the first time was great. After a 6 1/2 hour flight, I am happy to be off the airplane.

After spending 40 minutes in immigration, we loaded a bus ride to our hotel. Our tour guide, Ralph, shared a few intersting facts along the way; Lima is home to 9 million people (that's 1/3 of the entire population of Peru), it never rains in Lima, and Lima is directly on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Travling through Lima I noticed several familiar signs including KFC, Papa John's, Citibank, and Starbuck's (are they everywhere?)


The hotel is great-free WIFI, nice stores, and a great bar/lounge. I am thankful to be on this trip and I look forward to the next 9 days...until next time, Adios!

Baba de Caracol ... Who knew?

One of the many reasons why Kelley has been a good choice for me ...

The opportunity came quickly in the year ...

Should I spend my spring break doing the normal stuff students do or will I join a group of students who wanted to positively change the world?

The choice was easy ...

I am so excited to be traveling to Peru with 20 other Kelley students ... Myself and team members (Monica, Matt and Kunal) will be consulting a small Peruvian company, Galeon Suppy, on an engagement. They sell an ingredient for skin care called, Baba de Caracol.

Theres so much to tell but now I have to board my flight or I will be left ...