Comas is in the "northern cone" of Lima and is actually much closer than Huaycan- only takes about 50 min to get there by taxi. The streets are generally paved and they have several major supermarkets within the municipality (the true sign of civilization in Peru). This "Metro" supermarket is my landmark in Comas:
The weather has definitely warmed-up, especially in these outlying areas, and it's sunny and in the high 70's during the day. I thought I would step things up and wear a dress (up until this point it's been excursion wear out in the field). This dress hits at the knee and is fairly conservative, or so I thought. Here's a pic (it's the black one on the right):
I knew as soon as I started walking down the main street in Comas that the dress was mistake. Apparently, showing any part of my legs is asking for trouble. When I got to the office, no one said anything about the dress- at first. But, one of the loan officers asked me to fix a photo of a borrower using PhotoShop b/c she certainly wasn't taking me to his (the borrower's) neighborhood dressed like
that. Oh dear.
Yes, and so went the day, me wanting to pull-on a pair of pants, avoiding eye-contact with anyone on the street and pulling the dress down whenever possible. The security guard at this office was a big fan of the dress: his name is Charlie and I first wondered if he had some sort of developmental disability, but I now think he just has a goofy smile. He told me today that I "looked like Barbie" and I turned red and told him I did not. He said it a second time, this time in front of some clients, and I got upset and said, "No me digas cosas así en la oficina." Translation: "don't say things like that to me in the office." That shut him up.
Tomorrow it's back to the t-shirt, jeans and hiking boots uniform. Lesson learned.
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