03 March 2017
After a bun with fried egg and piece of cheese for breakfast
(being as close a menu to our liking as we can find), our team of 4 head off
early to arrive at 8:00 am at the Puno hilltop location for the Diospi Suyana
FM Tx site and purchase this from the landowners, Family Sardón who are very favourable
towards Diospi Suyana. They own a major
share of this Llallahuani Hill.
An engineer, who we met the day before in the Town Hall,
accompanies us. He commits to draw up
the necessary documents for the notary office in record time with an architect
friend to enable a same day purchase (which is of course unheard of in
developed countries!). We found the
suitable plot of land at a height of 4,098m after walking around to inspect the
available site options where I verify the critical signal paths using Google
Earth on my laptop and determine the best site with the required tower height (50
meters in this case) to get above a wall of nearby tower obstructions. This site should be able to reach the 200,000
people living in Puno through this antenna with Diospi Suyana’s FM radio
programme.
 |
| Doris helping me manage my laptop to make our final site selection on Llallahuani Hill over Puno. |
 |
| The view of the city of Puno beneath Llallahuani Hill. |
Immediately following this we arranged to meet at the
notary’s office at 12:30 pm but where on earth are the engineers? We hear that they are still drawing the plans
and are fighting against a very slow internet connection, then a traffic jam
delays them further. Tension increases
steadily in the bureau. Lunch break
starts at 1:30 pm and lasts till about 4 pm. Not to mention the nine hour car journey back to
Curahuasi that we plan to take.
Suddenly someone throws the door wide open and within
seconds the notary officer is covered by his colleagues with foam! Today is carnival and everything is permitted
– foam in a can is all the vogue in town for such fun.
 |
| We were astounded to see professional adults behaving like school children in font of clients! |
Back in Curahuasi Stefan Seiler of Diospi Suyana finance
department does an express transfer of the agreed sum. Senora Sardón and Doris Manco rush out the
door of the notary lawyer’s offices in order to pay the sales tax. We are in constant phone contact so we find when
it is finally their turn in the Banco de Crédito, they do not have the correct
document! They hurry to the tax office,
are given the document, and head back to the nearest bank branch.
Klaus cannot stop looking at his watch. Udo Klemenz says “Keep cool” – he was a cool
as a cucumber. But Klaus says he is not
74 years old yet and has a right to get worked up about things! J.
 |
| While we are waiting a client comes into the Notary’s office on his motorbike and decides the safest and cost free place to park it is in front of the reception desk! |
At 2:30 pm everyone and everything comes together - the
seller of the property, the statement of our funds transfer, the tax-paid form,
the location plan and the notary. The
rest is a mere formality.
We then negotiate with representatives of two local
construction companies about the civil works, after which we pick up our
suitcases from the hotel and start the journey of 550km from Puno back to
Curahuasi. We stop at a petrol station overlooking
Puno and in turn each of us says a prayer of thanks to God, in German, English
and Spanish.
 |
| Dr John signs the document before we head back to Curahuasi – 550 km / 9 hours. |
With God’s blessing we have reached an excellent result in a
record time frame – and that during a Perú Carnival which is not trivial! Just before 1:00 am Klaus’ car reaches Curahuasi.
But I arrange to get out 2 ½ hours earlier than that in
Cusco to stay the night with some fellow missionary friends. This is too good an opportunity to pass up so
I can go shopping in the morning for Jake’s 18th birthday present
the next day. Cusco is nearly half a
million people and by far the best place to shop for anything specialised
outside of Lima or Arequipa. I also get
some home hardware and a food shop in the big supermarket Plaza Vea (second
largest retailer in all of Peru in fact) before getting a combi back to
Curahuasi on Saturday afternoon.
Regards,
Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment