Amazon Day 1: Tarzan vs. Jane

Exerpts from Shirley´s Jungle Journal - Thursday, 01/15/09

The trip has begun and there´s already a bit of drama. 7 of us are going on the trip (Me, Javier, his mom, dad, son Mac, and his nephew & niece, Pierre & Sara). Javier´s brother and sister were unable to come. Because Pierre and Sara will be traveling without their parents, their mother went to the notary to give permission for us to take them with us to Iquitos. She handed Javier the notarized document and asked if he also wanted a copy of their birth certificates. He declined. I spoke to him on the side in English and strongly suggested that he take their birth certificates (Otherwise, we could take any child we found off the street and pass them off as Pierre or Sara). He wasn´t seeing my reasoning. You probably think you know where this story is going, but he thought about it a few minutes more and accepted the additional documentation.

In the wee hours of the morning (around 3 am), Javier´s brother drove us to the airport. Everything was going fine during check in, until we were asked to show some kind, ANY kind of identification for Mac. No one had brought ANYTHING! I asked the grandparents if they had brought either his passport (he has 2: 1 peruvian, 1 American), his ID, or his birth certificate, and they casually responded with, ¨no?¨ as if to question why I was asking. HellO people´s! How are you going to fly with a child with absolutely no identification??? Long story short, Javier´s brother Luciano had to drive all the way back to get the birth certificate. This is why they suggest to get to the airport 2 hrs early.

When we finally got on the plane, Mac and Pierre fell fast asleep. They were so excited about the trip that they stayed up all night talking before the trip. They were out cold on the plane. NEVER let your guard down around Javier or else you will be sorry...

The plane ride only lasted 1 hr and 15 mins. We deboarded the plane like the president on Airforce 1 where our tour guide was waiting for us. We got into a car on the way to the city of Iquitos. Along the way, I was amazed at the amount of motorcyles and moto-taxis that there were on the streets. I´m not kidding when I say that about 90% of vehicles were motorcycles or moto-taxis. The guy driving our car said that they were referred to as the ¨mosquitos¨of the city because there is an infestation and all you hear is the buzzing. It´s true, there was a light buzzing sound that filled the air, and I noticed that there was significantly less honking. Do motorcycles not have horns? I really got a laid-back feeling in Iquitos. It reminded me of island life in Hawaii. It must be something about the water.

When we reached the inner city, we were immediately whisked away on moto-taxis to our boat dock. I sat with Sara.

This is a picture of Javier telling me to hold on to my luggage so it doesn´t get stolen.

The boat ride lasted 45mins. and at this point I was really feeling like I was in the Amazon. The river is beautiful, wide, and peaceful. The first thing we noticed is the natural debris in the water: many fallen tree trunks and water plants like lilys. The floating trunks are scary because to the novice eye, you would think they were crocs. Our tour guide called them ¨tronkodrilos¨or ¨trunkadriles¨ because of the resemblence.

On the boat, my mother in-law noticed a spider that she wanted to kill immediately. Our tour guide told us not to worry about the tiny spider because we would be seeing tarantulas shortly. We all got quiet and just stared at each other for comfort. That´s when it hit me that we were going to the jungle...

Unfortunately, before we could do so, our boat broke down. Boats are easy prey for ¨tronkodrilos¨ which can easily chew up propellers. So another boat was called and we had to switch boats in the middle of the river. During the switch, I noticed our tour guide pulled a live dog-sized, guineau pig-looking animal out of the old boat and onto our new one. It scurried and found a spot at the front of the boat. I prayed that this was not going to be dinner. I did not even want to think about it...

When we reached land, there was nothing but trees on the shore and a small trail. We walked down the trail until it became a staircase leading about 4 feet up to a long bridge or plank with a roof. It was very long as we used it to walk deeper and deeper into the jungle. Finally, it gave way to the lodge which consisted of many hut-like rooms and a large circular mess-hall in the middle. The entire lodge was reinforced with mosquito mesh to keep the bugs out, but all you need is an open door to let one mosquito in. We were shown our rooms which were decent, but we only got to spend limited time in them when we were taken on a short boat ride through a small river. On the boat ride we saw these big turkey birds that had asthma (they made a panting/huffing noise that was really unique).

By the time we got back, it was lunch time and we all met in the mess-hall. The rest our our tour group arrived which consisted of a woman named Rosa and her two teenage sons from Lima, and a Spaniard named Sergio. Our group was dubbed ¨Tarantula¨. We ate lunch in the mess-hall when a green parrot came into the mess-hall (walking on the floor and opening the door), walked straight to Pierre, used its beak and one good leg to climb Pierre´s chair, and proceeded to feast on Pierre´s food. Pierre wasn´t too happy. He likes to eat.

At that point, the dog-sized, guineau pig thing was released into the mess-hall and it just walked around receiving affection. It was the lodge´s new pet. I was happy that it would not be killed.

After lunch, we were given time to relax before our big jungle walk. Outside of the mess-hall there was a big hammock area that consisted of about 7 hammocks all tied together in the center forming a big circle. The kids found this to be an endless form of entertainment. Paco, a blue McCaw, did not seem to think so. He walked over in his parrot stance each time the kids got too rowdy and squaked and pretended that he was going to attack them. He even filed his beak on the floor like he was making it sharp just for them. Then he would proceed to chase them around the hammocks and sometimes pinch their butts from the floor as they laid on the hammocks. I´m not sure who was having more fun: Paco or the kids...

It was time for the tarantula group to go into the jungle for a walk. We donned big plastic fishing boots to keep the water and especially the sometimes deadly red ants out. We walked for what seemed like hours through thick slippery mud, leaves, and branches that we often tripped on. There was a clearing and a real Tarzan rope. We all tried to be tarzan. I thought it would be easy but halfway out on my swing, I thought I wasn´t going to be able to hang on. Poor Pierre, didn´t make it and let go and went straight into the jungle slush. Even his grandpa made it back. Mac did a pretty good job too.

We saw a lot of things along the way. Ants, frogs, birds, and even a tarantula! As our tour guide focused our attention to a tarantula on a tree, one of Rosa´s teenage sons saw something fall next to Javier and he screamed, ¨What is that!!!!!´¨

It was a small spider, maybe a tarantula, but it was dry and dead. Javier took the poor dead bug and used it as a photo opportunity.

His father did the same with a live centipede.

Near the end of our walk, the trail got shorter until there was no trail left at all and the water level seemed to be rising. At one point we were trying to board a canoe, but to get to it, we had to balance on a branch that was underwater. Poor Pierre had no balancing skills and fell into the water. Then Sara lost her balance and to stabilize, she used me. That sent one of my legs to the point of no return as I felt my boot filling with water. Eeeeeeew! Sara saved herself.

By the time we got back, it was getting dark and it was already time for dinner. That´s when I realized that this lodge had no electricity!!! All light was provided by kerosene lamp. There was no TV, no internet, no phones, no NOTHING! Except there were a whole lotta mosquitos which seemed to like me more than the Lima mosquitos. We were really roughing it out here in the jungle. The only minimal amount of power supply that was available was from a generator that was turned on every night at 6:30 pm that we could use to charge our cameras. We hung out in the mess-hall (which had netting for mosquitos) and got to know everyone, played with the parrots, dogs, and guineau pig thing, played on the hammocks, while the mosquitos had a feast on my skin. That night I slept pretty well. The mosquito netting did its job well and the sounds of the jungle were soothing. Unfortunately, I woke up at 3 am to find Javier standing up holding his big stick that he had found on our walk. He said he heard tigers. I listened.... I heard the panting noise, but I was sure it was from the asthmatic turkey birds that we had seen earlier in the day. I told him to relax and go back to sleep.

Birthday Frog Blog

The weather has pretty much sucked out loud since our trip to Asia. Every morning it starts off cloudy and my inlaws swear that the sun comes out around 11 am, but it never does. The other night as Javier and I went to check out a casino, it even started raining. At least he won $30 playing Black Jack.

Yesterday was my father in-law´s 68th birthday, and it was a good food day for me. It almost started off not being so. I woke up to find that my mother in-law had prepared cau-cau for breakfaskt! Cau-cau (pronounced Cow-cow) is beef tripe I think. I politely declined and she fried me an egg instead. I told them that I can now eat ceviche, but tripe is still a struggle for me.

So we were off to a country club that my father in-law is a member of called Club 7 de Agosto in a town called Ñaña (nya-nya). My husband kept threatening that he was going to drive us there and I thought it was a joke at first. Until I saw the family start to load the car, and I knew that his brother was working, so he wouldn´t be able to drive.

Just last week, my husband was also threatening to drive. Everyone was saying no, what a bad idea it was, and we should just let his brother, Luciano drive. Javier took the key and told us that he was just going to warm up the engine. I had been upstairs getting ready. By the time I made it to the garage, I only witnessed the nose of the car backing up into the street before the door completely shut and garage was left empty and silent.

I returned to tell my mother in-law that they had all left me, when we realized that everyone except my husband was home! He had left with no warning! You should have seen how concerned my mother in-law was for the 15 mins. that he was gone. It turns out that my husband stole away to the gas station to fill up the tank.

So now that we were going to Ñaña, nobody spoke up against my husband driving the car. So the entire 1 hr long drive, I was tense...

He did a pretty good job, but you could tell he was American because he got cut-off a lot for not being bold enough. On the way back from Ñaña was his ovalo test. He missed the ovalo exit so we swirled around in the ovalo twice before we were able to make our exit. Later, his brother Luciano told me that on a different occasion, Javier had missed the exit and they had circled the ovalo 3 times.

Upon reaching the country club, everything was really nice. There was a lot of green grass, trees, a swimming pool, horses to ride, etc. There were also two sad looking llamas (my mother in-law said they were Alpacas, but I´m still not sure what the difference is) that had run of the entire country club. They went wherever they wanted to go. I got close for a picture, but not within spitting distance (as you know, llama spit goes a long way).

There was also a yellow lab that I kept my eye on in the distance. She was hanging out with the horses and her owner. A typical lab, she went where ever her owner went, and stood around wagging her tail, begging for affection. Eventually, her wish was granted. At one point she came near to me, although this was a Peruvian dog, speaking to a dog is universal and I called her over in English. She came and I gave her affection as she stepped on my toe. I immediately thought about my little Qori (infamous for stepping on toes and dubbed ¨Hell-toes¨).
We were hungry for lunch, so we had my favorite plate, lomo saltado (translates to tossed steak?). So far it´s the best lomo that I´ve eaten here. It used to be from the Mi Caracochita restaurant, but that place sucked this time. At the country club, I ate the entire plate. I barely left one grain of rice. Although it was a great plate, I feared that my mother in-law would see that my stomach is better and begin to feed me huge plates again.

There were many activities at the club. Javier assembled a team of Peruvian boys together and they played soccer for awhile (I think they gave him a run for his money - hahaha). He also played foosball (is that how you spell it? I have no idea) which is his favorite. He gets an intense look on his face and if you play against him, prepare to see that the entire table will have danced about a foot away from its original starting position by the end of the game.

We also played a game called ¨Sapo¨(Frog). It´s a box that you toss heavy coins at aiming to get the golden coin inside the golden frog´s mouth, a feat that as of yesterday I would have told you is virtually impossible. If you don´t make it in the frog´s mouth, not to worry, your coin my fall into the surrounding holes and you can gather points that way which is far more common. I don´t really enjoy playing this game because my tossing skills pretty much suck, but I was obligated to play. Like I said, I sucked the whole game until the very end. After playing three games of three rounds each on my last coin, I tossed to get it over with and you´ll never believe what happened! It went ever so smoothly into the frog´s mouth!!! Everybody yelled ¨SAPO!!!¨and for a moment I was still left wondering where my gold coin went. One minute it was in the air, the next minute it was gone. I only heard the sound very similar to when you make a goal in air hockey. The only proof I can give you is this photo of me taking my lucky gold coin out of the 4000 pt. box. You´ll probably guess that even by making ¨Sapo¨, I still lost the game. That´s how much I suck... Everyone was so happy that I had made ¨Sapo¨and I told my father in-law that I did it in recognition of his birthday.

Finally, it was time to head back to the house, another tense ride for me home. As we were getting close to the house, Javier had a craving for Masa-mora, a Peruvian dessert. So my father in-law suggested a place in the city. I was nervous about Javier continuing to drive, but who am I, and we were off. The restaurant was called something like Manjares - Dulces Peruanos, and it offered all kinds of Peruvian delights. I had my favorite, arroz con leche (rice pudding), Javier had a combo of arroz con leche and masa-mora, and everyone else had Picarones, which are sort of like Peruvian donuts. The dough is thick and I think it has yams in it because it´s a colorful dough. It´s fried in a circle like a donut, and then dipped in a syrup and eaten. After this, we finally made it home. Alive and in one piece.

The final course came later at around 9 pm. We feasted on Peecsa (aka. Pizza). I think it was Dominoes. (I told you it was a good food day for me!). Then we all went around the table and expressed some words for my father in-law´s birthday. We started off with the shyest of them all, Sarah, my sister in-law´s 11 yr old daughter. An uncomfortable silence swept the dinner table as nothing came out and she stared around blankly. Finally, after was seemed like an eternity but probably did not exceed 2 or 3 minutes, a simple Happy Birthday and I wish you many more... came out. When my turn came up, I was nervous. We don´t usually give speeches at my house. To the contrary, we all try to not speak, including the adults! We prefer to joke than to be serious. Coupled with the language, this was going to be hard for me... So I began...

¨Feliz Nav....¨ (Oh my god! I was about to say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Birthday! That´s basic spanish, what was wrong with me?!) We all laughed at me and that helped the tension go down. So I continued and did OK. But like I said, the language coupled with the nervousness made this very difficult for me. So ended a good food day for me and a happy birthday for my father in-law.

Today will be more laid-back since we are all getting ready for our trip to the jungle tomorrow. There will be no internet in the jungle, so this will probably be my last post until I return to Lima on the 19th.

Ciao for now!

Day 9: Catching You Up

These past couple of days, we dropped like flies. First it was me. I know, I know, in the last post I said I was doing better. I was WRONG! The next day it was Javier. But don´t worry, this time we are totally fine (knocking on wood).

We went to a waterpark that was recently built in Lima. It´s actually more of a water-fountain park. There are like 20 fountains built on the park and people walk around and admire them. There are about 2 or 3 big fountains that are interactive and you´ll find all the Peruvian children running around in them. The water jumps around, gets bigger, then smaller etc., etc. When I first walked in, I thought, ¨What a waste of water...¨ It´s a long way away from the days when I came to Peru as a child and there were signs everywhere saying, ¨Conserva cada gota¨(Conserve each drop) or something like that. Once I got over this mental shift I realized what this park really was. It was a big piece of propaganda that the mayer was using to show how much he had improved Lima. Inside of a tunnel in the park, there were many before/after images of all the construction efforts that he had sanctioned. Starting at 7:00 pm. there was a water show that included music, lasers, pictures, and of course water. It was similar to the hydro jet show in front of the Bellagio in Vegas, except this laser show had a lot of Peruvian nationalism in it. At the end of the show the mayers´slogan appeared very simply: ¨Construyendo¨ (constructing) and ¨Cuidad de Lima¨. Then of course followed the many sponsors: Inca Cola, Telefonica, etc. I realize I´m putting an emphasis on the whole propaganda thing, but in all honesty, it´s true. Lima does seem to be getting better, and I guess you need propaganda to get the word out.

I visited my grandma and took some of my family out to lunch as has now become customary. One of my closest cousins in Peru was able to come with her 1 yr old daughter. She is a CUTE baby! I don´t say that too often about babies. Trust me, there are some oogly babies out there. She has her Daddy´s slanted eyes and they each slant downwards at what seems like a 45 degree angle. At one point she was just staring at me and she looked too perfect to be human. I couldn´t figure out where I had seen her eyes before other than on her father. There was someone else she was reminding me of. Then..... I got it!


Cindy Loo Who! From Whoville of course. Separated at birth. Of course, she´s the Peruvian version (Cyndia-Lucia-Ju, De Jubilla) .

After the lunch we went with my cousin and her husband to a place on the beach called La Herradura, where a band called Revolver was playing. They played a mix of music, including English. I decided to film while they covered a song that reminded me of my Dad, originally sung by Los Iracundos. The reason it reminded me of him is because growing up, I was always woken up on my Saturdays and Sundays by either of 2 things: A vacuum that suddenly opened my door and whirled loudly around my room and under my bed (fueled my mom-power of course) and suddenly disappeared, OR the sound of the living room radio BLASTING and I mean BLASTING nostalgic songs from my fathers´past. Now, those songs have indirectly become a part of my past due to the blasting music seeping into my subconsiousness in mid-sleep.

The band sang pretty good, but they butchered the English songs. People in Peru can´t tell if you´re singing the song right. If it sounds good, they must be singing it right. I on the otherhand, knew exactly how bad they were butchering Robbie Williams´¨Lovin´angels instead¨. It´s too bad too. I really liked that song. Now it will always remind me of that time we heard the band Revolver in Peru.

(That´s my newest piece of jewelry. My mother inlaw taught me how to make a necklace designed with a slight curve in the middle. Seems simple enough, but boy is it complicated when you are just learning. Beading seems to be a blend of math and geometry, for me at least.)

English music is extremely common in Peru. Every taxi that I´ve ridden in plays English music. Even when we went to a travel agency to secure our trip to the jungle, they were playing English music. The young lady that helped us with our itinerary was singing along to a Pink song and I couldn´t help but hang on her every word. It was funny. You know when you don´t know the words to a song, it´s funny. But on top of that, when you don´t know the language and have an accent, it´s hilarious. She basically sang like she didn´t know for the entire song.

So we´ve got our itinerary ready. We´re going to the Amazon jungle for 4 days and 3 nights beginning on the 15th. We had a heck of a time trying to pay for it though. They wanted everything in cash, but we´re 9 people. Only two of which are paying for the trip. They charge an 8% fee to use your card. After a lot of back and forth with itinerary, flight, and price adjustments, we were ready to pay and guess what: they only accept Visa. Ugh! Neither of us brought Visas this time. It´s true: Life takes Visa... so does Peru. I won´t go into everything that happened but after running around Lima for awhile we found a way to pay for our trip.

I don´t remember everything on the itinerary right now, but I can tell you that we´re going to see some gray and supposedly pink dolphins, a secluded monkey island, a town that´s built on top of water (kinda like a tribal Venice if you want to make it all romantic), and lots of other stuff. I can´t wait!

Today we decided to go to the beach with the fams. We went to Asia... no silly, not that Asia. A town called Asia that is an hour and a 1/2 away from Lima on bus. It´s supposedly a very popular tourist area known for beaches and clubs at night. Ehhh, cosi-cosi, mas-o-menos, so-so, whatever language you say it in: it was OK.

First of all, we got off the bus too early..... don´t even get me started. Then we asked a street vendor lady where the beaches are. She proceeds to tell us that here all the beaches are private and they will not let you in unless you are a resident. Then a taxi comes by and tells us that it´s not private and he can take us there for 4 soles (The current exchange rate is roughly 3 soles for every 1 dollar). Then the lady tells us he´s lying to get 4 soles, then another taxi comes to argue with the first taxi yelling, ¨Why would you lie to these tourist for 4 soles, man... blah blah blah¨ What a scene.

Anyway, somehow the second taxi got us to go with him just ¨check it out¨. I saw a BIG sign at the entrance that spelled out ¨Residentes¨. After some discussion with the police officer at the gate (us being tourists and my father inlaw being a retired police officer). They let us in. It was kinda cold, really windy, and they didn´t let you bring food or use the ¨resident´s umbrellas¨. Like I said, ehhh. But there you go.

So that´s what I´ve been up to.

Ciao for now!

Day 5: Paint Ball and Jewelry Making

My stomach is feeling much, much better these days. I let my mother inlaw know that I was not feeling well, and I blamed the Coca candy to spare her feelings about food. Honestly, I´m not sure what was doing me in, but I think it was the Caldo de Gallina from Mi Caracochita. Anyway, it never got bad enough to need meds, so I just ate lightly for a day & 1/2.
I suggested to my husband that he take his son to play some paintball. I thought it would be great for father/son bonding. Unfortunately, they dragged me along too. But not to worry... I didn´t actually play. Instead I donned a helmet and entered the fighting ring like the media in Iraq... just to take photos and document the event. Don´t get me wrong, I still did my share of running and dodging (they didn´t give me the army fatigues, so I was protecting my cute outfit.) It was hard to see clearly with that helmet on, so as I captured some footage, I noticed in the viewfinder of my camera, that my husband´s riffle was starting to point to me, inch-by-inch. I was so into filming, that I hadn´t noticed that his son had run behind me for protection.

¨Don´t shoot! Don´t shoot! ¨ I screamed as I threw my hands up in the air.

Thank God my husband knew what was best for him, and he did not pull his trigger.

By the time we got home I was dying because of a blister on my foot. Because I am not a heavy sandal wearer, I tend to blister easily if I don´t wear socks. All the walking, running, and ducking took it´s toll on my foot. I realized when I got home, that I did not bring any band aids. That is the first item that I forgot to pack. You know you´re always going to forget to pack something. For me so far it is: band aids, night cream, a nail clipper (my nails look horrible), tweezers and enough shorts. Other than those few items, I´m doing OK. I don´t know what I´m going to do about the tweezers though. I don´t want my brows getting bushy. If it comes down to it, I think I´ll give threading a go. One of the many things that I´ve learned to do because of Youtube.

This morning I awoke to the house being practically empty. They were all going to the hospital again and I stayed this time because it didn´t make any sense for me to wait for them outside again. Alone in the house I was able to get some stolen moments with my addiction: Youtube. Ahhh. I was able to get my fix and catch up with a few of my subscriptions before everyone got back.

When they finally got back it was lunch time and again with the large portions. My mother inlaw cooked Escabeche de Pollo (A chicken with sliced red onions in vinegar and a purplish chili) This is one of my favorite plates so I didn´t have a problem with it, though it took me some time to finish.

Afterwards, I decided to work on perfecting my tan. Man, it was a hot day. When I´d had too much sun, I sat in the shade and my mother inlaw brought out her jewelry making arsenal. She had noticed a necklace I had been wearing on the first day and told me that she had enrolled in a class to learn how to make jewelry. Though I mostly work with wire, any kind of jewelry making fascinates me so today she taught me how to make bracelets. Here are the two that I made. What do you think?

The wooden one is more my style. I think that when I get home, I can mix this techique and wire together to make some awesome jewelry combinations. I asked my mother inlaw to show me how to make that orange ring last. She said it was the most complicated. Therefore, after I make a ring, I will have graduated!

Day 3: Hospitals and Mosquitos

I woke up pretty early this morning... or should I say that I was awoken early today. 6:00 am Peruvian time, which means 3:00 am American time. I still have my watch set to American time, so I don´t forget my roots. Sometime around 3:00 am Peruvian time (12 am American) I was battling it out with a mosquito that had infiltrated the bedroom. The mosquito won and I think it is still hanging out in our bedroom. When we got up, my husband had been attacked three times. As for me, not once. I think the mosquito doesn´t like blood sugar infused with McDonalds. I don´t know what else it could have against me and my blood. But if that is the case, I´ll have to eat some more Mickie D´s.

Well we got up early to run a few errands with my father in law. He is a cancer survivor and though his cancer is in remission, he still feels the effects from the quimo-therapy (I´m sure that I spelled that so wrong). So we were off to Lima´s most renound hospital for cancer: Something something Neoplasticas... My father in-law didn´t want me to enter the hospital because he was afraid of the germs so I waited outside with my brother in-law and I guess you can call him my step-son, though we are more like friends, and I can never consider myself a step-mom. It took at least 2 hours for my father in-law to get back and in that time I saw many faces walking by. A lot of people that walked by had signifant hairloss and were therefore wearing fashionable headwraps. What hit me most was when I saw toddlers with the same look. The old-fashioned, typical Peruvian look is the chola look as seen here:

Many cholas walked by as well. A definitive feature of the chola is her 2 long braids. Sadly, one chola that walked by had completely lost her braids. Hanging out at the hospital is never a fun experience.

After leaving the hospital having acheived nothing other than losing 2 hours of our morning, we had some lunch at a famous chain restaurant called ¨Mi Caracochita¨. I wasn´t that hungry because here they feed me like crazy so I thought I´d order something light. A ¨Caldo de Gallina¨ (hen soup, basically chicken soup). To my surprise the bowl was big enough for a family size portion so I had no resolve but to eat the entire thing.

We continued to run errands and along the way I saw a Qori (golden retriever) and thought about my sweetums for a bit. Though, I hear he is fine and ate yet another 2 cans of dog food! I also hear his master bathroom remodel is complete (the backyard fence) so now he´s livin large.

We bought an Aloe plant and honey because the witch doctor told us that a concoction using these items would bring better health to my father in law. My husband proceeded to make POUNDS of this concoction. He tends to go a little overboard with these kind of things. I think we will all be drinking this stuff for days to come. We bought the Aloe plant in some place called Ägraria¨. It probably translates to agrarian, which in turn means farming. There they sell many cultivated products including many natural herbs and natural healing medicines. When my husband came back with the Aloe plant, he handed us each a piece of candy that he bought. It was Coca Candy. Made from the cocaine leaf. I had to spit it out after just a few seconds. I can drink the Coca tea, but this candy was just too gross.

We didn´t ride in any taxis today because my brother in law was available to take us out and about. He honks too. And I noticed another thing: Instead of intersections, most sub-districts enlist the use of what they call an övalo¨ which is a big round-about with 4 tangent exits on each side. As mentioned in the previous blog, to exit on the right, they somehow miraculously come from a few lanes over from the left while space and time is running out. I am still studying this phenominon and how it is that few accidents occur. To the foreign eye, the round about seems like one big circle of confusion, chaos, and disorder, but somehow they all make it work. Here is a picture of the övalo¨nearest to the house:

Apart from these round-abouts being a big waste of space, notice anything familiar? There is a Starbucks, Chilis, Burger King, AND a McDonalds on the corner of this övalo¨. I took a picture of the McDonalds because it had the McCafe that my sister raved on and on about while she was in Italy. Looks like Peru even has one too. I wonder why these are not popular in the US? Is Starbucks too much competition?

Sorry for the poor quality, but it´s hard to take good photography while on the road in Peru. Also, it doesn´t help that people keep warning you that your nice camera can get stolen right from the window of the car... sheesh.

I also went to a nice mall and from afar, I saw a MAC counter! We had to leave, but I´m left wondering what the prices are like here. You would think that you can get stuff cheaper in Peru, but apparently brand names actually cost you more! Still... I´m left wondering... What if... What if it is cheaper.

I will have to check it out when I go back there. For now, it´s 7 pm here in Peru and I hope that they don´t feed me again. I remember the first trip here to my inlaws was horrible. Well, only in respect to the food. They fed me so much and so often that I didn´t have a chance to get hungry. By the middle of the trip, I swear I wanted to become vegetarian. Veggies just seemed lighter than what I was eating. I almost got that feeling again today. My stomache is starting to get affected. I plan on just having some tea and taking it easy. But I wouldn´t be surprised if I´m told that the solution to this is a glass of Aloe concoction and a piece of Coca Candy...

Missing my baby...

Everything went so fast: Christmas, New Years, and now it´s January 3rd and I´m in Peru... This was very difficult for me at first. I just didn´t want to leave Qori behind for 3 whole weeks. Eventhough he´s being taken care of by his aunt, and even though he is hanging out with his best friend Mokee, and even though nothing is changing for him other than my absence... I was in total despair before my flight. I cried and hugged him, told him that I would be back soon and how much I would miss him...caressing his golden face while he slept like an angel on the bed. I was quiet at the airport, sullen through the checkpoint, and reflective at the gate... But I´m much much better now... His aunt sent me her blog entry. He ate two cans of dog food, went to the best dog park in town, and woke up to his aunt scratching his belly. I realize that I overreacted... And according to his aunt... the blog entry was supposed to help me ¨chillax¨. I can´t help it though. I´m turning more and more into my mother every day.

So now that I´m here in Peru, it is so HOT. It´s nice to leave behind winter. I´m going to be lounging by the pool tomorrow. Yup, those are my plans. We went to see a witch doctor today...just for a consultation (the sister of my husband´s Peruvian friend in the US). My husband was thinking about a ¨cleansing¨. He told her it would be for the 2 of us and his parents. I was a bit surprised. I never thought about what my stand would be on witch doctors. I thought about it some as the witch doctor blabbed on with her hokey song and dance. So I decided it might be fun... But if we do it, I will only do it if no animals are harmed. (I have no idea what it entails, but when I think of it for some reason animal sacrifices come to my mind. That would not be a cleansing for me... to the contrary, I would feel tainted.)

We´ve also been in a lot of taxis today. I realized that in order to operate a motor vehicle in Peru, it is mandatory that you honk your horn for every little thing. In turn, there is a lot less road rage in Peru because you already KNOW that you´re going to get honked at, so you don´t get offended and flip someone the bird. I´ve been studying the art of taxi manuevering in Peru by observing the Peruvian taxi man in his natural environment, and here´s what I found that they use their horn for:
to warn when:
-they are coming up to a blind intersection
-they are coming up to an intersection and do not plan on observing the stop sign (they just roll right through every time!)
-they are planning to run a red light
-they are going to make a right turn from the 3rd left lane over while going super duper fast and there is not much road left (everyone does this... I don´t know how there are no accidents!)
-there is a pedestrian in the road that they could possibly hit (they don´t slow down... they expect the pedestrian to walk faster)
-they are about to move 1/3rd into the other guy´s lane (while the other guy is still in that lane!)Then they simultaneously drive together in the same lane within 12 inches of each other. All the while the other guy is perfectly fine with this.

There´s more but I don´t want to bore you. In regards to that last bullet though... I think I´ve figured it out. Though I think more studies are in order. I´ve decided that in Peru, there is no such thing as lanes. Those white dashes on the ground are merely ¨guidance marks¨. Thus allowing Peruvian taxis to optimize a conventional American three-lane road into a Peruvian four-lane road (where each guy is 1/3rd into the other guy´s lane)and a faux extra lane is created. This is just my theory though.

Well, it´s been a long day. More Peru updates later. And sorry if this is written poorly or doesn´t make sense. I was dozing off at the witch doctor´s (and I wondered if she had done something to me) so I´m pretty tired. Also, it´s kinda hard to type on Peruvian keyboards. You would think it´s the same, but there are subtle differences that keep messing me up!

Which is Cuter?

It's that time of year again.... Time to take Christmas photos. Since my sister is a photographer (not of the paparazzi kind), I get to take free, semi-professional photos. They usually consist of me, my husband, and fuzzy Qori.

So this year, I thought I'd be a little festive and wear a Santa Hat. Then I thought, "Well, since I have a Santa Hat, Qori is going to need something too!" So I thought about some reindeer antlers, but Mokee already did that (and he pulled it off better than Qori could because Mokee looked like a Moose). So I went with an Elf outfit. But as we were trying on our new outfits I realized, Qori could pull either off. Although the Christmas photo will have Qori as an Elf (because that tiny hat won't fit on my head), I was wondering.... Which do you think is cuter?

Please take a moment to vote on the poll in the side bar, even if you're just stopping by on this blog.

Bye!