Arequipa Peru- The Adventure

MACHU PICCHU: Part Deux!

2012-01-24T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well folks, I got some video strung together. I had to use Adobe Premiere, which I seldom have had occasion to use, so it's pretty choppy. I also apologize for my cheesy exclamations, and for the section of video that rhymes, it wasn't intentional. I apologize for the lameness of the quality, I tried several times to upload a better higher definition version, but the bandwidth just wasn't with me. (It is worse than the force not being with me.

MACHU PICCHU

2012-01-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for: the trip to Machu Picchu. We left off in Ollantaytambo, waiting for the train. The train itself is an interesting situation where the Peruvians ride in different cars than then foreigners. The foreigners pay quite a bit more, and the train cars are therefore quite a bit different as far as comfort goes. I can't tell you much about the Peruvian experience, as I didn't ride in their cars, but Joe and I went in relative comfort, It was night, and there wasn't much to see, but we had individual seats and it seemed like a nice trip, even though I believe the engine was sort for ghetto and stopped a few times. (We didn't stop once on the way down and the train was nicer). Anyway, it took about an hour and a half to two hours to get to Aguas Calientes. The first thing that I noticed upon arrival was the mountains are SCARY close and REALLY steep. It's like the suckers are going to fall over on you. I am sorry to report that I didn't get any good pictures of the mountains, I took a few at night that didn't come out, and I forgot to take more when the sun was shining. Believe me though, they loom, they loom with a vengeance.

The Hotel: wasn't so great. I forget what it was called, which is unfortunate because I wouldn't recommend it, but the good news is that we were only there for 4 hours, and that the shower had hot water, which is all that I really cared about. I also carried Mauricio like 5 blocks uphill along with my backpack, and later found out he was feigning being asleep. Next time I think I'll toss him first to see if he's really asleep. Alas, we made it up to the hotel, in spite of the rain and the grade of the hill, and snatched a shower and a few hours sleep before getting up for the main event.

4:00 AM- we got up, showered, and hurried down to the buses that go from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu. They start leaving at 5 AM, and we wanted to be on the first bus up. We were on the second, but good enough. We had a guide arranged for us who SUCKED, but thankfully, once we got up the mountain and he made us wait for about a half an hour for no reason, he handed us off to another guide who was great. I'd tell you the names, but there are dozens of guides, so the odds that you would ever deal with these guys if you go is pretty slim.

5:00 AM ish- we got on the bus and headed up the hill, and by hill, I mean mountain. In fact, "Machu Picchu" means, "Old Mountain" in Quechua. I would tell you lots of what I learned about Machu Picchu, but I feel like you folks can check out what wikipedia has to say much more easily that I can write it all out for you.

Around 6:40, we got to the gate to Machu Picchu, where we proceeded to wait for our guide (whose lameness has previously been established). I should mention, all the way up the mountain, we were passing hippy looking foreigners, (mostly Argentine) as they walked up the hill. Because of these hikers and their obscenely early morning start, we arrived early in the morning... to wait in a pretty large line.
That line got MUCH bigger after we arrived though, so good for us I suppose. After we were relieved of our lame guide, and got our better guide, we finally entered the gate and entered Machu Picchu.

First, we saw some terraces on the south side, apparently, this is where the bulk of the food for the cities was grown. This was my first glimpse of Machu Picchu as I rounded the bend:

(I know that some of you at this point are thinking that I am abusing the 'photomerge' function on Photoshop, but it's the only way I can do these sites justice)

Pretty snazzy, I know. From there, we hoofed it over to the main urban area, where we got this view of the Temple of the Sun:

After that, we went to the Temple of the 3 windows, and along the way, there was a prime example of how the Quechuas broke up rocks. They pounded sticks into holes and used other rocks to break them into straight bricks.

The rain was coming down pretty regular during all this and I was having a deuce of a time keeping my camera dry. I was also wrangling a cheap tripod that I purchased here. It was 20 dollars, and came in supremely handy. Another great purchase was my 100 Sole "Columbia" waterproof shell (38 bucks). It wasn't really Columbia of course, but they really pay attention to detail and it's a pretty decent fake. It even says that it is a Portland Oregon company on the tags.

But back to Machu Picchu. We finally made our way up to the Sun Dial, which was pretty nifty looking, as you can see here:

Interestingly, there is a noticeable chip out of the top of the Sun Dial. What happened was the beer company, Cusquena, was filming a commercial and the camera fell on it. .... Ooops. Yet another reason beer sucks. Alas, from there, we went down to the gate of Machu Picchu where the trail goes on to a peak, Waynapicchu. We were with the grandmother and child, also Malu and company are weak sauce, so we didn't go up there. It would have been pretty unrewarding anyway, because the whole day we couldn't even see that peak due to the clouds and rain. I imagine that the view down was as lame as the view up.

This gate is on the far north end of Machu Picchu, as you can see on the handy map that I included in this link We then wended our way down south again through the "House of Factories" area, and somewhere in there we happened upon the "Condor Temple". From the skeletons that have been excavated in that area, they figure that the Incas sacrifices llamas/alpacas and other animals there. Here is a picture of the Condor Temple, the dark rocks above are supposed to be the wings.

I have emphasized the condor so you can see it better. The condors here have a white beard looking thing under their necks, and the Incans even included this detail in their temple.

At this point, it was probably around 10 AM, so we stopped to eat some cookies and juice around the prisoners area. That is where this picture was taken:

At this point, we walked up to the "guardhouse" which is situated on the south side at the top of the terraces where we started. The fog didn't permit for very good pictures, but in a field below the guardhouse, Joe asked Carolina to marry him, and she said "yes", so high five for Joe.

After the proposal, we went back down the mountain and ate lunch in Aguas Calientes.
Here's a video of the event:
... Nevermind, that's a lie. There are lots of good videos to share, but my video editing software is gone for the moment. I will attempt to rectify this later. For now you get an official IOU. (There are also lots of good videos of Valle Sagrado, but because they are high definition and really big files, I need to compress and edit them, which I need software to accomplish. My apologies.)
We did end up exploring, but it was so wet I didn't feel like risking my camera any more than I already had.
The train ride down happened about 2 PM and that was a lot cooler than the way up. The train was better, and the view was splendid. I have a video of it, which will be uploaded at a later time. In any event, here are some closing shots for you:

Cuzco and the Sacred Valley

2012-01-09T17:37:00.000-08:00

Due to the high volume of photos and video that was produced during the past week, we here at Peaks and Pitfalls have decided to divide the adventures into 3 parts. This will be the first, which talks about sacred valley, then we'll move onto Machu Picchu, and then Puno and Juli. Now that that has been settled, we (Myself, Malu, Joe, my Mother in Law *suegra*, my 6 year old brother in law Mauricio, and my wife's grandmother- Mama Yoli) left Arequipa on Monday night and slept all night on the bus. It is about 9 hours to Cuzco from Arequipa, and they even gave us a small meal of meat and rice. Not too shabby. When we arrived at Cuzco, we went to our Hotel, which was nice and located in the PERFECT spot. About a half a block off of the main plaza. It was called the "Inti Wasi", and it costs about 50 bucks a night for a double. This is pretty pricey for Cuzco, and I have stayed in other places for as little as 10 bucks a night. That being said, the location and the niceness of the hotel easily justified the price. Did I mention that they served a respectable breakfast? They do.
It also had a sweet view of the Plaza de Regocijo (Square of Rejoicing).
Like this:

From the Hotel, we checked out the town a bit. I bought a few patches for my fav Backpack ever, which you can check out HERE. They come about 2 for 5 soles, or about a buck apiece. I got a US flag and a Machu Picchu patch. We then went to lunch at a place about a block away from Plaza de Armas called "Kusi Kuy". They serve typical food, and do a dang fine job. I was impressed with the restaurant because they didn't take forever to serve us, the food was good, and it wasn't ridiculously expensive. It was a little above average price wise, but you're not going to find anything cheaper and better as close to the main plaza. Malu and I took a risk and spent 18 soles on a fried trout in lemon. I am sorry that I didn't take a picture, but it was awesome. 18 soles comes out to be about 7 bucks, so not too bad at all. If you ever want to go to that restaurant while in Cuzco, it's located on Calle Suecia 339, about half a block due north off of the Plaza de Armas. You can find out more about it HERE.

After lunch we embarked on the City Tour Which I've written about before, I don't know where, but I'm sure it was somewhere in either this blog or my other one. This time around, I figured I'd throw up a COMPLETE photo of each attraction, and my opinions of each.

Coricancha

The first stop on the City Tour is the Iglesia de Santo Domingo, which is also known as Coricancha, or Inti Cancha, or The Temple of the Sun. This was the most important religious center of the Inca Empire, and when the Spanish came in they did what they usually did: that is to say, they destroyed and pillaged as many physical symbols of the prior civilization/religion and replaced it with their own. Therefore, where the Temple of the Sun once sat, now there is a big Catholic church that was built on the remains of the Incan walls that weren't quite torn down all the way. Our tour guide sucked, unfortunately, and he was terrible slow and gave painstakingly long explanations of the names of things, but way more then you wanted to hear. He skipped over lots of cool legends, cultural tidbits, and other interesting historical facts to belabor the various names and how incorrect they all are today from what they probably were. This was something he did at each site, which was aggravating, but luckily, I've been through the tour twice before and so I mostly wandered around taking pictures. His English wasn't super clear, so some of the more interesting things, I also translated for Joe. Coricancha is an interesting place to visit, but in my opinion, quite boring a third time through.

Sacsayhuaman

After seeing the church, we cruised on up the hill to Sacsayhuaman. It was pretty chilly and windy, and it seems like every time I go to a new site, they have more and more stuff roped off. My first trip through, we could crawl all over the place and see interesting stuff. Now most of the walls are closed off. It really bums me out that the snake stone (which was significant if you understand Incan religion) is on the top and people can't even go up to see it. The last time I went here, I went to the north side where there are some groovy tunnels and some interesting circular terraces. This time, our guide was super fome (a Chilean slang word for lame/boring), as mentioned, and so we kind of just ambled through the middle in a bored fashion.

Tambomachay

The next stop on the city tour was Tambomachay, which is a cool fountain. There are some springs that feed it and run through a series of aqua-ducts. According to previous, not lame guides, the water comes from some source that has yet to be located. Anyway, they are pretty good. When I went there with Malu, we were told that to drink the waters would make a women fertile. Malu took a drink, so yikes to that. Nowadays, the fountain is roped off, no touching. It's a bummer, no more women are going to get fertilization boosts from the Incan fountain. :(... I guess.

Pucapucara

This was an old Incan fort, and I like it for some reason. Maybe because it's really close to the road, and you can snag some really quick pictures that usually look pretty sweet. In any event, it's a stop on the trail from Cuzco to the sacred Valley and it's quaint.

Qqenko

I am not a huge fan on Qqenko as a spot. This is probably because every time I've been there, it has been the last stop on the tour and almost dark, which isn't conducive to good pictures. It has a small caveish area that you walk through and look at an alter that may or may not have involved human sacrifices: no one really knows. There is a throne carved out of the rock that I got a picture in the first time I went there, and guess what? Yep. Roped off. I had Mauricio take a picture of me in it this time anyway just because I felt like I needed to do something to stick it to the "man". Take that.

Pisaq

The next day we embarked on what is called the "Sacred Valley Tour". Here is a photo of the sacred valley from the entrance along the road:

Soon after reaching the Sacred Valley, you go around a mountain, and on the backside lies Pisaq. I like Pisaq, there is a long walk and some steep cliffs, which makes for breath taking vistas and fun walking. When my parents came here, I thought they might croak because of the elevation and the effort. They soldiered through and happily lived to tell the tale. This time, I assume because of heavy rain, we didn't go all the way around the mountain on a long trail but rather disembarked from the buses a lot farther up and a lot closer to some cool ruins I'd never seen before. It was an enjoyable difference, although I was confused most of the time until towards the end when Malu told me we were a lot farther up than on previous trips. Pisaq is a lot of terraced mountain and some cool stonework where the Quechuas lived (the proper term for the population that we refer to as Incas, because only the rulers were Incas).

Ollantaytambo

Ollanytaytambo is the coolest stop short of Machu Pichhu. Lots of stairs, lots of terraces, lots of stone ruins, and also nice views. This was the last place the Inca/Quechas retreated to before the Spanish finished subjugating them. Here is what is considered the last living Inca/Quecha village, a place where they still live and the layout of the town hasn't changed since it was built. It is laid out in the shape of a corn cob, and each block is called a "cancha", or kernel (also a common term for roasted corn kernels). There is the place where you catch the train to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of the mountain that has Machu Picchu on top of it.
While we were there, at Ollantaytambo, I got a picture of this paper blossom on a stick.

This indicates a place where "Chicha" is sold. Chicha is a beer made out of purple corn. I obviously have never sampled it, but the locals seem to like it... in copious amounts. We were stuck waiting in Ollantaytambo for 4 hours while we waited for our train to Aguas Calientes, so we wandered around. Joe and I found a guy that makes amazing pottery, but it cost like 150 dollars a piece, so we scampered from there. We ate dinner there, a pizza that was ok, and occupied the restaurant with our stuff until it was time to leave.

Chincheros

The tour continues on to a place called Chincheros, which is another Catholic Church built on top of some ruins, but it's not all that exciting. The best thing about Chincheros is that the artisan things are pretty cheap compared to the other locales.

Also during the trip was a stop at a town called Urubamba for lunch. It was a buffet, and I was REALLY disappointed with the whole affair. It's a one time through the line type of thing and they really rip you if you want anything to drink. I wouldn't recommend it. It was included with the tour package that we got. Previous trips through I always just ate empanadas and stuff, and if you have the choice, save your 20 soles that the buffet costs and just take something to eat. In any event, here's a picture of my plate:

The meatballs were something decent, but the piece of meat was not so great. Also, the pepper looking thing is Cuzco's version of Rocoto Relleno... and it sucks. It was pretty nasty, the Arequipa is vastly better. The last thing was a piece of breaded chicken, and it was ok. Desserts were dry cake, and they ran out of both kinds before half the people went to get some. That's right, they ran out... at a buffet. Like I said, save your money and eat something else.

Well, that's a pretty fair account of that. This took me forever to write,(mostly editing the photos) so don't be alarmed if the Machu Picchu post doesn't appear for a few days. I'm sorry I lied last time, as you have undoubtedly realized, this isn't the Machu Picchu post that I promised. Next time for certain. I know that there weren't many people in the pictures for this post, so here are two closing photos. One of yours truly and the cutest girl ever, and one of the merry band that went gallivanting all over the Altiplano.

I'm Back.

2012-01-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

Well,

Here we are in Peru again. I have been pretty thrilled to discover that there are two or three new large malls here, which is great. There are more movie theaters, more food court options, and more american brands. I don't buy American brands here (because they are expensive), but it lowers the novelty of some of my stuff, so I don't stand out as much and am less likely to be robbed. (Not that there is any real danger of that usually, at least, I've never had any issues) BUT STILL.

Anywho, so far, we've had a grand Christmas, and a fairly lame New Year. The Christmas was as usual, at Malu's aunt's house. There was lots laughing, her family drank a bit, and we danced quite a bit. On another note, Joe and I sang Karaoke by ourselves in Malu's one night, and I have to say, we are pretty good. Joe has been courting Malu's friend Carolina, so we haven't been with him all the time.

New Years, we went to Camana, a place I've never been. It's a beach, small town, and a place where all the young people go to get bombed on New Years. Since we don't drink, and the weather was cloudy and not at all conducive to jumping in the ocean, it was a pretty lame trip. We had decent food, and I love my ceviche, but then I got the wonderful experience of the runs, so, less great for all that. New Years itself, Joe fell asleep at around ten, and then Malu was tired and didn't want to walk to the plaza and I was sick so I didn't insist. So I watched TV in the hotel room while the rest of the world partied. I didn't take any pictures of Camana, mostly because I didn't take my good camera, and also because I didn't see anything really worth photographing. If you have a choice between Mollendo and Camana for beach visits from Arequipa, go to Mollendo; they have the same quality of beaches, but Mollendo is closer to Arequipa and the Beach in Mollendo is closer to the town.

The most fun thing we did in Camana was on the 29th, we found a Karaoke where we were the only people there. Their selection was slim, but we had a good time anyway. And the person in charge of the music was a transvestite, so that's a bonus. She/He kept saying creepy things to us over the speakers during the non singing parts of the songs. It was flattering.

All in all, there has been some good times had here in Peru so far. I apologize for the lack of interesting tidbits, as you've grown accustomed to seeing, but alas, time is short and my computer has had some issues. I will next post about MACHHU PICHHU!!! so look forward to that.

Where to go now?

2010-05-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

If you are visiting this blog, I regret to inform you that I am no longer in Peru. For that reason, if you want to continue following my exploits, you will have to do so on my original blog:

www.sleepmuch8.blogspot.com

See you there.

We're Back

2010-05-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

All in all, it was a good four months. Back to be in the USA though. For anyone who likes this type of thing, a picture:

More to come

Journal Post: Last Observations, Thumbs up and thumbs down for Peru

2010-04-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

I went on a trip, rather hastily, to Ilo. It was postponed due to the Paro, which apparently is being resolved. Before I went, I neglected to mention that I can now make Adobo, that spicy pork soup that I have mentioned. I made it on Sunday and we ate it, and it was good. I need to post this because it’s part of the course work and I completely forgot to talk about it. Soon to come: complete recipe for delicious Adobo.
Enough about ancient history.
During my recent trip to Ilo, (apologies in advance, I didn’t take a camera), I noticed a few things that I found unusual and noteworthy. There was an ambulance with its lights on that entered the road in front of the bus that I was on and it began to race towards the nearest town. This is one of the few times I’ve seen an ambulance, and watched in disbelief as it followed a line of four or so different vehicles NONE OF WHOME LET THE AMBULANCE PASS. Worse still is that the ambulance tried in vain several times to pass but was unable to because of oncoming traffic.
…
Wow. Not your brightest moment Peru. I am currently shaking an admonishing finger at the drivers on the road to Ilo. Anywho, I rediscovered why I love Ilo so much. It is a port town that reminds me of Valpariso, but a fraction of the size. People in Ilo seem to like me, and as a missionary I ended there and had success, to more reasons to love it. Unfortunately, some people I had hoped to see had moved and some that I saw were no longer active members of the LDS church (or any church for that matter). I ate the best Torta de tres leches (3 milk cake) in Peru (despite what my wife says), at the store called, Ma’ Charito which is owned by the Patriarch. When I was a missionary, Wednesday was free cake day, raising Ilo’s comparison score considerably.
Another point in Ilo’s favor is that it is easy to spell and write in a blog. Not like that other place I recently wrote about with the funny ‘n’ with the squiggly line above it that isn’t on my keyboard.
Another thing that I saw in my travels: if the bus you are traveling on stops for construction or anything really, and many people start getting off and making for the roadside, don’t worry, they are indeed, using the bathroom. Even the ladies (***liberal use of the term alert***). That’s life. Don’t feel embarrassed, in fact, I counsel you to join them. 7 hours on a bus with no bathroom is a long time. Just a tip, make sure you don’t step in the previous bus travelers’ #2. Watch your step, that’s all I’m saying.
Alas, good restaurants in Ilo. In the town proper is Tommy’s, which is around the corner from the plaza, and good parriada. For chifa (Chinese Peruvian food), I would recommend Chif Hoy, which is on the plaza. For you big spenders out there, go about 10 minutes in taxi on the costal road to Tacna and you’ll find Calienta Negros, an expensive restaurant all by itself which is great for everything, especially fish and cordon bleu. The name of Calienta Negros comes from a story that on this particular rocky point, the slave ships bound for Equator and Colombia (and Peru) that had to round the continent used to stop there to let the slaves warm on the rocks for a while. (I suppose this means it was cold in the belly of a slave ship?) That’s the legend anyway, and I’m not sure if it’s true.
Ilo, you can buy shark jaws there, I know I did.

Fui en un viaje, y no a toda prisa, a la OIT. Se pospuso debido a la Paro, que aparentemente se está resolviendo. Antes de irme, me olvidó mencionar que ahora puedo hacer el adobo, que la sopa de carne de cerdo picantes que he mencionado. Lo hice el domingo y lo comía, y era bueno. Tengo que post esto porque es parte del trabajo del curso y me olvidé por completo de hablar de ello. Muy pronto por venir: la receta completa para el adobo delicioso.
Suficiente sobre la historia antigua.
Durante mi reciente viaje a Ilo, (mis disculpas por adelantado, no tomé una cámara), me di cuenta de algunas cosas que encontré insólito y digno de mención. No había una ambulancia con las luces encendidas, que entró en la carretera delante del autobús que estaba en el cual empezó a carrera hacia el pueblo más cercano. Esta es una de las pocas veces que he visto una ambulancia, y observó con incredulidad, ya que siguió una línea de vehículos de cuatro o tan diferente NINGUNA DE whome dejaron pasar la ambulancia PASS. Peor aún es que la ambulancia intentó en vano varias veces para pasar, pero no pudo debido al tráfico en sentido contrario.
...
Wow. ¿No es su momento más brillante Perú. Actualmente estoy moviendo un dedo admonitorio a los conductores en la carretera de Ilo. Anywho, volví a descubrir por qué amo tanto Ilo. Es una ciudad portuaria que me recuerda a Valparaíso, pero una fracción del tamaño. La gente en Ilo me parece que gusta, y como misionero terminé allí y tuvo éxito, a más razones para amarlo. Lamentablemente, algunas personas que yo esperaba ver se había movido y algunos que he visto ya no eran miembros activos de la iglesia LDS (o cualquier iglesia para el caso). Me comí el mejor Torta de tres leches (pastel de 3 de leche) en el Perú (a pesar de lo que dice mi esposa), en la tienda llamada, Charito Ma ', que es propiedad del patriarca. Cuando yo era un día misionero, el miércoles fue pastel gratis, elevando puntuación de Ilo de la comparación considerablemente.
Otro punto a favor de Ilo es que es fácil de deletrear y escribir en un blog. No como este otro que escribió recientemente sobre el "curioso n 'con la línea ondulada encima de lo que no está en mi teclado.
Otra cosa que he visto en mis viajes: si el autobús va a viajar en las paradas para la construcción o cualquier cosa realmente, y mucha gente comienza a recibir apagado y la toma de la carretera, no te preocupes, son de hecho, usar el baño. Incluso las damas (*** uso liberal de la alerta plazo ***). Así es la vida. No se sienta avergonzado, de hecho, yo te aconsejo que unirse a ellos. 7 horas en un autobús sin baño es mucho tiempo. Sólo un consejo, asegúrese de que no se meten en los viajeros de autobús anteriores # 2. Cuidado, eso es todo lo que estoy diciendo.
¡Ay, buenos restaurantes en Ilo. En la ciudad apropiada es Tommy, que está a la vuelta de la plaza, y parriada buena. Para chifa (comida peruana china), le recomendaría CHIF Hoy, que está en la plaza. Para usted grandes gastadores por ahí, vaya unos 10 minutos en taxi en la carretera de la costa de Tacna y encontrarás Calienta Negros, un restaurante caro por sí mismo que es grande para todo, especialmente el pescado y cordon bleu. El nombre de Calienta Negros viene de una historia que en este punto rocoso particular, los barcos de esclavos con destino a Ecuador y Colombia (y Perú) que tenía que ronda el continente utilizado para detenerse en ellos para dejar que los esclavos caliente en las rocas por un tiempo. (Supongo que esto quiere decir que hacía frío en el vientre de un barco de esclavos?) Esa es la leyenda de todos modos, y no estoy seguro si es verdad.
Ilo, usted puede comprar las mandíbulas de tiburón allí, sé que lo hice.

Journal Post

2010-04-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was strange. I found myself doing something that I hadn't done since my mission, and it was just as I remembered, not all that fun. What was I doing you ask? Well, I has helping the neighbors carry bricks.This is how it happened: I just happened to be walking by, and I saw this lady carrying bricks. This many, many times in Peru. Women performing hard labor, but it never ceases to surprise me. Well, since this was happening on the block where I lived, I went to my house, changed clothes, and then went back to see if I could lend a hand. The Lady is named Magda from Puno (no surprise there) and she gladly accepted the offer, although she kept a close eye on me. After that, there wasn't much conversation as I was busy carrying bricks from the street to inside the fenced area. After about a half an hour, I had to go to the dentist, which is what I'll be talking about next, so I bid adieu to the woman and walked away. I'm not sure if the head bob I got was thanks of just a sign of disbelief that I helped her for no apparent reason. All in all, it was an awkward experience.

The dentist. A few days ago, I chipped a tooth. I chipped my tooth because I eat too quickly and because ever so often, you'll find a small bone or rock in your food. So... I needed to go to the dentist. I once had a wisdom tooth yanked out in Peru, which was a harrowing experience. I do have an advantage in harrowing dentist experiences because I usually go to Dr. Tanner in the USA, who is pretty old school in his techniques and I honestly could find no differences in his procedure for pulling out my first three wisdom teeth and the mission experience of one. Anyway, the lady who fixed my tooth also repaired two cavities. I hate letting people put me in such a vulnerable position, but it had to be done. Fortunately, their equipment was modern enough and it went smoothly. Best part is, the whole ordeal cost me less than 100 dollars, so I chalk it up for a win.

Ayer fue extraño. Me encontré a mí mismo haciendo algo que no había hecho desde mi misión, y fue así como yo recordaba, no todos los que la diversión. ¿Qué estaba haciendo usted pide? Bueno, me ha ayudando a los vecinos llevan bricks.This es cómo sucedió: me acaba de pasar a estar caminando por el, y vi a esta señora transportando ladrillos. Esto muchas, muchas veces en el Perú. Las mujeres que realizan trabajo duro, pero nunca deja de sorprenderme. Bueno, ya que esto ocurría en el bloque donde yo vivía, fui a mi casa, se cambió de ropa, y luego volvió para ver si podía echar una mano. La dama se llama Magda de Puno (ninguna sorpresa allí) y ella aceptó gustosa la oferta, aunque seguido de cerca en mí. Después de eso, no hubo conversación tanto como yo estaba ocupado transportando ladrillos desde la calle hasta el interior de la zona vallada. Después de aproximadamente una media hora, tuve que ir al dentista, que es lo que voy a estar hablando de lo siguiente, adiós a la mujer y se marchó. No estoy seguro si el bob la cabeza lo que conseguí fue gracias de tan sólo un signo de incredulidad que me ayudó sin ninguna razón aparente. En definitiva, fue una experiencia incómoda.

El odontólogo. Hace unos días, he saltado un diente. Yo mi diente astillado porque come demasiado rápidamente y con frecuencia porque siempre es así, usted encontrará un pequeño hueso o piedra en sus alimentos. Así que ... Tenía que ir al dentista. Una vez tuve una muela del juicio arrancó a cabo en Perú, que fue una experiencia desgarradora. Tengo una ventaja en las experiencias desgarradoras dentista porque por lo general van a la doctora Tanner en los EE.UU., que es bastante vieja escuela en sus técnicas y yo honestamente no pudo encontrar diferencias en su procedimiento para la retirada de mis tres primeros dientes de la sabiduría y la misión la experiencia de uno. De todos modos, la señora que me arregló los dientes también reparó dos cavidades. No me gusta dejar que la gente me puso en una posición tan vulnerable, pero que había que hacer. Afortunadamente, su equipo fue bastante moderno y se desarrolló sin contratiempos. La mejor parte es, la prueba dura entera me ha costado menos de 100 dólares, por lo que atribuírselo a una victoria.

Journal Post

2010-04-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was kind of a drag. Not because it wasn't fun and interesting, but because I had planned on traveling to Ilo and Tacna. I was unable to because of a Paro in which hundreds of people have expressed displeasure of a mining proposition in Tia Maria. More on this story here:
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-11984-law-order-police-have-orders-remove-road-blockade-southern-peru

In any event, I went to the bus terminal Friday at 11 with my suitcase, only to be informed that I was silly for the attempt. So, Arequipa bound I was. After the terminal, we went and ate ceviche with my wife's friends, which was tasty. I had a cup of spicy liquid with raw fish in it called 'Leche de Tigre', (Tiger's milk). As nasty as this undoubtedly sounds, it was really good, especially when combined with my fried seafood. That night, we went dancing at a place called Manaya. It was fun, but there were WAY to many people and at midnight, there was no longer any space to dance.

Saturday we ran errands, and I experimented with a fruit that I've never had before. It was atun (cactus), and the lady peeled it for me and everything. I found it good, though nothing to die for.

Aside from those things, I was busy doing homework. Perhaps I will travel to Ilo if the Paro ends soon. We'll see.

Este fin de semana pasado fue una especie de arrastre. No porque no fue muy divertido e interesante, sino porque yo había planeado viaje a Ilo y Tacna. No he podido a causa de un Paro en la que cientos de personas han expresado su descontento de una proposición minería en Tía María. Más sobre esta historia aquí:
http://www.noticiasarequipa.com/new/apoyaran-paro-en-islay-tanto-tacna-y-moquegua

En cualquier caso, fui a la terminal de autobuses el viernes a las 11 con mi maleta, sólo para ser informado de que yo era tonto para el intento. Así pues, obligados Arequipa era yo. Después de la terminal, fuimos y se comió ceviche con amigos de mi esposa, que estaba delicioso. Tenía una taza de líquido picante con pescado crudo, que se llama "leche de tigre", (la leche de tigre). Tan desagradable como este, sin duda, los sonidos, fue realmente bueno, especialmente cuando se combina con mi mariscos fritos. Esa noche, nos fuimos a bailar a un lugar llamado Manaya. Fue divertido, pero había FORMA de muchas personas y en la medianoche, ya no había ningún espacio para bailar.

Sábado nos hacía los mandados, y experimentó con una fruta que nunca he tenido antes. Se atun (cactus), y la señora pelada para mí y para todo. Me pareció buena, aunque nada para morirse. Aparte de esas cosas, yo estaba ocupado haciendo la tarea. Tal vez voy a viajar a Ilo si el Paro finaliza pronto. Vamos a ver.

Journal Post: Deja Vu and Helping the Missionaries

2010-04-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it finally happened: I accompanied the missionaries to help out the great work. I have been trying to do this since I got here, appearently, the missionaries aren´t as hard up for help as they were in my day. I actually went with them twice, Elder Pacaya and Elder... I forget the other´s name. The first night I was left hanging at the meeting place for 45 minutes before I went to find them in their house. Typical, they´d been detained in some backward corner of the area and hadn´t been able to make it on time, they had called ahead, fortunately, so that when I arrived at their house I was told to wait. Elder Pacaya is from Lima and Elder ... is from Chiclayo. (Strange that I should remember where he´s from, yet not his name). Anyway, we did go the the appointment, and as is typical, it fell through. We then wandered around the dark streets (it was 8 pm) and contacted a few people.
What was most strange about this experience of last week, was that this used to be my area and I used to be the missionary. It was weird.

Fast forward to last Saturday, (the day of the crazy munchkin invasion involving a clown if yoú´ll recall). I ran into an old investigator I´d been thinking about lately named Juan. Juan´s a good kid who studies law and fancies himself a bit of an intellectual, which is fine by me. Juan also speaks English, which was handy when I first met him two years ago because I was in the midst of training a brand new Gringo Greenie from Idaho named Sean Poole. Poole was one of my favorite companions ever, but as we all did, he suffered with the language when he first got here. Well, we taught Juan in English (which was trippy in it´s own right at the time), and he progressed. Alas, I had to leave and he stopped progressing at some point.

So... I saw him on the combi, and I chatted him up and got his address and phone number. I made an appointment, and Sunday made plans with the missionaries to go visit him.
Here´s where things took a twist. I was informed that the Zone (that´s an area of various missionary companionships for those who aren´t LDS) was going to come and do contacts in the area that afternoon. I generously (I thought so anyway, or perhaps gallantly) volunteered to help out and then go to the appointment with Juan. Turns out, the missionaries of my area are a touch nutty and they foisted me off on another companionship. One was 27 years old from Lima and the other was 19 from Orem UT. Quite a contrast. After a bizarre contact/lesson in the doorway of a humble home with a lady whose son yelled that he needed to go #2 the entire time, I treated us to some water. Later, I guided us to a member home where we collected a reference (remember, this isn´t their area- of the missionaries) and went to contact it.
A few funny things I recalled about door to door contacting:
*Not a good idea around 2 PM.
*Dogs on Roofs, all over the place. The houses are cement, flat roofed, and most people have dogs.

*You never know which door to knock, and nor which bell to ring. Sometimes yuo ring one bell, and someone comes out on the other street around the corner, it´s bizarre.
*The afternoon sun is merciless. I figure that the most saved souls lived on the shady side of the street.
*People who own stores can´t escape, but that doesn´t mean they give a fig about the church.
*Sometimes people when asked about which religion the follow they say, "None. Er, I mean, I´m Catholic." Ha ha ha, nice try.
*People (especially older people) feel the need to bring out their J-Dub (Jehovah´s Witness) literature as if to show that they have alreay had their ticket marked.I had quite a collection of the "Atalaya" (Watchtower, a J-Dub magazine) going back when I was a missionary.
At this point, it was Juan time and so we went and visited him. He´s exactly as I remember him and hope that the actual missionaries of this area can help him a bit further along the path. The lesson was a bit discombobulated due to the fact that the old guy missinoary decided to wax dramatic and also because they knew they´d likey never see this kid again. On a high note, his mom gave us some yummy orange flavered creamy geletin stuff so I chaulk it up as a good lesson. I´d skipped lunch for these fun times so after that, we parted ways and I high tailed it to the house for some food.
This happened yesterday, and by the way, I remembered the other Elder´s name- Elder Camasca.

Bueno, finalmente ha ocurrido: me acompañó a los misioneros para ayudar a la gran obra. He estado tratando de hacer esto desde que llegué aquí, aparente orden, los misioneros no son tan difíciles para recibir ayuda como lo fueron en mi día. De hecho, me fui con ellos dos veces, de Pacaya Elder y Elder ... Se me olvida el nombre del otro. La primera noche me quedé en el aire en el lugar de encuentro de 45 minutos antes de ir a encontrarlos en su casa. Típica, que habían sido detenidos en algún rincón de la zona de atrás y no había podido llegar a tiempo, habían llamado antes, afortunadamente, de manera que cuando llegué a su casa me dijo que esperara. Elder Pacaya es de Lima y ancianos ... es de Chiclayo. (Es extraño que no lo olvidaría de dónde es, aún no su nombre). De todas formas, fue a la cita, y como es típico, que fracasó. Luego vagó por las calles oscuras (era de 8 horas) y se contactó con algunas personas.
Lo más extraño de esta experiencia de la semana pasada, fue que esta era mi área y yo solía ser el misionero. Era extraño.
Un avance rápido hasta el sábado pasado, (el día de la invasión de enanos loco participación de un payaso, si recuerdan you'll). Me encontré con un investigador de edad que había estado pensando últimamente llamado Juan. Juan'sa buen chico que estudia derecho y se cree un poco de un intelectual, lo cual está bien por mí. Juan también habla Inglés, que estaba a mano cuando lo conocí hace dos años porque estaba en medio de la formación de una nueva marca Greenie gringo de Idaho llamado Sean Poole. Poole fue uno de mis compañeros favorito de siempre, pero como todos lo hicimos, que sufrió con el idioma cuando llegó aquí. Bueno, nos enseñó Juan en Inglés (que fue trippy en ella por derecho propio a la hora), y avanzó que él. Por desgracia, tuve que salir y dejó de progresar en algún momento. Así que ... Yo lo vi en la combi, y yo le conversaba y consiguió su dirección y número de teléfono. Hice una cita, y el domingo hizo planes con los misioneros para ir a visitarlo.

Aquí es donde las cosas tomaron un giro. Se me informó que la Zona (que es un área de varios compañerismos misioneros para aquellos que no son SUD) iba a venir y hacer contactos en el área de la tarde. Yo generosamente (Ya me lo imaginaba todos modos, o quizás galante) se ofreció a ayudar y luego ir a la cita con Juan. Resulta que los misioneros de mi zona son un toque de nuez y me impuesta parte en una nueva compañía. Uno tenía 27 años de Lima y el otro tenía 19 años de Orem UT. Todo un contraste. Después de un contacto bizarro, clase en la puerta de un hogar humilde con una señora cuyo hijo gritó que tenía que ir # 2 todo el tiempo, que nos trató con un poco de agua. Más tarde, nos guió a un miembro de origen, donde hemos recopilado una referencia (recuerde, esto no es su área-de los misioneros) y se fue a contactar con ella.
A pocas cosas divertidas que la recuperación de unos puerta a puerta en contacto con:
* No es una buena idea en torno a las 2 PM.
Los perros en las azoteas, por todas partes. Las casas son de cemento, techos planos, y la mayoría de la gente tiene perros.
* Nunca se sabe qué puerta llamar, y ni que sonara el timbre. A veces un anillo de campana, y alguien viene a la calle otra vuelta de la esquina, es extraño.
* El sol de la tarde es despiadado. Me imagino que las almas más guardado vivía en el lado sombreado de la calle.
* Las personas que poseen las tiendas no pueden escapar, pero eso no significa que ellos dan una figura de la iglesia.

* A veces la gente cuando se le preguntó acerca de que la religión el seguimiento dicen: "Ninguna. Er, quiero decir, yo soy católico". Ja ja ja, buen intento.
* Personas (especialmente la gente mayor) se siente la necesidad de llevar a cabo sus J-Dub (Testigos de Jehová) la literatura, como para demostrar que han tenido su alreay marked.I boleto tenía una colección de la "Atalaya" (La Atalaya, una revista J-Dub) que se remonta cuando yo era un misionero.

En este punto, que era el momento Juan y por lo que fue y lo visitó. Es exactamente como lo recuerdo y la esperanza de que los misioneros real de esta área le puede ayudar un poco más a lo largo del camino. La lección fue un poco discombobulated debido al hecho de que el viejo missinoary decidió cera dramática y también porque sabían que había nunca likey ver este niño otra vez. En una nota alta, su mamá nos dio algunas de naranja delicioso flavered cosas geletin cremosa así que lo doy como una buena lección. Había saltado el almuerzo para estos tiempos tan divertido después de eso, nos separamos y yo alta cola a la casa para comer algo.
Esto sucedió ayer, y por cierto, me acordé de la otra el nombre de Elder-Elder Camasca.

Bus Rides, Taxis, Insanity

2010-04-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

***Note about this post, I have been trying to upload this video FOR WEEKS. Since March 15th. Finally it seemed to have worked.***

Just so you can get a small feel of my daily travel. Here is a ride in what is called a "Micro" or bus. There is also a section in the front seat of a "combi" which is a Japanese made van, and also a taxi for a bit. Hope you enjoy it.

Sólo para que pueda obtener una sensación pequeña de mi diario de viaje. Aquí está un paseo en lo que se llama un "Micro" o en autobús. También hay una sección en el asiento delantero de una combi ", que es una camioneta japonesa hizo, y también un taxi para un poco. Espero que lo disfruten.

Visit to Quequeña.

2010-04-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well, Sunday afternoon as is custom, my father-in-law took his daughter to lunch. I have married into this little tradition and so I am now the third wheel, which is fine by me as he usually takes us to some interesting place. This week, his father accompanied us, Alejandro Santos. He is 72 years old and has had an interesting life, having been born in a town near Cuzco called Sicuani, and then moving all around to finally end up in Arequipa.

Bueno, la tarde del domingo como es costumbre, mi padre-en-ley llevó a su hija a comer. Me he casado en esta tradición poco y por lo que estoy ahora la tercera rueda, lo cual está bien por mí como por lo general nos lleva a algún lugar interesante. Esta semana, su padre nos acompañó, Alejandro Santos. Él tiene 72 años y ha tenido una vida interesante, haber nacido en un pueblo cerca del Cuzco llamado Sicuani, y luego pasando a su alrededor para terminar finalmente en Arequipa.

Quequeña is an interesting little traditional town a bit South West of Arequipa. There is a lot of history inn this small community. This history included a story about the Chile invasion during the Guerra del Pacifico. From what I understood, when the Chileans were about in the area, there were some Peruvians that didn´t approve of the situation. As a result, six Peruvians were shot in the town square. They are hailed as heros now and it is quite a deal, and there is a monument erected to remember. There are lots of original old houses around the plaza and the year each was constructed appears above the door. Here are some images of Quequeña:

Quequeña es un interesante campo tradicional, un poco pequeño el suroeste de Arequipa. Hay mucha historia de la posada esta pequeña comunidad. Esta historia incluye una historia sobre la invasión de Chile durante la Guerra del Pacífico. Por lo que entendí, cuando los chilenos estaban a punto de la zona, hubo algunos peruanos que no estaba de acuerdo con la situación. Como resultado, seis peruanos fueron fusilados en la plaza del pueblo. Ellos son aclamados como héroes y ahora es un buen acuerdo, y hay un monumento erigido para recordar. Hay muchas casas antiguas al rededor de la plaza y el año en lo cual cada una fue construida figura sobre la puerta. Aquí están algunas imágenes de Quequeña:

In addition to checking out the town, I mapped the town square and here is a very rough drawing of how that went:

Además de la comprobación hacia fuera de la ciudad, me asignó la plaza del pueblo y aquí hay un dibujo muy aproximada de cómo fue que:

Afterwards, we went to eat lunch at a tradtional picantaria where my wife and I shared a¨"double", which is some chicharron de chancho (fried pork) with rocoto relleno and pastel de papa. My father in law had Cuy, which is guinea pig and I find it loathsome in appearance and taste. Regardless of what I think, it is a traditional dish and they are all for it. Here is what the little devil looked like:

Después, nos fuimos a comer el almuerzo en un picantaria del tradtional donde mi esposa y yo compartimos una ¨ "doble", que es un chicharrón de chancho (cerdo frito) con rocoto relleno y pastel de papa. Mi suegro había Cuy, que es conejillo de indias y me resulta repugnante en la apariencia y el sabor. Independientemente de lo que pienso, es un plato tradicional y son todos para él. Esto es lo que el pequeño demonio ve como este:

We wrapped up our delightlful little trip by visiting the Ququeña gravyard. It was interesting, and it enver ceases to amaze me when I see above ground family grave sites.

Estamos envueltos nuestro pequeño viaje delightlful visitando el gravyard Ququeña. Fue interesante, y Enver deja de sorprenderme cuando veo por encima de las tumbas de tierra de la familia.

Journal Post: Backlog

2010-04-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

It occurs to me that in the excitement of all my travels and responsibilities, I have let the daily joy that is the blog post fall by the wayside. In penance for this unspeakable act, I'll bullet point the interesting things of the past week.
* Ending Semana Santa, life resumes as normal, and something that I find interesting is the climate. It is pretty warm and even at night, it doesn´t get too cold. I like that about Arequipa.
* I find the various School Uniforms somewhat interesting. In the states, there are relatively few schools that require a uniform. It is the norm here, and you will see everthing from sweat pants and shirts to button up shirts with ties and jackets. I´m glad I didn´t have to wear a uniform in highschool. Everyday that I leave work, there are tons of children in the streets just leaving school.
* I played some soccer with the members of the church, it reminded me of when I was a missionary and we played soccer for practically every preparation day
*There was a birthday party for my 4-year-old brother-in-law. It was a Train Thomas theme, and there were easily a million children there. Something different culturally is the necessity of contracting a clown. I am not afraid of clowns, but I'm not a huge fan either. This clown got more than he bargained with the puppet show portion of his entertainment when the little monsters started attacking the wolf puppet and his tent.

Luckily for me, there were some fun games to be had in the prizes given out. I was able to play a with a few of them, and this is one of them.

It is called a "bolero". The object of the game is to get the big end to fall on top of the little end with one hand- the picture should explain it simply enough. There were also toys called "trompos", which are tops that you wind a string around and then throw. You'd be surprised how tricky each of these toys are to master.

Se me ocurre que en el entusiasmo de todos mis viajes y responsabilidades, he dejado la alegría cotidiana que es la caída entrada en el blog en el camino. En penitencia por este acto atroz, me topo punto de las cosas interesantes de la semana pasada.
* Poner fin a la Semana Santa, se reanuda la vida como algo normal, y algo que me parece interesante es el clima. Es muy cálida e incluso por la noche, no se ponga demasiado frío. Me gusta que alrededor de Arequipa.
* Encuentro de los distintos Uniformes Escolares algo interesante. En los estados, hay relativamente pocas escuelas que requieren de un uniforme. Es la norma que aquí, y verá EVERTHING de pantalones de chándal y camisetas a abrocharse las camisas con corbatas y chaquetas. Me alegro de no tener que usar un uniforme en el colegio. Cada día que salgo del trabajo, hay toneladas de los niños en las calles acaba de salir de la escuela.
* Jugué al fútbol con algunos de los miembros de la iglesia, me recordó de cuando yo era un misionero y jugamos fútbol para prácticamente todos los días de preparación
* Hubo una fiesta de cumpleaños para mi hermano de 4 años de edad-en-ley. Fue un tema de trenes Thomas, y no eran fácilmente un millón de niños allí. Algo diferente culturalmente es la necesidad de contratar un clown. No tengo miedo a los payasos, pero no soy un gran fan tampoco. Este payaso tiene más de lo que esperaba con la parte de su espectáculo de títeres del espectáculo cuando los pequeños monstruos empezaron a atacar a la marioneta lobo y su tienda. Por suerte para mí, hubo algunos juegos de diversión que había en los premios entregados. Tuve la oportunidad de desempeñar un espectáculo con algunas de ellas, y este es uno de them.It se llama un bolero ". El objetivo del juego es conseguir la gran final a caer en la parte superior del final poco con una mano-la imagen debe explicar simplemente lo suficiente. También había juguetes llamados "trompos", que son las tapas que usted enrolla una cuerda alrededor y luego tirar. Usted se sorprendería de lo difícil cada uno de estos juguetes son de dominar.

J-Cruz and Hamburg Restaurants. yum and yum.

2010-04-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

These restaurants have made their theme lots of neat stuff that they've been able to accumulate over the years by being in Valparaiso, a large port city. Here are some views into the good times to be had there.

Estos restaurantes se han abierto el tema de cosas interesantes que han podido acumular en los últimos años por estar en Valparaíso, una gran ciudad portuaria. Éstos son algunos puntos de vista en los buenos tiempos que había allí.

Chile: Notes

2010-04-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

This is the typical audio slide show that accompanies my travels. I will mention bullet point some things:
Esto es una tipica presentacion multimedia que pongo junto con mis viajes. Mencionare en forma breve algunos cosas:

There are lots of dogs on the beach.
Hay muchos perros en la playa.

There is lots of graffiti around and about (much like any big city I suppose).
Hay mucho graffiti por alli (como cualquier otro ciudad grande supongo).

Some of the pictures are of me taking pictures, these were taken by a girl who lives with my aunt who is also studying journalism.
Algunos de los fotos son de mi tomando fotos, fueron tomados por una chica a quienes vive con mi tia y tambien esta estudiando periodismo.

There are lots of pretty flowers in Viña Del Mar.
Hay muchos flores bonitas en Viña Del Mar
I find the juxtaposition of colonial style homes and modern skyscrapers interesting.

The roofs of all the buildings in Viña are pretty ugly, something you don't see from the street.

The sea lions in Valpariso are lazy.

The wooden houses in Valpariso are painted lots of interesting bright colors.

The statue of a lady in the night was stole from Lima when Chile occupied it in the Pacific War.

The building with big rods was damaged by the Earthquake, and there are quite a few small damages still being repaired.

There is a famous restaurant called Cap Ducal that I remember from when I was young, as well as the Castle Wulf. Both landmarks. And the dock of Viña, can't forget that.

Semana Santa... AKA Crazy Week.

2010-04-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

I'm not catholic. I respect the traditions and all, but sometimes I find things that are very strange to me. For example: Semana Santa (Holy Week). There are lots of things that the people of Arequipa do to commemorate various aspects of the last week of Christ's life, and I find all of them slightly odd. But hey, that's just the Mormon in me. If you are curious about this particular tradition, check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Week
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semana_Santa
In Arequipa, folks are big on recreating everything that Jesus did during the last week. Therefore, there are various events in all of the churches where people wave palms and a man with a beard rides a donkey, people walk from church to church, a person is crucified (theatrically), and other recreations. One of the more amusing is the burning of Judas, which is usually a pinata made paper and in the likeness of the current political president.
There are a few things other than the recreations that are good to know. For example on Friday you can only eat fish, which leads to very high seafood prices and the making of something called "chupe de cameron" (crab soup), which I find all kinds of disgusting. (There are sometimes hairy crab legs, fish eggs, chunks of clam, and other things that shouldn't be combined. I love crab and seafood, but only as individual dishes and well cleaned.)
There is also "ley seca" which is "dry law". Basically, nobody is supposed to consume alcohol for a few days. It's funny, because in the large Wal-Mart like store, there was caution tape around the liquor section proclaiming that for Arequipa law, there can be no sale of alcohol for Ley seca.
On the Sunday of the resurrection, there is eating of what is called "Caldo De Pascua" (Easter soup). This is supposed to be like regular chicken broth: carrots, potatoes, chuño, yuca, chicken. But this has a twist, instead of just chicken, there is supposed to be 7 other types of meats. Yeah... I know what you're thinking. If you are thinking, "not vegetarian friendly", you are right.
One other thing that happens Semana Santa: All week religious films are played on all of the Peru channels. From Ben Hur to the Passion of Christ, they are all there. Some are overtly Catholic, some are merely religious entertainment, but everyone gets hyped for Christ this time of year as a result.

Yo no soy católico. Yo respeto las tradiciones y todo, pero a veces me encuentro cosas que son muy extraño para mí. Por ejemplo: Semana Santa (Holy Week). Hay un montón de cosas que el pueblo de Arequipa hace para conmemorar los diversos aspectos de la última semana de la vida de Cristo, y me encuentro con todos ellos un poco raro. Pero bueno, eso es sólo el mormón en mí.
En Arequipa, la gente son grandes en recrear todo lo que hizo Jesús durante la última semana. Por lo tanto, hay varios eventos en todas las iglesias donde la gente las palmas de las olas y un hombre con una barba de paseos en burro, la gente camina de iglesia en iglesia, una persona es crucificado (teatral), y otros. Una de las más divertidas es la quema de Judas, que suele ser una piñata hecha de papel y en la semejanza de la política actual presidente.
Hay algunas cosas que no sean las recreaciones que es bueno que conozcas. Por ejemplo el viernes sólo se puede comer pescado, lo que lleva a los precios del pescado muy alta y la realización de algo llamado "chupe de Cameron", que me parece desagradable. (A veces hay patas de cangrejo peludo, huevas de pescado, trozos de almeja, y otras cosas que no deben ser combinados. Me encanta el cangrejo y mariscos, pero sólo como platos y limpiar bien.)
También hay "ley seca", que es la "ley seca". Básicamente, nadie se supone que debe consumir alcohol durante unos días. Es curioso, porque en los grandes de Wal-Mart como tienda, no había cinta de precaución alrededor de la sección licor proclamando que la ley de Arequipa, no puede haber venta de alcohol para la Ley Seca.
El domingo de la resurrección, no está comiendo de lo que se llama "Caldo de Pascua" (sopa de Pascua). Esto se supone que es como el caldo de pollo regular: zanahorias, papas, chuño, yuca, pollo. Pero esto tiene un giro, en vez de pollo, no se supone que debe ser de 7 otros tipos de carnes. Si ... Sé lo que estás pensando. Si usted está pensando ", no" amistosa vegetariana, tiene usted razón.
Otra cosa que sucede Semana Santa: Durante toda la semana películas religiosas se juegan en todos los canales de Perú. De Ben Hur a la Pasión de Cristo, están todos allí. Algunos son abiertamente católicos, algunos son meramente de entretenimiento religioso, pero todo el mundo se promocionado por Cristo en esta época del año como resultado.

Something wierd.

2010-04-01T12:17:00.001-07:00

Would you like to know what one of the first indications were that I was in a foreign country? Very well, it was this:
Desean saber cual es una de las primeras indicaciones que me hizo dar cuenta que estaba en un pais ajena? Bien esto:

This is strange. I know cigarettes are bad, everyone knows that. Even the smokers know that. But in Chile it is the LAW that 50% of all cigerette boxes and ads are used for anti smoking ads. And yet they still outsmoke Peruvians. I don´t understand.

Esto es raro. Sè que cigarros son malos. Todos lo saben. Aun los fumadores saben. Pero en Chile es la LEY que 50% de todos las cajas de cigarro y propadanda son utilizados por advisos contra tabaco. Y aun fuman mas que los peruanos. No entiendo.

Journal Post, Observation # 9 Chilean food.

2010-03-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

About food.
There are many interesting things that I could recount from my week in Chile, but I worry more about food than anything, so here is a short recap of some dishes that I ate Also, upon suggestion of my cousin Roberto, I will attempt to write all further posts in Spanish as well as English.

Sobre comida.
Hay muchas cosas interesantes que pude recalcar de mi semana en Chile, pero preocupo más acerca de comida de cualquier otra cosa, entonces acá tienen a un resumen de algunos platos que probé. También, actuando según la sugerencia de mi primo Roberto, intentare escribir todos anotaciones en español también como ingles.

1) Humitos:

I’ve never had these before but they are basically Tamales. Mashed up corn, cooked wrapped up in the leaves, and some type of herb for seasoning (my Aunt Elba told me the name of the herb, but I have subsequently forgotten.

Nunca antes les he probado, pero básicamente son tamales. Maíz molido, cocinado enrollado de las hojas, y algún tipo de hierba para sazonar. (Mi Tía Elba me dijo el nombre de la hierba, pero ya me lo olvidé.)

2) Empanadas:
I am sure that I cannot get away with calling this a Chilean food, as I have seen them in ample quality elsewhere. But, I can tell you that what the Chileans call Empanada “Pino”, which is beef, egg, olive, and sometimes raisins, is what in Peru they call Empanada Chileno. Which, taking into account the prevalence of this particular combination of foods in the Chilean “pastel de choclo” and other dishes, I attribute this flavor to Chile.

Seguro que no puedo decir que esta es una comida chilena, como les he visto en diversos otros lugares. Pero si puedo decir que en Perú se les llaman empanadas chilenas. Que, tomando en cuento la presencia de esta combinación particular en las comidas de chile como pastel de choclo y otros, atribuyo este sabor a Chile.

3) Meat and Pebre:

Meat, especially beef, is well received and readily devoured by one and all. For the birthday my cousin’s (Diego) son, we ate a delicious meal which consisted of meat, bread, pebre, and of course, Coca Cola. The meat was beef, cooked up in the oven and salty and delicious. The bread in Chile is different than that of Peru, although there is such a variety in both countries that I am sure that you could find some of the same in both. But the common bread in Chile is called “pan batido” in Viña del Mar and “marraqueta” (SP?) in Santiago. It has a somewhat hard crust with at soft interior, is ovalish in shape with a line down the middle. There are lots of other breads, and a principle difference between common breads in Peru and Chile is that the Chile bread is denser and a touch saltier. Pebre is VERY Chilean. It is similar to salsa, but generally not spicy. It is made with chopped onions, tomatoes, and a LOT of cilantro- it is actually greenish in hue. This is applied liberally to bread and meat alike and I like it.

Carne, especialmente res, es bien recibida y devorada con gusto por todos. Por el cumpleaños del hijo de mi Primo Diego, comíamos a una cena delicioso que fue carne, pan, pebre, y presupuesto, Coca Cola. La carne fue res, cocida en el horno y fue salada y rica. La pan de Chile es diferente al pan de Perú, pero hay tanto variedad en las dos países que seguro que podrías encontrar lo mismo en ambas. Pero el pan común de Chile se llama pan batido en Viña del Mar y marraqueta (SP?) en Santiago. Tiene la parte exterior poco duro y es suave por adentro, tiene una forma oval, con una línea partiéndolo en dos. Hay muchos panes en Peru y Chile, pare una diferencia principal es que los panes son mas densos y salados en Chile. Pebre es MUY chileno. Es similar a la salsa, pero por lo general, no es picante. Consiste de cebolla cortada, tomates, y mucho cilantro- ya es verde. Se aplica liberalmente al pan y la carne igual y eso me agrada mucho.

4) Chorrillana:

This is a yummy, yet simple dish. It’s somewhat like the Peruvian dish, “lomo soltado”, but I like it better. It consists of small strips or chunks of beef, chopped onions, some fried eggs (but not many and very subtly mixed in with the meat). This is heaped atop a bunch of French fries. I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s really tasty for some reason. So much so that I recalled it from when I was 8-years-old and went back to the restaurant, which is an awesome places called J-Cruz that I’ll discuss at length in subsequent posts.

Esto es un plato sencillo, pero rico. Es parecido al plato peruano, lomo soltado, pero esto me gusto más. Es pedazos de res, cebollas picadas, algunos huevos fritos (pero no muchos y sutilmente combinado con la carne). Esto viene encima de un montón de papas fritas. No se que es la razón exactamente por que es tan rico, pero es muy sabroso. Tanto que me acordé de ello de cuando tenía 8 años y volví a este restaurante, que es un lugar muy chévere que se llama J-Cruz y que explicaré mas en anotaciones subsecuentes.

5) Corvina:

Is fish, and it’s pretty dang good. I like it because it is relatively boneless. I had this in La Serena where my cousin Daniel lives that is 7 hours north of Viña by bus. We went out to a restaurant on the beach and that’s where I had my fish dish. It was supposed to be somewhat spicy (although after living in Arequipa the Chilean’s have nothing that can get my tongue). In any event, this corvina was fried, which was fine, but it also came with some large sautéed mushrooms over it with rice. I was reluctant to dive in as I’m not all that big on mushrooms, especially these big ones called ‘sera’. However, I am pleased to say that the whole thing was really good. I love it when I find a new food that I enjoy.

Es pescado, y bien rico. Me gusta porque es de muy pocos espinas. Esto comí en La Serena por donde vive mi primo Daniel y es como a siete horas norte de Viña en bus. Fuimos a un restaurante en la playa y es allí donde comí mi plato pescado. Supuestamente tenia que ser picante (pero después de vivir en Arequipa no hay nada en Chile que puede afectar mi lengua). En todas maneras, esta corvina fue frito, que estaba bien, pero también tenia alguna champiñones encima con arroz. Fue reticente meter mi tenedor, porque no soy de muchos champiñones. Sin embargo, estoy contento decir que todo fue muy rico. Encanto cuanto encuentro nuevo comida que me disfruto.

CHI CHI CHI, LE LE LE, VIVA CHILE!!!

2010-03-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

That's what they yell here at soccer games. Where is "here" you ask? Why, none other than Chile, birthplace of my mother, and country I had to go to this week for visa purposes. You get 90 days in Peru as a tourist and than you have to either leave the country or go to Lima to do some ridiculous paperwork.
ANYWAY.
I got on a bus in Arequipa Friday the 19th at 10:30 am. I got to Vina Del Mar at around 9 am on Sunday. Peru doesn't do Daylight Savings Time, but Chile does. But to complicate things, because of the recent Quake, the Chileans are putting off DST until April. So what that means is that when I crossed the border into Chile, it ceased to be 6 pm and became 8 pm.
Just a note about the scenery between Arequipa and a City in Chile called Coliapo: IT SUCKS. Unless you like sand.

What you can see above is basically what you get for 15+ hours on the bus. Money in Chile is confusing to me. Something that has always bothered me is the enormity of the numbers involved. The current exchange rate is 526 Pesos to each dollar. And the basic unit of money here is 1000 pesos. More to come.

What I do. Continued...

2010-03-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Education.
Everyone agrees it's important.
Here in Arequipa, there are several Universities. There are also some in Puno, Juliaca, Tacna, and even some types of higher education in Ilo and other places.
The main universities in Arequipa are: Universidad Nacional San Agustin- La UNSA (national), Universidad Catolica, Universidad Catolica San Pablo, and Alas Peruanas. There are various technical institutes around and about as well.
As far as these universities are concerned, it is hard to get into the UNSA because the tuition there is payed by the state. Unfortunately, the pay of the professors at the UNSA is determined year to year depending on the Budget and/or corruption of officials and so there are constant strikes by the professors. That SUCKS for the students. Turns your vacations into school and your school time into useless time and often means you end up studying a few years more than necessary.
The Catolica seems to be a prestigious enough place, but costly and the students are supposedly liberal snobs. (Just what I heard). The San Pablo is where my wife studied and they seem to be pretty strict about everything aside from being expensive. Here at my job we encourage the youth not to go there because they are really dedicated to the idea that one can not study and work simultaneously.
*** Side note and cultural observation. This sentiment about work and study is widely accepted and for that same reason, youth live with their parents much longer. This changes the WHOLE SOCIETY. Seriously. People mature slower, are less independent. The other side of the coin is that family ties are strong and there is a community support within the family. I'm glad I was independent of my family early and enjoy the self reliance that I gleaned from taking care of my own matters from 18 on.***
Alas Peruanas is generally looked down upon as the bottom rung of the university experience, but having only actually entered one university here(San Pablo), and seen the outside of another (UNSA), I really couldn't tell you.
I estimate that the percentage of people that seek higher education here is decent, but I am sure it could be much, MUCH more.
Something else different about the University experience here is that a person has to apply, be accept in, and follow one career. That means that at age 16 (when they finish high school) they must know what they want to do for their career. I think this is a bad system. Numbers agree with me. According to a statistic that the Ministerio de Trajo (work department) released in Arequipa a month ago: 80 percent of all professionals are working in something that isn't their field. That is a lot of wasted time and money. Basically, we have lawyers and doctors driving taxis and selling pirated DVD's. I like the State's option of letting you get in and than decide. I like the ability to leave studies for a while and than come back. Some universities are ok with this (UNSA) some are not, (San Pablo) but it is not easy anywhere. I like being able to switch universities, and having most of my credit counted in the new institution. Here, nothing counts and if you desire a change, you have to quit and than start from scratch somewhere else. I like being able to pick my classes and figure a schedule that works for me. Here you are assigned classes and schedules that are, frankly, ridiculous.

There are more things that I could say, but I think you get the idea.

What I do.

2010-03-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Here in Arequipa, I spend the bulk of my days in the Church of Latter Day Saints Employment Center. Here I teach a class that helps orient people in finding work and interacting with their resources. It's a nice job and I like helping people, so I find it rewarding. It's a nice building, and my bosses are good types so everything is good on that front. As far as what else I do: I am the new media specialists for the center and as part of this, I manage a newsletter and website. The website is located here:
http://sreperusur.weebly.com

I know, I know. VERY SIMPLE. But what do you expect? My bosses aren't technological geniuses and they need to manage it after I leave, in a mere two months. That being said, the thing I enjoy about what I do is that I can help people that have very little hope and very little optimism in the economy and I can help situate them. The LDS employment center is very "Teach a man to fish" oriented and I find that refreshing.
The economic situation in Peru ... Well. Like anything, there is opportunity for those willing to work. It is not easy here. A normal monthly salary here for around 50-60 hours a week would probably fall around 500 ./S . That's roughly 180 bucks a month. It's a tough environment, but one can be successful. Currently, there is a boom of micro finances and small businesses. I enjoy seeing that because it creates a more favorable market overall. I do what I can to get people to communicate with each other so that employment and self employment is easier and more profitable.

Journal Post: Observation #8 Dryers

2010-03-12T10:20:00.000-08:00

I miss my dryer.
Dryers aren't very common here. In fact, I think that in my whole area of expertise (S. Peru), I think that I have seen two personally. Bummer, because I like when I put my clothes in and then they come out warm and delicious smelling, as opposed to hanging and smelling like the farm animals that live next to us in the outskirts of town. Not to mention, hang drying WRINKLES EVERYTHING. I am no fan of ironing things, but it is a necessary evil. Because there are no dryers, sights like these are fairly common:

Well. That's the way things are. So if you live here, I hope you are lucky enough to have a washing machine, slightly more common than the dryers, but not very. Hand washing to me seems like it takes FOREVER and I would hate to do it. I once had to hand wash my undergarments in a faraway lawless town called Desaguadero for three months. It was a bummer. Another problem with cloths lines, is where do you hand your underwear? Some people have places out of public eye to hang those things, but many just hang them where they can. Makes for some interesting walks in certain parts of town. What is the first thing I do whenever I get back to the states from Peru? I wash ALL of my clothes, and than toss them in the dryer with way more fabric softening sheets than necessary. So if you need me on April 28-29th, I'll be doing laundry.

Journal Post: Sunset

2010-03-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

Well, you will have noticed a bit of a hole in my postings. Sorry about that. I have a valid excuse. Remember that blackout? Well, here at my work, there was a different one a day or so later, and that blackout messed up our internet. As you will recall from this post: http://peaksandpitfallsinperu.blogspot.com/2010/02/candelaria-continued.html, the time it took to get it fixed was a lot longer than it should have been. 5 days. Anyway, at the same time, the internet in the place I currently reside was also on the fritz and probably will not be accessible again. So here is the long awaited update.
I took some more pictures in Mollendo this last weekend, and bid farewell to the beach because I will not likely be seeing it again in the near future. Here are some pictures of a place that I used to go with my companion. It's a cliff against the ocean between the land terminal and the main block of the city. (Mollendo is crazy in it's setup) At this cliff, there are a TON of vultures, seagulls, and pelicans just chilling and riding what I imagine to be wicked sweet updrafts. Anywho, here they are:

Lifting in the Dark.

2010-03-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

Apagon
This comes from the verb "apagar", which means "to turn off". Apagon: We call it a "blackout" in English. These are fairly common, and the power when it is on, is what we call in the USA "dirty power". This means irregular. Volgate fluctuates. I knew this before, but remembered clearly when it fried my wireless modem that I brought down.
Yesterday I was planning on going to the gym. The lights went out, but I went anyway, supposing that perhaps where the gym was, there the light would be also.
It wasn´t.
It was rather strange to be listening to my IPOD in a dark room surrounded by strangers lifting weights.
The gym was exactly not like the 24-Hour-Fitness of which I am so fond. There are weights.
Description: Three stories. First floor, free weights. Second floor, stationary bikes of varied quality. Third floor, some kind of aerobics-step-dance class taught as a group. The teacher of the aerobic deal HAS to be gay. If not, then I am shocked. The building isn´t in great shape, but it isn´t terrible. It has a monthly rate of 40 soles for just free weights, or you can pay 1.50 ./S (that is the "dollar sign" if you will- for soles, from here on out, that´s what I am using) every time you want to go in.
After the uncomfortable grunting and heaving in the dark with strangers, I opted to run the distance (which was probably a few miles) back to the house because the power was still out and there is nothing to do when the power is out.
Luckily, it came back on before I got there.

In a completely unrelated side note, I had a delicious cake for my birthday. Too bad there weren´t two gallons of delicious skim milk to accompany it.
The tradition here is to sing "Happy Birthday" in English (wierd), and then in spanish. Than to blow out the candles. Then to taste the cake. At the cake tasting part, it is expected that someone will shove the whole face in the cake. I had this happen on my mission with a vengence, but this time around, I really wanted to eat the cake rather than ruin a portion with my face so I held it above the would be pushers and kept clean.

Journal Post: Observation #7: Transportation

2010-03-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

I was told by my boss that driving here was like navigating a river, you just ¨Go with the flow¨ try to stay above the current. Today, my combi (the Van that serves as public transport) failed to ¨go with the flow¨ and hit another combi. Or rather, turning right from the inside lane (which didn´t exist, it was actually just one lane with too many cars in it), he cut off another combi also turning right and caused that combi to hit his rear quarter. What do you suppose happened? The door collectors yelled at each other for a moment and then everyone went about their business. That´s usually the way fender benders go around here. It´s a hassle to do the insurance thing here and nobody really has it anyway, so the shops are wizards at fixing things cheaply and will Macguyver anything.
Something I noticed when I first got to Peru is that people drive with all five senses. Especially sight and sound. Therefore, people here constantly honk the horn. Maybe because it´s fun, maybe to alert other drivers of thier presence, but whatever the reason, it´s a constant noise.
Also, the combis and taxis make driving a nightmare. Always stopping in the road, weaving in and out of traffic, making intersections way more complicated than they need to be.
Round abouts with stop lights ... Wha???
Nobody honors the rules of the road. The only rule is, if the other guy doesn´t stop, you probably should. And if you are a pedestrian, right of way goes the the car.
Another funny thing my boss said about driving here, ¨Don´t look at the other guy, if you look, it´s a sign of weakness, and you may have to yield. Just keep going and the other person will stop.
SPEED BUMPS EVERYWHERE. This is probably to make up for lack of police, but they are serious about the speed bumps.
Roads that have large potholes and very poor marking. Where is the money to repair roads? The Peruvians don´t know either appearantly.
And another rule that I´ve heard mentioned, ¨The nicer car has the right of way¨. If you hit a nice car, chances are that car´s owner will give you a lot of greif. As opposed to a not so nice car.

All I know is that it´s a valient soul here who gets behind the wheel.

I'm a sad guy Chile

2010-03-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't live on this planet, there was a major earthquake in Chile on Saturday the 27th. The epicenter was near Concepcion Chile and it was especially stressful for me due to my mother's family that lives there. I wish I could say that I had a happy birthday (also Saturday, but the earthquake kind of rained on that particular parade. Fortunately, my family is OK, but watching the footage of the Tsunamis, etc, is heartbreaking. The family here did give me a delicious cake, but more on that tomorrow. Today, I am merely posting this sad face that I made in illustrator. I hope that Chile is in all of your prayers.

A dance group.

2010-02-26T10:25:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures that I took of a dance group my wife is in. Dances pictured: Kajelo, Saya, and another one I don't remember the name of.

Journal Post: Observation #6 Politics

2010-02-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

I find myself in the rare circumstance that I haven't got anything pressing to write about (at least, not that I remember), so I shall talk about this guy.

Alan Garcia. A fatty and President of Peru.

The political scene here in Peru is, (in my humble opinion) crazy. The blog illustrating this had to come along eventually, so here goes.

#1 Problem- Obligatory voting. I think this is silly, and I am all for only letting landowners vote (even in the USA). This would limit the emotional/ignorant from voting the country to crap because they are uniformed and easily manipulated. The problem in Peru is that there are many uneducated people and they are FORCED to vote, like it or not, everyone votes. Therefore, people that have no clue generally vote for whoever had the best radio jingle or who promised them the most supposed benefits (and that's if they are somewhat interested, some merely vote according to the most visually appealing party symbol on the ballot, and there are many. You think that I am making this up, but I have asked people about their voting when I lived in the hills and that is what I was told.)

#2 Problem- The educated people are indoctrinated in the school system and because of a latent anti-US sentiment that permeates the whole of Latin America, there is a decided psychological thrust away from anything that has given the US it's past success. I.E.- Capitalism, Free Trade, Individual Rights and Responsibility, Limited Central Government and so forth. Oh sure, there are many that like these things and would like to see some of them implemented, but almost everyone has some irrational resentment of the US in the back of their minds. (Not to sound like an idiot gringo, but my personal theory is that there is a smidge of jealousy at the root of these sentiments.)

#3 Problem- This problem is the same in the states (and quite frankly, parts of the first two are becoming ever greater problems in the States). The problem is lack of interest in the young adults in politics and the general disbelief of all that the government serves the peoples interests. A good guy that I like in Tacna and I had a conversation not too long ago where he explained the "logic" behind the *paro* AKA transportation strike. It goes something like this: ¨The government is full of selfish bastards that only want to suck the all the funds they can and set themselves and their families up in positions of influence. As part of that, they (politicians) are eager to whore Peru out to every foreigner who comes along and willingly exports all of Peru to the highest bidder. In order for the people to get the government to do anything, they must strike, oftentimes violently, to get what they need/want. Therefore, the poor taxi drivers, truckers, and bus drivers need to not work for a period of time and also tear up roads, form mobs that destroy public and private property, etc when the gas prices get to high or when the government fails to construct a promised road etc.¨
Well. There is some truth in all that litany, but the fact of the matter is that the whole country walks in the murky gray area between anarchy and reluctant oligarchy that basically gives justice to none and priority to he who seizes it.
Things are a bit better than they have been in the not so distant past, however. And there are some positive signs of improvement.

Anywho, my case study to demonstrate some of the craziness, is Alan Garcia. He is the current President of Peru, but what is shocking is that he was president once before (1985-1990). His previous stint ws marked by one of the worst economic periods Peru has ever faced with extreme hyper inflation and loss of basic commodities across the country like light and water. Also there was a major terrorism problem with the group "Sendero de Luz" (the shining path). (The 80's was a really screwy time in Peru with terrorism).
So, his first try at President led to him being deposed and then exiled to Colombia and France.

They (the Peruvians) reelected him in 2006 (while I was here as a missionary) and guess what? I was glad. Not because I like Alan, quite frankly, I don't think he's all that great, but rather because he was the lesser of two evils. His main opponent was a guy named Ollanta Humala and he was REALLY crazy. Basically, another Hugo Chavez of Venezuela or Evo Morales of Bolivia. In short, an idiot- don't even get me started on Venezuela. So good ol' Garcia, he was the less extreme of the 2, and because he was elected, I finished my mission here instead of being kicked out of the country as Ollanta promised to do if elected.

If that's not fun enough for you, the serious candidates for next years election include a bi-sexual ex journalist who now is an author and successful talk show host, Jamie Bailey, a daughter of the infamous ex president Alberto Fujimori, and another ex- presedent named Toledo. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Journal Post: Son of Beach!

2010-02-23T07:04:00.000-08:00

I've always loved the ocean. Maybe it's because I live in a land locked state, maybe it's because of the warm fuzzy memories of traveling to faraway exotic Chile when I was 8. Who knows, but this last weekend, I was having all the fun in the sun that I could stand. In fact, I am Red Lobster.In any event, I am going to bullet point some of the slide show for you.

First part: This is Mollendo, a beach and the closest ocean to Arequipa. (That and Camana, but I no nothing about that place.) The yellow building is the "Castillo", and it is cool but the wank who owns it lives somewhere and won't sell it to the city so it is in ruin and one day will fall. But it is well known as an icon of Mollendo and I have fond memories of seeing it as a missionary.

The beach is crowded, because it's summer vacation here.

The waves are for Joe, I was thinking he would enjoy all those pics.

There is a dog peeing on a tent, I just found that amusing.

There is me in the sand all burntastic.

There is my Hasselhoff run picture that I wanted to post, but Malu cut off my head and foot (in the picture, not literally), so you get red guy running.

There is a picture of a tiny crab, almost an awesome picture if I had focused it a centimeter farther back, ah well.

I have a scorpion tattoo, it's fake. I was playing around, there were bear claws on my little brother in law and a Chinese word on my wife. We were being silly.

I love listening to music on the beach. Relaxing stuff.

There is a guy with two buckets. Quick crash course for the beach in Peru. You show up at the beach, and then you find somebody to rent an umbrella from(if you don't have your own). This costs between 5 and 10 soles for the day. Then, you get chairs (often from the same people, you can also buy beer from them... of course). This can be 2 for 5 soles or 2 for 7 soles depending on where and what day (weekends cost more). Now, while on the beach, the waves of Mollendo are crappy and kind of dangerous, so you must be cautious swimming. While relaxing on the sand, you might buy an helado (ice-cream)from a passing vendor. Also available are picarones(batter rings in honey), alfajores (yummy pastry types with manjar) and a myriad of other edible things. You can even get seafood and it's really good. Even the ceviche, which I ate and guess what, http://peaksandpitfallsinperu.blogspot.com /2010/01/journal-post-diarrhea.html ... yep.
Anywho, the guy with the two buckets. Those buckets are full of sea water. He got that water from the sea... obviously, and he drug them across the burning sand to fill the small pool that he rented to the couple and the munchkin seated there. There is a picture of Malu and here cousins in such a pool.
This job would suck. All day, bucket brigade for little brats. I saw the guy and felt for him. There are also people that sell bubbles, inflatable toys, sand toys, newspapers, and sunblock wandering around. So there you go, I'm fried.

Also, The song I used for the slide show is Ben Harper/ Jack Johnson's cover of Bob Marely's "High Tide, Low Tide".

Candelaria continued: To find a bandanna...

2010-02-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

I am bald. There is no denying it. I am as bald as Mr. Clean. My father: also bald. Bald is no problem for me, I bick my head every few days and never worry about shampoo. Puno doesn't seem to like bald people. The altitude/sun/wind/crazy weather seems to take a dim view of baldies. So, when I decided I was going to dance for several hours in the elements, I decided that I needed a bandanna to put on my head.

This was a good idea, but it turned out to be difficult to execute.

You would think a bandanna would be easy to find. WRONG. I didn't search for one seriously in Arequipa because I thought (erroneously) that I could easily locate one in Puno. For those of you who have never been to Puno, there are some good placed to buy junk. My favorite is the "Mercado de Bellavista" which is located fairly close to the dock where everyone goes to the Uros and right below the LDS Church of Lampa.(Which is why I was so familiar with it). The other name for this market is "contrabando", which means "contraband"... (duh). Anywho, as the name implies, that is where you will find your chocolates, booze, clothes, electronics in a comfortably bootlegged fashion. It was there I finally found ONE place that sold large bandannas that I could use to cover my head. (It was silky and silver and black and amazing, but that's beside the point.) First, I went to the Mercado Central. No luck. If you are in Puno, you can buy cloth there and a lot of other things but not anything as cool as contrabando. Than I tried Jiron Los Incas (The Incas Street), where you can find EVERYTHING dance related. It's just below the Mercado central and I bought many a bell there, as I have previously mentioned. I spent about two hours looking for the bandanna, but it was worth it.

While I'm on the subject, for you tourists:
You will be tempted to buy things in the Parque Pino, which is connected to the Plaza de Armas (the main plaza) by Jiron Lima. There are lots of artisan things there like:alpaca products,instruments like quenas and zamponas, jewelry, etc.
DON'T BUY HERE.
Also, when you go to Los Uros, which you will undoubtedly want to do, you will see the same types of stores (by stores I mean open air shops packed together in lines)\ that I just mentioned.
DON'T BUY HERE EITHER. (Although if you have to choose between the Plaza and the Dock the dock is cheaper.

There is a daily Feria de Artisinia (artisan fair) in a uglier, less central part of Puno. It is here that you will be able to buy the exact same things for much less, and the people are generally more grateful because they are the true people from the outskirts whom well meaning tourists wish to help when they buy merchandise in the center.
BUY HERE.
Any Taxi- Moto Taxi- Trici can take you there in less than five minutes and you will be able to buy more stuff for your soles.

Candelaria Cont.- Bells and Ribbons.

2010-02-18T09:21:00.000-08:00

As a guy who is new to dancing Saya, I didn't know what to do about the bells (cascaveles) that are attached to the boots. I asked one of the guides (the people who dance in front of the group that order which sequence etc) what to do for the attaching string. He suggested ilera (shoe strings). Well, his suggestion sucked and I lost about 8 out of my 24 bells. The next day, I thought I was brilliant and bought some heavy coated wire to attach each bell. Well, I was even more foolish than the day before because I lost a LOT of bells. In fact, I only had one attached at the end and about 6 that I had recovered as they fell and stuffed down my shirt. I had a stomach that jingled for several blocks of the dance unfortunately. It was Tio Walker (Uncle Walker) who knew what was up. Upon hearing my plight, he suggested fishing line. I thought this was silly, but I went and bought a heavy test and wrapped about 10 loopes for each boot. In addition, I put electrical tape on the eye of every single bell. Guess what? It worked, I didn't lose a single bell. I have to laugh because the first day I put on 24 bells, the second, 20, and on the last day, 16. I was losing faith and getting tired of spending 60 plus cents a bell. (I was buying the nice ones because I was keeping my suit.)In any event, now I know, and so do you. Fishing line. That's the ticket.

Candelaria Continued.

2010-02-16T09:24:00.000-08:00

Waiting.

I hate waiting.

I think that if I go to hell for dancing for the Virgin in an idolatrous fashion, it will consist of waiting for eternity (Probably in Macey's 10 items or less line behind some illiterate lady with 7 kids and 8,000 coupons, paying with a check and food stamps).

Waiting is just part of life here in Peru, maybe that's why the concept of an organized line is seldom executed successfully. For example, last week, when we were waiting for the costumes we needed to dance in, we were told to be at the Graveyard in Puno at 7:00 am sharp. Although I knew that it was foolish, Malu was worried (rightly so) about getting a size of shoe that wouldn't work for her, so we went at the appointed time. Along with 3 other suckers, we waited two hours before the guy (Fabio) who was in charge of the costumes for our group showed up. Then, we had to wait another 2 hours for the President of our group to show up. Finally, we had to wait for the people who were actually handing out the suits to decide that they wanted to hand them over and this occurred around 12:30 pm. 5 and a half hours alternately freezing in the shade or burning in the sun. That street was boring and there wasn't even anything cool to look at. Or food. Typical of dealing with things in Peru.
If you want to check out your phone bill or something of that nature, you get a number at one building in a city of over a million people. And then you wait. For some reason (I blame the Spanish colonizers) , the people here like things centered in one place without the comfort of multiple branches in various places (I'm speaking of major services like power, water, phone, etc.) So, when you need to find out why your cell phone is a piece, you have to wait at least an hour. Places where you will wait and hate life: Claro (cell phone), Telefonica (cable, internet, phone), Serpost (never have anyone send you a package), Sedapar (water bill), Sagafabella (any time you want to see a movie on a Tuesday- cheap day).
Anywho, when it comes to dancing, waiting is always part of it. We also waited during that same week 4 hours to start the general practice for everyone in our group (Lima, Tacna, Cuzco, Puno, and us). I could elaborate on all the places I have wasted tons of time, but I think I've made my point.

Journal Post, Observation # 5- Candelaria

2010-02-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

Where have I been this last week you ask? Well, I will tell you. I have been in Puno, dancing way more than anyone should. Remember when I told you that I was going to do some dancing? Well, just a bit of back story. It is a bit complicated and in my opinion, kind of looney, but here goes. As far as I understand, there is a Virgin (miraculous appearance)in the Canary Islands and this Vigin was called Candelaria. Somehow, the same Virgin made an appearance in the mines in the Andean Highlands and now, every February, there is a huge festival to worship/celebrate/get super wasted. Now, I read a newspaper article here the other day that described this initial event in detail, but what most made me think is that the people of the regious (Aymara and Quechua) already worshiped a mother Earth figure and currently, they call the Virgin of the Candelaria "Mamacha Candelaria" or Mother Candelaria. Interesting, the splicing of pagan worship with Catholicism. Just my perspective. Anywho, nowadays, there is a rip roaring party for a week in which a LOT of people dance in intricate costumes and LOTS of musicians play (we're talking 50 people marching bands in abundance) and LOTS AND LOTS of BEER is consumed. My role in all of this had nothing to do with the Virgin,(which is a believe that I have always found silly) and nothing to do with getting stone drunk. My part in all of this was some intense dancing. For those of you who have never seen Saya, (or Caporales) dances, let me just say this. I have lost 14 pounds in the last two weeks. Yes, it is vigorous. And we are talking 4-5 hours daily dancing for 5 days straight. Yeah, it was quite a deal. There are many things I could write about Candelaria, and it will surely be the subject of many posts to come, but for today, I think I will cut this off with a picture.

Journal Post: Christmas Continued.

2010-02-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

In the United States, the typical Christmas decor is an evergreen tree, (real or otherwise) decorated with lights, colorful bulbs, various ornaments, a star or angel on top, with the gifts piled underneath. Here in Peru, the tree is catching on, but what most generally takes place is what is called a 'nacimiento'. This is a really pimped out creche (if you want to know more about what this is, I wrote a story about it: http://universe.byu.edu/node/4629). In any event they construct their nacimientos in a lot of ways, but there are usually some boxes to start with. This gives the whole project height and depth. This they cover with some interesting paper, wrinkly, and painted a dark color with stars. (Although they can look like rocks, and also have stencils of wisemen, camels, etc., or even tie die). On top of this, they have a Nativity scene that usually features largish figures of varying size, many kind of largish. Like the states, these are collect-able and can be passed down through the generations. There is a certain day after Christmas designated as "La Bajada de los Reyes" which refers to the coming of the wise men. This is where groups of children dress up as the three wise men and go from house to house to worship (venerate?) the nacimientos. It is customary to give them some change or candy, or perhaps chocolate or paneton (which is it's own post. Something I enjoy about the tradition estilo Peruano, is that it is a lot closer to the what Christmas should be about. The tree of us Gringos has roots (hows that for a cool word trick, metaphor?) in paganism. The druids of Europe were big on the evergreen and it's symbolism is varied. But in the end, today we throw up a tree, lavish it with artificial trappings, and display our wealth by stacking as many gifts as possible underneath. I think that this is a large monument in the wrong direction. But hey, I love gifts too, so I will keep using the tree. But in light of what I have observed here, it will be in the corner, and my nacimiento will be somewhere central> and thus I can maintain my summer residence in Babylon :).

Also, the picture of the plate goes with the previous post. This is what I ate for Christmas.

Journal Post: Christmas.

2010-02-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

Copied from notes around the 25th of December 2009.

What do you do for Christmas dinner? Turkey of course, at least here in Peru. Turkey everywhere. For us in the USA, Turkey is a Thanksgiving food, and ham or something else better suited for Christmas. But hey, here there is no Thanksgiving (that would be silly), so the big turkey meal is on Christmas. Basically, Christmas goes thusly: the 24th, there is a big meal around midnight. The kids open the presents. The talking and the family socializing goes on till the wee hours. And drinking of course.
In difference to our going to bed, and then getting up early to open gifts and than eating a large lunch or dinner the 25th.
For my Christmas experience, I got to go to both of my wife's family get togethers (her parents are divorced). There was lots of food, conversation and such. I was given some cologne, and a tie. I thought it was snazzy. We didn't get back from the second one until 4 in the morning.
More on the turkey, it came in with it's head attached. There was a strange stuffing made out of meat, and the accompanying salad was some beans called avas. That was the meal, and I enjoyed it. Although, they (my mother in law) tried to kill me with a colossal portion of turkey.

Journal Post: Observation #4 Coca Cola

2010-02-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

Here in Peru and also Chile, the non alcoholic beverage of choice is Coca Cola. I have drank Coke almost every day I've been here. I don't even like Coke. Luckily, the Coke here tastes better for some reason. I don't know why, but I have heard it is because of a difference in the water. This I don't believe. I have also heard it is because here they use real sugar as sweetener as opposed to corn syrup. This I do believe. But whatever the reason, they like their Coke, and drink it warm. Also Fanta, Sprite, and other assorted coke products. Thankfully, there is basically no Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibb, which I hate. Also, not too much by way of Pepsi products either. (So no Mt. Dew, sadly). I haven't been a big soda drinker since the mission, but now and then, you need something caffeinated. There are some sodas here, however, that aren't common in the States. Inca Cola, for example. It is yellow, and not that good (in my opinion, I know plenty of folks, Latin and otherwise, that quite like it). Also, a red pop called, Kola Escoses (Scottish Cola?) It is also not that great.
In general, I suggest you look into Tampico, Watts, or Frugo brand juices. They are delicious and are generally as cheap as soda.
While we are discussing beverages, there is a delightful drink called ECCO made from cebada tostada (toasted barley) which tastes a bit like coffee (from my iniquitous youth). It's ok as "refresco" (refreshing drink? basically anything made in house to quench thirst: lemonade, chicha morada, etc.) which is warm or cool and usually involves a dash of lemon. But ECCO really shines as a hot drink with sugar and milk (but not too much milk, and we know why).
Other good things are raspadillas (shaved ice), cremoladas (fruit pulp with ice), and any fruit drink with milk. (But be careful)Leche de Platano is awesome, but if you don't drink it quickly, it will turn black on you, which is kind of nasty.
I could use a slurpie from 7-11 though. And a taquito.
Anywho, there is a demo of the drink. Also, there are still lots of glass bottles in rotation, which is something of a novelty from what I recall of the States.

Journal Post: Diarrhea

2010-01-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

Diarrhea...
Is no fun. Here is a list of things I couldn't eat as a missionary: Lettuce, ceviche, pork, and strawberries. Yep, some tasty stuff. Abstaining, number one precaution here. Also, common sense. But guess what, even with these preventative measures, you're going to get the runs. So, in light of this fact, here are some things you can avoid that might help you keep off the throne as much as possible.
#1: Avoid the milk.
Milk in the States is amazing. Super pasteurized, processed, etc. Comes in lovely 2 gallon jugs, can drink it cold and on cereal.
Milk in Peru is potent, less processed, and comes in can, pouch, or box. Seldom cold, not ideal for cereal (cereal isn't a big deal here). It will also give you the kick in the stomach that cows everywhere wish they could give us humans. Also the cheese, if I were you, I would exercise restraint. Especially for the hot chocolate (which isn't much like the lovely hot chocolate that comes in a pouch), which they make by mixing milk with some bar chocolate that tastes like rust. (in my opinion). It can do some serious damage.
#2: Don't eat anything in the street.
This would be good counsel in the USA, but here even more so. I once taught a lesson during my mission to a lady who sold "anticuchos" (Thin strips of cow heart in shishkabob) in the street. After watching the flies crawl over everything, the general state on uncleanliness, and the lack of refrigeration of what were already questionable meats, I gained a strong personal testimony that these are not places to frequent.
#3: Don't eat too late at night.
I don't know why, but if you don't give yourself some motion before hitting the old sack... Just try. I eat late all the time, and a lot. Bad call.
#4: You need to just say no to yogurt. Sure its tasty. Also different from the states, it comes in a bottle, is not refrigerated, and can be drunk. It's not bad, but I'd advise caution in this regard.
#5: If you see something and wonder, "Hmmm, is this parasite infested?", Don't eat it.

Well, those are some things you can avoid, but, if you are like me, you probably won't. So, in the case that you do come down with the runs, here are some tips and cures.
#1: Never leave the house with out a GENEROUS handful of TP in your pocket. This is just common sense, you never know where you will need to go and you would be surprised at how many bathrooms don't have toilet paper.
#2: Learn to hover. This is because many times, there are no toilet seats.
#3: Don't eat spicy foods, try to keep things simple. (This is obvious).
#4: Buy a few tiny yellow pills called, "Donafan", and a bottle of "Fruti Flex". The pills will fix your system and the Fruti Flex is a for super hydration. About the flex, the flavor you will want to buy (out of three) will be strawberry. Don't. You have to drink the whole liter bottle and strawberry leaves the WORST after taste. It will make you want to hurl. Best to go with Anis or Manzanilla (which are herbs, the second one is chamomile in English I believe.)
5# Due to excessive wiping, a dap of the ol hydrocortizone cream on the sensitive areas never hurt.

Well, the good news is, you'll get over it eventually. And when you do, you can delight in eating all that is bad for you and repeating the cycle. Good luck and stay solid.

Journal Entry: Museum

2010-01-27T19:03:00.000-08:00

This is recopy of some notes I took on Sun the 17th.

Today was tourist day for my mother. We two tourist oriented places: La Mansion del Fundador (The Founders Mansion), and a place where people can go horseback riding .In the first location we visited, I found the coloring fascinating. The Founders Mansion was originally owned by the founder of Arequipa in the 16th century. It was passed hands many times and is now a museum. According to the tour guide, there are three colors typical and representative of Old Arequipa. Azulacho (Light Blue), Amarillo (Yellow), and Ochre (which is the same in English). These colors represent things. Blue signifies a private area. In the case of the Monesterio de Santa Catalina in Arequipa (Another old place previously mentioned for wedding photos), the places where the public weren’t supposed to go were blue. Public areas, such as the chapel part of the Founders house, were painted ochre.
Something interesting about the artwork in the house was that some of it was the “Cuzco style”. I saw this also in the “Coricancha” and “Chinchero”, two sites in Cuzco where the Spanish Conquistadores constructed chapels over the bases of Incan temples. The interesting thing about this style is that there are representations of Christ, the Virgin, etc, but with lots of subtle Incan things snuck in. For example, in a painting of Christ in Chinchero, there is a perfect painting of “Sacsayhuaman” (A bunch of big ruins right outside of Cuzco), hidden in what appears to be the coast in the painting. Also, there are lakes, rivers, and ocean in the painting where there is really no need, which was the way the Incan artists could express their devotion to the elements and Incan construction without getting killed. This was all explained to me by the tour guides, but also my father in law, who likes history. His name is Edwar Santos. Other fascinating artifacts in the house of the founder were the really old couches, suits of armor, old mirrors, and other artifacts that have been preserved for display. One of my favorite things was the hand drawn picture (in what appeared to be charcoal) of a Chilean soldier. My Chilean mother and I enjoyed the description of the war (Peru, Bolivia, and Chile had a tiff back in the day) and it’s portrayal of events. The slang for Chileans here is “roto” which means “broke” or “broken”. There are a few theories as to why, but like the word gringo, there is no way to be sure as to where the term originated and why, only some reasonable sounding explanations. Well, Chile won the war, so of course, the fact that at one time Chile was in possession of this house isn’t something the average Arequipan enjoys to recall.
At the place where folks can ride horses, we didn’t. I am not a huge fan of riding animals. But that’s neither here nor there. At this place, we saw the Andenes (Terraced Fields for agriculture). That’s about all we saw. So, Consuelo, (my mother) enjoyed her day out and took lots of pictures.

Journal Post: Description #3

2010-01-24T19:17:00.000-08:00

This is Adobo, a customary dish of Arequipa usually eaten Sunday mornings. Lets call it church soup. It has pork, it is hot, and it is spicy. I like it. It goes great with the wonderful bread they have here. To make adobo, you must begin the day before with the pork. To properly prepare your pork, you must give it a soak in chopped up Aji colorado(a hot pepper), Garlic, and chicha de Jora (which is made from purple corn juice -wiñapo-mixed with some pinapple peel -boiled together- and slightly fermented)and a dash of vineger. That you let soak for a day. Than (according to my mother in law), you boil it. But while boiling, you throw in a sprig of laurel, some oregano, and cinnamon. When the meat is tender, you clove an onion and toss that in. The result- Church soup ... Adobo. Yummy, but you have to brush your teeth again.

Journal Entry: Observation #3

2010-01-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

Mass, I´ve only ever been to one before today, and that was in Chile when my Aunt happened to die when my mother and I were visiting. It was sad, and even more so because the Catholic concept of the afterlife varies a good deal from my own. I even had to carry the casket. Today, my Mass attendence was unavoidable due to it being the six month mass of my wife´s great grandmother. I am not actively avoiding Mass understand, but I have absolutly zero motivation to go under normal circumstances. Well, today was not normal, but aside from the lights being out for around six hours, nothing interesting happened until mass. That´s where I got to enter a cool old cathedral and sit on a bench with my four year old brother-in-law in my arms (he was asleep). It was interesting, the acoustics were great, and there were some pretty sweet, large cases with some statues of Christ and his mother and some other Virgins.
After mass, I accompanied my wife to our Saya practice, which was awesome because for the first time, I could do all the moves and wasn´t the guy who was totally lost. This is thanks to a nice guy named Fabio who has given me some home lessons. More on him another time. After the practice, we went to the after Mass festivities, which was mostly drinking and sitting. Interesting cultural note: There can be 10 or more people in a sitting, but they only open one bottle of beer at a time and all use one glass. (The beer brand is Cusqueña, in case you were wondering ... it´s cheap, and therfore popular at social gatherings). The custom is to recieve the bottle while the person who passed it to you drinks from the cup. That person than dumps the remaining foam from the glass, than passes the glass. After filling the glass, the person with the bottle than passes it, while drinking the glass. And so the circle continues until the bottle is empty, at which point, a new bottle is opened, and the fun continues. I was told that I needed to teach a sermon about not drinking to them by one of the Aunts (because I am LDS and don´t drink presumably), but as you may have surmised, that is one tough habit to kick. In Peru, ¨Social Drinking¨ has a whole new meaning. Often at family gatherings, the hosts are at a loss for what to do with us Mormons and desperately seek out some kind of soda or water because sitting there drinking nothing just looks wierd and makes everyone uncomfortable. In any event, the ceremony of the Mass was interesting and I even understood the parts of the Bible the Priest was reading. (As I should).

Journal Entry: My Big Fat Peruvian Wedding.

2010-01-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

It was quite an ordeal. There was liquor, formal invitations, recuerdos (gifts) for all the guests, more liquor, the wedding dress, photos, still more liquor, the crazy hour, the chocolate fountain, and much much more.
Let me give you the gist of things that are common here that are not common there.
1) The tables are organized and it is expected that the bride and groom go table by table t greet everyone and to have their picture taken. This is in contrast to the line which is typical, at least in Utah.
2) The alcohol, I am sure that there plenty booze in normal weddings that are outside of my beloved bubble that is Utah. But I mean C'MON!. There was a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of wine at each table. In addition, the guests had free mixed drinks to the table all night. ALSO, a full bar with all kinds of beverages I don't even understand, and ON TOP OF THAT: Pitchers of beer for each table at the beginning and towards the end, a full CASE of beer per table. Dang. It was interesting to see people stumbling away.
3) The dance: I know that dances aren't rare, but dances that run a full five hours with everything from Saya to disco to 80's rock are a tad interesting.
4) The full blown meal with all of the guests. It was probably yummy. In fact I know it was … delicious pork roast with side salads. But I was down with the RUNS (which deserves an entry all of its own.)
5) La Hora Loca (The Crazy Hour). This was where crazy hats and ties and masks, and other interesting items were dispersed throughout the dancers. Also lazers, smoke, confetti explosions, and other lights. It was indeed, a crazy hour.
6) The wine bottles had our names on them, interesting.
There is much more to be said about weddings and family gatherings in general, but that will have to wait. Here is a picture that was taken in the Monesterio de Santa Catalina (A tourist monastery that demonstrates art and architecture from Old Arequipa).

Journal Post: The long trip.

2010-01-19T08:13:00.000-08:00

Buses are not usually a very comfortable way to travel, but here in Peru, there is a wide gap between the "good" ones and the "bad" ones. Some bus companies are just plain scary. The problem with buses is that the services that have the most available departure hours are generally the ones that will make you question your decision to go on bus. Some companies that just really stink: Power, Sagatarrio, Yulsa, Del Carpio, Santa Ursula. Some companies that are ok: Flores, Cromotex, Cruz del Sur, San Martin. There are lots more, but I'm going to say right now that I usually roll on Flores. The cost for a pretty decent Bus Cama (bus Bed) is 60 soles from Arequipa to Cuzco, ($20). Not too bad. If you try to save money on bus tickets, you are asking for some scandal. On Yulsa, I have been in a wreck that was kind of scary and delayed my four hours. On Power, we had a tire blow out (because they were REALLY bald) and that set us back an hour. Also on Power, we almost hit a cow and by dodging the cow, almost hit an oncoming car. To be fair, things are so crazy on the road, that there is really no "safe" travel, but for comfort, there are better and worse.
That being said, I almost froze to death on my way to Puno. (Too bad I traveled in shorts). I had to put my backpack between me and the window to block the wind. And when you go from sea level to 13,000 feet, things get cold. I survived and am better for the experience. My parents and brother Jonathan, (who we call Cheek), now know and love cool areas in Southern Peru as I do. This audio slide show show demonstrates that a bit.

Journal Post: Come on along on a fantastic Voyage...

2010-01-18T18:51:00.000-08:00

I have spent a lot of time on a bus lately. I cannot do the trip justice in one post but do not fear, I will get some pictures on the blog tommorrow. Also, I took notes on the trip and will be filling you in. But for todays post: Haggling. It is necessary here. Absolutely essential. If you don´t, you will never make it. For example: While in Cuzco, we traveled with some Argentines on our tours of the ruins close to the city. One of those tourists bought a blanket for 60 soles. (around 20 bucks). I later purchased the exact same blanket for 40 soles for my mother. While 8 bucks more or less may not seem like a huge deal, it adds up quickly and it´s the principle of the thing. I don´t like getting taken advantage of. If something is of a certain value, than that is the fair price. A better example, my brother wanted a sweater, a street vendor wanted 40 soles for it. Later on, in a different area, I haggled the same sweater at around 15 soles. IF YOU ARE WHITE or TOURISTY, DON´T JUST BUY STUFF!!! Apart from the fact that you could be marked for having money to steal for always whipping out the old wallet, you artificially raise the cost for everyone else. So there you go, you can haggle the price of most everything: clothes, any products in the street, taxis, electronics, and sometimes even food and bus tickets. Haggle, learn it. Love it.

Journal Post

2010-01-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

What happened to me this weekend while you were all starving for a new post, you ask? A seven hour bus ride through a barren desert thats what happened. I am currently in Tacna, one of my favorite places. It is a mere half an hour from the border with Chile and although I have never crossed into Chile that way, it´s comforting to know it´s over there. (My mother is Chilean). Anywho, satuday I was frantically assembling a audio slide show for our reception on Friday (For my Wife´s Peruvian family) and also designing some thank you cards. I am in Tacna because this is how I am going to travel to Puno and Cuzco with my Parents and Brother (sans Malu), who were in Chile and came up for the wedding.
Quick note about why this all happended so haphazardly- My eldest Brother and Buddy Passes. My father and one of my brothers flew to Chile on a buddy pass. This is a pass that you can buy if you know someone in the business and the pass it along. They are way cheap, but this time a year it is a BAD IDEA. First of all, it´s the holiday season so everyone is flying (buddy passes are basically the extra seats on flights, so if the flight is full... well, you get the idea). And also, coming back from Chile or Peru is bad because the planes are carrying Asparagus from Peru andm Grapes from Chile. They have to go by wieght and they make more money witgh the product than with passengers.
That being said, my brother had to go back to the States and it was an ordeal. My parents were supposed to arrive here on the 8th, but that was fouled up. So now, I find myself in Tacna. More to come after the long journey.

Observation #2, Description #2

2010-01-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

Today I saw something that I have never seen before. A woman taxista (taxi driver). As I promised previosly, I need to explain the transportation here a bit.
It´s crazy.
That being said, part of the insanity consists of little Japanese (Chinese?), made cars that only have 4 gears and are everywhere. They are generally yellow, but come in all colors of the rainbow. They generally have lots of stickers and ads on them, ranging from Looney Tunes to local Tourist services. Funny thing is, some taxista´s actually try to trick out thier rides. Speakers, lights, etc. There are usually lots of little relics and things hanging from the rear view. Air fresheners, decent sized pictures of the ¨Virgin de Chapi¨ (which will have to be explained another day, and other such things.
Check out the Ticos:

Now that you know, this lady was a taxista, and the first one I´d ever seen. I had to ask her how long she´d been doing taxi work. On and off for 15 years. I asked her if she enjoyed it. Shed doesn´t mind it. It was a short ride, so that´s all I got. But there you go: ticos.

Journal Post: The Orange Juice Lady

2010-01-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

Today was similar in the first half to Tuesday, which you can look at at your leasure. As I found myself waiting for the nice fella to come and teach me to dance Saya, I once again found myself situated not more than five feet from the Orange Juice selling Trici (pronounced= tree-sea) lady. Since I was dressed in a shirt and tie after work, I figured I´d go all out and puchase myself a glass of OJ. I cost one sole (roughly 30 cents). It wasn´t bad, pulpy, with a hint of fear about contracting some disease or parasite. I chit-chatted with her for a bit, apperently, she has been in the OJ business for about a year. She starts the day in the morning fairly early about three blocks up the street from where I see her, at the gas station. Then, about midday, she pedals on down to in front of the police station (the comiseria). The previously mentioned taxi driver that fixed her tire is her husband (that might mean they are just shacking up, but for all practical purposes, married). I asked if there was any use for the rinds (which were all hung orderly fron the front ¨roof¨ part of the trici- side note, she peels the orange with some kind of twisty mechanism that leaves one long complete rind). She said no, she just throws them away. Interesting. So there you go. OJ Lady.

Journal Post: Food: Salchipapa and Pollo a la Brasa

2010-01-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

As the people (Joe) demand, so I deliver.
Today, I was busy with work and I helped my bosses, Hermano Hale and Hermano Nuñez, locate and purchase HD camcorder in one of my favorite places ever, the Avelino. Why do I love the Avelino you ask? Well, because you can buy tons of different things there for cheap. I haggled like a son of a gun and got the guy to knock off about $50, which was good. Anywho, food. Salchipapas are french fries with sliced hot dog. As gross as hot dogs used to be to me, I have to tell you, Yummy. Seriously, I began my mission dreading this dish, but not I am all for it. First, you slather it with mustard, ketchup, AND mayo. Then you dribble on some aji- Which I will describe another day. Wash this all down with a glass of Chicha Morada (a purple drink made by boiling purple corn and taking that water and adding tons of sugar and lemon juice), and you have got yourself a meal.(On a side note, I used to hate Chicha Morada aswell). Something good to know about Chicha Morada: It looks similar to Chicha de Jora, which is alcholic and also served in some restaurants free. So be sure which one your getting. Pollo a la Brasa gets the same condiment treatment, but is similar to the whole chickens you could buy at Smiths or Macey´s to eat. But even better. It is generally sold by forths, and you can ask for Breast (Pecho), Leg (Pierna),and Muslo (Thigh). I like the breast, most meat and easiest to get off the bone. Oddly enough, the skin is very salty and quite good. This are the most common fair to be found in a Polleria (literally, chicken store). I love it, but you should space out these dishes because if you eat it 3 or 4 times a week (as I have), than it starts getting old.

Journal Post/Observation #1

2010-01-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

Arequipä:
Today was my second day at the Employment Center for the LDS Church. I spend about 2 hours watching a volunteer lady teach the first segment to 4 rather timid ladies, three about my age and one older señora. I took several pictures to begin work on my major multimedia project for this semester. I than began designing the website for teh Employment center. Interestingly enough, the Center is really nice and just like all of the Churches builings, fully stocked. I was surprised to see that we have a microwave and a photo copier. Also, I get my own office, which is a first for me, with a nice comfy chair and a computer (not that I ever use it, I am pretty much chained to my laptop).
After work, I hopped onto a combi to ride back to the outskirts where we live in order to meet a nice guy that taught me some dancing- more on that in a minute.
But first, Observation # 1:
While I was waiting for the young man, (whose name is Fabio), I was sitting at our arranged meeting place in front of the police station (which is pretty small and rather hidden amongst other building), when I noticed a lady packing up her Trici to leave. Now, a trice is a bike that has ben cut in half and than jury rigged back together with 2 wheels in front, usually with some type of carrying area for people or things. In the case of this lady, it was her orange juice street vendor business. (Here there are literally tons of oranges that they put in this peeling mechanim and than squeeze the juice out.) In any event, her husband (I assume) was picking her up with his Tico (More on ticos in another post, but for now: Little cars that are generally used for taxi service here.) As they were packing things up, I noticed the rear tire was flat on the trici. Turns out, this was no biggie, because they whipped out a pump, but wait, there was a problem, the nozzle where the hose attaches was both too small for the pump end and appeared to have a hole where it connected to the tube. Once again, no biggie. With some careful wrapping of a plastic bag and a touch of slober, the baby pumped up with out further problem. As soon as it was full, away they went. Quite a little show while I waited.

Now, the reason I was waiting is because my wife and I will be participating in a good old fashioned idolatrous dance presentation in Puno. It´s like this: every February, for the Virgin of the Candelaria, there is a big concourse where dancers from all over Southern Peru, and Lima, present traditional dances and basically drink a LOT. I will be neither worshipping the Virgin, nor getting plastered. I will however, be accompanying my wife in some really cool dancing. The dance is called Caporales, or Saya, and is pretty sweet. For a demonstration, you can go here:

Anyway, my wife has danced there before and we are now inolved in the group that goes from this city to Puno to present. The dance is tricky, but I am learning and it´s coming along. More on this as it developes.

#1 Description- Showers

2010-01-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

By way of inauguration, this blog is going to be my Peruvian experience communication. Here, I will have journal, descriptions, observations, and tips. They will be numbered accordingly, and I expect you all to appreciate just how awesome it is.
My background and why I find myself in Peru.
I served as a missionary for the LDS Church here for 2 years. There I met a girl named Malu, who after I returned home came to the state where I live to work for a few months and we began dating. About a year after that, I flew back to Peru to propose. About 6 months later, we got married in the US. Now I am back for a semester doing an internship at the Employment Center operated by the LDS Church. I will be here from Christmas 2009 to the end of April 2010. Enjoy the information.

About showers. Typically, there isn't hot water as the States are accustomed to seeing it. There is no central water heater that puts out hundreds of gallons of hot water (I am sure there are somewhere, but not in the everyday house). What there is are 'ducha elictrica' (electric shower, the name alone should give one pause). This consists of a plastic head that is connected to the pipe (usually 90 degree angle straight out from wall) that has a little metal coil inside of it.
This coil receives live current from a random wire that is either coming from the wall for this purpose or, in the case of some of my more ghetto residences during the mission, a wire ran from the light overhead. Dangerous? Yes. Functional? Mostly. Ever get shocked? Heck yes. Especially if you are tall enough that your head brushes up against it when it is running. There is a ground wire coming out that sometimes goes nowhere, but sometimes is attached to a nail in the wall.
Finally, because shower handles are usually metal, and because when the water touches you, you complete the current, you have to be cautious in how you touch the handle to turn off the shower. In the mission we got around this by wrapping the handles in electrical tape. Seems to me that the safest way to shower is cold, but that's no fun either. In some areas (I'm looking at you Puno), the water only runs in the morning so you either have to do all of your washing and other water needs then or buy a big plastic tank to put on your roof to store water.
Well, there you have it, showers in a nutshell. Shower head brands that I prefer come from Brazil and have Italian sounding names like Lorenzetti. You can buy a replacement wire that is inside the shower head for about $2 and some change (7 soles) and replace it yourself by unscrewing the top and bottom half and using needle nose pliers to yank the coil off of the nodes. Good luck and stay clean.