Ugly dogs, earthquakes, and beaches

Fun Fact No. 18: Lima is painted in colors just as vibrant as Venice. The only thing is, I think it's just to make themselves feel better about the nearly 1 inch film of soot that coats the surface of every building. So the buildings are turquoise, pink, orange, red...

OK, this past week was quite eventful, so I think I'm going to do a play by play. Here goes.

Wednesday, October 25
Praise Jesus I didn't drive to Pachacamac. Good Lord, that would have been TERRIFYING. We (Elsa, Wilder, and I) went in bus. Driving through Lima would have been awful. The shantytowns that are built into these huge hills are kind of scary and amazing at the same time. You always see Rio de Janeiro's famous favelas built in the hills on the outskirts of town, but I've never seen anything like that close up. Dizzying, winding streets and STILL crazy drivers. Seriously, folks, nuts! Anyway, once we got out of Lima proper, we were driving on the coast and because it was sunny (for once), the view was beautiful. We got to Pachacamac, which is a famous ruin from about 6ooAD that has been pretty well restored. Pachacamac was the god of earthquakes, and I guess he was a pretty pissy character. He wasn't really into people pissing him off, so you had to enter the temple backwards so he wouldn't get mad. Anyway, the ruins are really neat. And when you get to the top, there's a tremendous view of the ocean. It's really beautiful.

Before we went up, we ate at the restaurant that they have there at the entrance. The guard dog is the UGLIEST dog you have EVER seen in your life. It's very VERY unique. I felt really bad for the poor little guy because he really wants some love but he's so gross that no one wants to touch him. U-G-L-Y!

That night we went to the movies. Bañadores 3. It's an Argentine flick that's basically the antics of Mr. Sinus with the boob show of Benny Hill. Truly hilarious.

Thursday, October 26
Dina came over and we ate guacamole and chips (!) for breakfast and then we went all the way the hell back to San Juan de Lurigancho, a suburb of Lima that is like 2 hours in colectivo. Well, that's counting traffic. I think normally it's only an hour. We went to her sister's house, picked up her sister and went to Gamarra. There's a reason it's a lot like Gamorra. Because it's HELL. This place is like the craziest market-type place I have ever seen. It's nuts. They have a whole building called "Jeans" where they sell, yup, you guessed it, JEANS. And I'm talking thousands, and thousands and THOUSANDS of jeans. And we even saw a factory behind a partially closed door and they seriously make 'em right there folks. Wowzers. Anyway, we were shopping for all the boys that work at the lumber shop in front of the house. Plus they were buying some more pairs to sell. It was complete COMPLETE chaos. OK, I think I'm exagerrating because the market here in Iquitos, Belen, is pretty nuts and a lot less organized. But still.

After our LONG shopping spree, we hit the road and I went back to Elsa and Wilder's. Lissette's younger brother Martin was there with his girlfriend, Carolina who is going to be sent to Pennsylvania to do translations. Random aside. Anyway, we were sitting there chatting when lo and behold there's this deep, rumbling sound that sounded like an airplane was flying overhead except that it was flying underneath the house. It's hard to explain, but anyway, it was an earthquake. Books fell of the shelves, and all the furniture shifted. Turns out Lima is at the bottom of a huge fault. I had no idea. Cool and scary at the same time.

That night we went for a drive and Rudy, another brother of Lissette's, took us all around the nicer parts of Lima - Miraflores, Barranco, San Isidro. We grabbed some sandwhiches and drank tea. It was super relaxing. And wonderful to spend time with them.

Friday, October 27
Wilder's aunt passed away and they were exhausted from being at the wake all night, but Elsa still felt like going with me to Polvos Azules, the world capital of Pirated Goods. No a la pirateria, but seriously folks, it's hard to turn down the opportunity to buy "Brokeback Mountain", "Bring it On", and "Veronica Mars" for about $1.50 a pop. And I'm not saying I bought any, I'm just saying it's hard to turn it down. I had to buy a CD for a friend, and then it was just about looking at all the STUFF.

The important thing that happened on Friday was that I finally got to see my friend Beth LaBate who is married to a Peruvian and has been in Cusco for the past 10 months. I packed my bags and got a cab to Dina's sister's house, where I met Mario Sr.'s older sister Zulema. Tia Zulema is SO rad. This lady is so vibrant, and funny, and sweet and just plain GREAT. I called Beth's husband Jimmie and Zulema and I decided to meet up with them at a strip mall there in San Juan de Lurigancho. We went to Metro, which is like a Super Walmart. I haven't ever actully been in a super Walmart or a Super Target where they sell all the regular crap plus food, including fresh produce, meat, and bread. I had no idea what a monstrosity it is. We don't have ANYTHING like that in Iquitos and it was mildly scary.

Anyway, we went to Jimmie's uncle's house to eat dinner and we just chatted for a few hours. It was so nice to see both Jimmie and Beth who are doing really well. Beth's Spanish has improved tremendously and Jimmie was really happy to be back in Peru. They're leaving for Vermont on Tuesday, and they'll be there for a few years. They're taking a dog from Peru with them that is really stinkin' cute. We just chatted and joked and it was really nice and comfortable. Beth's research was really interesting, and Jimmie has been working on his tourism degree. It was a great time.

The next morning we woke up at 4am to get to the airport. We checked 8 bags (only one of which was mine) which was a royal pain and then we barely made the plane on time. Traveling with Dina was really fun, especially considering that I rarely fly with friends. We got to Iquitos at 8:15 and the family still thought we weren't getting there until Wednesday. From the airport I called Kirle to tell her that we were going to a beach in Lima and we'd call her from the beach. It took about 20 minutes to get home from the airport and lemme just tell you about the double takes. It was hilarious! Kirle started yelling "Liars!" at us as she hugged her mom. It was really priceless to see their reactions. It was just wonderful. We ate cebiche that Dina made from shellfish that she brought from Lima and we laughed and talked and laughed some more.

Later on, Mario, Veronica, and Aldair, a cousin, and I went swimming at the Lion's Club pool. Two hours later we were complete prunes and exhausted. Later that night we ate pizza (yummy!) and then got some ice cream. It was a nice - although exhausting - day.

Sunday, October 29
Oh this was the best day EVER! After breakfast, we went down to this port on the Nanay River that is usually flooded. Well, about 10 months of the year. Right now, there's a beautiful beach on the other side of the river. Normally you have to pay a few soles to hire someone to take you across, but since Dina knows everyone, her friend took us over in his houseboat and so we had a place to keep our stuff and to eat lunch later on in the day.

The water was gorgeous, cool but not too cold and the sand was soft and white. Cheesy description but it was just perfect. We played water volleyball and we just laid (sp?) on the beach and then laid in the water. The current there is pretty strong, so it was nice to just swim against the current or let the current take you down river a bit and then swim back up. It was really heavenly. Around 3 we grilled chicken and potatoes and drank beer and wine on the boat and then hit the water again. We left around 6 and walked home from the port. By that time, I was pretty exhausted but I really felt like a glass of wine. Unfortunately, wine (let alone good wine) is hard to come by here. You have to go a little out of your way just to get this crappy, super sweet stuff that I would not normally drink. But desperate times call for desperate measures and so we went with it.

My friend Cesar invited me to his friend Monica's apartment. Turns out Monica is Spanish (hooray!), from Cordoba, and joder, it was great talking to her. She's going to be here until the middle of July also, and she is lots and lots of fun, so we hit it off. She works for an NGO that has to do with agriculture, etc. Lilia, Cesar, Monica and I drank wine and shot the bull until 1 in the morning. They are all such sweet people, and we just get along so well, and I had had such a lovely day at the beach that when the time came to go home, I couldn't fall asleep. I watched two episodes of "Veronica Mars" (highly recommend it, btw) and then fell asleep. Wonderful, wonderful day.

Lest you think that I am piddling away my time, dear reader, I do have some interviews lined up tomorrow. I am actually getting stuff done too. Or so I like to tell myself. Ha.