Flora and Fauna

Fun Fact No. 38: Motorcross is HUGE. Very big here. Huge motorcycle thingies wheeling around in mud and jungle. People LOVE it.



So I'll start with the fauna part. Life and death happen here. And no one flinches. One of our six dogs, Pishcota (an Amazonian word for whore), had babies about a week ago. She had seven adorable puppies and within about 4 days, they all died. She suffocated five out of the seven and then the other two just died and she ate them. People shrugged and said she's an old dog and doesn't know how to be a mother anymore. Oh well.

We have pet rabbits. The female is the same one as always, but we're now on the fourth male. The first was eaten by one of the dogs. The second was just mean and bit people so they ate it. The third fell off the house (our house is on stilts so it's quite a fall) and broke his hips. We took him to the vet and they said to bring him back the next day for x-rays. The next day came and we couldn't find him. They ate him. Now number 4 is alive and kicking, so here's hoping he survives.

Now we've got the duck. I just KNOW someone's going to eat the poor little guy!

Flora...well, Genevieve said that her flora was permanently changed by the Amazon. We both had a round with giardia, and we've both eaten some crazy stuff. I have always bragged about my stomach of steel, but lately I'm not so sure. I've never been so in tune (prepare yourselves: graphic information following) with my bowl movements before, but now I am VERY conscious of every little thing. Seriously. And poor Erika, my brother's girlfriend, is just on a roller coaster of flora love. Our flora is a changin' and it's an adventure.

Last night was wonderful. My brother had brought me wine (REAL wine, a yummy Australian shiraz) and I took it to Monica's house. We sat around, drank wine, and shot the bull for hours. A girl's night with wine? My idea of heaven.

My First Bribe

Fun Fact No. 37: Fake money abounds! Strange but true: Peru has a huge HUGE problem with counterfeit money. It's so real looking, with holograms and everything, that people get screwed regularly. The government tries to make the money more complicated and more difficult to copy, but it happens anyway. Thankfully I have yet to be screwed in this respect (knock on wood!).


Well, Lord love a corrupt government. On Saturday, a bunch of us decided to go to Quisto Cocha (surprise surprise!) and so Milton, Mario Negrito, and I hopped on my motorcycle and cruised on up. Quisto is at kilometer 16 or so of the highway and it's a good 30 minute drive. Bebopping along, we see cops. They pull us over. Great. It's illegal to have more than two people on a motorcycle (even though it happens ALL the time) and I had nothing with me: driver's license, official papers of the motorcycle, insurance. How screwed should that make me? Luckily I've talked my way out of tickets in the states plenty, and believe you me, this gringa can put on a show. The cop told me that between having three on a moto, no papers, and an illegal driver (Mario has no license), the ticket is 380 soles (about $120). Between explaining what a law-abiding citizen I am and how I have no money after spending it all on a crappy piece of junk (which the cop conceded was true and laughingly asked how much I spent on my little piece of poop), he started to cave. He said a S/. 10 bribe should cover it (about $3), and we may continue on our way providing that we drive safely, don't drink, and don't let it happen again. I happily nodded and shook his hand with a S/. 10 bill in mine and the transfer was complete. I've never bribed an official before, and I must say that it was rather exciting. The boys said I should get an Oscar for my performance. Here's hoping!

My brother, Tim, and his girfriend Erika are here! They got here on Sunday night (2 hours later than expected) and it was SO good to see them. We're having a wonderful time, and they are going to be here for an entire month! Erika is going to sing in my choir, and Tim spun fire in the main plaza on Sunday night. They're fitting in quite nicely.

And back to the motorcycle situation. Erika and I ran over to my friend Milton's grandma's house to pick up my USB last night. Seems easy, right? Yeah, fine and dandy until your carborator (sp?) needle falls out somewhere and your motorcycle leaks gas. And then it starts to pour rain. And then they can't fix it. Serious lemon. Seriously. Sore subject right now. Aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh.

Speaking of my brother and Erika, last night we went to grab beers with Monica, Cesar, Graciela, Cesar's new wife, Mario Luis, and some other friends. We played "Never Have I Ever" (you put five fingers on the table and someone says something they've NEVER done and if you've done it, you have to retract a finger. The first person to have all five fingers retracted loses) and in lieu of having to drink if you lose, you have to do something silly. Like howl at the moon. Or offer a stranger on the street your beer. Or dance like a crazy person with your shirt over your head. It was LOTS of laughs and it works in both languages. We had a ball! And man, Mario Luis was HILARIOUS. (Yup, I'm talking to you, Sugar!)

We now have a pet duck. His name is Pepin and I thought he was for dinner. Turns out he's a new member of the family and this morning when I went to the bathroom to pee, Pepin was bebopping along in the tub. I sat on the john next to a happy duck. I felt like I was in the movies.


Pictures: I've been paling around with these guys a bunch lately. Far left is Veronica's boyfriend, Jean, and then there's Angel and then Jean's older brother Milton. Jean & Milton's family is pretty amazing and they've been really wonderful to me. Then there's Ever, my favorite of the boys who work at the house. This picture turned out really well. Then there's MEAT, from Al Carbon, a great grilled meat restaurant here. Chorizo, anticucho (grilled heart), grilled chicken, browned potatoes, and pork chops. Whoa.

Jackpot

Fun Fact No. 36: Chicken isn't meat. I know that many of you familiar with Latin American culture know this, but for those of you who don't I'm for real. Chicken is white meat therefore it's not meat. I recently gave up meat for a while because it's been making me feel not so great, and everyone is like "well, what about chicken?" and when I say NO meat at all, they respond: But it's CHICKEN.

You would NEVER believe what luck I had yesterday. After a long few weeks of crap and more crap, yesterday I'm bebopping down the main drag to work at the gradeschool when I see a huge pile of trash and all these people are picking through it. I look closer and I see some music. What the heck? Sure enough, there are BOATLOADS of scores from the 20s, 30s, and 40s just lying around in the middle of the street. Tangos, valses, rumbas, milongas, huaynos, marchas, sambas, guarachas, fox-trots, the works! I start picking it up as fast as I can and when everyone sees the gringa madly scrambling to collect all the music, they all pitch in. All of the sudden everyone started yelling "faster! Faster!" The rush, you ask? The garbage truck was coming. We scrambled and scrambled and I was able to salvage a HUGE stack of music, most of which is in great condition. Even the garbage man helped me a bit. Most of the people were curious and asked what my interest was in "culture." I responded that I'm a musician and that this music is Peruvian history. They made me pull out my flute and play some of the music. I've never felt like a hippie until that moment. All that was missing was an open guitar case. But it was fun and COMPLETELY out of the ordinary. Gee willikers!

Yesterday was also Dina's birthday. (Oh, Happy Birthday Michael & Elise! You old farts!) The party was tremendous and true to form, lasted from 1pm until 10pm. Lots of food, dancing, and beer and the funniest part was that carnaval basically started. Apparently here in Iquitos, Carnaval involves lots of water baloons, flour, and talcum powder that people throw at each other. Needless to say, we were covered in all of the above. It was great fun. I felt like I was 10!

Lemon

Fun Fact No. 35: The Scrunchie Lives. Remember that Sex & the City episode where Carrie berates Burger for having the protaganist of his book wear a scrunchie? Carrie Bradshaw would DIE here - scrunchie hell. Sold on every street corner, scrunchies are IT. And worse, they have the fake hair ones too. Could I be more shallow and superficial? Luckily I have short hair.


So I was in the market for a motorcycle and I went shopping for one this week. My friend Milton zipped me around to various stores looking a new little vespa-like dealies that are cute and friendly and automatic. Of course in my price range, I can only afford the no-name Chinese motos, and some people advised against them because if they break there are no replacement parts. Others said go for it because they´re only $600 and I can just sell it back in July for slightly less than the original value. I was also keeping my eye out for a used one, and my friend Milton´s uncle, Angel, said he found one for me on Friday and did I want to take a look on Saturday.

Well, Friday & Saturday were really crappy days because I was super homesick, frustrated, depressed, and all around icky. So on Saturday when I went to take a look at this motorcycle, all my common sense flew out of my brain, I ran on emotional fuel and bought a serious lemon for about $385, thinking that it would only need a few minor repairs. Did I take it to a mechanic to see what it might need before buying it? Nope. Did I run the plates with the police to see if it has any violations or infractions? Nope. I just went ahead and bought it. It´s a Honda, so in theory it should be a good little motorcycle. But along with the fuel injector, oil thingy, rings, clutch and other stuff, it´s a good $100 to fix. Well, I know you´re thinking that in the grand scheme of things, $100 to fix a Honda motorcycle is nothing compared to what it would be to fix a car with that amount of problems in the states (thousands, literally) but for something that was supposed to be a steal, I´m definitely on the losing side of things.


I made a knee-jerk decision that I regret and I tried to get my money back and return the motorcycle, but the guy already spent the cash. Or so he says. At this rate I could have bought a little Chinese number. But then again, about half the people say that the Chinese models are no good and the half think they´re great, which means they´re probably about average. So I´m stuck with this lemon and then there´s the whole "find an honest mechanic" problem. After getting a few opinions, I went with a guy who´s a friend of a friend who has a good track record and lives only 3 doors down from my friend´s house. His diagnosis was right in line with everyone else´s and he has the same model motorcycle (1997 Hero Honda, see above). Well, despite my emotional crisis, I do like the bike. It handles well and it´s a good size - not too big and not too small. I can get out of 1st gear no problem, which is always scary when I´m on the roads here. Of all the motorcycles I´ve driven here (five), this one is the easiest to shift.

As Mario Sr. said, you live and you learn. And así es la vida. I´ve made worse mistakes, and I did learn a lot. Although it cost a good amount of humble pie and emotional distress. When life gives you lemons...

Disconnect

Fun Fact No. 34: Dances are like the ones from the 8^th grade. People are always nervous to ask someone to dance whom they don’t know. And worse, the girls rarely ask the guys. And strangely, their idea of bumbing and grinding to reggaeton includes about a foot (at least) of space between partners.

Above are pictures from Quisto Cocha. Since I raved and all, I thought you should take a look. I was going to write tons today but I'm pooped so more some other day.

Two thousand and what?

Fun Fact 33: Mi flaca is what you call your girlfriend. Not that I would know first hand of course, but generally when guys introduce their girlfriend, they'll say "This is mi flaca, So-and-so." Flaca means skinny (not thin, but skinny) and even when someone's flaca isn't flaca, they still call them flaca. Kind of funny.

Continuing the list of neat things as of late:
8. The Godmother
December 16 was a crazy day. Not only was it the first concert of my choir, but it was also the 15th birthday of one of my goddaughters, Silvia. Fifteen is a big year for most girls in Latin America and this one was no different. Lemme just tell you: wedding-sized party. Long dresses, flowers, cakes, bouquet toss, first dances...almost pukish in the sense that this kid is only 15 but Silvia's got her head screwed on just right, and just about nothing can make her head big, she's such a sweet, humble kid. Love her to death, btw. Anyway, the festivities were intense but fun, even with the 60 or so teenagers in attendance. Ick and cute at the same time. Oh, and I got my first French manicure ever. Are you kidding me?

9. Quisto Cocha
I know I already mentioned it once before, but it's quite the fun place to go and I've been four times in the past month, slightly unheard of. Quisto is kind of like a zoo but not entirely. There are animals (including the famed bufeo, or river dolphin) but you see them along a path in the jungle. It's really pretty. Plus it's a national park, so there are tons of trails that you can walk to go birdwatching or just to experience a not-scary version of the jungle. It's really beautiful. Plus it has a lovely beach on a big cocha, or lake, with white sand and the water is great. No lifeguard, so you can bebop where ever you want. Although I got my first ever "holy crap I'm gonna drown" cramp in my calf on Sunday. I think it's because I've been driving the motorcycle and you use both heal and toe to shift and my calf had been sore anyway. Luckily I was with a bunch of people and was quickly rescued and massaged. Regardless, it's a little slice of paradise right here in Iquitos, complete with volleyball net and soccer goalposts, for whatever suits your mood.

10. New Year's
Well, yet another year has come and gone. Gosh, how quickly time flies! My evening was nice - Mario Luis came over for a nice dinner and then we went dancing at a gay bar called Spectrum. The crappy thing was that it was basically a sauna - no fans or air conditioning with about a million people. We were all drenched pretty much immediately. The good thing was that they put all different kinds of music on, and it was really great dancing. Mario Luis left around 3 and we stayed til about 5 when we went back to Jean Carlos' house (Veronica's boyfriend) and slept until about 8:30 and then went home. New Year's day was perhaps the laziest day of my life, spent watching Veronica Mars and napping. Rather heavenly, actually.

Quick 2006 recap:
-went to Spain to see my peeps
-ran a half marathon without training (yikes!)
-went to Florida and Louisiana with Pril
-went to Florida with Lorraine & Karen, and also went to Larissa & Ryan's wedding. Also had a 702 E. Wooster reunion.
-finished my PhD coursework
-finished my PhD comprehensive exams
-discovered that my friends are more amazing than I could have imagined
-moved to Peru, where there are no pad thai or migas, perhaps my biggest complaints.
-turned 28. Damn, gina!

Whoa. Short of sentimentalities, thank you all for being, well, amazing. I'm not going to name names (because that would take too long), but without you, I wouldn't be here. Doing what I love. Happy New Year. I hope it kicks ass.