OK, I got off on a total rant on that last post, so I made it separate. This one is actually about Peru. Somewhat.

So I experienced my first power-outage in Peru today, in the early morning. It's actually different, because the power here runs at 220 volts instead of 110 like in the US, which means the amplitude is different too, so the power lines have to be thicker, and the dark, well it's a different kind of dark. I'd say it's about twice as dark when the power goes out here. But the lights are twice as bright.


I also experienced my first case of a Peruvian being outwardly sexual towards me: a guy and two girls were talking, and as I walked by I made out 'bonito' (beautiful, but it's a MASCULINE beautiful, as indicated by it ending in 'o' instead of 'a'. The curves of the letter 'a' clearly indicate femininity). Then as I passed one of the girls whistled at me. It was sweet. But I didn't turn around. Maybe this belonged in the last post. But hey, anyone have interesting sexual mores from other cultures to share? I'd be interested...


I went back to the market today, and once again was fed, fruit this time, and yes I bought some. I tried to stick to stuff I didn't recognize to make it more of an experience. Anyone know what an orange-colored thing with brittle skin and kind of slim-covered greyish seeds on the inside is? Well it's tasty. Some stuff you can get at the market that I forgot to cover: dozens of kinds of guitars (if they're even guitars really, they're stringed at any rate), handmade yogurt, local honey, bread with painted faces on the top (saints?), herbal medicine, flowers, offerings for saints, and aloe vera (important for a guy like me whose ancestors lived in caves under cloudy skies, and in case you're wondering aloe vera en Espanol is 'alo vera'). There's probably more stuff I'm forgetting. I like the market. I bought a hat, but I'm not wearing it now out of respect for Lee, since I didn't have a hat yesterday to take off for him. Oh yeah, it might interest Tim Werwie, or the rest of you maybe, that bootleg CD's can be had for about 50 cents American. As long as I'm giving shoutouts, Chuck Ashbaugh, if you're reading this, I've been eating raw fish and lots of fresh vegetabless, and I'm still the Iron Stomach champ! Hey, if I didn't eat that stuff I wouldn't be eating much, except fried chicken and pizza I guess. Which of course is why we travel, so we can see what pizza and getting drunk is like really far from home.


I'm really wanting to explore the canyons around Arequipa, two that are deeper than the Grand Canyon, but I want to do it on my own (actually with other people, just not as a guided tour). Not only can I travel at my own pace, but it's a lot more of an Adventure that way. But I don't want to do it alone, and most people don't want to spend 7 or 10 days on one canyon (haven't found anyone yet at least), so I think what I might want to do is take the three-day tour, maybe meet some people, see how the buses work (most of the guided tours use public transit), and then go back, solomente if necessito. But I like Arequipa a lot, so I don't mind hanging out here while I make up my mind on that. I might also try and take Spanish lessons here. I haven't seen anything obvious to that end yet, but then I haven't looked very hard either.