Odds and Ends

We've been hanging out (doing a little programming, playing a little poker) in a new section of Lima, about a 15-minute walk from the ocean. The ups include our extremely (really, extremely) friendly hostel owner and Lima's continual overcast weather. The down is that there are far fewer restaurants in this district, but since there's a big supermarket close-by we've started cooking for ourselves in the hostel, which is perfect. (I still like to get the excellent fried yuca at the local chinese restaurant).

Two great supermarket deals: A whole pineapple for 60 cents, and three delicious croissants for 60 cents. That's a great breakfast right there (minus the coffee). Speaking of which, for a coffee exporting country, it is extremely difficult to find good coffee. Everyone drinks nescafe. This means that cafe con leche is really leche con cafe, since they bring you a teacup of heated milk, into which you stir the instant coffee.

Another difference that has gone uncommented so far is the extremely high incidence of honking in the streets. Depending on the city, it's not uncommon for 2 of 3 cars on the street to be taxis which, if empty, will honk twice as they pass you to let you know they're available--even if it's perfectly clear you don't want a taxi. You can imagine how this honking adds up. Taxis also honk pretty regularly at each other as a kind of navigational aide to let the others know they're there. I've become pretty used to crusing into a 4-way, totally unctonrolled intersection at about 20mph because the taxi drivers seem to know their business pretty well. I also figure this is good training for Asia where matters are likely to be a whole lot more hectic.

We were going to be hiking in the north around this time with Club de Mochileros. Sadly, their main trip seems to have fallen through, and we've been having trouble reliably contacting them. Today we decided between the beach town of Trujillo or the mountain town of Huaraz, and opted for Huaraz on the theory that we'd see lots of beaches in SE Asia, and we like a good hike in the mountains. We don't have the time or supplies for any of their really serious treks (though this is something I'd like to come back and do a different trip), but we'll probably take a good day-hike or two.

A final peculiarity. When we bought our bus tickets online, they wanted our mother's maiden names, which we dutifly filled-in, being in form-completion mode. Only when the process was completed did we realize they wanted them to force their matriachical naming conventions upon us for our printed tickets.