Back to the land of the palta

Hi Folks,

So here I am in southern Peru! I finished up my volunteer work at the black sheep and had a great time. I was suprised to feel as sad as I did upon leaving, but I guess sometimes you never know how affected you are by people and places until you leave them. It was a wonderful learning experience, and one the I am sure may help to lead me in my next professional path in life. Stay tuned at a later date when I actually figure that out. :)

The picture above is from my last foray into the weekly market in Chugchilan (where they had ¨music¨ from Sigchos--turns out to be a bunch of people who have never actually practiced or played before, but all were welcome--kind of like an open-mike night) and heading back toward the inn.

So, back to Peru. Who would have guessed that the Lima airport is a great place to spend the night, as apparently a lot of people are doing it and it never closes. At most you might have to change tables as the cleaners come around and want to mop. Anyway, I arrived in Arequipa at around 5:45 in the morning and was suprprised to see it is really in the mountains but also the desert. Quite different topography than I have been seeing for a while. This is a great town, and yes, the palta is back! This means I must be quite close to Argentina as the apparently northern word for avocado, aguacate, has been replaced with the word I learned in Buenos Aires, which is palta. They are also all over the place, and I have eaten one each day I have been here so far! I am on the hunt now to see if gafas (glasses) have turned back into anteochos.

This is a cool town, and today I discovered what apparently must be cake alley. An entire street with nothing but torte shops trying to outdo the one next door with their cake decorating skills. The street smells of sugar and exhaust, as there are a ton of taxis here. I followed that walk up with a meal in a place totally decked out for Christmas (is it that time already?) and playing Christmas carols alterenated with Air Supply and Bob Marley. Today I also got to meet Juanita, apparently the best preserved mummy of any Incan sacrifice ever. It was cool, although not for her, I am thinking.

The Peruvian people are really nice and helpful--much like all the other South American people I have met so far on this journey. I must say though that these Arequipeños are obsessed with cheap chinese food. It is probably every other store front on some of these streets......

Here are some photos...I am too lazy to label most of them, but they are pictures of the inn and the people who make it such a great place, a couple of the beach, and I think that is about it.

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Beach%20and%20more%20BSI/