Bad, Bad Travel Service Guy and Peruvianisms

OK The guy who hooked us up with the hotels and 2 bus trips only paid for the first 2 bus tickets. This is a business on the main square (Plaza de Armas) in Arequipa. He not only got us, but the hotel in Nasca is out 2 nights and they paid for our second bus trip expecting to just be paid for the room which we tried to not let them do. When we arrived in Paracas we found that there was no paid reservation and they had stiffed the hotel in Nasca. Karma reserves extra bad diseases and turmoil for people who do stuff like that. Enough on that.

Peruvianisms

The car horn is VERY over used in Peru. It is used for passing, making a pass at a girl, saying hello and goodbye, telling a fellow driver that you are doing something stupid and dangerous and that you would prefer they not complicate it by doing something stupid and dangerous as well. It is also used just to annoy people from time to time.

If you plan to spend US dollars in Peru they can have NO small tears or sign of wear. They literally will turn down a bill with a tiny tear.

They grow chilis in Peru but I’ll be damned if they use them in food. They have a good cuisine, but it is not even mildly hot. No salsa on the tables either.  The alpaca meat and beef are generally in some kind of stew-like gravy with carrots and potatos. Speaking of potatoes, They claim to have over 2000 varieties of potatoes in Peru – the home of the potato (sorry Idaho),

The indigenous women of Peru have fabulous hats that are completely different from village to village. They range from tall white top hats to very plain straw hats, as well as very elaborately decorated hats and miniature hats that have to be pinned to the top of their heads.

The dogs here mostly don’t seem to have homes, but they are larger than the Mexican beach dogs, and there are a larger variety of them including some very scary looking hairless breeds. They mostly seem nice and like to sleep in the middle of sidewalks during the day.

In Peru if you don’t finish your house completely you don’t start paying taxes on it so most of them aren’t finished. There is rusty rebar in virtually every skyline.

Next post will be on Nasca and Paracas. Ciao.