Cheap Thrills

Hanging around the street markets and dodgy vendors you find you can get just about anything for a good price. In Cusco I picked up a Hat ($3) some sunnies ($2) and a alpaca wool jumper ($8) after feasting on Quail eggs (5 for $0.30) and a half litre of fresh juice made to order ($1.20). This is due largely to the poverty of these counties where even doctors, lawyers and teachers are forced to drive taxis to survive. Take the town of Juiinetta with a population of 250,000 there are more than 20,000 tricycles (bike taxies) in juiinetta and the principal industry is smuggling... some to Bolivia (e.g. alpaca knickknack for Petrol) some of it within peru. This is a problem as crime doesn’t pay, at least not taxes – the result is dirt roads, poor schools, and no infrastructure. I don’t know if my tourist dollars help, hinder, or don’t affect things but i’d like to think i’m putting some cash into their economy. This may all be over as in Chille i am paying about 2-3 times more for most stuff brining it much closer to prices back home... but there are still some to be had.

The wide variety of experiences too is not to be underestimated. In Lima it was death for breakfast (catacombs), virgin sacrifice for lunch(temple,) jumping off cliffs in the afternoon (paragliding), and more drinks than you can point a stick at in the evening (hostel bar!). And that’s just one day. Others included Breakfast with hourses (riding them not eating them) followd by off road for lunch (and getting boged) eating sand for dinner thanks to my impressive sandboarding skills, and watching the sun set over some of the worlds strangest landscapes. Of course there are also days of sitting on a bus and days of lying in a hammock, hiding from the world watching movies, or catching up with new friends, or just planning where to go and what to see – And these are generally my blogging days. Chillaxing!

Of course this sort of easy lifestyle comes with its fair share of setbacks. More that the occasional 14 hour bus ride on a seat that doesn’t recline that well, with a fat man snoring behind you. Hostel interruptions and other forms of sleep deprivations. I have gone through 3 hats now for reasons ranging from forgetting on a bus, to using it as a emergency containment vessel when the alch...altitude got to me on a bumpy curvy road bus. I’ve been burnt bitten and stabbed by various insects plants animals and unidentified assailants. And had to put up with the most profane toilets that would make Rammstein go pale and hold each other for support. I write this now from a hostel where the crackling thunderstorms occasionally cut the power and let alarms join the tumultuous night sounds.

The Culture too can be hard to comprehend and we too quick to judge sometimes. For Example the other day I saw some people at a cemetery/church/temple/thing setting fire to stuff – walls, rocks, incense, the baby Jesus. At first i thought you can’t go and set Jesus on fire!? But then I thought compared to eating his body and drinking his blood, it’s probably the nicest thing to do. And anyhow how can you not support setting things on fire for no apparent reason. The mix of Inca and tribal traditions with Christianity is still an uneasy one.
But all that is what makes travelling fun, the unexpected.