Made It Back Home..............

---

Well, Folks, we made it safely back to the good ol' US of A. While in Peru, we had a great time. We enjoyed most of what we did, but we came away with a new found appreciation for what we have at home:

Rose: Her washer and dryer, roads without potholes, her little Barbie car (Lexus SC430), real coffee in restaurants that actually come with refills, quality stuff (most items in Peru seems like 99 cent store quality).

Ray: A good, juicy ribeye, reliable internet anytime you want it, electricity that doesn't just "go off" for no apparent reason, my truck (Tacoma double cab), plus all the stuff Rose missed.

Peru is a country that is full of potential. It has natural resources in abundance. The food is abundant and cheap and really good for the most part. However, poverty is rampant. I didn't see anyone who appeared to be hungry other than a couple of homeless people. Being homeless in Peru is ugly, and thankfully there do not appear to be many. In Chiclayo, we only saw a couple and both looked like they could be dead the next day.

It is difficult to understand why a country so rich in resources could have people who are so deep in poverty. The economy looks like it is on the upswing and the people who have money seem to have plenty of it. Peru needs top educate its people about some things that would make life much more pleasant and, I think, open the doors for more economic development from outside the country. One thing they can do is teach people not to throw trash everywhere. Near the cities, you will find miles and miles of heavy trash on both sides of the road. That is really tragic. On the beach. men just whip it out and piss against the nearest object and the smell makes walking down to the beach fairly objectionable. This activity is not restricted to the beaches. It is pretty much everywhere.

Peru needs to lower the import duties it levies on imported goods. Practically everything in Peru is imported and the quality is not good. Most Americans would be appalled. The only reason I can imagine for this is the import duties must be so high that they can only import junk to keep prices reasonable.

Peru has a fairly amazing public transport system. It is really a hybrid system of public and private transport. Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing a single public bus line the entire trip. For national travel, there are bus lines similar (but in my opinion, nicer) than Greyhound. There are also enough flights to various parts of the country that seem to always be full. Locally, your transport can be a taxi (private), a collectivo taxi shared with four others and cheaper), a combi, which is a full size van that carries about sixteen people usually between towns. In larger cities, there are micro buses for in-town travel. Everyone seems to know how to get around, and we became fairly adept ourselves.

---