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Blogs from Tumbes, Tumbes, Peru, South America
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Tu changes d'idée comme tu changes le couleur de tes cheuveux! - Alex
Published: May 23rd 2012South America » Peru » Tumbes » Tumbes
May 23rd 2012
Where did we last leave off? Ah yes, I was waiting for Caesar to come grab me for a glass of wine. The past 3 days have been fascinating. So, finally knowing where I was headed, feeling still not completely at ease, but knowing the answers I seek lie on the path I'm headed down (whatever that may be), I had some wine with Caesar and continued chatting away about philosophy and life. A lovely last night in a beautiful place I hadn't yet enjoyed a second of. The next morning I woke up, renewed and ready to move on. Caesar was also leaving Vilcabamba that day, so he said he would give me a ride to Loja. As I was waiting for Caesar, I was looking at some jewelry at the front made by a ... read more
July 20th 2010
Most houses are pretty much a narrow long box occupying the entire site, never much of a front garden but sometimes a backyard for veggies and chooks. Richer areas are built with concrete and brick while the poorest areas are built with pretty much anything at hand, bamboo chinked with mud being the traditional style. There is a definite unfinished and randomness to peruvian architechure as it is very common to leave the rebar sticking out the top of the concrete columns. Doing so makes it easier to add an extra level when the family can afford it. There is also no central planning or building permissions to speak of, so you get garish monstrosities next to bamboo shacks next to quaint churches. The front of the house is often finished quite nicely with windows and ... read more
July 19th 2010
Armonia dias means Harmony Ten, and we loaded up a minibus to go see them (150 sol, there and back with the driver waiting for the performance to finish). While we waited for the performance we set up in a beer tent, which is where the rooster was photographed. The performance was quite a drive inland from Tumbes and cost 25 sol each to get into the enclosed soccer field to see them up close. If you were poor, you could still see and hear them quite well from the other side of the fence, which I thought was a nice touch. Couldnt see that happening in australia really. We went in almost first and staked out a spot in front of the stage and stayed there all night. Everyone got quite drunk and enjoyed themselves ... read more
July 16th 2010
Went with the whole family to a small island full of beach restraunts called isle del amor which is a short boat ride from Peurto Pizarro. As it was a weekday, only one was open and we were by far their best customer. It was good food, kind of expensive with so many people, though I suspect well over half the bill was for beer. (700 sol or so) As you can see, we got there by packing a dual cab as full as it could get. The staff had a largish turtle in a cardboard box that apparently someone had found. Supposedly they were going to give it to the crocodile farm for care and release. I hope that was true and not a line to make tourists feel better about getting photos of it. ... read more
July 14th 2010
Grandma´s birthday is one of the primary motivators for Victoria and her Australian family to travel to Peru. The rest of the Australian group arrived around lunchtime on the day of the party, rested and recovered to be ready for the night. The venue is actually the family home owned jointly by grandma and all of her children. A lot of effort and expense went into this event, bunting on the walls, catering, a band for music. All quite impressive really. As with any event of this nature anywhere in the world, every freeloading friend or relative showed up, whether or not they had contributed to the expense or effort involved, but it managed to go off well anyway. In any event, the party guests consumed 80 crates of beer (960 longnecks) plus whatever individual guests ... read more
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July 10th 2010
I watched this squirrel critter run up and down the walls and roof spaces of the house across the road for about 20 minutes. I couldn´t figure out why it went all the way up to the top of the light pole until it jumped onto the roof and disappeared from sight. The scene with the chickens is on the roof of the house directly across from Victoria´s parents house. The little girl has a doll that she was feeding a white substance and the chickens had a large but polite interest in the process. When the girl would lift the bag of food, a chicken would peck away a suspended drop. They were very polite about it, seemingly taking turns, no squabbling or hurry and the little girl completely accepts them as part of her ... read more
July 7th 2010
In Tumbes and presumably most of Peru, car ownership is unusual if not rare in most cases. If its too far or you´re too lazy to walk, you catch a taxi or a mototaxi. Taxis seem to be any car that can still move. Most are adequate, some are good and a few are almost dangerously bad. To take a trip from Victoria´s house (a suburb refered to as poyango but actually named andres araujo moran) to tumbes takes maybe 10 minutes and costs 1 sol per passenger (about 40c each). To take special trips, longer distances or late at night, it gets more expensive. It might cost 10 to 20 sol for the 1/2 hr trip to peurto pìzarro or 10 sol to get home after a night out for example. Mototaxis (motos) are purpose ... read more
July 6th 2010
Beer Beer Beer. Its by far the cheapest source of alchohol and is consumed often and in volume, between 2 and 5 sol per bottle depending on where you get it. Cerveza I think it is in spanish, always means longnecks, usually in crates of 12 bottles. Peruvians are quite keen on saying one of their beers is the second best in the world (after germany) The reason for this post though, is the way it is almost universally consumed at social gatherings. When at a restraunt or similar, its pretty normal, everyone gets a glass, drinks as desired. At a party, bbq or similar social event though it goes like this... Everyone sits or stands in more or less a circle. A bottle is opened and a little (or a lot) poured into a glass. ... read more
July 5th 2010
The family and I piled into a taxi and drove quite a distance to a completely obscure and well concealed restraunt. The food was good and surprisingly cheap, even for Peru. 7 adults food plus drinks and beer for 65 soles total, maybe 28 dollars Australian. Apparently the Tumbes provincial president (kind of like a state premier I think) was there as well, but I didn´t know until later. There is a rather cool cactus hedge along one side of the place. Made me wonder how long it takes to grow something like that, cactus is not famous for its lightning growth rates. We visited this place again just recently with 18 people. The bill came to 130 soles this time... wow. After the second visit we went to a swimming hole in the river, very ... read more
July 4th 2010
We decided to join Victoria´s brother Jorge and his friends on an expedition to a local nightclub called Gemini´s. A very popular destination as it turns out. After waiting in a fairly insane line for about an hour we got inside and joined the crowd watching a Cumbia band (apparently a fairly famous one in Peru I think) whose name I cannot remember. Danced a bit, watched people drink a lot but eventually Victoria was keen to go home, so we packed everyone into a taxi and dropped everyone off all over Tumbes. Packed taxi is the word. Me, Jorge, Victoria, Velisa plus two more girls and 1 guy. One of the girls apparently lives in a bad area of town, so while we did drop her off, the taxi driver expressed serious reservations about doing ... read more
