Culture

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Speaking of culture, I thought it would be nice to include photos of our splendid Spanish teachers in Cuenca - Cesar and Priscila.

Meanwhile I apologise in advance to readers for the literally dyspeptic quality of this blog. Trouble is, following a spot of the old Third World tummy trouble, this morning I redecorated the bathroom of our hotel in a style and colour unlikely to find favour with the owner or fellow guests. Prior to this I was bitten by a dog in Vilcabamba (for geography fans - this means you, Dave J). Typically, Bridget failed to capture the moment on camera. Speaking of which, I then left said camera in the back of a taxi and only retrieved it thanks to the quick thinking of a nice young Dutch couple.

At first sight the Peruvians look bigger and nastier than the Ecuadorians. You see the same faces on the streets as you do on pots in the local museums. Of course there´s a tendency to think that the Inca just disappeared once the Spanish took over, but obviously they didn´t - they just adopted a lower profile. Today´s Inca (and Moche and Chimu) are driving buses and managing hardware stores.

Trujillo came as a major culture shock - the streets here are filled to overflowing with yellow cabs (there are very few private vehicles). They swarm like giant genetically modified wasps in search of prey, whether pedestrians or passengers. They have horns (natch) which they sound every 3.2 seconds, especially when presented with the baffling sight of a red traffic light. But they also have specially adapted car alarms which they can manipulate at will, making them wolf-whistle, issue warnings, or even enquire after your transport needs.

Horror story...

An Australian couple we met took - in retrospect - the rather unwise decision to travel from Baños (mid-Ecuador) to Piura (northern Peru) non-stop. Things were OK until they arrived at the Peruvian border at 3.00 in the morning, at which point the bus crew announced that they wouldn´t be going any further, and anyone who wanted to get to the destination stated on their ticket would have to go the rest of the way by taxi.

Arguments ensued. Ther bus crew refused to budge. The Australians (both quite tall) were asked to share with 2 or 3 other passengers, and were offerd the choice of occupying a single seat in the taxi, or else crouching in the back with the luggage. One of the other passengers chose this moment to vomit copiously over their luggage, then crap himself into the bargain. Once the mess had been partially cleaned up, off they set, the driver repeatedly falling asleep at the wheel, and slewing all over the road until given a prod by one of the passengers.

On reaching the unlovely town of Sullana, the driver told them he was too tired to continue to Piura. Further arguments took place. Finally the Australians insisted he at least pay their bus fares for the final leg to Piura, to which he reluctantly agreed. They arrived in Piura at 8.00am, a mere 26 hours after leaving Baños.

And they say the spirit of adventure is dead!

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Photos

The Enemy
Don´t come any closer or I´ll shoot

Trujillo
Not all of it´s this nice, but this is the view from our apartment

Comments

[JB]

Hey we´re famous?
It almost looks as if the inspiring british couple actually gives us the honour of being mentioned in their bloq. Well the young dutch couple (thanx) basically put the incas on our shitlist for a while, until we found out that many of them fall victim to crime of the evil incas as well. In any case, we have recovered from the violent robbery after a lovely jungle trip. We travel faster now, as P&B travel slower, which we can´t blame em, we´re young and they´re uh, less young. For the rest we can say that this is a brilliant blog. We´ll try to match it with our still-to-come Dutch blog. Cheers J and S

[leoniek and ray]

wow!
What a nice story! And thanks for the nice words about us!! Nice to read something from you. Enjoy!! And we hope to see you soon, we go to Nazca tomorrow. Love Ray and Leoniek (´The nice dutch couple´)