Dirty (not the Christina Aguilera type)

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It finally happened, I couldn´t wear my clothes another day. They are just too dirty. For those of you not familiar with my packing strategy for a 4.5 month trip, I brought:

1) 3 pair of underwear
2) 2 pairs of pants
3) 2 t-shirts
4) 2 long sleeve shirts
5) 1 pair of socks (though I eventually did buy another pair) and
6) 1 pair of mandles (as Kelly likes to call them)

After about two weeks of traveling, including two nights of camping in tents and one night of staying with a local family, my clothes are too dirty to wear. Now, before you get too grossed out that I have been going for two weeks and only packed three pairs of underwear, I did some sink cleaning in our hostels, but that only takes you so far. So today we dropped off pretty much all of our clothes at a local laundry. They promised they would have them ready by 9am tomorrow, for about $1.50 per kilo (we got robbed, the local rate is $0.33 per kilo). I am a little afraid that this cleaner will be like the one I go to in DC, which is like a clothing swap. In DC, this is usually okay, I might trade in my Banana Republic shirt and get a Brooks Brothers one back. Most guys are a large, so the sizes generally match and it turns out to be a great way of expanding your wardrobe. In Puno, however, who knows what may come back, I may have just traded travel underwear for a scarf made of llama, or my travel pants for a colorful poncho (which may be a fair trade, except that I average a foot taller than most of the guys here, do ponchos have sizes?)

-- Steve

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Comments

[Tina]

3 pairs of underwear? You suddenly made Matt a lot classier.

[Scott]

Pictures!
Steve in wool socks, mandles, a wool hat and a poncho? The world needs to see this. Can you post pics on this thing? Safe travels!

[Dad]

DLiP
There is nothing like airing your dirty laundry in public. Ya, but are you making any (new) friends?