Today we went on a trip out to Pisac to visit the market that is very famous there. I had so much fun bargaining. You just get the shopkeepers to tell you a price and then halve it, by the look on their face you can tell how insulted they are (since these are usually handicrafts). It's only through this method that I can figure out the true prices of the goods. It's my own stubbornness that doesn't allow me to pay more then the local price for a good.
In the end I got a little chess board where the Incas and their llamas are battling the Spaniards (it was about 5 dollars). The rugs are absolutely beautiful and wonderful to look at but were just too much for my meager budget to handle, both in weight and money, even with some tough bargaining. My other purchase for the day was a little bronze llama, I think that's it for Peruvian keepsakes. With another 3 months to go space is at a premium even in my endless crusade to find more great "Crap from Around the World" (you should hear the echo effects of that in my mind for the full effect). Tomorrow we leave for Puno, I have no idea what's there, or even if its in Peru or Bolivia (go figure).
On our way back from Puno market we had originally planned to take the public bus but a taxi driver came up and offered to take us back for $1.50 each. However, since the public bus was only 50 cents we walked away. Now mind you this is an hour long drive over a mountain and the bus we would have had to take would have been packed into with close to a 100 locals and their market purchases. And no offence to the locals, but Ban Deoderant definitly has not made any great strides in convincing the market of their need for their product.
Finally, we got him to agree to 80 cents each for the ride -- not bad. It really seems ridiculous when you could afford to pay so much more, and certainly would in the US, but it becomes the principle of the thing --- not to pay more than the locals. He didn't spend all that much on gas however, on the down side of the mountain the engine was cut and we rolled into our final destination in neutral.
The four single people on this trip are all fun and we all get along really well so its been a lot of socializing and great to have other people to have a meal with for once. Eating alone is just depressing, and it's only magnified a thousand times in a beautiful foreign country where unmarried 20 year-olds are considered hopeless spinsters. However, while eating alone is definitly depressing, yesterday's meal would be memorable regardless of the company.
It was definitly a learning experience. We went horseback riding to various ruins the names and signifance of which are now all completely muddled in my mind. Well, it was someone's idea to stop and get some food before we started the tour. We were lead into what looked like a barn or courtyard area (it was owned by the people who were going to rent us the horses). There were dogs running around, hay in the corner, you could smell the horses and their were bottles of beer lying all over the place. We were told that "The Menu" cost 1 dollar (soup, drink, main dish, and dessert). Personally, I took one look around and ordered a sprite, but the others decided to risk their stomachs and ordered lunch.
While we sat there and waited for the food. Seb noticed the little boy of about 18 months running around screaming at the top of his lungs. Then he leaned over to play with something. Well, there was a little plumbers crack, but that's really cute, right? Not when your waiting to eat and their is green poo hanging out of it, BUT WAIT, it gets better.
The soup comes out, very good they all say. Ate it up, no problem. Then the woman of the house walks out of the kitchen with a bunch of meat in her hands. She walks over to a big rock in this courtyard-barn area and tenderizess the meat with another rock that's sitting on the ground next to the big flat rock. Okay, well that's a little gross we all think but its still okay (I'm just glad at this point I passed on the food). Remember the dogs? Well, of course they wander over and start licking the remains of the meat juice that was on the big rock. At this point the Prissy Englishman with us starts freaking out and even our guide whose fairly used to this decides to pass on the food. They decided that they could deal with dirt but not food that had been indirectly licked by the dogs.
The horses from there were a treat as well. Two of them hated each other and H.P. (aka "the prissy Englishman") had no idea how to ride so his horse would gallop up to the one it hated and try to bite it. Once almost throwing him off a steep cliff although I can't say we would have minded a small injury keeping him from the rest of the trip. The owners were there as well and would bring the horses galloping up behind and those in front would take off. The horses also had absolutely no concept of a two-legged rider and mine pinned me many times, not to mention often leaving my leg stranded at the back end of another persons horse (luckily for me none of them went to the bathroom).
It was a bit scary because these had to be the stupidest horses on earth and they kept bolting, especially when any one of the nine spotted a patch of water.
I guess I missed out on some of the fun because at summer solstice all sorts of cool things happen at the Inca sights. They were made to use the sun and the moon, especially in the temples. So during summer solstice at a lot of the sights the sun will hit the rocks just right and create the image of a puma or shine into some caves at just the right angle to light them up.
Im not sure if I will find email, in many other places and it will probably cost more than a dollar an hour so this might be the last in this series of stories but I will do my best to keep you all up to date on my adventures!
Lots of love,
Lisa
