Journal Post: Diarrhea

Diarrhea...
Is no fun. Here is a list of things I couldn't eat as a missionary: Lettuce, ceviche, pork, and strawberries. Yep, some tasty stuff. Abstaining, number one precaution here. Also, common sense. But guess what, even with these preventative measures, you're going to get the runs. So, in light of this fact, here are some things you can avoid that might help you keep off the throne as much as possible.
#1: Avoid the milk.
Milk in the States is amazing. Super pasteurized, processed, etc. Comes in lovely 2 gallon jugs, can drink it cold and on cereal.
Milk in Peru is potent, less processed, and comes in can, pouch, or box. Seldom cold, not ideal for cereal (cereal isn't a big deal here). It will also give you the kick in the stomach that cows everywhere wish they could give us humans. Also the cheese, if I were you, I would exercise restraint. Especially for the hot chocolate (which isn't much like the lovely hot chocolate that comes in a pouch), which they make by mixing milk with some bar chocolate that tastes like rust. (in my opinion). It can do some serious damage.
#2: Don't eat anything in the street.
This would be good counsel in the USA, but here even more so. I once taught a lesson during my mission to a lady who sold "anticuchos" (Thin strips of cow heart in shishkabob) in the street. After watching the flies crawl over everything, the general state on uncleanliness, and the lack of refrigeration of what were already questionable meats, I gained a strong personal testimony that these are not places to frequent.
#3: Don't eat too late at night.
I don't know why, but if you don't give yourself some motion before hitting the old sack... Just try. I eat late all the time, and a lot. Bad call.
#4: You need to just say no to yogurt. Sure its tasty. Also different from the states, it comes in a bottle, is not refrigerated, and can be drunk. It's not bad, but I'd advise caution in this regard.
#5: If you see something and wonder, "Hmmm, is this parasite infested?", Don't eat it.

Well, those are some things you can avoid, but, if you are like me, you probably won't. So, in the case that you do come down with the runs, here are some tips and cures.
#1: Never leave the house with out a GENEROUS handful of TP in your pocket. This is just common sense, you never know where you will need to go and you would be surprised at how many bathrooms don't have toilet paper.
#2: Learn to hover. This is because many times, there are no toilet seats.
#3: Don't eat spicy foods, try to keep things simple. (This is obvious).
#4: Buy a few tiny yellow pills called, "Donafan", and a bottle of "Fruti Flex". The pills will fix your system and the Fruti Flex is a for super hydration. About the flex, the flavor you will want to buy (out of three) will be strawberry. Don't. You have to drink the whole liter bottle and strawberry leaves the WORST after taste. It will make you want to hurl. Best to go with Anis or Manzanilla (which are herbs, the second one is chamomile in English I believe.)
5# Due to excessive wiping, a dap of the ol hydrocortizone cream on the sensitive areas never hurt.

Well, the good news is, you'll get over it eventually. And when you do, you can delight in eating all that is bad for you and repeating the cycle. Good luck and stay solid.

Journal Entry: Museum

This is recopy of some notes I took on Sun the 17th.

Today was tourist day for my mother. We two tourist oriented places: La Mansion del Fundador (The Founders Mansion), and a place where people can go horseback riding .In the first location we visited, I found the coloring fascinating. The Founders Mansion was originally owned by the founder of Arequipa in the 16th century. It was passed hands many times and is now a museum. According to the tour guide, there are three colors typical and representative of Old Arequipa. Azulacho (Light Blue), Amarillo (Yellow), and Ochre (which is the same in English). These colors represent things. Blue signifies a private area. In the case of the Monesterio de Santa Catalina in Arequipa (Another old place previously mentioned for wedding photos), the places where the public weren’t supposed to go were blue. Public areas, such as the chapel part of the Founders house, were painted ochre.
Something interesting about the artwork in the house was that some of it was the “Cuzco style”. I saw this also in the “Coricancha” and “Chinchero”, two sites in Cuzco where the Spanish Conquistadores constructed chapels over the bases of Incan temples. The interesting thing about this style is that there are representations of Christ, the Virgin, etc, but with lots of subtle Incan things snuck in. For example, in a painting of Christ in Chinchero, there is a perfect painting of “Sacsayhuaman” (A bunch of big ruins right outside of Cuzco), hidden in what appears to be the coast in the painting. Also, there are lakes, rivers, and ocean in the painting where there is really no need, which was the way the Incan artists could express their devotion to the elements and Incan construction without getting killed. This was all explained to me by the tour guides, but also my father in law, who likes history. His name is Edwar Santos. Other fascinating artifacts in the house of the founder were the really old couches, suits of armor, old mirrors, and other artifacts that have been preserved for display. One of my favorite things was the hand drawn picture (in what appeared to be charcoal) of a Chilean soldier. My Chilean mother and I enjoyed the description of the war (Peru, Bolivia, and Chile had a tiff back in the day) and it’s portrayal of events. The slang for Chileans here is “roto” which means “broke” or “broken”. There are a few theories as to why, but like the word gringo, there is no way to be sure as to where the term originated and why, only some reasonable sounding explanations. Well, Chile won the war, so of course, the fact that at one time Chile was in possession of this house isn’t something the average Arequipan enjoys to recall.
At the place where folks can ride horses, we didn’t. I am not a huge fan of riding animals. But that’s neither here nor there. At this place, we saw the Andenes (Terraced Fields for agriculture). That’s about all we saw. So, Consuelo, (my mother) enjoyed her day out and took lots of pictures.

Journal Post: Description #3

This is Adobo, a customary dish of Arequipa usually eaten Sunday mornings. Lets call it church soup. It has pork, it is hot, and it is spicy. I like it. It goes great with the wonderful bread they have here. To make adobo, you must begin the day before with the pork. To properly prepare your pork, you must give it a soak in chopped up Aji colorado(a hot pepper), Garlic, and chicha de Jora (which is made from purple corn juice -wiñapo-mixed with some pinapple peel -boiled together- and slightly fermented)and a dash of vineger. That you let soak for a day. Than (according to my mother in law), you boil it. But while boiling, you throw in a sprig of laurel, some oregano, and cinnamon. When the meat is tender, you clove an onion and toss that in. The result- Church soup ... Adobo. Yummy, but you have to brush your teeth again.

Journal Entry: Observation #3

Mass, I´ve only ever been to one before today, and that was in Chile when my Aunt happened to die when my mother and I were visiting. It was sad, and even more so because the Catholic concept of the afterlife varies a good deal from my own. I even had to carry the casket. Today, my Mass attendence was unavoidable due to it being the six month mass of my wife´s great grandmother. I am not actively avoiding Mass understand, but I have absolutly zero motivation to go under normal circumstances. Well, today was not normal, but aside from the lights being out for around six hours, nothing interesting happened until mass. That´s where I got to enter a cool old cathedral and sit on a bench with my four year old brother-in-law in my arms (he was asleep). It was interesting, the acoustics were great, and there were some pretty sweet, large cases with some statues of Christ and his mother and some other Virgins.
After mass, I accompanied my wife to our Saya practice, which was awesome because for the first time, I could do all the moves and wasn´t the guy who was totally lost. This is thanks to a nice guy named Fabio who has given me some home lessons. More on him another time. After the practice, we went to the after Mass festivities, which was mostly drinking and sitting. Interesting cultural note: There can be 10 or more people in a sitting, but they only open one bottle of beer at a time and all use one glass. (The beer brand is Cusqueña, in case you were wondering ... it´s cheap, and therfore popular at social gatherings). The custom is to recieve the bottle while the person who passed it to you drinks from the cup. That person than dumps the remaining foam from the glass, than passes the glass. After filling the glass, the person with the bottle than passes it, while drinking the glass. And so the circle continues until the bottle is empty, at which point, a new bottle is opened, and the fun continues. I was told that I needed to teach a sermon about not drinking to them by one of the Aunts (because I am LDS and don´t drink presumably), but as you may have surmised, that is one tough habit to kick. In Peru, ¨Social Drinking¨ has a whole new meaning. Often at family gatherings, the hosts are at a loss for what to do with us Mormons and desperately seek out some kind of soda or water because sitting there drinking nothing just looks wierd and makes everyone uncomfortable. In any event, the ceremony of the Mass was interesting and I even understood the parts of the Bible the Priest was reading. (As I should).

Journal Entry: My Big Fat Peruvian Wedding.

It was quite an ordeal. There was liquor, formal invitations, recuerdos (gifts) for all the guests, more liquor, the wedding dress, photos, still more liquor, the crazy hour, the chocolate fountain, and much much more.
Let me give you the gist of things that are common here that are not common there.
1) The tables are organized and it is expected that the bride and groom go table by table t greet everyone and to have their picture taken. This is in contrast to the line which is typical, at least in Utah.
2) The alcohol, I am sure that there plenty booze in normal weddings that are outside of my beloved bubble that is Utah. But I mean C'MON!. There was a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of wine at each table. In addition, the guests had free mixed drinks to the table all night. ALSO, a full bar with all kinds of beverages I don't even understand, and ON TOP OF THAT: Pitchers of beer for each table at the beginning and towards the end, a full CASE of beer per table. Dang. It was interesting to see people stumbling away.
3) The dance: I know that dances aren't rare, but dances that run a full five hours with everything from Saya to disco to 80's rock are a tad interesting.
4) The full blown meal with all of the guests. It was probably yummy. In fact I know it was … delicious pork roast with side salads. But I was down with the RUNS (which deserves an entry all of its own.)
5) La Hora Loca (The Crazy Hour). This was where crazy hats and ties and masks, and other interesting items were dispersed throughout the dancers. Also lazers, smoke, confetti explosions, and other lights. It was indeed, a crazy hour.
6) The wine bottles had our names on them, interesting.
There is much more to be said about weddings and family gatherings in general, but that will have to wait. Here is a picture that was taken in the Monesterio de Santa Catalina (A tourist monastery that demonstrates art and architecture from Old Arequipa).

Journal Post: The long trip.

Buses are not usually a very comfortable way to travel, but here in Peru, there is a wide gap between the "good" ones and the "bad" ones. Some bus companies are just plain scary. The problem with buses is that the services that have the most available departure hours are generally the ones that will make you question your decision to go on bus. Some companies that just really stink: Power, Sagatarrio, Yulsa, Del Carpio, Santa Ursula. Some companies that are ok: Flores, Cromotex, Cruz del Sur, San Martin. There are lots more, but I'm going to say right now that I usually roll on Flores. The cost for a pretty decent Bus Cama (bus Bed) is 60 soles from Arequipa to Cuzco, ($20). Not too bad. If you try to save money on bus tickets, you are asking for some scandal. On Yulsa, I have been in a wreck that was kind of scary and delayed my four hours. On Power, we had a tire blow out (because they were REALLY bald) and that set us back an hour. Also on Power, we almost hit a cow and by dodging the cow, almost hit an oncoming car. To be fair, things are so crazy on the road, that there is really no "safe" travel, but for comfort, there are better and worse.
That being said, I almost froze to death on my way to Puno. (Too bad I traveled in shorts). I had to put my backpack between me and the window to block the wind. And when you go from sea level to 13,000 feet, things get cold. I survived and am better for the experience. My parents and brother Jonathan, (who we call Cheek), now know and love cool areas in Southern Peru as I do. This audio slide show show demonstrates that a bit.

Journal Post: Come on along on a fantastic Voyage...

I have spent a lot of time on a bus lately. I cannot do the trip justice in one post but do not fear, I will get some pictures on the blog tommorrow. Also, I took notes on the trip and will be filling you in. But for todays post: Haggling. It is necessary here. Absolutely essential. If you don´t, you will never make it. For example: While in Cuzco, we traveled with some Argentines on our tours of the ruins close to the city. One of those tourists bought a blanket for 60 soles. (around 20 bucks). I later purchased the exact same blanket for 40 soles for my mother. While 8 bucks more or less may not seem like a huge deal, it adds up quickly and it´s the principle of the thing. I don´t like getting taken advantage of. If something is of a certain value, than that is the fair price. A better example, my brother wanted a sweater, a street vendor wanted 40 soles for it. Later on, in a different area, I haggled the same sweater at around 15 soles. IF YOU ARE WHITE or TOURISTY, DON´T JUST BUY STUFF!!! Apart from the fact that you could be marked for having money to steal for always whipping out the old wallet, you artificially raise the cost for everyone else. So there you go, you can haggle the price of most everything: clothes, any products in the street, taxis, electronics, and sometimes even food and bus tickets. Haggle, learn it. Love it.