Back in Cusco
Today was spent just chillin out. Blu and Lindsey were up early since they didn’t stay out as late, and they headed out to do some things. When I awoke, I bummed around the hostel for a bit, had some tea, did some reading in the open area of Loki, and watched this guy play some futbol with the resident dog. The weather was much nicer now, and it was good to just sit in the sun… and not be hiking in it!After a bit, Blu and Lindsey got back and Joe woke, so we got some lunch. Burgers for s/2.5… cheaper, bigger, and much, much better than any of the $1 menu fast food crap in the US. And washed it down with Coca-Cola or Fanta, in the glass bottle. Ahh… it just tastes better in the glass. Also, because they use real sugar, not the high fructose corn syrup that’s poisoning our country. I don’t even drink soda any more, but I did in Perú because it just tastes better, and I don’t think it’s going to kill me as quickly…
We hit some mercados next, to check out the wares being peddled. I’ve gotten pretty good at haggling… Since I was the translator, I got to do most of the talking. I love that it’s just common practice to work the price down to what you want to pay for it. I’m going to have a hard time paying marked prices for things once I return to the States! Although, some times I felt a little bad when the shops were being run by these 11 year old girls… it almost felt like I was swindling them when I talked them down on a price. And I love how every female Peruvian merchant has the same little whine when they don’t want to go as low as you offer… “Nooo… ameeegooo…”
Eventually we found our back to Loki again and met up with Karl the Kiwi, who was still there, and ended up going back out to grab some dinner and cappucino at a pizzeria. On the way back, we needed to find a store that sold alcohol… because Joe had an idea of what to do with all the extra coca leaves we had (we bought many, many bags in Ollyantambo… and though we were constantly chewing, we still had a ton left over…) Joe decided we were going make an alcoholic coca drink through extracting the alkaloids from the leaves into vodka. This may seem like a strange idea to some… believe me, this is very normal for us… Unfortunately, on the route we took home, everything seemed to be closed, which was puzzling, because it was only 23.00 on a Friday, and every other night the town kept going pretty late… but tonight was pretty dead. We were hoping to find some vodka, but no luck. But we did find a little shop with some guys sitting around inside. It didn’t look open, but the door was open with the gate down, and it looked like they may have what we’re looking for, so Karl (who spoke a little Spanish) and Joe went over to try to get some. It was a rather humorous exchange… I just sat back and watched. I thought about helping to translate, but it was funny to watch them try to get these guys to sell them some vodka, which, apparently, they didn’t have. They did have some other sort of native drink, that we’re still not sure what it was… but these guys were drinking it, and they gave Karl and Joe a shot. They didn’t have a full, unopened bottle, so this older lady behind the counter took a couple different bottles and a funnel, and poured some together to get a full bottle, which she sold to Joe for s/5. It was some sort of liqueur, sweet to the taste, and not a very high proof. Not exactly what we were looking for, but since it’s all we had, it had to do.
Joe went to work on the process… and the end result… was utterly vile. It tasted like ass, but he was determined to drink it, because he didn’t want to waste it. What a trooper, Joe! Blu, Lindsey, and I, however, decided to go back out and find some vino. And what luck! We took a different route and found a few bottles. The rest of the night was spent drinking in the internet room of the hostel and talking with whoever showed up. General drunken silliness, acrobatics, (and much upside-downedness…) ensued.
Karl hanging from the rafters…
Upside-down Blu in a Box…
Holy flexible Lindsey…
Blu-kashya…
As for Joe’s concoction… he finished it, and it caused him to stay awake for several hours past when the rest of us crashed… so something worked right.
Tags: Cusco, Peru, South America, Travel
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