The Belly Button of the World

I came back from Peru 4 days ago. Lima, the capital city, is a place full of contradictions- large casinos with crazed roulette players within miles of complete slums; houses are built on the sandy dune hills, precariously fitted wherever space is available. I heard that most of those living in these slums aren't included in the 8.2 million population census. And yet there is, overall, much less visible poverty on the streets than in new york city. But there are also some awesome contradictions too. You are hard pressed to find a majority of peruvians whose heritage is the same, yet all share the bond of a common language and a passionately healthy obsession with their nation's cultural sites and food. Oh, the FOOD. So many of my favorite moments involve eating things.

Craziest eating experiences:

- CUY! or, our guinea pig :-( too bad it tasted so good.
- Chicha and Chicha Morada- morada is black corn cooked down with water and sugar until it makes a syrupy sweet liquid that we drank with lunches. The other one is a saliva fermented yellow corn beverage and tastes sort of like sour coors light, unless they put a little bit of sugar in it, in which case you take it like a shot.
- Alpaca, the llama's cousin! Beefy and lean
- cow hearts
- Ceviche: Yummmmm seafood marinated in lime juice, chilis, and red onion. tart, spicy and beautiful!
- the AJI pepper!!! they have a salsa that comes in bags made from this stuff and it's better than ketchup-- people ask for the aji at restaurants and i'm now on a search to find the pepper in nyc
- Chicharrones. oh my god. peru's (and most of latin america's) gift to any person's hankering for fried meaty heaven
- Inca Kola: bright acid yellow soda beverage drunk to no end at chiffa restaurants (peru's version of chinese food). Bubble gum in soda form.
- COCA TEA: you can do cocaine pretty easily in peru- the leaf that is, which is no drug, but only an awesome ingredient to be steeped for tea. It got me over altitude sickness. Ahhhhhhh altitude sickness, now I bow down to it after 6 hours of hurling and finding a new god in our hostel's toilet.

It's really an amazing place. i only got around through lima, the archeological site in carral, paracas, the coast in between, and cusco and around. I WANT MORE!!! Thanks to Alvaro my budd i got to feel like i was living the life, rather than just seeing it from afar.

Line of the trip: DP, when told by his neighbor at his birthday party that her baby was crying because of the noise--- "But I thought that's what babies do-- do I come to you when my dog is barking?" :-D aahhhhhhhh alll fressshhhhhh

Person of the trip: our amiable hiking guide Hegel (pronounced like the german philosopher but spelled quite different...i can't remember now). Anyone who was on the trip knows what I mean! Basically, he is the most endearing human being in the tour business. "My name is HEGEL Lady!"

Words i'll always associate with peru: inca, earthquake, blue, coca, leo, arroz, pollo, papaya, oro, casino, pisco, cops, turtles, volleyball, claro, corruption, hulk, san martin, llama, saqsaywaman, julia, alvaro, trekking, prouscht, mafia, hot spring, salt, bob marley, matrix, pina, wong.

Viva Peru! Pictures to come