I don’t even remember who referred me to Hacienda Amourique, but there the owner’s name was on my WhatsApp contact list. Martin Gerbi. Who referred him to me? Was it a birder in Oxopampa? Or was it the guy in Lima whose name I can’t remember? All I knew was that if you wanted to see birds in Chanchamayo, you […]
Chanchamayo
vete a freír un mono!
Yesterday was election day in Peru, meaning, Protestant churches were closed and no sale of beer from Friday 8 pm until Monday morning. Voting is required and the government knows how to get ballots into every crevice of the country, including Rupac (scroll down a few paragraphs). As an exPat lving in Peru, I took the weekend as an opportunity […]
Sixty-Seven
Ok. You are as probably sick of that phrase as I am. Another piece of slang that is already outdated and on its way to the literary equivalent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where it will rest with other has-been cool phrases, such as far out, gag me with a spoon, dope, fly, and booh yah. But today, sixty-seven […]
Cat Burglar
If I saw this feline in a lineup at a local precinct, I would recognize his tabby stripes, eyes and pointy ears. It was Felix, no doubt, the cat owned by the Alvaro and Javiar at the local bike shop. Well, I’m not sure if owned is the correct word, but Felix would hang out underneath an abandoned car while […]
And the Ground Moved
There is always a possibility of earthquakes in South America. Last week, a devastating quake destroyed parts of Columbia. On Friday, August 14, at 3 pm in Peru, there was a statewide Earthquake evacuation drill. Everyone in the country was heading for cover under a support beams and seismic safety zone circles when the alarm made phones nationwide sound like […]
Fool’s Gold!
Museo Oro del Perú y Armas del Mundo It was the stupidest thing I’ve done in my life, since dropping my phone off a cliff in Vietnam. This stupid thing? Opening a one-thousand piece jigsaw puzzle, otherwise known as the ultimate time toilet, one that I’m fearing contains only nine-hundred and ninety nine. This time-sucking interlocking masterpiece is Gustav’s Klimt’s […]
Thrills
Going to the USA for the fourth was like a John Melencampsong
The Huayhuash in ten photos or one word: 예쁘다
The Huayhuash hike (pronounced why-wha-ash), located near Huaraz, Peru, attracts experienced hikers from all over the world and uh, also, me. The experience changed me forever, especially my appreciation of oxygen. Instead of boring you with thousands of words, I’ve selected ten photos to sum up the experience or one Korean word that I learned from one of my hiking […]
Mountain Turtle
Okay, so this humungo Huayhuash hike begins Friday morning, at 2 am when the van picks me up from the akilpo hotel and I take a seven hour journey to the trail head in Matacancha. (Thst is why I brought my butt donut). So what have I been doing while waiting? Two days of acclimating, wandering through cuy markets and […]
Butt donut, donkeys, and chutzpah.
What do you pack for an “You only Die Once” hike in the Andes?