Christmas Day

 Hello all!

It's been too long since my last blog! After the Encuentro de Turismo Rural event and the trip to Lima on Thanksgiving, I definitely took a rest ad spent some time in Arequipa translating my second panel text from English to Spanish, and then sending it off to the Quechua translator.  I also took advantage of my contact with the Quechua professor and took an introductory class, just to get some basics down. Allin p'uchay! (Good morning!) is a real triumph for me!


I als had one of the best weeks spent in Tuti ever!
First, by pure coincidence, the day I arrived was a Saturday, and the husband of the senora in whose hostal  I stay was in town.  While talking, he asked what places I had visited in the outskirts (ruins in particular) and I lamented that I hadn't been able to find a guide who would have time in Tuti to take me. Luckily he offered to take me up to a site called Naupallakta the very next morning! So, at 5 am, this out-of-shape American began following her 60 year old guide up the mountans across the highway from Tuti and up into the sierra. I tell you, I have not been more embarrassed by my lack of trekking skills ever. This gentleman was climbing like a 15 year old, rarely stopping, while I was panting along behind! (Does it count that I hadn't adjusted to the 3,780 masl altitude yet? or is that just my ecxuse?)

Round Collagua house in Naupallakta (front). Compare to the
 rectangular house see in the background.

Regardless of the hard climb, it was well worth it. After about two hours of hiking through misty mountain slopes and vacant fields, we reached Naupallakta, the earlier site of Tuti. Before the Spanish came in the 16th century, the inhabitants of this region (the Collaguas), lived in different settlements spread out in the eastern half of the valley. When Viceroy Francisco Toledo, i n the 1570s, decided that he didn't want the indigenous population to live so dispersed, he decided to set up reducciones, basically settlements where Collaguas from different sites were resettled. Naupallakta was one of those sites. It was later abandoned and the Tutenos moved down closer to the Colca River in the 18th century. (I've heard different accounts of why: one oral legend claims problems with local fauna, especially rabbits, eating the thatched roofs, motivated the move. I also read there was an earthquake and subsequently the local priests decided to find a new location for the town. I'm still unsure what the true reason is...)
Regardless of the reason, there is still a wide spread of buildings in Naupallakta  in various degrees of preservation. What is interesting is that their are examples of Collagua and Spanish architecture at the site. The major difference between the two is that Collagua houses were traditionally rounded and had narrow doors with no or few windows while the Spanish in ths region built rectangular houses with inclined roofs (just as the Inka had), and included notches in the upper part of the interior walls which functioned as altars for saints. (See the pictures below).

View from inside the Catholic church in
Naupallta. Notice the arched entrance an
the niches in the walls on either side.

A carved stone column, found inside the ruins
of the church. It was only carved on one side,
not i the round, and is in the Doric tyle.

Sign announcing one's arrival at Naupallakta.
Note the altitude: 4,080 meters ablove sea level.
Sign reads: Naupallakta. "Kollawa [Collagua]
town and the acient site of Espinar de Tuti
[original name of Tuti]."

A stone-lined road in Naupallakta.

A view of the misty morning.  The edge of Naupallakta and the surrounding moutains are visible. Breath-taking.

One of the rectangular, Spanish-influenced houses.

A human bone (parietal? but don't quote me) found along the
trail leading back from Naupallakta. My guide told me there
had been a previous excavation at that site and these were
the human remains they decided not to take with them.

We arrived back in Tuti about 9am, after 4 hours of trekking and sight-seeing.  I took a nap, but by 1pm the festvities were in motion in the Plaza!  Tuti celebrates the Virgen de la Concepcion between December 12-14.  The celebration begins when the priest, who arrives from Chivay (he usually come once a week, on Saturday nights, for mass) to lead the procession of statue of the Virgen of the Conception through the erected altareros (the raised poles and their decorations).  The altareros have red velvet or cloth bands hung between them on which hang silver or aluminum serving dishes (giving them a more brilliant appearance) and various stuffed animals and baby dolls. A little kitsch, but very neat.

There are two altareros erected in opposing corners of the plaza, one to the left of the church erected by the urinsaya and the one to the right and farther from the church erected by the anansaya. The urinsaya (lower half) and anansaya (upper half) were the two parcialidades, or sections/halves, of traditional Andean society.  If I'm not mistaken, their are a certain number of townsmen (regidores) elected from each of the parcialidades.

The priest leads the Virgen statue, held up by several men and decorated with fruits, one time around the Plaza Principal before entering the church again. 

An altarero in Chivay,which celebrated its
winter festival days before the festival in Tuti.

The altarero in Tuti, erected by the urinsaya. The
priest leads the Virgen statue and the assembly around
the plaza in front of the church.

Close-up of the Virgen statue.  You can see men
holding up the wooden suppor from underneath.
You can just see the tower of the church to the
left of the Virgen.

Wedding of Rudolfo Churo's niece, held just after
the procession of the Virgen of the Conception.

Just after the procession, a wedding was held in the church. (Surely taking advantage of the priest's presence to perform the ceremony, as well as the three days of festivities.  It seems that weddings are celebrated for three days, just as the festival of the Virgen is).

In the night, there was live music in the plaza in front of the church and a bonfire made by burning bushes.

One of many musicians playing the first night
of the festival.

The second day, beginning in early afternoon,women of all ages dressed up in their expensive, highly embroidered pollera skirts.  The formed pairs and danced in lines that wove under the erected altareros.  Unfortunately I haven't yet digitalized the audio, but there was live music and the dancers marched forward and, when the baritones dropped out and the trumpets took over, the dancers would begin to swing: half circle, half circle, full circle, and march again.

The wedding couple stayed in the middle of the dancing area, drinking and accepting cash, which they would tuck in the brims of their hats.  For the past two decades Tuti has been a dry town, but the dry law was raised for the three days of wedding and town celebrations. You can see some men and women carry beer bottles in hand as they dance. 

The wititi dance is also known as the "Dance of Love." I forget the exact story, but I'm sure that prohibited love between two opposing families is involved.  The men's traditional wititi outfit mimicks the women's; the men wear polleras,  and long sleeved shirts, but their shirts are not embroidered.  Also, instead of wearing embroidered vests like the women do, they take two large cloths, called llikllas, fold them up, and criss-cross them across their chest.  The men also have their own wititi-specific hat, from whose brim hang several strings which almost obstruct their vision.  Many men dancing carried the hat in their hands or under their arm.

Dancers performing the wititi below the altarero. Notice
all the women wear their traditional polleras.

Two girls dancing the wititi. Many wore pants
underneath their polleras, since it was cloudy and cold. (Although this is Peruvian summer,
it is also the rainy season and is colder and wetter
in the higher altitudes).

A couple performing the wititi.  Notice that to dance wititi, men wear the pollera skirts, a white long-sleeved shirt, and criss-cross bands of colored cloth.  They may also wear a hat, not seen here.




Even children particpate in the wititi dance, with more or less
instruction.





Man and woman dancing wititi, from the anasaya side.

Another couple dancing wititi. Notice that the gentlema in front,
as well as a young woman in the back left, dance with beer bottles
in hand.



Couples dance wititi in a circle.  Women often dress traditionally,
men less so.  Notice the teenage boy dancing the traditional dance
wearing modern clothing.



As I hope you can see, the week was full of new sights, sounds and activities: an ethnographer's dream.  Although there were several vendors visiting from Chivay, selling hot food and churros in the street, there were few foreign visitors.   I saw one couple who were obviously out-of-towners.  The woman, wearing cargo pants and a fleece vest, was generously invited to dance along with the traditionally-dressed Tutenas.

As an added bonus, my next-to-last day in Tuti, I was able to corner the mayor and get him to sign the paperwork I will need to register the archaeological pieces with Peru's National Institute of Culture.  Unfortunately, that is about the last I will be able to do for the project until mid-January.  Until the new mayor comes in, we (me and Senora Narcisa, who is in charge of tourim) can't go forward with new plans on promoting touism and the museum.  Also, because of the holidays, the archaeologist in the Colca Valley who will help identify the pieces won't be available for another month.  So I...  hurry up and wait.




My husband, working hard crushing up peanuts.  So sweet.

 In the meantime, I have taken advantage of being in Arequipa to begin interviewing some local tourism agencies.  These are just short interviews to get a sense of what the difference is between tours on the popular route (leading westward to the Condor Outlook) and the eastward route leading up through Tuti.  I've also talked to a friend who is graduating with a bachelor's in tourism, and I will (fingers-crossed) be meeting her in the next week or so to get an idea of what future tourism professionals are being taught regarding which areas are interesting to tourists and how the Colca Valley fits into that scheme.  Also, I have been visiting Arequipa museums, talking with the director (usually an archaeologist) when available or reading literature, to get  sense of how urban museums are set up and what collections are used.  I hope to compare this to my experience in Tuti, and (once  I speak with the archaeologist in Yanque) the experiene of the Yanque Museum.

Caramel apples, covered with caramel-like
manjar and nuts. To die for!

That's a Merry Christmas! grin! Yummy!



Phew, well I hope this blog has made up for in info and images the long month I took to write it! Above, I'll leave you with some scenes from our Christmas (well, a few days before).  My first gift, received, was caramel apples.  My husband bought manjar, basically caramelized/boiled creme, which is pretty close to our caramel.  We warmed it up on our little one-burner electric stove, dipped a few apples in, and covered the apples in crushed peanuts. IT WAS DELICIOUS! I'm still working on eating all of them! :)



My first present to him was BBQ ribs, but we ate those as soon as they were made. No photos exist! 

Merry Christmas, everyone, and a Happy New Year!

Pure Happiness

The Encuentro de Turismo Rural Comunitario (Discovery of Rural Community Tourism) seems like it was a real success for Tuti! We were host to about 30 different professionals from tourist agencies, guides and reporters came through. They were greeted by the mayor and invited to a supper of typical local dishes, including chicharron (fried meat), thick soups of cebada (barley), toasted corn kernels and torta de quinua (quinua cake, very sweet and my favorite).  To drink, they offered non-alcoholic chicha, made from corn, and poured a couple of spoonfuls of a powder called mashka over top.  Its hard to describe the flavor of masacha; it isn't very sweet, just powdery, but it softens any sharp flavors in a drink. So the chicha is smoother when you drink it. It also works well in black coffee, since most don't take milk with their coffee here.  I think the mashka is usually made from ground up quinua.


Sign welcoming everyone involved in the Rural Community Tourism program to Achoma.



Tutenos, from Tuti, setting up tables in front of the
Municipality to welcome their town's guests. The dark
doorway under the large poster, far left, is the doorway
for the new museum.

After lunch, the visitors were guided through a few tables set up in front of the Municipality building. There were some products that I was not even aware Tuti offered. Turns out that a local development organization that helps small towns in the valley, DESCO, assists Tuti with packaging its locally produced masacha de quinua and flakes of quinua and cebada.  Just above the town proper is Tuti's dairy, where they produce yogurt, butter and cheese. All the dairy products and the tubs of manjar, a caramel-like paste, carried a Tutena logo. (Although I don't believe they sold many of these items to the visitors there in Tuti, the following day when we went to Achoma, a city abotu two hours west, for the closing day of the event, urbanites from all over were buying yogurt, cheese and manjar right off the bat.)



Products made at Tuti's dairy or nearby:
 manjar, yogurt and cheese.


The following tables set up had embroidered bags and coinpurses. An artisan had even brought her sewing machine out to give a quick demonstration.

The La Tutena brand. This is mashka,
ground quinua powder..

Senora Narcisa and others
showing organic dairy and
grain products to the visitors.

The final visit was to the new Historical and Cultural Museum of Tuti. I did everything I could to be ready for the big event! First I had to finish re-painting the walls with the two gallons of paint I had brought. Next, I made cut-outs of suns and llamas in posterboard, and spraypainted a series of suns and llamas across the upper border of the walls, to give it some decoration. These suns and llamas are two of the decorations that are found on one of the ceramic jugs in the museum's collection of archaeological materials. Then, with the help of Senora Narcisa's (president of tourism in Tuti) son, we hung the two huge curtain runners on opposite walls, to hang pictures and panels from. Finally, I pestered the artisan's group, in particular their president, until they had traditional clothing ready to hang on the models. I almost had a heart attack; about 30 minutes before the tour bus arrived in Tuti, I and the mother of the artisan's president were trying to cram the 6 ft tall models into the traditional dresses! Unfortunately, it looks like the clothes that we placed on the mannquins will not be the same, exactly, that they wear in the end. The senoras have still not finished the polleras (long, embroidered skirts), only the woman's embroidered jacket and shirt. They had to loan me older skirts and clothing for the male mannequin just for the time being. But all in good time... Everything was ready when the visitors came through!

Embroidered bags made by Tuti artisans.

One of the Tuti artisans
showing off textiles to
visitors.

I gave a talk to two groups of fifteen or so. Below are some photos of the exhibition as it was, and one snapshot I was able to get of a couple of visitors, before the crowd came through.  During my short presentation, I was able to get the business cards and email address of a few different tour guides, anthropologists and others who work in the field of tourism and cultural conservation. One gentleman, a photojournalist, left his information stating that once the museum was able to get a website and a brochure worked up for the museum, he might consider writing about it. Yeah! Brochure shouldn't be hard to finish by mid-January, and I have an American friend living in Tuti as a Peace Corps Volunteer who already had planned on updating the Tuti website. So it looks like everything is in process!

View of the back wall of the museum, complete with mannequins
dressed in traditional clothing and the oral history exhibit on the table.

View of the back left corner, wtih pictures
of local interest.  You can also see the
case wtih the archaeological pieces.



More of the left wall. You can
see the stone model of the irrigation
ancient irrigation system.



The right wall, with the first informative panel,
translated into Spanish, Quechua and English.
The bookcase in the corner has examples of
the artisans' products (keyrings and sweaters)
as well as a list of their names. I'll have pictures
of them to post soon, too.



Back right corner.  Male model and the panel
discussing the history of the two pre-Inka tribes,
the Collaguas and the Cabanas.



Visitors in the museum. If I remember right, the gentlman on
the right was an archaeologist who worked in the north of Peru.

The best part for me was receiving gifts from the artisans when I left. I had accompanied them to Achoma the day after the big event in Tuti, to represent the town at their kiosk in the Achoma fair. I had to leave early to get back to Arequipa, and each one of the three artisans present gave me a little gift: two key chains with embroidered pieces (a little purse and a tiny hat), and a bag of mashka to take home with me. It was the first time I had gotten a gift I hadn't pushed or prodded to get. It was a very special moment for me.

They told me they appreciated the support I had shown them. Besides putting a couple of their items in the museum, I had spent about 2 hours with them taking photos of the artisans in their typical dress in front of all their woven products, and even a few of the ladies at their looms. I am hoping to make a collage to include in the museum exhibit, showing how the artisans work. The women were very grateful for my interst in their work.

This Thursday me and the hubby are heading to Lima to have Thanksgiving with the Fulbright folks. I'm praying for a bit o' pumpkin pie!  Thank goodness that this event in Tuti happened right before the meeting in Lima. I will have to give a 10 minute presentation over my progress on the project, and gearing up for the event has given me plenty of material to share with the Fulbright staff and other scholarship recipients!

And did I mention we were flying??? No 15 hour bus ride. Pure happiness.

Gearing Up

I'm happy to say that it looks like there is some interest growing in Tuti towards the museum.  Great news for me, and a big motivation to keep going!  The only drawback is that I only recently found out about the big tourism event that the Colca Valley will be hosting this coming week!!!

I had heard back in October that some foreigners (foreign to Tuti or to Peru, it wasn't specified) would be coming to visit Tuti. Since I had heard this from the president of the artisan's group, I assumed that the visit was primarily concerned with seeing the artisan's textiles. Wrong!

Turns out that there are over 300 professionals from travel agencies and other tourist associations who are making the trek up to the Colca Valley. Of those, 30 (in two groups of 15) will visit Tuti and its neighboring town, Canacota, on November 18th. The first group will come, eat at one of the local restaurants (there are 3 in Tuti), see the examples of crops, livestock and crafts in the Plaza, take a tour and then make the switch with the second group coming from Canacota.

Ideally the museum would be part of the tour, so I have been running around trying to get the walls repainted and put a decorative border up (copies of symbols found on the ceramics), trying to convince the mayor (who is in Arequipa during the week) to swing by and take up the mannequins and curtain hangers I bought (so I can have a way to hang something on the walls!) and, finally, get the one information panel I do have revised, translated and designed in Photoshop, printed out. Phew!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to work out when and how will we be able to bring glass cases, to exhibit the ceramics, up from Arequipa to the Valley; our friend, a museum director, may sell me a few, but we definitely won't have time to sort out the details before the 18th. So... I'm still thinking of alternatives! Maybe just putting the pieces on a shelf temporarily and watching them like a hawk. However, I am extremely excited that I have been able to get at least about half-way through registering the pieces in the museum. IF I have the chance to finish the paperwork after the 18th it wouldn't be a bad idea; the mayors in Tuti switch in December, and I'd have to start all over again with a new politician, explaining what we're trying to do and why he needs to sign this and that...

The only really new picture I have for the moment is a view of the panel design I laid out:


First finished panel for the Tuti Museum! It explains the history of the Collagua
chieftancy, who lived in the region, in Spanish, Quechua and English.





Shortly after coming back from this event next week, I'll be preparing to go up to Lima for a Thanksgiving meal with the Fulbright folks. Each scholarship recipient will also be presenting what they've accomplished in their research project thus far. I'm thankful that the event is happening right before- what a great opportunity to get photos of the museum in-progress and get feed back from visitors, both outsiders and the tutenos themselves.  This will give me plent of material to present to Fulbright.

Halloween

It's Halloween, and I still have no idea what we'll be doing tonight. We were invited to one party that seems like it'd be a big get together, so that might be our best bet. We haven't gone out and gotten costumes, so if anything, we'll have to be a little creative. I immediately thought of Jim's 'Facebook' costume from  The Office. Simple, and effective. I might even get away with it since no one watches The Office here! Who knows...


Jim and his "Facebook" disguise from The Office.

 Ironically, our apartment current has a macabre touch. I bought two mannequins here in Arequipa to take up to Tuti museum. As you can see, I had to bring them bagged up in parts from the store: torsos here, legs there, a few creepy fingers rising up over there. A little spooky. The male mannequin is a coppery brown with a spray tan mustache. Classic. The female is all pure white (it was on discount). So we went to their version of Lowe's yesterday (everyone calls it HomeCenter, yes, in English with a Spanish accent, but I think the actual name of the store is Maestro. Hmmmm...) and bought spray paint to make the guera appear a little more 'kissed by the sun'.  Luckily, thanks to Halloween, there were plenty of wigs on sale, so I was able to get our little model a new 'do, too.

We're not building a haunted house. These are mannequins for the Tuti museum.

After much searching, we also found a runner that I can nail to the museum celing and from which I can hang exhibition panels and photos. When I return to Tuti this coming week, I will be painting the wall yellow and trying to cover up any stains I see. I would hate to starts hammering nails into the fresh paint, only to have to take them out and move them later on. I've also seen how some nails, once stuck into the cement, are stuck forever. I definitely don't want to leave behind a wall full of nails or holes!

I saw a similar type of runner used at the Contemporary Art Gallery here in Arequipa, so I knew it could work. What we bought actually was a runner for a curtain, but it works just the same. To cover the whole length of the wall, I bought two runners 3 meters long. It was fun trying to bring it back to our apartment. You can see below how the runners almost reach the ceiling in our apartment!

Giant curtain runner!!!


Speaking of the Contemporary Art Museum... When we first arrived, I visited the art museum and by coincidence was speaking with the staff on call. I mentioned I was looking for a space to paint in my spare time here in Arequipa.  The man I was speaking with turned out to be an exhibiting artist and had a studio near the Plaza de Armas. Unfortunately, I was so busy the first few months, I never got the opportunity to go!

I made up for that this week.

It was actually a great week of art and crafts. Saturday I went to the studio and took advantage of the great view of the cathedral and the mountain range behind it. I worked small, but it was nice to get the paint moving again. When I got home, I started working on a painting I had previously started, of the mountain just behind the municipality in Tuti. Both are unfinished, I'll have to upload photos later. In the past I concentrated on the figure, but since coming to Peru I've been working principally on landscapes, and with a more muted color palette.

Monday, a friend of ours invited us to go to a Chirstmas arts and crafts fair held in the gym of a local high school. It was great. There were two techniques that really caught my eye. One is called ceramica fria. You buy a mass of white play-doh which sticks to a hard surface (wood) with water and pressure. Then you can paint over the sculpture/painting with acrylic paint. Its a great way to give three-dimensionality to a painting. We started on our first paintings, below is an image of mine with only the drawing and the white mass.  I'm still working on the color; the acrylic painting isn't working out like I thought and I might have to switch to oil.

Drawing supplemented with ceramica fria to make it more 3-D.

Here is the box I finished during the workshop. The mixture of the mass with dry brush paint made for interesting textures.


First attempt working in ceramica fria.

 Returning to the museum, I've received a revised version of the information to present in the paneles from a professor who has done investigations in the region. After translating it to Spanish, and having my husband revise it (better a native speaker look it over before it goes to press!), I sent the document to be translated to Quechua.  I hope to have them done in a few months!

Currently, I am waiting to here from the mayor to see if there is a private car going to Tuti that will help me carry all the supplies I bought for the museum. I cringe thinking of trying to take everything up to the valley by bus! A few more clothes to wash on the roof, and then I'll be ready to enjoy Halloween night. Here's hoping everyone has a great holiday!

Ciao!





p.s. We're going into summer down here, so I thought a summer haircut might be in order:

I'm back to brunette!

About the Museum

Since I finally have internet in the house (they sell USBs with internet access, just like Cricket does in the U.S.), I have to catch up on what I've been doing here. Let's see...

A lot of the first few months have been spent making sure I had the right authorizations and permissions to go about doing what I had promised to do. I had to meet with the local representative of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INC) (National Institute of Culture) to tell him about my intensions of putting up the first exhibition for the new museum, tentatively called the Cultural and Historical Museum of Tuti. I don't think museum titles leave much room for creativity... At the beginning, I didn't think there were any artifacts or any objects of historical value in the museum space, so I promised the INC that I would not include archaeological or colonial pieces in the exhibit.

View of the one-room musem space, with the
Senora Narcissa,  a Tuti restaurant owner, judge
and tourism promoter. Noticfe the dark red of the
back wall and how poorly it reflects the light.

Oops.

Some of the ceramics found in the museum
space.

My first visit to the museum space, I notice there is a three shelf case with 17 pieces of painted ceramics and another 11 pieces of stones, which appear to have shaped as hammers or grinders.  Now I get to figure out a way to re-approach the INC rep and request permission to display these pieces, and ask for the regulations about how to conserve them. The opportunity (fingers crossed) to see how to register artefacts in another country, and eventually have them displayed gives me goose bumps.  



Lithic map/model of the chacras (fields).
I am unsure if it works on this model, but
 I have seen others that allow water to run
from the top down through all the square
fields. That shows that these models were
plans for the irrigation of mountainsides.

This past week  I finally found out that the mayor and town council (regidores) decided that I would not be able to expand the museum into a second room.  The second room is the storange room for the regidores.

Although I will not be able to expand the museum space, hearing the final decision from the mayor was my green light to begin cleaning and painting the one room I do have.  I first painted over the dark red color on the back wall with a white base. Next, I've bought yellow paint which I hope will match the other two walls on either side. A bright yellow should make the small space seem bigger and reflect the light better. I've been thinking of a color theme based on the mountain sides in the Colca Valley: golden yellows for the walls, olive and pale green decorations and text in greens and maroons and browns.  Ironically, walking through a museum in Yanque, a town about an hour and a half away (also in the Colca Valley), I saw basically the same color choices. Hope they don't mind my borrowing!

Panel from Yanque Museum. I really like the
design. I might have to do something similar...

My first and only ever painted wall. Strange, I've spent hours
painting canvas before, but I wasn't sure I could pull off a wall!

I'm also trying to gather some oral histories, when I can find the right people at home. It's a bit difficult to find people. Everyone has responsibilities in their fields, with their livestock, with their families. Even those in the municipality frequently have to travel between Arequipa and Tuti (minimum 4 hours travel by bus and van).  I had to wait two whole days in order to get the mayor to sign a convenio, an official agreement stating the municipality would provide the space and I would provide the first exhibit. Whew! I am definitely learning patience, though, along with all other aspects of acculturation.

Senora Narcissa, who also works in the restaurant and as judge.
She was my first oral history/legend narrator.

Here is my second narrator, the Senor Jacinto Churro, with his wife. His wife only speaks
Quechua. I am still trying to arrange classes, so I can someday at least greet Quechua speakers
in Tuti.

Part of collecting the oral histories was learning how (or rather, where) to transfer to the audio to CD and then which program to use to edit the audio. I can somewhat manage Sony Forge now, but only the most basic cut and paste features. Eventually I need to figure out how to edit out certain tones; there was a van passing during one of my interviews and the honking horn is so loud!

I also passed through Bolivia this past week. An Italian friend had to renew her tourist visa, so a group of us took advantage of the trip to see Bolivia. I have to say that I had a rough time in La Paz. I won't say that all of Bolivia is the same, but I have not experienced as much open racism ever in Peru as I did in La Paz, Bolivia.  Also, I found out (a bit too late) that most countries surrounding Peru, including Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, charge Americans $140 US for entry into their countries. My husband and I would have been charged this amount, but due to pure ignorance, and lack of funds at the moment, we were allowed to get back into Peru without getting the Bolivian visa. Phew! Unfortunately, it does cut down on our aspirations of traveling through South America. Oh, and in case your wondering, the same restrictions don't apply. Our Italian friend passed through the Bolivian immigration with a smile (before finding out about our problems of course!) and not a cent poorer. I guess that's how the cookie crumbles.

Speaking of our friend, she's expecting me right now. Better head out. We're lucky enough to live in the bottom floor of a house owned by a mutual friend, and we are only a couple of blocks away from each other, and another few blocks from the main street Avenida Ejercito where the movies and restaurants are. Not too bad. Our next apartment, though, will definitely have to have a kitchen. We're starting to miss being able to warm up food at home!

Ciao!