Paula does Peru

Well most of it, and not in THAT way! But Peru makes for interesting travels and viewing. 

Here are a few tid bits I observed:

• Peru’s main industries are agriculture, tourism and mining
• I discovered a drink called ‘Inca Cola’ which looks like wee but tastes like creaming soda, I’ve been cutting down on Coke here, can’t seem to finish a bottle! What are you doing to me Sth America.
• Peru is a very poor country, some towns won’t exist in 5 yrs time due to drought and other weather related problems
• Many small towns in the country have people, women mostly, selling handcrafted items such as hand made knitted dolls, hats, finger puppets and friendship bracelets etc. along with the usual tourist trap items such hats, shirts, gloves, beni’s and wood crafted items. I even saw a chess board with all the characters being Incan related. The sad thing abut this is that every single one of them is selling the same thing, all calling out to you to buy their items  rather than looking at the lady next door. Just making eye contact with their stand or even in the general vicinity of their stand gets them starting their sales pitch, then the next person will try and talk over them to tell you about their items and so forth. Sometimes they just talk at you as you go by knowing you won’t stop, but have a go all the same. How any of them make any money is beyond me as literally everyone is selling the exact same thing, town after town after town. 

My 9.5 hour tourist bus ride from Puno to Cusco stopped at five different towns along the way, including a brief stop at the highest point I would reach in Peru.  We got off the bus, took the obligatory picture and kept going.

It was a cold and windy place but right there in the middle of nowhere, dressed in the usual traditional Peruvian warm clothing, were men and women sitting at maybe  eight or nine tables filled with goods that we had just seen in the previous three towns, the difference was that these poor souls were out in the elements, freezing cold trying to make a dollar… or Soles as their currency is called. The same then happens in the main towns or cities such as Puno and Cusco, same stuff, different seller. It’s unbelievable. 

Kids making their own fun

An interesting observation I made especially in the more rural areas is that the women sitting all day at their ‘market store’ usually had children very close by. These dusty, dirty towns with not much in them at all count on the tourists taking a turn off the main road, and usually most don’t have that much to sustain interest for locals I would think. However whenever I saw kids who had to sit with their mums all day, they weren’t making much noise or getting in the way. I never once saw a tantrum or heard a child cry.

These kids literally have nothing and just make do. I saw some creative thinking for things like skipping ropes, cars and other made up games that I could not follow. When you think that our kids have multiple dolls, trucks and Lego plus all the i- technology they could possibly want to play with and the western world seems to have more tantrums than ever. It was so refreshing to see kids just being out and about and entertaining themselves with whatever they can find. When you don’t know what you are missing out on, you can see the innocence and fun they have and make. It really made an impression on me. 

No time to rest and take it all in

The one thing I observed quite often was using kids to sell items or photos. Kids were out selling anything and everything at times mostly with an adult not too far behind. In Cusco I noticed this alot more, and in certain places such as the cathedral you could not sit and soak it all in without at least 10 – 15 kids and adults trying to sell you something. The most blatant in-your-face use of kids that I saw was again on my tourist bus trip when we stopped for lunch in a town whose name seems to escape me.

A buffet lunch was included and as I took my seat we noticed Llama’s and Alpacas outside the restaurant roaming free (as far as their leashes would allow) on this lush grass in front of a small waterfall and stream. Lovely location and vista and we all said we’d get some photos after lunch.

About half way through lunch we noticed kids walking out to the animals, mothers leading the way, and set the kids up next to an animal. I saw a mother fix up her daughter’s hair and stand her next to the llama and ensured the animal was tethered. So basically, now if we wanted a photo with the animals, it was going to cost us 1 soles.  Despite what people may think, I had to give in and give this little girl a bit of cash for her troubles.

Some other sights of note:

• Ladies juggling on street corner at red lights to make a dollar (rather than washing your window)
• Kids sitting on laps in front of cars, seat belts aren’t really a thing, saw a child on a drivers lap while they were driving and talking on the phone.
• No road rules, hold onto your hat. The only rule is a red light.

That’s it for now. Wanted to pop my observations down before I forgot them.

Travel is the best.