I'm back in the city of kings, and recovering from a gnarly sickness that's kept me bedridden almost 5 days now. Edit has been taking great care of me. It's nice to have someone watch over me like this after being without family for so long. i finally went to go see a doctor (seeing a doctor here costs like $3) and she prescribed me Zitrobac (azitromicina). I don't know anything about drugs, but 500mg a day of this added to my diet of chicken soup and pepto bismol has really helped out. ¡Gracias, Zitrobac!
Iquitos totally blew me away. I'd never had a romantic moment ruined by a cloud of giant jungle mosquitos before Iquitos. The diet there is pretty much river fish, bananas, rice, fruit i've never heard of, chicken, and grubs. Big ol' gnarly white grubs with red heads. they put three of a stick and grill them like shishkabob. To avoid hipocracy, I must try all food, so of course i had a couple sticks of grubs. They were good, too! crunchy on the outside, creamy and sort of greasy on the inside... the heads were a little hard, though. There's barely any beef. People fry stuff, but mostly everything is grilled. Ceci's family cooked lunch for me. They have no stove or anything like that. the only appliances are the TV and stereo. they put bricks on the dirt floor, light charcoal between them and cook everything on a grate over this. Someone asked me if I liked to go camping. These people's lifestyle was camping as far as any 1st worlder is concerned.
Despite the humble lifestyle of the Iquitos folk, you couldn't ask for more decent, generous, friendly people. When someone is going to go out, they go into some curtained-off area of the house which appears to have a bucket of water and they come out perfectly groomed, wearing ironed clothes and makeup and smelling very pleasant. I wish the gringos in the hostel could accomplish the same with a conventional bathroom.
When one meets a family there, it's hard at first to know how everyone is related, who's kid is who's etc... These relations, however, don't seem to be such a big deal as they'd be in my own culture however. If the cousins have always slept in the same tiny house togehter, they're practically brothers. Personal space and property are not nearly as rigid. Neighbor kids would often come wandering through the house or looking in the windows whe I was visiting there. This communality especially applies to babies, though. Here you really do see a village raising a child. A few times now I've had people I hardly know thrust babies into my arms if they need free hands for a moment.
The flow of life is much more natural there. Having babies doesn't seem to be seen as a catastrophic earth-shattering existance alterer as it is in the US. People aren't as judgemental about your education or family, nor are they as self-concious. I was going over to a friend's house for the first time and she sort of made a quick disclaimer en route that her family's house was simple and not to expect much. Of course I said that it didn't matter at all, but it's still a little shocking to see a pharmacist go home to a dirt floor with chickens running around the house. Despite the conditions, the dwellers of these houses are very civilized and rediculously friendly. You don't find such rampant friendliness in the developed world. Everyone's too suspicious and busy watching out over their stuff and their image. putting myself in Iquitos showed me this side of myself. If someone starts talking to me, and it turns out that they have the most benign of intentions, I'm still suspicious, going over various situations of how the might just be tricking me into thinking that they're friendly to somehow take advantage of me. Sure, this sort of thing happens, but hardly ever. For the most part people here just like making friends.
Nobody has computors of cameras or anyhing like that, so there's hardly any family photos. It's weird thinking that people don't have their baby pictures, but then it doesn't seem like there's so much resistance to time here. Anyway, Ceci hasn't been to Iquitos to see her family in 3 years and hasn't even met her nephew, so I told the family that I'd photograph them so that she could see everyone. They took it all pretty seriously, washing, putting on nicer clothes than normal, etc. The mom made sure that I waited around to take pictures of her son that was at work and then come back to take pictures of her husband. Her husband showed up much later. I guess he works as a guard somewhere because he showed up with military boots and pants and a shirt with some kind of government logo (all well-worn and dirty). Despite his serious demeanor, he made me feel welcome. When he talked it almost seemed like he was showing off his grey teeth which were completely outlined in gold. A lot of people have that here. I guess it keeps cavities out while looking totally badass. He asked me my name and said that his brother's name is also Augusto. Then, he told me his name is "Segundo. Segundo Pacaya." No doubt one of the most badass names I've heard, but his saying it made it that much more so. When he got there, it was almost night, so we went outside where there was some more light. A big crowd of neighbors came out and stood around watching the couple get their picture taken. I printed out some of the better ones to give them.
I was only there 6 days, but made some good friends that I will stay in touch with. Ceci's family invited me to stay with them when I come back, but I can't even imagine where all of them sleep when night falls on that little house.
I never did end up doing much out-doorsey jungle stuff... but whatever. leave that to the foreigners who come all the way down here to keep themselves as separate as possible from the people who live here.
There are more photos up on my photobucket. The address is in a past blog entry.
Tonight at 2:30am it's back to Santiago. I was going to go by bus, but then Ursula couldn't for some reason. Also, I'm barely free of this infirmity and it'd be a terrible idea to start some giant odyssey in this condition. I will live in a cool house with some mexican friends.
hope all is well in california.
Iquitos totally blew me away. I'd never had a romantic moment ruined by a cloud of giant jungle mosquitos before Iquitos. The diet there is pretty much river fish, bananas, rice, fruit i've never heard of, chicken, and grubs. Big ol' gnarly white grubs with red heads. they put three of a stick and grill them like shishkabob. To avoid hipocracy, I must try all food, so of course i had a couple sticks of grubs. They were good, too! crunchy on the outside, creamy and sort of greasy on the inside... the heads were a little hard, though. There's barely any beef. People fry stuff, but mostly everything is grilled. Ceci's family cooked lunch for me. They have no stove or anything like that. the only appliances are the TV and stereo. they put bricks on the dirt floor, light charcoal between them and cook everything on a grate over this. Someone asked me if I liked to go camping. These people's lifestyle was camping as far as any 1st worlder is concerned.
Despite the humble lifestyle of the Iquitos folk, you couldn't ask for more decent, generous, friendly people. When someone is going to go out, they go into some curtained-off area of the house which appears to have a bucket of water and they come out perfectly groomed, wearing ironed clothes and makeup and smelling very pleasant. I wish the gringos in the hostel could accomplish the same with a conventional bathroom.
When one meets a family there, it's hard at first to know how everyone is related, who's kid is who's etc... These relations, however, don't seem to be such a big deal as they'd be in my own culture however. If the cousins have always slept in the same tiny house togehter, they're practically brothers. Personal space and property are not nearly as rigid. Neighbor kids would often come wandering through the house or looking in the windows whe I was visiting there. This communality especially applies to babies, though. Here you really do see a village raising a child. A few times now I've had people I hardly know thrust babies into my arms if they need free hands for a moment.
The flow of life is much more natural there. Having babies doesn't seem to be seen as a catastrophic earth-shattering existance alterer as it is in the US. People aren't as judgemental about your education or family, nor are they as self-concious. I was going over to a friend's house for the first time and she sort of made a quick disclaimer en route that her family's house was simple and not to expect much. Of course I said that it didn't matter at all, but it's still a little shocking to see a pharmacist go home to a dirt floor with chickens running around the house. Despite the conditions, the dwellers of these houses are very civilized and rediculously friendly. You don't find such rampant friendliness in the developed world. Everyone's too suspicious and busy watching out over their stuff and their image. putting myself in Iquitos showed me this side of myself. If someone starts talking to me, and it turns out that they have the most benign of intentions, I'm still suspicious, going over various situations of how the might just be tricking me into thinking that they're friendly to somehow take advantage of me. Sure, this sort of thing happens, but hardly ever. For the most part people here just like making friends.
Nobody has computors of cameras or anyhing like that, so there's hardly any family photos. It's weird thinking that people don't have their baby pictures, but then it doesn't seem like there's so much resistance to time here. Anyway, Ceci hasn't been to Iquitos to see her family in 3 years and hasn't even met her nephew, so I told the family that I'd photograph them so that she could see everyone. They took it all pretty seriously, washing, putting on nicer clothes than normal, etc. The mom made sure that I waited around to take pictures of her son that was at work and then come back to take pictures of her husband. Her husband showed up much later. I guess he works as a guard somewhere because he showed up with military boots and pants and a shirt with some kind of government logo (all well-worn and dirty). Despite his serious demeanor, he made me feel welcome. When he talked it almost seemed like he was showing off his grey teeth which were completely outlined in gold. A lot of people have that here. I guess it keeps cavities out while looking totally badass. He asked me my name and said that his brother's name is also Augusto. Then, he told me his name is "Segundo. Segundo Pacaya." No doubt one of the most badass names I've heard, but his saying it made it that much more so. When he got there, it was almost night, so we went outside where there was some more light. A big crowd of neighbors came out and stood around watching the couple get their picture taken. I printed out some of the better ones to give them.
I was only there 6 days, but made some good friends that I will stay in touch with. Ceci's family invited me to stay with them when I come back, but I can't even imagine where all of them sleep when night falls on that little house.
I never did end up doing much out-doorsey jungle stuff... but whatever. leave that to the foreigners who come all the way down here to keep themselves as separate as possible from the people who live here.
There are more photos up on my photobucket. The address is in a past blog entry.
Tonight at 2:30am it's back to Santiago. I was going to go by bus, but then Ursula couldn't for some reason. Also, I'm barely free of this infirmity and it'd be a terrible idea to start some giant odyssey in this condition. I will live in a cool house with some mexican friends.
hope all is well in california.
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