peru mentionables

random, random thoughts that didn´t make it into my daily descriptions. Most of these are related to our Cañon trek.

• Have I mentioned that Cañon de Colca is almost the deepest canyon in the world??? The only canyon deeper is its neighbor to the north, Cañon Huayash, or something like that. In any case, what I climbed down and then up was DEEEEEEEEEP. My complaints were well founded.
• The buses in Peru all have curtains on the windows, and passengers can choose to keep them open or shut them. The driver has his own little compartment, separated from the passengers by a window and door, also curtained. This is terribly annoying to me, since I like to see where we are going. I understand the need for the driver to feel like he has his "space," his own room free of passenger smell, but why the curtains? Wade says it's so we can't see when the driver is getting head.
• We meet a group of Israelis on the trail, and we discuss how expensive the train to Machu Picchu is. We're discussing alternative routes when one of the 'Raelis says, "If there's any way to do it without paying, the Israelis will find it."
• I can't believe I forgot to mention that on our way back from CaboneConde, not one, not two, but THREE badly dubbed Sylvester Stalone movies were played on our bus. Awesome.
• Wade has not changed his socks yet.
• While packing for the Cañon, I sit on my beloved sunglasses. They sort of break, for the second time. First time they broke was in Seattle, in the RV, because I sat on them. I was able to fix them with superglue then. I think now to take them on our trek and find a new pair when we return to society. Sadly, en route to Oasis, the sunglasses truly die. Not only is the frame on the nose support cracked, but the left lense no longer stays in place and sort of pops out at random intervals. I trash them as soon as we reach the bus.
• When we bus to and from the Cañon, we stop at several itty bitty towns in the middle of nowhere. And we pass a lot of nowhere. And every so often, the bus suddenly stops at one of these nowhere locations, in the middle of a plain on the edge of a cliff, and a little old man will get off the bus. And you have to think to yourself, Where is he going?!
• When I am on the bottom of the Cañon floor, looking up in awe at the cliffs above me, thousands of feet higher than where I stand, I feel sunken into the Earch. It is hard to comprehend that I am still significantly higher than Mammoth.
• The local women here are wear terribly colorful embroidered dresses. Their skirts are velvet with embroidered trim, their vests are a rainbow of flowers and patterns, and their hats are decorated as well. They remind me of peacocks.
• My inability to drink from a Nalgiene is astounding. No matter how I tilt my head or hold the bottle, I spill. Half of my intended drink inevitably ends up on my pants, my chin, my shirt, the ground. I am convinced it is because of the wide mouth on the bottle, but as Wade pointed out, it is just like drinking out of a cup. And in case you were wondering, I CAN DO THAT.
• On the bus back from the Cañon, on the leg from Chivay to Arequipa, I SAW SOMEONE I KNOW!!! FROM HOME!!! FROM LA!! FROM HIGHSCHOOL!!! This girl Belle, she went to Milken. I wasn´t friends with her or anything, but I think we took choir together, and we said Hi and How Are You, and stuff like that. I knew her well enough that when she walked on the bus here, six years after high school, I immediately recognized her. KILLER!!! I totally get a hundred points for that.