Sicko
We have been eating rather well and I felt like a warrior the first week in Peru. We did what locals told us not to do (drink the tap water, walk around ruins without a paid guide, walk around at night), not because we’re stubborn or unbelieving, but more so that we haven’t really encountered anything we felt unsafe about. When someone tells you strawberries are poison but you just ate a bunch a few days earlier and were fine, you think people are just being overly cautious of our gringo bellies. We were fine with steri-pen-ing our tap water in Lima, but it tastes horrible in Huanchaco. Boiled, it’s okay. Bottle water tastes a little better, but some brands are just as bad as the tap water.
Anyways, my food warrior days are over, as I have been sick for over a week. We’ve been eating well, lots of rice, beans and avocado (palta). I may have nothing interesting to say for awhile until I start doing interesting things. I won’t go into the details (sorry, Brian) but I had a sore throat and head cold. When I felt better, I went surfing with Matt, which took ALL my energy away. I shortly thereafter had a fever and intestinal issues. No fun, especially since our house at Wilma’s is constantly under construction and she’s noisy (and nosy) in our kitchen at 7am. Today we awoke to the blender, then the insanely loud doorbell, then the painter sanding the walls.
I like Wilma, she means well and is very caring, but the concept of consideration just doesn’t exist. That said, I’m losing a lot of sleep waiting for her husky who lives on the roof to stop barking at everything he sees, then being startled by bells or Wilma. I assume this is a reason I am not getting healthier faster. Regardless, it’s annoying and Matt and I have decided to look for a new place. We waited out 2 weeks and it’s not getting better.
Yesterday we saw La Tribu, which is a very cool bar run by sculptor and philosopher, Luis. He’s very eccentric and interesting but not very to the point. There are 3 volunteers that live there currently and they love it. It’s a nice little community, and Luis cooks breakfast for everyone and the only annoyance may be that we can’t use the kitchen in the evening and the bar may be loud (it usually opens around 10 or 11pm). But it seems chill and that’s an option. There’s no dogs that live there nor is there construction inside (but the neighbors are working on something). The only concern is that it’s a little more expensive, it’s his work area, so it’s quite dusty and there’s big cockroaches. But those are two things you can’t really escape in our town, so we’ll see what the other place will be like tonight. The rumor is that it’s very nice and very clean and is about the same price we’re paying at Wilma’s ($7 a day with a kitchen). But we won’t have people painting the hallway at dawn outside our door or be awoken with deafening phones or doorbells.
Sorry this isn’t more exciting of a post, but I thought I’d let ya’all know what I’m up to. Nothing’s perfect but I’m enjoying the restaurant very much (throw those health codes and danger zone concepts out the window! Stuff is cooked in the morning and sits out all day long. No fruits or vegetables are refrigerated unless, they are going bad. You can’t escape flies here, so they live harmoniously (if you don’t get sick) with the people and the food.)
PS the dog is a Perro sin pelo. A peruvian hairless dog. They look like creepy ghosts to me.