Peru´s Particular Quirks

Like any country, Peru has a number of interesting quirks that characterize life here. Here are a few of my favorites, for your enjoyment and cultural enrichment:

1.) The garbage trucks play music. Every garbage truck here is equipped with between two and four megaphones, from which they play music at an extremely high level. Why? To let you know that they are coming. So when you hear ¨Under the Sea¨ blasting outside, you know that it´s time to run downstairs and put your trash out.

And by the way, the only two musical options are ¨Under the Sea¨ and some instrumental classical song.

2.) They love to use the letter ¨ch.¨ In Peru - as in other places in Latin America - the letter ¨ch¨ reigns. This is a letter that I hardly remember using in Spain. So whereas in Spain, a sports field is a ¨campo,¨ here it is a ¨cancha.¨ In Spain, corn is ¨maíz,¨ here it is ¨choclo.¨ There are many more examples of this - these are only two.

3.) Peruvians are exceedingly entrepreneurial. There are all sorts of jobs that I would never even think of in America, but I suppose necessity is the mother of invention in this case. For example, most people want to type their job applications, but not everybody has a computer. Solution? There are men who sit in the Plaza de Armas (like the town square) all day with their typewriters and who will type your application for you for about two soles ($0.50).

Another entrepreneurial profession: professional line waiter. Lines for SUNAT (the IRS equivalent) and REINAT (the Social Security equivalent) can go on for blocks and take hours in the hot sun. Solution? Pay someone to wait on line for you. I don´t know the going rate of these line waiters, but it seems pretty smart.

I´m not saying that these are good jobs, but they are creative.

4.) Pidgeons have it made here. Whereas we Americans think of pidgeons as disgusting, disease-carrying rats with wings, here, people feed them - en masse. In the Plaza de Armas, I would estimate that there are about 400-500 pidgeons who hang out there. As people pass through the plaza, they can pay 50 cents for birdseed to feed the pidgeons - and many people do. Hence the pidgeons stay there.

This is one thing that I do not like, because it has caused the pidgeons to become very uppity and bold in their relationships with people. One touched my leg the other day and it was. not. cool.

5.) There is a national obsession with ice cream. In Arequipa, if you walk 20 feet in one direction in the center of town, you will be sure to find some ice cream. The two main brands are D´Anafria (owned by Nestle) and Lamborgini. At almost every street corner, there are ice cream vendors hawking product from tiny little bicycle-powered carts. They are adorable - I will have to post some pictures. Anyways, the ice cream is awesome and cheap (as little as 20 cents US) and an excellent ¨on-the-go¨ food for busy Peruvians and Americans like us.

Danny and I are partial to Gloria ice cream, which is soft serve that you buy at the supermarket. We especially like the chocolate-vanilla swirl.