It´s our last day in Peru. I will be sad to leave – I´ve been here for about a month, and it´s a crazy, super place. Tomorrow we are heading to Chile, and apparently we´ll notice straight away how much more built up it is. Boo. The past week has been super – I´m going to write a blog about it called ´Lakes, Volcanos and Canyons´ (genius. It´ll be Wordsworthian I tell you) – but I´ve also put together what we´ve learnt from Peru. Just in case you can´t bear the wait for the next one.
So. You know you are in Peru when:
1. You can understand and explain the 17,000 uses of the car horn.
2. Your most treasured possessions are ear plugs against said car horns.
3. If you haven´t been to 5,000m or more above sea level you are just, like, so un-gnarly, man.
4. You can cycle down all the 5,000m volcanos you like, but for real adrenaline kicks, you get a taxi across town.
5. You like your coffee black and your showers cold.
6. The Spanish for ´guinea pig´ features highly in your minute Spanish repertoire.
7. One of the many things you´ve used to wash down malaria tablets is coca tea – tea made from the leaves which are used to make cocaine (very good for altitude, apparently).
8. You look both ways before crossing a railway line – not for trains, but for mad dogs.
9. If you try to buy cigarettes from a street vendor, they open the pack and try to sell you one cigarette. (We have not tried this personally, of course, but we have a team of researchers working on this project).