Day 4: The Anise of Los Perros

After my first late night of the trip, I had to come to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to be able to totally stick to the pre-trip plan of limited sleep and maximizing daylight, especially when my gracious hosts weren't waking me up in the morning :o). Eventually, they woke me up at around noon on Tuesday and after preparing for the day, we caught a taxi downtown to run some errands and eat lunch.

We decided to go to Los Perros (The Dogs) for a big lunch. This place has some nice, comfy couches in the rooms and we had actually hung out here the first time in Peru as well. I think it's more of a wine bar type place with cool lampshades and dark red and blue colors, but they apparently have good food as well! The lunches they serve are just massive, although I guess you would have to classify it as worldly food rather than authentic Peruvian food. I think I did manage to order something that had sweet potatoes in it, though, so that's close enough for me! The food was actually quite terrific as well, I think I ate something like Asian-spiced chicken along with a side of potato skins covered in chives with a few dipping sauces. And, of course, an Inca Kola (the local soda that is something like Mountain Dew but with more of a bubble-gum taste, yum!) to wash it down with!

At some point on the trip (like on the previous trip), the girls had mentioned that they knew a few people that had horses and, from what I understood, they had land to ride them on as well. It's been a few years since I'd cowboy'd up on a horse, but I was totally enthralled with the idea of heading off into the sunset in the Andes on a horse. Apparently, these friends even had the infamous Peruvian Paso horses that are well known for walking with a high-step and giving the rider a really smooth ride.

But, alas, it wasn't to be. I was surprised when Vanessa stopped in a tourist shop and asked about their horseback ride prices and what not, but I wasn't going to have any of that. The last thing I wanted was to sit on an old, poorly-maintained horse in a line with 30 loud tourists following the horse in front of you. That's not horseback-riding, that's sitting on a horse! The tourist office offered solo rides with a guide for $10, but I know how these things operate and wasn't going to risk being dissatisfied. I guess it's hard to come across experiences like I had back in the old days, horseback riding with my grandpa around their ranch, in the California mountains, or for a week in Yellowstone National Park. I was pretty bummed about not being able to do this, but since the girls weren't going to ride anyway, I guess it wouldn't have been as fun anyway.

Throughout the day, we had been stopping by at friend's of the family's to invite them to the party Mili was having on Thursday night for her birthday. When we stopped by a restaurant to talk to their cousin, we also stepped into the H. Stern jewelry store where another cousin was working. I've seen these jewelry stores in other parts of the world in swanky hotels and what not, so I was surprised to find one in a secluded corner along the court surrounded by a museum of Peruvian art. The jewelry they had inside was all inspired by Incan art and I thought it was totally awesome stuff. And I had plenty of time to look at it because the cousin was talking at fifty miles an hour in Spanish to the girls for nearly an hour, so I was totally lost. When I talked to the cousin later, I found out that the jewelry store actually does quite well because tourists don't have to pay things like luxury taxes or customs on the items and apparently all of the H. Stern stores sell locally designed and manufactured items that are unique to the area, so it's not like you can just go home to NYC and buy a set of Inca statue earrings or anything like that. And they sell a LOT of merchandise there. I guess it's a pretty exclusive place to work and they make amazing money on commissions and have high standards for knowledge of the products.

Because of the late start, the evening was upon us before we knew it. I was pretty hungry at night since we'd only eaten lunch during the day, so we went up to a restaurant so I could get something in my system to last me for the evening. Naturally, I ordered quinoa vegetable soup, a staple for my trip. I also hadn't been feeling so hot during the day, my stomach was feeling really full even though I was hungry. I was hoping that it wasn't another episode of Montezuma's Revenge! The girls suggested that I drink some anise tea or have some anise liquor and I suddenly remembered a story from a few year's back when anise liquor had saved me.

Back then, I had eaten creamy clam chowder in SLO when visiting some friends along with my Finnish friend who was visiting. My stomach was messed up (like it always is after creamy soup or sauce) and we were supposed to drink homemade beer that night and go out on the town. I had one sip of a beer and felt really sick to my stomach like I was going to throw up, I felt really bad. My Finnish friend, who is really into the minerals and effects of natural ingredients, suggested that I take a shot of the anise-flavored Finnish vodka (Salmiaki) he had brought us. Begrudgingly, I took a swing of the stuff and then almost immediately went into the bathroom preparing to throw up. I sat prone to the porcelain god waiting for the action to start for a few minutes before I suddenly felt comfortable and my stomach pains eased and then I was perfectly fine. I was amazed! I came out of the bathroom (pale, most likely) and tried another sip of the beer and the night began!

Similar to that night four year's earlier, I drank my anise liquor after my quinoa soup and 15 minutes later I felt wonderful again! I really need to buy some of that stuff for myself! In any case, at this point we had left the restaurant and headed up to a bar/club a few buildings up where we, surprise, ran into more people that they knew. I swear, everywhere we went these girls knew the people who were the managers, owners, or just random people in the street, and half of them were related to them. After they talked to their friends (while I stared at the fish bowl counting fish), we went to check out the live band in the other room where people had been dancing and we saw an amazing couple salsa dancing better than I'd ever seen in my life. The guy was tall, dark, and wearing an Inca Kola shirt (awesome) and the girl looked like...a blonde gringa! I think they must be dance partners because she had total trust in his moves, which were amazing. I can't even describe the moves they were doing without using my hands, it was incredible. At first the girls said "oh, the dancers at Up Town are better" but by the time we left their jaws were on the ground at some of these moves.

On that note, there was no way I was stepping on the same dancefloor after their performance, so we decided to go check out Mythology, a disco that was jam-packed, hot, and humid. Not a very good transition from dinner and the salsa club, so we headed back to old-faithful Mama Africa. We chilled out there for a while by the DJ and Kira met a magician from Miami who did some pretty cool tricks with Vanessa's cigarettes - too bad he couldn't make them disappear for good! We were eventually met up there by the girls' new friends from Nebraska from the previous night who were totally lit up after drinking a few bottles of wine next door. They were very generous with buying us drinks, so I didn't mind too much, plus it was nice to hang around some men for a little why after spending the day with the girls. Later on in the night, Kira and I commenced the "water hand-off" when her corn-farming Nebraska friend bought her a bottle of water. I really wanted some of the water, so with the bottle in her hand, she would put her arms on the guys shoulders and I would take the it, take a few swigs, and put it back in her hands and then she would let go of the guy. It was pretty funny at the time because she was totally not into this guy at all!

I eventually started, stopped, started, stopped, and started dancing with a girl from Lima who was very suspicious in her actions. At one point, she ordered a drink from the bar and then looked at me when the waitress asked for the money. Vanessa and Kira had warned me that most of these Peruvian girls just wanted money and wanted guys to buy them things (I guess not that different than American girls ;o) and that's all they were after. It turned out to be totally true with this girl and her too-hot-to-not-be-dancing friends. They wanted me and some other guys to buy them wine at a store after the club and everything. Good thing I wasn't carrying much cash at that point! Me and some other guys hung out with them at their shady youth hostel after we left the disco and watched some Guns 'N Roses music videos at the maximum volume before I decided that the whole situation was way too sketchy and went home with the sun peaking above the horizon!

Yusteen, this was my latest night of the trip! I needed a break at this point...