another day, another disease

in chincha alta. arrived this evening.

the other day i noticed that my blog titles of late had been leaning toward the negative, so i thought it was a trend meant to be and kept it up. im losing my voice, but im actually fine. i went to the pharmacy to see if they had anything for me, and rather than hand me a strange illegal-in-the-states magical concoction they offered me antibiotics. so i left dissapointed and went on a quest for chicken soup. i love the random ethnic diversity here, rather than onions for the soup they had chives and instead of rice they have soba noodles.

i was in paracas national reserve today and we had lunch at a fish place on the dock where there was an afroperuvian guy playing the guitar and the box (its really a drum in the shape of a box). he was an awesome musician, and very determined to let us know he was playing black people music. he gave me some music recommendations. tomorrow im going cd shopping and im so excited.

anyway. i finally left huacachina at five this morning. i was going to leave last night .... but then i got high, then i got high, then i got hiiigh... remember that song? always makes me laugh. anyway i ran into some lesbians of the oberlin genre and i was so happy to see them (actually they were from santa cruz, the school i went to in my imagination) i hung out with them for the evening rather than get on the bus as i should have.

when i got back to my hostel after dinner i found out the last bus had already left so i went to the bar. this is life in huacachina. at the bar there was a baby monkey who crawled up my leg, buried his little face in my sweater and fell asleep. so there i was, with a monkey in one hand and a coca light in the other. when i was on my way back to bed, knowing i had to get up early, one of my british roommates accosted me and insisted i come down to the bar by the pool for just one drink. i had just one cuba libre but it lasted two hours. there i met this colombian professional paraglider who wont drink alcohol but is addicted to red bull, and claims to have sucessfully used the line "want to se my hairless cat?" to get women into his apartment. then one of my funny british roommates asked for a drink, without requesting anything in particular, and the bartender put a tequila sunrise in front of him and said "heres your faggot drink", out of the blue. which actually i am cracking up right now it was hilarious because it was so fucking random. this brit doesnt look the least bit gay. of course bartender got a lecture from me.

so politically, i think ive come to terms with exotification. i was contemplating it while i basked in the sun near thousands of migratory birds and sea lions in paracas. because whats wrong really with being interested in things that are different from you, right? that part is human nature. i guess its when people like things only because theyre different and not for their inherent worth that its irritating.

oh there were dolphins sufacing around the boat on the way to the islas ballestas. ive been feeling like it was a blah day and not much accomplished, but now that i am writing it down, i think i might be setting my expectations a little high. there were exposed mummies at the museum in paracas, creepy.

now im happy to report that im tired, and hopefully will be able to fall asleep soon. i bought amor en los tiempos del cholera but i havent made it past page five. i may actually read some of it now.