Monday, February 16, 2009

beach vendors


Went to the beach yesterday in Punta Hermosa (Playa Caballos) with Vicky, JoAnn, Sural, and my friend Chris who is visiting. Here's a list of things we bought off the beach from various beach
vendors . . .


-2 CDs (really JoAnn, Backstreet Boys?), $1 each
-3 or 4 pairs of earrings ($1.30)
-5 Alaska maracuya popsicles
-1 anklet ($0.60)
-1 necklace
-2 books (pirated just like the CDs and DVDs), $5 each

other things we could have bought:
chicken sandwiches
corn on the cob (the kernels are HUGE here)
DVDs ($1)
giant wraps from india (expensive, at $20)
dresses
hippie knee-length pants

like chris said, it's hard to relax at the beach with all that shopping going on!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

a surfer's perspective.

surfers have an amazing worldview . . .

Rathika: Yes, my parents are from Sri Lanka. It's near India.
Alberto: Sri Lanka? Really?!? That's niiiiice. That's great. Wow.
Rathika: Yeah! . . . uh, why?
Alberto: amazing surfing there!

pretty much, if you can surf it, they've heard of it.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

location, location, location.

i'll get back to that thread on ethnicity and stuff shortly.

but, first, a funny little thing about peruvian hospitals it they seem to attract a conspicuous nearby conglomeration of pharmacies (logical), orthopedics and radiology providers (ok), and coffins retailers. yup, you read that right. I know of at least one outside Dos de Mayo. And on the road by Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia (where our labs are located), there are at least seven, SEVEN coffin stores just across the street from the hospital. And their window displays are all coffins, in various elaborate styles.

I guess the first rule of sales is to know your market, eh?

Thursday, February 5, 2009

mejor una chola . . .

So i've been spotting a sticker lately on buses and mototaxis:

"Mejor una chola conocida que una gringa con sida".

First, a translation:
"Better a known chola than a gringa with AIDS" . . . if that rhymed, anyhow.

Where chola refers to peruvians that are ethnically . . . peruvian. like the guy in the hat in the previous post. The ethnic groups here, as denoted by Peruvians, are:

cholos: indigenous incan/mayan descendant peoples (mostly from the sierras or mountain ranges . . . the jungle indigenous peoples are just referred as "de la selva").

--From what I can tell, "cholo" can be quite derogatory. But the newspaper publishes the word every day, so it's it seems to be also just descriptive. Mostly it's derogatory in that some peruvians are racist, and darker-skinned "cholos" get prejudiced against, i.e. can't get into nice clubs, etc. - so the way these people get treated is derogatory rather than the word itself being un-pc.

chinos: asians (yes, no matter where from).
negros: blacks
gringos: depending on who you ask, may or not include europeans.
blancos: whiteys.

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Anyone know where this new public-transport-sticker idea comes from? Not so sensible, or, well, productive.

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which brings up another point, about addressing people by their appearance alone. that, and the reaction to anti-cholo-ism. that is, bricheros (spelling, anyone?). in this space soon . . .