Machu Picchu Bound

Well, if you are looking for us over the next 10 days, we will be on a quest to master our powers of concentration and say "Lake Titicaca" without stuttering or smirking.

We will be visiting Lake Titicaca (*grin*), Cuzco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu, before flying back here.

I will post pictures and a travel story, although I make no promises about when you might expect those to turn up.

A Walk in the Andenes

Several weeks ago, we went walking in the fields behind our house, with two purposes: to see the church that is visible from the house, and to see wher ethe irrigation water comes from. We managed the first, but not the second. It was a long walk, and Joffre is proving to have the stamina of his grandfathers when it comes to walking, since he mostly did it all himself. Pretty darned impressive for a three-year-old.




For loads more pictures from this walk, click here.

Yes, We Have No Camarones

I do speak Spanish, but there were a lot of words that I didn't know before coming here - either because they weren't taught in my Spanish classes or because they are uniquely Peruvian - that I've since picked up. One of the first of these words was "veda", which means "ban." This is because there is a ban on fishing for one of the region's greatest delicacies, river shrimp or camarones. So, most of the restaurants one visits have all these shrimp dishes on the menu, and when you attempt to order them, you are informed that camarones are in veda, and can they bring you some langostinos instead? Langostinos, which could be translated as "little lobsters", are ocean prawns of the sort that one can buy (frozen, two bags for the price of one) in any Safeway in Canada. Only fresh, and big and juicy.

The sordid scandal here is that there is illegal fishing of camarones, in spite of the depleted stocks, and some restaurants continue to serve them. On top of this, if one visits the fish market, one will be approached by shifty-eyed old ladies whispering, "buscas camarones, caserita?" I keep expecting them to offer me a letter W, and it's all I can do not to broadcast, "why, YES, I'd love some camarones, especially since they're so scarce these days!" I was actually with a couple of ladies when they bought some, and we followed the woman (with our security guard in embarrassed tow) down several twisty turnings through the labyrinth of the market, to an unmarked corrugated iron door, through which they passed and from which they emerged some time later with ominous-looking black plastic bags.

All this for illegally-obtained river shrimp which are, in my blasphemous opinion, kind of marshy-tasting and not as good as plain old legal prawns.

The Fanged Wonder

Alec's second fang came in. They aren't actually his canines, they're his lateral incisors, but that fact doesn't stop him from looking as though his first words ought to be "I vant to suck your blod!"




Seriously, he's like a rosy, blond little Grandpa Munster.

He actually has three more teeth coming in right now, his middle top two and one beside his bottom ones, so we had to get photographic evidence quickly before the effect was forever lost.

Head Damage

First, allow me to apologize for the hiatus in posting - I'll try not to let it happen again, but one does get so busy . . .

Alec has his Very Own Bed now, thanks to a nasty bonking incident a few weeks ago. He took a nose dive off the bed (2.5 feet in height) at about 5:20 am, so I woke up to the sound of baby head hitting wood-on-concrete floor. Not fun. There was a lot of crying, but he got calmed down, scowled and squirmed appropriately when I shone a flashlight in his eyes, ate his breakfast, and was soon berating the cows out the bedroom window (his latest favorite activity).

Not to be outdone, Joffre has since taken two headers from beds - his own and ours - and in one incident clipped his right eyelid on the corner of the bedside table, producing impressive bruising. So, you know, the folks at the preschool are keeping an eye on me now.

Then we were out for lunch one fine Sunday afternoon, and all of a sudden all the words on the left side of my menu disappeared. They came back right away, so I assumed it was a trick of the light. While we were eating, however, I developed a nasty stabbing headache, which I endeavored to ignore. As we finished the meal, I lost the feeling in my left arm and the left side of my face, which I of course assumed was a stroke. Some feeling came back, but it felt strange for a while. The doctor at emergency decided it was a migraine. If I never get another one, it will be too soon. The doctor announced that he was going to give me two injections, one for the pain and one for the nausea, but I politely (I hope) told him Advil would be fine, went home, took said medication, and slept for three hours.

I had heard before that spouses of migraine sufferers often developed them too, but I'd chalked it up to urban legend. Drat.