Peru has been fantastic so far. I've seen buildings, statues, farms, and town squares unchanged since the 17th century, flown at 300 meters above mysterious lines etched in the desert hundreds of years ago, walked in the local market and saw fresh fish, squid, alpaca, llama (both the meat and dried fetuses of varying ages), strange fruits and much more. I've seen and sampled tea and candy made from the leaves of the coca plant, ate a bit of guinea pig, andwatched as people strapped themselves into a parachute and then paraglided on warm updrafts off of the ocean. We asked the bartender in Lima our first night there if he could recommend some local music, and he did. He wrote some names of a piece of paper and the last one on the list was Arturo "zambo" cavero. He is the single biggest name in Peruvian folk music (actually 'creolle' music to be specific). When we got to nazca the next day we went to an open-air 'chifa' restaurant (what peruvians call Chinese food), where they were all watching the TV. Arturo had died that morning and flags across the country were
being flown at half mast. Strange timing. Anyway, I found a few of his albums on iTunes and picked one up...not bad...not entirely different from typical mariachi music, but soulful and rhythmic. Today we are in araquipa and tomorrow we go to see colca canyon, possibly the deepest canyon on the world. Despite it's depth, the altitude as about. 10000 ft. At the top. So we have to start yo worry about altitude sickness...for which they recommend more coca. Hope there aren't any drug tests coming up :)

more to come!