Strolling about.

After a couple of rough days, I am on the rebound... albeit slowly. And my adventure continues, albeit carefully. :)

I have spent time hanging out in the central plaza, eaten some pretty excellent veggie food, observed one of Mike`s english classes and changed abodes yet again.

It has been raining. Not much happening on the trekking front, which is good because it keeps me from temptation. Walking is good though, so I rambled down the road past the University, through a pretty little neighbourhood and continued down a country lane to enjoy some incredibly uplifting views. Unfortunately the low rain bearing clouds hid the highest mountain peaks from me, but twas beautiful nonetheless (is this really one word?) Took a shortcut goat trail back, and saved half the time (and effort... it was uphill).

I passed a family building a new home, from scratch, as it were. They dug and mixed in the process of making adobe bricks in their yard, to add to the walls that were already rising from the ground. I am guessing that when done, their sense of accomplishment must be deeper than what we experience.

There were also women working in the gardens and fields, dressed in their traditional clothes, skin baked almost black from their time in the sun. Running around town were various dogs, chickens and turkeys. And kids. One little boy kept coming up for a hug, and then he would try to put his hands in my pocket, looking for sweets I think.

A leisurely morning spent chatting with Janet ended with a visit to the local market where fish was purchased for her family lunch. The selected specimen was chopped, cleaned and bagged... and the leftover liquid brushed off the counter and onto the floor. On closer inspection I noted that both of the husband and wife team were wearing rubber boots... and they were standing in at least 2 inches of watery slime puddled around their feet. Is it any wonder that these markets have such an aromatic component?

The hostal I had moved into turned into a bit of a pain... I will be generous and blame a lack of communication, but I came back yesterday to find that all my stuff had been moved into a different room, and this one was a filthy dive. I couldn`t leave because she had a bunch of my clothes to launder, so I spent one night basically going "ICK", sleeping in my sleep sack, and making sure that nothing I owned touched the floor. Today I collected my laundry and scrammed. Room at new hostal suitably inspected. Should sleep well.

I am still a bit tired and am thinking I may just stay put in the north for my last 3 weeks here, rather than head back to Lima and on to Arequipa or Huaraz. I will be in Chachapoyas for at least one more day. For some reason I think I may not want to push myself and travel today...

I`ll probably take another stroll tomorrow. Or something.

Buenos.