Fun things I've seen in Trujillo so far...

Well folks, it's been precisely 4 days since my arrival. I have encountered a really extraordinary amount of fun things so far, but here are a two of my favorite experiences.

My Breakfast Walk-

My first day in Trujillo, I went out to breakfast with my friend Joshua Burdette, who is a friend from Anderson University, but is currently serving here as well. As we walked to the cafe of choice, we heard a commotion in the Plaza de Armas, the main square in Trujillo. We walked farther and realized that there happened to be a random parade in the middle of the square, complete with Marinera dancers (a native dance of Peru) A 35 piece marching band, flag bearers, men and women on stilts, and colorfully costumed men doing stunts. And by stunts, I do mean, making a 6 person pyramid in the middle of the road. It was nice and fun, but we sort of had to walk next to the parade for a while, and be followed for about a block by the marching band. But looking back on it, I now realize that this is how I want to walk to breakfast every morning- with a big brass band following me. You can't have a bad day with a parade backing you up.


Mr. Toad's Wild Taxi Ride-

Granted, every time you get into a taxi in Peru, you never know what sort of driver you'll get. Will he be one of the ones to give you whiplash as he careens around the Ovolo Papal? Will he slow down for the speed bumps that appear on random streets of Trujillo? Heck, will his transmission even make it over that speed bump before falling out onto the pavement? You never know. But two nights ago, my friend Katie and I had the good fortune of finding an exceptionally frightening cab driver. He was a bit disheveled, for a taxi driver anyway, and drove what is known as a Tico Taxi. Now, the Tico Taxi is like the hot rod of all taxis. Except that it's a Daewoo and nothing like a hot rod at all. In a CNN story, it was said that "The Tico is not designed for use as a taxi," says Lino de la Barrera, a traffic safety expert and an architect of the regulations. "The possibility of a fatal accident is greater in a Tico." However, does this stop anyone? Not so much, and ne'er wanting to appear the tourist, of course we end up taking Tico Taxis about every other trip. But I digress. So this taxi driver, who had his Tico pimped out with stuffed animals hanging in the window, and some neon beads, took us around corners at blinding speeds, stopped within mere inches (no exaggeration here) of hitting cars in front of us, beside us, and even somehow behind us (that might be exaggerated). In all my years of visiting Peru, I cannot remember a taxi ride that made the verse about life being a vapor clearer to me than the ride in that tico taxi. It was life changing.