Saturday, November 14, 2009

14 November











Today's hi; 76.3, 72% humidity, sunny




Lo 64.9, 76% humidity, clear

The surf the last couple of days has been quite turbulent. If you look closely at the photos, you can see the spray drifting with the wind. We could see rainbows in the spray, but they didn't show up on the pictures.











I baked some rolls from the sourdough sponge. Half were plain sourdough, the other half were cinnamon rolls (made without brown sugar, which is non-existant in Peru) . The rolls burnt on the bottom a bit because of the cinnamon sugar, but still had a great flavor. I did however have just a slight problem with storing the flour!






We took off for Talara to find a bed. A queen sized bed to use while we are staying with Jay. We only found double beds and mattresses. I think one of the salespeople lied to us as she told us one mattress and frame were queen size, but when we took out our measuring tape, it wasn't. She hastened to tell us that queen sized mattresses aren't available in Peru. We know this to be false, as we have and are sleeping on a queen. So needless to say, we didn't buy one. We thought there was one in Los Organos, but when we went back to the store, the saleslady said they didn't have the mattress, but they did have the frame.




On our way into Talara, there was a huge tractor trailer loaded with onions on it's side and across the road. It had not negotiated one of the many hairpins turns well. There was a gathering of people to watch the clean up. In Peru, if the load is insured, anyone can pick up any part of the load on the road or roadside for themselves. On our return, there were twenty or thirty people helping to repackage and reload the onions onto another truck. Yesterday there was another accident just south of where we are that overturned with its load of cement.




We did get more of the plans printed into blueprint size. We are still missing plans for the solar panels and batteries, water tower, septic tank and irrigation system. Just the important stuff.


The architect is supposed to come here on Monday so hopefully we can iron everything out so they can start construction while we are gone.




While in Talara, we met Charlito, Perico;s daughter. She works at El Refugio and had taken the bus specifically to go to the bank. The line for the bank was out the door and down the block. Saturday is the day to pay bills (which you do at your bank) and do other banking business. Once we were allowed to enter the bank, inside was a sea of people. There were even longer lines inside for the two ATM machines (with the ability to pay bills) and the lobby of the bank was elbow to elbow (Peuvian style, that's CLOSE). I swiped my debit card to get a ticket to see someone at the teller counter. Kinda like when you go to DMV? In about 10 minutes my number appeared on an overhead screen and I approached the teller. My business was soon done and I had to wind my way outside. Some Peruvians are very polite and willing to move out of your way, but there are others that look at you and stay right where they are.




Once Charlito and I were out of the bank, she took us to find furniture stores. Two stores are in the middle of the market and cannot be seen from the outside. The market itself is a warren of booths, and stalls selling all kinds of things. We had to walk through who knows how many stalls to actually get to the furniture store.




We then brought Charlito back with us and delivered her to El Refugio. We stayed and had another excellent meal.


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