I am leaving in the morning, to the Vallejo birthplace and the nearby thermal baths at Cachicadán. I was about to say I was sure there would be Internet access, but not sure the electricity would be reliable enough to permit me to see the Internet. Then I erased the sentence because I realized that if there is no electricity, there will be no word processing or television. I need word processing for the reasons you can imagine, and I need television because I have run out of reading material and it is hard in these mountains to get even a newspaper. So I have decided there will be electricity. But if I do not post, you know why. I am either away from the Internet, or in transit to Lima, or in a whirlwind of Lima activity before I leave.
Speaking of television: having seen several hours of it over the past week, something I had not done in more than five years, I can say that the shows have changed. Almost all of them involve something supernatural or futuristic, and all but the soap operas and TVE are even noisier and more violent than before. I am speaking U.S. as well as Peruvian, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Mexican and Colombian television (those being the types of television my relatively fancy hotel – $18 of fancy – gets).
Now I am going to see if I should buy a camera I do not want. The only camera I want is the old fashioned 35mm one I have at home. I had a digital camera but I did not like it because a) it involved using the computer, which I already do enough, b) one was expected to erase and/or manipulate the pictures after taking them, which subtracted all the mystery, art and skill from photography, c) it was a present I felt obliged to accept, from a person I was afraid of and at the same time felt obligated to.
I lent it to some Escuela Militar Leoncio Prado people – horrifying, I know – to take pictures of each other with at a lunch, and they got so much olive oil in it that it stopped working. I did not care. It means I have taken no pictures this summer, but I do not like taking touristy pictures. Now, however, I think I might need to take some research pictures, and I have discovered that you can buy used miniature 35mm cameras right here on the plaza for about $25.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Yeah, I hate it when I get olive oil all over my face, my ears, my mind, when I’ve finished consuming.
Uhm, your digital camera became al olivo estilo castrense? Truthfully, I don’t read you enough, but each time I do, I find it captivating…
Saludos….
I hope you get the camera in the plaza, and perhaps some reading material. I can’t stand all the violence on the tube.
I didn´t get the camera … couldn´t commit. Now I´m glad not to be obliged to take pictures, there is too much to see.
It turns out that in Santiago de Chuco they are still festejando the Apostle and it is very like country Mardi Gras in Louisiana.
They are very friendly here. Currently I am trapped in Stgo. de Chuco, although my stuff is in Cachicadan, because I was misinformed about when the last combi leaves. I am invited to stay the night here but I want to be with my stuff … but I am resigned … my new Santiago friends, however, say they may be able to get the police to drive us there. Otherwise I have to wait until 12:30 AM when the bus from Trujillo passes. !!!
Anyway I did not think I would still make it to the fiesta of the Apostle, but I have. And I have seen the Vallejo house, impressive and instructive.
It is quite primitive here – almost too much so for me – but they are convincing me that it is normal.
P.D. Gracias Alejandro … al olivo estilo castrense, that is exactly right!!!