A Few Peru Pix

Why is that man holding a beer AND a machete, and who's the fashion disaster in the baggy pants?  O wait that's me.

Guinea Pigs:  It's What's for Dinner.

The Cathedral of Cajamarca, Plaza de Armas.

More later.  Also - today is my birthday.  Yay me!

Peru, in limine

The upcoming trip to Peru comes with strings.

While there, I've been told I'm not allowed to leave the hotel without a bodyguard.

A BODYGUARD?  What the FUCK?

Now, I have to say.

I've been all over the world, on my own.  Lived in four countries, visited over 20 on seven continents and can roughly (very roughly) speak three languages (five if I'm bragging).

I don't mean to boast, my point is  - I kinda know what I'm doing when I travel.

If I can make it through Tangiers I think I'm good.

However, apparently ROWD has been threatened with kidnapping - he and anyone he travels with.

The white-haired, blue-eyed Texan who owns the local mine and probably makes no effort with the locals.

I'm shocked, shocked to hear this.

Should be interesting - behaving myself is not my strong suit.

Land-Raping the Peruvian Andes for Fun and Profit

I know this Rich Old White Dude (ROWD) who owns controlling interest in a lime mine in Peru.

Lime is an essential mineral needed to efficiently mine gold.

As you learned in 7th grade World Geography, Peru has a lot of gold.  A lot.  So a lime mine is, as the saying goes, a gold mine.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am in fact related to ROWD, but his wealth is not mine (he enjoys reminding me of this).  I struggle to make my mortgage and heating oil is so expensive these days I spend most of my time at home in four layers of clothing.

I had a conversation with him recently about the mine.

It is difficult to do business in Peru.  Corruption, for one thing.  Also these PEOPLE have all kinds of HOLIDAYS when they just don't WORK.  And efficiency is just unheard of - like, how hard is it to get back hoes and generators the size of a small house to a village in the Andes?  Apparently quite hard.  Assuming they do not then get stolen.  Not that all these people are poor or anything.

And of course there are the constant strikes and actions against the companies doing the mining.  These companies pay the locals pennies for the little land they have, land they use to scrape out existence through farming.  Then the companies literally scrape the land for lime and gold, using precious water for the sluices, water that becomes so adulterated it cannot be used for farming let alone drinking.

And the SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT, which lately has been insisting these companies more fairly compensate the locals.  Hey, the locals signed CONTRACTS!  They got paid, what's their PROBLEM?

Yes, ROWD, the central issue is basic contract law.

In ROWD's defense, he was already cranky during this conversation.  The discussion took place over his car phone in his 2012 Camaro convertible as he drove home from his vacation property.  He was peeved because he was driving home.  Why would this annoy him?

Because the weather was too poor for him to fly home in his private plane.

Listen, it's hard to be a rich white man in America.

I'm going to Peru in March.  I hope I can keep my mouth shut.

But I will tell you all about it when I get back.

Viva la revolucion.*




*Yeah okay that's a Mexican expression but whatever.