Mototaxis

On October 6, Katie and I officially moved to Lunahuana, the town where we will be doing most of our work. It's a small town up in the desert mountains, about 3 hours south of Lima. It's beautiful. It's sunny almost everyday, we have a mountain view from our bedroom windows, and the people are very friendly. I sometimes need a jacket in the morning and at night, but during the day, the temperature is very pleasant.

Katie and I live in what they call a "casa de campo," which basically means a "country house." It's very comfortable and cute, and we love it. There's a kitchen, living/dining room, and we each have a bedroom. The bathroom is in our backyard...a separate little building from the house, but it does have plumbing. :) Our house is a 25 minute walk to the Lunahuana town square, and that's where we go to eat 1-2 meals a day. We don't have an oven here, so we don't do much cooking. Plus, it's so cheap to eat in restaurants, it's not worth the hassle or the cost to try to cook ourselves. Below is a typical meal we eat for lunch. It's call "menu" and consists of two courses - these courses happen to be a noodle soup and aji de gallina (chicken mixture and rice), plus a drink. All this cost us 5 soles each. That's less than $2.

Sometimes we don't feel like walking the 25 minutes to Lunahuana (we technically live in Condoray), so our mode of transportation is a mototaxi. Mototaxis are basically motorcycles with two back wheels and a tent-like covering added. You can fit three people (if they're small people - Katie, Anthony, and I barely fit) in the back of one. The driver sits on the motorcycle part in the front. Each mototaxi is decorated with character, and Batman seems to be the decor of choice around here. I've also seen spiderman and wildcats and lightening decor. I don't like to look too touristy (I know my blonde hair gives me away, but I want to at least act like a local), so I don't want to whip out my camera and take a picture of one. As a result, I stood by our living room window one morning and waited for mototaxis to drive by so I could take their picture without them knowing. Below is one of the shots I got. I hope it gives you an idea of what a mototaxi looks like. I wish I could have gotten a Batman picture.