Not all so good

I had a scary experience last night. Loads of the locals are very friendly. They will stop to chat to us, ask us a bit about our lives. Some will try to sell stuff, and others are just interested. So I didn't think anything about it when I stepped out of our hostel the other night and this guy offered to shake my hand. Our truck was parked right outside the hostel, effectively creating a small dark alleyway. I shook the guy's hand, and went to walk away, but he held onto my hand. I couldn't understand what he was saying - it seemed friendly and I had previously experienced other people holding on to my hand for longer than comfortable, so I wasn't overly concerned. I started moving us both towards the end of the truck. Then another guy appeared there, blocking my exit. Now I was concerned - the two guys conversed with each other and I couldn't follow what they were saying. Eventually the first guy let go and I pushed myself past the other guy. Watching later from our hostel window, these two guys were hanging around the street corners - I would guess they were up to no good, but thankfully I was of little interest to them.

Noisy south america
We were chatting the other day about "pet peevs". One of mine is excess noise - and there is a lot of that down here. Traffic noise is everywhere - loud motors, and horns used relentlessly. People hoot to tell you they are there. They do this at every intersection rather than pay attention to traffic lights. Taxis hoot to see if you want picking up - some vehicles have several different horn tones. Everyone hoots to say hello, and everyone hoots to say hurry the hell up and get out of my way. Relentless. This both amuses and bugs me. It's impossible to get away from. The one time it really got to me, is when we were stuck in a traffic jam, the cause of which was a dead body in the road from a traffic accident. Still everyone honked to say hurry up. Vexating!

I've struggled to get into the music as well. Brazilian music was terrible. Loud drums with people shouting over the top -played very very loudly, everywhere. I went to a salsa club the other night, and every track sounded the same - drums everywhere with a bit of trumpety type thing over the top.

Although I always try to seek a cultural experience it was such a pleasure when we went to a bar in Huaraz, Peru and another "Sergeant Pepper's" in Lima and they played lots of Western music. We danced the nights away and they were fantastic. Equally, we've had some great nights on the truck, playing lots of disco music and dancing in the tiny confines of the truck.