The Devil's Bartender

Hockey For Heart

My friend Rob Weir is hosting the 20th annual Hockey For Heart this April 23rd.  So if you'd like to show your support for this noble cause you can make a donation via myself or Rob, every little bit helps.  And of course, everyone is welcome to come on out for a helluva a great day!

You can get more info here:  www.hockeyforheart.com

Chiclayo pics

Here's some pictures of good ol' Chiclayo on the side bar.  More to follow....

Fucked up!

Being robbed a month ago; in a hostal my last night in Lima where an American girl was going on and on about how she was robbed; and then an English woman walked in with bandages on her hand and blood splatterings on her shirt.  A cabbie took her down an alleyway and, as she resisted the stealing of her second bag with all the important documents in it, he stabbed her hand with a screwdriver.  Fucked up shit but she's lucky because that whole situation could've been a whole lot worse.  And the night before a girl in the band i jammed with had a gun pointed at her by a guy who wanted her Fender.  The collectivo driver intervened and after a couple of drinks to calm her nerves afterwards she was all right again.

So there's a lot of theft in Peru but it's a third world country built on a history of corrupt Spanish colonizers (more on that in a second)  All of the above is fucked up but it's the kind of fucked up I can understand.  What I can't understand is this:  On American Airlines flight 1258 from Lima to Dallas on March 3rd they served everyone a brown bread sandwich I.E.- Two slices of white bread with a slice of brown bread in the middle and all the crusts cut off.  What the fuck is that!!??!?!  America gets a bit crazier every day.

But back to Peru.  Understanding where they come from explains a lot of what's going on today. The Spaniards came in, killed everyone, and stole all the gold.  Unlike the British the Spanish were not interested in leaving a socially conscious legacy of government and reform (in theory, this is what they believed they were doing).  They just wanted to get rich quick and maybe spread some Catholicism along the way.  So it came down to just one Incan Emperor left standing, Atahualpa.  All the Incas realized that if he died they were screwed so after the Spanish invited him to a friendly meeting they kidnapped him and demanded a hefty ransom.  Gold and Silver were collected from all over the empire to keep him alive.  Apparently enough to fill two rooms with silver and one with gold all up to neck height. 

After the Incas had done everything that was asked of them and the Spanish had a shit load of gold and silver they thought about it all and then killed Atahualpa anyways.  That's what Peru was born of.

So if you let your guard down someone may not be able to resist the temptation to rob you.  If you bribe a cop they may except the bribe and then take you in anyways.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great country and I met a lot of amazing people and saw a lot of beautiful places.  But it's very different from the first world and you really need to think differently if you're going to have a safe and enjoyable trip.

And most gloriously of all, there are no brown bread sandwiches...

Haucachina/ One last jam

Besides the cool name, Haucachina is a little piece of paradise.  We ended up spending about 4 nights there at a hostal that knows what the hell is going on.  This village of about 500 is built around a lagoon in the desert surrounded by sand dunes.  An actual oasis.  Besides the lounging around the hostal's pool, late night parties, lady boy chef who made a huge bar-b-que for everyone, and the cool backpackers we met, the most memorable part of the place was the dune buggy ride through the dunes with a couple of stops to sand board down them.  Even more of a rush then I thought it would be.  Since I suck at snowboarding I went for the 'lie on your belly like it's a mini toboggan' method and it was exhilarating.  Nothing like a bit of sand in yer eye to get the blood going.

Cool backpackers including an Aussie who was making a living as a DJ and an Englishman who drank excessively even by English standards!  They both have law degrees and an encyclopedic knowledge of music so there were a lot good conversations mixed into the madness and partying.  Good guys.

After two days there we said our goodbyes and left for Pisco which is one of the ugliest, dirtiest, and most impoverished cities on earth.  Sharon got a bad feeling about the place so we said screw it and went back to Haucachina for another couple of torturous days of lounging around the pool and drinking all night.  Good times.

Sharon flew out of Lima last night and after she was safely on her way I went to meet a friend of Marco's, Marcos.  I have now played with three of the best blues guitarists I've ever heard of and definitely the best in Peru.  We had a jam in a bar last night that went on until 3:30 am even though there was no one listening.  Just a bunch of musicians playing because they love the music.  Since everyone was a guitarist we all took turns on the drums and bass.  It was an amazing jam and I'm still buzzed about it today. 

And now it's just a waiting game.  Waiting for Wild Javier, waiting for the 2am flight, and in 26 hours I'll be back in Toronto and the Peruvian adventure will be over (and a new adventure beginning in Toronto)