This is why they call it ¨the rainy season¨

Words of the day:

lluvia: rain
estar empapado: to be drenched
paraguas: umbrella

Two things happen in Cusco when it starts raining. First, the wide variety of taxis from which you can usually choose suddenly become the hottest items in the city. They´re like cabbage patch dolls circa 1985. You have to be ruthless to get your hands on one. Second, young women hawking cheap umbrellas and raincoats materialize out of thin air. It was almost magic to witness.

It started pouring at about 5pm this evening, around the time I was planning on catching a taxi back to my host family´s home for dinner. I was in the Plaza de Armas, and the ominous looking clouds that had been gathering for about the last half hour made lived up to their appearance. I actually had the initial good fortune to get a taxi, but the driver didn´t know the address and I didn´t quite trust my own sense of direction, so out I went again. That was the last taxi I would even come close to getting into for the rest of the evening. (Note to self: ¨Puedo indicar usted¨ seems a close approximation to "I can show you", and should be used in such situations from now on.) For a while I sought shelter under various eaves and awnings, but it became apparent very rapidly that the rain wasn´t going to stop anytime soon and that walking seemed to be in my future. So I purchased a cheap umbrella - cost S10, or about $3 - and off I went down the badly-named-for-today Avenue del Sol. The streets were almost rivers. I again found my way home after a little trial and error.

In other news, today was my first language lesson. The instructor is named Sandra, and seems as though she´ll be a good teacher. She told me a brief story about how, in Lima, where she is from, all the high school students visit Macchu Picchu during their last year in school. It´s like a Peruvian field trip. I thought to myself, well, we had the Lincoln home and Lincoln´s tomb. That´s kind of the same thing. At any rate, I think it was Socrates who said something about the only true knowledge being that you know nothing, and that sums it up nicely. I might have learned that from Bill and Ted, though.

Be well, everyone!