RANSVESTIA

TRAN

were so many little paths. Not bare ground paths you understand, but simply beaten down tracks among the trees and vines. I expect they would disappear in six months if they weren't used. We eventually arrived at an Indian camp. They live in a sort of common house built about three feet above the ground and open on all sides. The kids had flies all over them and several with pus in their eyes and all were dirty. The old man of the tribe was great with a long six-foot blowgun with which he shot darts dead on into a narrow tree trunk about 30 feet away. I bought a couple of necklaces made of nuts and seeds with porcupine quills and a couple of ocelot teeth at the bottom. A somewhat androgenous form of personal decoration.

Next day I had to return journey back to Lima. Travelled some distance by taxi to the Anthropology Museum only to find it closed. There must have been some kind of critter on the seat of that taxi because that night in the hotel I discovered that I had over a hundred bites all over my buttocks and down the back of the legs. Maybe I got them on the Iquitos trip but they didn't show up till that night but it put me in considerable agony. The best thing to stop mosquito bites itching is to put the affected part under as hot water as you can stand-it will stop the itching for three or four hours. So with all those bites I would never get to sleep so I had to take as hot a shower as I could put up with all down my backside and got enough relief to drop off to sleep.

Again up early to get to the airport to fly to Cusco. That is a really pretty little city from the air. All the mountains and rocks around it are red and the houses all have red tile roofs and all the fields were green so that there was only red, white and green visible from the air. Being only two days before Christmas it seemed a very Christmasy little town. Walked around town and bought some trinkets and a sweater from the hundreds of vendors sitting all over the sidewalks and squares. This is an Indian city so many of the women wore the tribal colorful costumes and some the strange derby-type hats they favor. Shopping in places like that is like the bazaars in the Middle East. In fact my bargaining experiences with Arabs, Armenians and Jewish merchants on previous trips stood me in good stead. My rule was to ask their price, offer them one half of that and settle for 60 or 75 percent of the first price. It is amusing if, after deciding what you are really willing to pay and telling them that price how they will come down in several offers and if you continue to say your price and then put the article down and start to move away they will suddenly agree to the price you have mentioned. It worked every time.

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