Study Abroad Peru 2013: May 7: Day 11 (Puno) Part 1

Day 2 in Puno dawned bright and early, and brought with it many great adventures and challenges.

The day started with Whitney and I making an empanada run down to a local bakery, because who would say no to a fresh baked empanada or two for lunch? For the uncultured an empanada is essentially a Hot Pocket, but approximately one million times better and occasionally filled with fruit.

When we got back to the hotel we were informed that we would get to go on an adventure with one of our professors to find so Peruvian stoves to take back to the US with us. I tell the following story not to mock anyone, but as a plea. To all those that every go on a study abroad please realize that if nothing else you are representing your country, and you owe it to this great country that guarantees so many freedoms and presents so many opportunities for you to be the best sort of representative. You should be an excellent visitor, you should respect all aspects of their culture, do your best to communicate in their language, and just generally realize to poor linguistic skills DOES NOT excuse DISRESPECTFUL behavior.

Background: When Peruvians, the ones that still cook on traditional stoves, build a stove in their house they start with a ceramic base. The base is essentially two 10 in cylinders and one 4 in cylinder meshed to form a large cavity with two places to put pots and a hole for smoke to escape out the back. There is also a hole in the front  for the user to feed the fire beneath the pots. The Peruvians then take this base and put mud around it to build it into the house and provide a bigger surface area on top for holding larger pots. Our professors wanted to bring a couple of these bases back to the US with us, so that they could use them as the basis of their combustion efficiency research. This meant one of our professors, Whitney, and I got to go to the local market and purchase a couple. The following adventure ensued.

Traditional Peruvian stove cased in mud.

Our first stop was to figure out where the post office was, on the theory that we would be able to mail said stoves back to the US. After several consultations with the hotel concierge and a little trust in Whit and I we found the post office and marked it on our map for future reference. We then set out for the market, following our professor who had been the day before and had CLEARLY marked it on his map. The problem with trying to use a map in a town like Puno is that only about half of the streets have a name on the map, and only about half of those have a name indicated somewhere on the street itself. So after about 30 minutes of walking and an attempt by our professor to consult a policeman (in English) we made it to the market, which as it turns out was only about 15 minutes from our hotel.

Waiting for the islanders to come pick us up.
Doesn't that water look great?

Once there we approached a wary saleswoman and I asked her how much for her stoves. (Because of my amazing Spanish skills it sounded a lot like "cuanto para el orno" in the most american accent you can think of.) She had two sizes and indicated that the smaller was 8 sol, and the larger 12 sol. After hearing the prices our professor took off for another stall he had spied with similar wares. I did my best to say thanks and we'll be back. (It mostly sounded like "Lo siento *helpless gesture* gracias".) At the next stall I again asked how much and this lady indicated 10 and 14 sol for the two sizes. As our professor picked out two stoves I asked him why we were buying these stoves, he said because these were cheaper, so I reconfirmed the price and then translated this information to English, and discovered he had misunderstood 10 and 14 for 9 and 11. (Don't ask me how.) He then proceeded to set the stoves down and head back toward the first stall. I again apologized and helped her put the merchandise back in its original well stacked position.

The one and only Whitney. A total goof and my roommate
for the entire trip. 

When I arrived at the first stall the professor had two stoves sitting at his feet and was once more trying to figure out the price. After reconfirming the total as 20 sol and translating this to English, I was handed 15 sol and change. I indicated this was not enough, the sales lady made it clear that we could only have one stove for that much, and I was returned with a goofy grin and shrug, "this is how you bargain with them" and "that's all I have it'll have to be enough". Stunned I added 10 sol to the pile and handed it to the saleswoman indicating that she should keep it all, and attempting to apologize for the trouble we had caused.
The adventure continued for when we got back to the post office, I got to *try* and ask the postmistress if she would mail the stoves. I got a vehement no, and was made to understand that they would probably break. This caused some consternation for our professor in his total disbelief that the mail system could be unreliable. Once we got back to the hotel I was asked to ask the concierge if there was any other form of post. (Which I was happy to do, because the concierge spoke English, this caused further woes and an "I could have done that.") The concierge said that there was no other form of post, and we wouldn't want to use it any way because it would be far less expensive and more likely to get there in one piece if we just carried them on our laps.

After that thrilling adventure  we headed out to the islands to join the rest of the group.