This is Peru (or TIP).

Saying “T.I.P.” or “This is Peru” has been a coping mechanism of ours for the strange situations we’ve come across in the last 6 months. We got the idea from my sister, who served in the Peace Corp in Botswana and used the phrase “TIA” or “This is Africa” for the same reason. (Actually, Heather just moved back to Africa, this time to Lesotho, and had a TIA moment right off the plane.) We started using the phrase almost immediately after moving into our apartment in Arequipa and started settling in.

I should say that not everything that is TIP is bad. It’s just Peru. Life is different here. Envoking the phrase is a way of shrugging things off and moving on with your day. We use it in lieu of getting annoyed at something, or in lieu of sitting around gawking at a scenario for too long. It’s a form of recognition and acceptance of the differences in Peruvian and American lifestyles.

We have been out of Perú for a few days now, and I am already missing the complexities of Peruvian life. We learned a lot about the culture and lifestyles during our adventures. Although I am also realizing that I will never know enough about it to fully get it. And that is exactly why I travel.

(By the way, we’re leaving Quito today on a series of flights bound for Sydney, Australia! Our next adventure for a few weeks before returning home to Seattle on August 9th.)

Here’s a list of some TIP moments I can think of:

• Unrelated product promotions. E.g. Selling a precision screw driver kit with a bottle of wine.
• You ask a young kid selling stuff on the street where to purchase a wine bottle opener. He says that there are none available for sale in the city (which turns out to be true upon searching), but that he will personally bring you the one he has at his house.
• You trek to the only sushi restaurant in town and it is closed for no reason, with no hours posted on the door. You go back three more times, and get the same result.
• You get to the post office 30 minutes before they close and they tell you to come back tomorrow.
• You get to the police station to find everyone sitting around. They tell you everybody is busy right now and to come back in 2hrs.
• There is a high end fashion show on the train back from Machu Picchu.
• You take a taxi ride across town and the driver has zero change. (We’re talking, trying to pay for a S./5 ride with a S./10 bill.)
• You pay for a meal at a fancy restaurant, and the staff has to run up and down the street looking for change.
• Stray dogs, everywhere, barking and often times humping.
• Showing bootlegged movies on bus rides.
• Showing very violent movies while you’re trying to sleep on late night buses.
• Showing Christmas themed movies on the bus in the middle of June.
• Trying to sell you sunglasses when you are wearing a pair on your face.
• Daily fireworks.
• Public urination.
• You’re backpack is stolen off the bus right in front of you. Sneaky!
• You order a glass of wine after surveying the bottle. The server goes behind the counter and pours your glass out of a box.
• Hoarding napkins.
• Guys walking down the street/beach with soccer balls strategically pushed up their shirts and down their pants so they look like an extremely curvy woman. (We’re seen this at least a handful of times in different places, and have no idea what it’s about. A traditional payment after losing a bet?)
• Soccer fans sitting on top of their trucks and climbing the trees outside of the Municipal stadiums to get a look at the game.
• Grocery shopping with your entire extended family.
• Stationing one family member in line at the grocery store (because the lines are huge and slow) while the rest of the family shops. Sometimes the family returns with two completely full grocery carts.
• The women in the family taking care of the shopping and handling of the food at the grocery store. The man pulling out his wallet at the end of the transaction to pay.
• Divvying up your huge grocery bill (there are big families here!) to pay between two different credit cards and cash.
• Ordering your bus tickets online, but having to pay in person at the local grocery store.
• Paying your electricity and water bill at the local stationary shop or random pharmacy.
• Tour boat breaking down mid-trip. A group of boats working together to fix it with spare parts.
• Frantically running around a small town looking for an ATM with cash in it. (We tried at least 5 different ATMs in Máncora last week!)
• Taxi drivers stopping to ask for directions, and ending up in long, friendly conversations as if they’ve known each other for years. (Directions are sometimes and sometimes not included in the dialog.)
• Using just one glass and rotating it with one beer bottle at parties.
• Greeting everyone in the room with a kiss on the cheek. Also done when leaving. (I love this. It’s especially sweet coming from little kids.)
• Discovering that your landlords have a pet peacock because it crash landed on your room at 7am.