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Interesting facts
There's no use to stare at the airplane...
Missionaries have worked in Peru wery well. They had time to visit every corner. They got into such god-forsaken places that the most foolhardy travellers had never trod in. Nowadays, the Indians with their religionism can run rings around any American. They are able of talking hours about the Gospel's Teology, try to convince you of genuineness of their belief.
But what is surprising is that out of fifteen huts in the village one is a jail, no, there are no murderers there (although, this also happens, but very rarely) and no violators - the jails are build for thiefs. The thiefs usually steal things not from strangers because the latter turn up seldom, but from local residents. Even Marcos, the guide, once filched a can of jam from Feoktistov. Look at this guy! On the whole, welcome to Peru!
People, don't go for a walk to the tropics
It is very easy to get lost in the woods of Peru. One can even lost the way back home. The Indians who live along the banks of the rivers don't like the tropical jungle very much, unlike the "forest" people living in the deepest thicket. But in places where they have to roam, they orientate thheirselves quite well. Once, Vladimir Feoktistov had a chance to ascertain: "Once, my native guide and I were going through the forest to the neighbouring village. Half-way, without stopping the Indian guy breaks off a branch and throws it somewhere to the side. Then, he turns to me and says: "Here the road forks, and in order to not to get lost on our way back I marked the false path in such a way". Obviously, I didn't see any path and the branch went down in the green thicket.
With time, this case had been forgotten but on our way back the Indian turned to me again and said: "Look, this is the branch I threw then. Now I know we must go by the other road". And it was only then that I could noticed that the place where the broken branch fell is slightly looser and stands out against the surrounding landscape leading somewhere deep in the forest. Then, I lost orientation at all".
These Peruvians are gourmets, though
The Indians of Peru have a mild alcohol drink called "massato". God knows under what name it is known generally. Vladimir calls is simply "spittles". Marcos, whom we already know, once offered him this swill calling it the "yucca juice". Feoktistov, suspecting nothing, had already drunk one and a half cup of this beverage when he felt suddenly that it wouldn't go further. Now, before you know how the story ended, listen how this beverage is prepared. A lot of yucca is taken, it is boiled and stewed, then milled. In the end, the whole village gathers. The second trough, empty, is placed near, the ready mush is taken into the mouth, chewed up and spit out into the new trough. In several cycles, taking into account the local climate, it turns into a mild alcoholic beverage. So, at the end of "the exposure of the performance", Feoktistov got to know that this juice in fact is underfermented "spittles". The only thing to be added is that the guide survived only by a miracle.
This is only a rough example of peculiarity of of Indian food. For example, they never eat bananas and other fruits uncooked, unlike us, but only fried or boiled. But pumpkin, on the contrary, they consume only uncooked; and they even are surprised how we can cook a porridge of it. But you should try their pumpkin: boiling it is the same as frying oranges, or even worse.
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