Joe's World Backpacking Trip Stories and pics from my travels.

Since Saturday I´ve been living with one of my Spanish teachers and his family.  It has been awesome so far, I speak Spanish all day and his family is incredibly friendly and hospitable.  They´ve been showing me all the local and typical things that an Arequipeno does, not to mention the history behind certain traditions.  Luckily for me, both parents are also Doctors.  Yesterday for lunch I had Ceviche with mixed seafood.  I took a nap afterwards and when I woke up my eyes were bloodshot and swollen.  I started to feel sick and when my buddies dad saw me he ran to the pharmacy and bought two shots of antihistimine.  By the time he got back I was starting to have trouble breathing so thankfully he knew what it was and could treat it quickly.  My father has an allergy to shellfish that manifested when he was in his twenties.  Apparently I have the same problem now.  That´s ok though, luckily for me I wasn´t in the jungle or something and I was treated immediately.  That was yesterday.  Today is the Day of the Dead. When the local population goes to the cemetary to pay respects to their dead relatives.  But it´s much more than that.  Today in the cemetary there was more than roses and pictures of Jesus on the tombs.  There were people sitting around drinking soda and beer, leaving water and food on the tombs and even hiring local Mariachi type bands to play in front of the tomb of their dead relative.  Today is a day to remember the dead but also to spend time with them so they´re not forgotten.  In pre-Columbian times the dead were exhumed so the family members could eat with them.  Nowadays people crowd around the tomb of their relative or sit closeby and drink beer or soda with their relatives.  It´s a very family oriented day and I went with my Peruvian family to a cemetary which probably had over 1000 people inside and maybe one gringo.  Nice to get close to the culture and witness something in the roots of a people, not a view many induviduals can have and I feel fortunate.  I´m staying with my teacher another week to improve my Spanish before I hit the road again.