A couple of weeks ago when Dave and I were in Ica we got lost trying to find a museum. We asked a lady for directions, she said something about going right. We thanked her, turned around, walked back the way we had come and took the next right. We weren´t quite sure if we were going the right way but decided to keep going anyway. After about 5 minutes I heard someone shouting and turned around to see the woman waving at us. We went back to her. She was laughing and telling us we had gone the wrong way. I think if we had carried on we would have ended up in Ecuador or something. The woman walked with us to the museum and made sure we went in the right building. She had come well out of her way to make sure we found the museum. More recently a similar thing happened in Cusco. We were looking for the bus to Pisaq. An old woman waiting for a bus, who later turned out to be a little crazy, overheard us asking someone where to get the bus from. She decided to show us and charged off down the road at speed. This woman must have been about seventy. We just shrugged and followed. After at least TEN minutes we got to the bus station. The old lady pushed into the queue, told the guy we wanted two tickets to Pisaq, checked the change the man gave Dave back (which was short and she made sure the man behind the counter knew he had done wrong) took us over to the bus and pushed us onto it. Dave offered to give her a few Soles for her trouble but she refused it. What a nice, crazy old lady. On the whole we have found that Peruvian people are friendly, helpful, polite and honest. Even the taxi drivers here ask for a fair fare the first time. People who are trying to sell souveniers and pictures and stuff take a simple ´no gracias´the first time it is muttered and don´t pester you. It´s all very strange!
