I am slowly going crazy. One, two, three, four, five, six, SWITCH!!

I know that as a traveller and as a guest in another country you have to be somewhat accepting of that country's customs (right Brendan? haha), but honestly there are some things here in Peru that might honestly land me in a mental health centre pretty soon. A few I can think of:

• The Incessants - This category includes what I consider to be constant and persistent invasions of my personal space. There seems to always be someone in my face wanting to sell me something. Postcard, finger puppets, paintings... "One sole, good price for you lady...where you from? I give you good price". Similarly, there are constantly people standing outside restaurants who will follow you half a block trying to convince you that you should eat at that restaurant even though you've just eaten somewhere else. Obnoxious Taxi drivers are always honking their horns in your face, as to ask if you want a ride... NO! If I wanted a ride I would flag you. Now, stop making that bloody unnecessary racket. Another one are the woman who sell food and ice cream on the streets. I don't know what their qualifications are for this job but the sounds (or perhaps more appropriately, screeches) that come out of their mouths are definate cause for a nervous breakdown: "Geletinas?? Heladosssss??? Geletinaaaaaasssssss????

• The Horn Happiness - What is with this??? Like I described above, drivers in this country seem to think for some reason that laying it on your car horn will some how make things happen. Customers will want to ride in your cab if you blow their eardrums, a truck unloading goods on a oneway street will magically vanish if you and the cars behind you all constantly honk. Its like drivers here have some kind of road language that we just don't have in Canada. My bus driver from Puno to Cusco (the one who felt the need to use the opposite side of the road) also felt the need to honk the entire 8 hr ride. He honked everytime we passed someone, everytime we went through a town, hell...everytime a blade of grass flickered in the wind within a 2 metre proximity to the road. Its absolute madness!!

I think there must be some kind of sensitivity/irritability chart or something for travelling abroad. Like at first you probably think "oh, this is great service! Post cards, cigarettes, ice cream, all brought to ME!!" You are gracious and apologetic and always say "no thank you" and smile when you don't want the product. This is the first stage. From here the chart climbs to it climax where you no longer have the patience. You stop saying "no thank you", you stop smiling. You start to ignore people who approach you and the anger starts to bubble inside you for taxi drivers, horns, and over-eager restaurant hostesses. Then, I THINK... the chart levels out. At this point you reach your nirvana. You no longer need to ignore people, they just don't seem to exist. The sounds of horns seem to fade into the background and you can carry on your merry way.

Yup, I'm definately still in that climbing stage, close to the climax. Well except for taxi drivers, I've reached my limit with them! Anyway, I'm sure there were other things that were pushing me over the edge (hahaha) I just can't remember them now. I'll add them as they come to me.