WHERE'S THE BOMB?

On my recent trip to Peru I noticed a lot of these trucks around that said "Bomberos" on them. Being an uninformed tourist I got to wondering why the bomb squad was in so many places. I mean I saw these bomberos in a lot of places. I just figured there must be lots of bombs around. I later found out that these were actually firetrucks and not the bomb squad. What a knucklehead I am! HAHA!

MY J-LO BUTT (HUH?)

Before we went on our trip the wife and I were in Chinatown. At one of the booths the wife was looking at some clothes. She had doubts that the clothes would fit although she was assured it would. A lady standing next to us said "that sure wouldn't fit over my J-Lo butt". What? My wife and I looked at each other, looked at the ladies butt and then looked at each other again. J-Lo butt? What? Are you kidding me lady? HAHA! I'm sorry but she sure didn't have a J-Lo butt. Not at all! So for the rest of the week the wife and I would tease each other about our J-Lo butts. HAHA!

GAG ME - PLEASE

The other day when I was taking the train to Chinatown I looked out the window at one of the stops. There was a young couple sitting on the bench locked lip to lip, smooching like there was no tomorrow. "Gross", I thought to myself. "Get a room" Jeez... Anyway I looked at them and put my finger in my throat as a sign of disgust. I did this as the train was pulling away. I only hope they saw me. HAHA!

HAPPY NEW YEAR (CHINESE STYLE)

Happy Chinese New Year to all! Yes, it's that time of year again. It's hard to believe that a year has passed since the last celebration but time marches on. Now being as SAXOMAN is a man of the people I decided to head over to Chinatown to check out the local festivities and of course, check out the latest in Asian cinema. I mean it's my duty right? Plus it had probably been about 6 weeks since my last visit. There were a lot of people enjoying the celebration as well as live entertainment, many food trucks and of course the parade. I wasn't used to such a large crowd hanging out at "my Chinatown" so after wandering around for a while I went and picked up the latest and greatest DVDs and hopped the train back home. Now I've got lots of movies to relax and enjoy! HAHA!

EXCUSE ME WHILE I ELECTROCUTE MYSELF

Living in the USA there are a lot of things that we tend to take for granted. Things like hot water is one of those things that you think will always be there. Now on my recent trip I was fortunate to have hot water at most places I stayed with the exception of a few. Now what is a little scary is the way hot water is connected. Basically you have wires running in the shower and typically a switch in the shower as well (see photo). What? Yep, I kid you not. Now we have all been taught that electricity and water typically don't mix but over there it's a little bit different. Now I always felt that somehow I was going to be electrocuted in one of these showers and would be found dead later in the day. The wife thinks I am a little bit overly dramatic at times. I dunno.....all I know is I always showered with extreme caution. HAHA!

A LITTLE BIT OF PARADISE AND THEN...

"They found a body" Those were the words my wife woke me up to! What? OK, let me back up a little bit. In the beginning of my trip we dealt with some of the crowded streets of Lima. It was good to get away and go up north and enjoy the beauty of Mancora Beach. After a long bus ride we finally arrived at our destination. As we arrived I said "now this is more like it. This is a little bit of paradise". Because it was an ungodly 6:00AM (What?) it was still too early to check in. I promptly made myself comfortable on one of the lounge chairs and quickly fell asleep. Shortly after this is when my wife woke me up with the news about the body. Now my first thought was that they killed a tourist but this wasn't the case. Anyway, as they fished the body out of the water SAXOMAN stayed far away because as you all know I'm a little bit squeamish. It turns out this was a Japanese tourist that had drowned in the very choppy surf. Sad....sad... Anyway, the photo is from the hotel that I stayed at for several days. Nice!

3.4 OUNCES OR BOOM?

OK, now I am all for airport security but there is something that I don't really understand at all. I don't really understand the 3.4 ounce rule for liquids when you travel. I mean what are you going to do with 5.0 ounces of shampoo? Now what is even stranger to me is on my recent return from Peru. At the Lima airport I stopped by one of the Duty Free stores and picked up three very large bottle of Pisco (a very popular and potent Peruvian alcohol). Now you basically give the store your flight number and the bottles are then stowed away on the plane (or so I thought). Now right after I had taken my seat I hear my name being called. The flight attendant then hands me the three bottles of booze that I had just bought! Huh? Now I had assumed they would store these somewhere and that I would get them after the flight but this wasn't the case. So basically I had three very large bottles of some very potent alcohol in the overhead bin above my seat which was probably enough to make a nuclear bomb! Now tell me if this makes any sense whatsoever. Jeez......like I said, I just don't get it.

THE WHEELCHAIR SCAM - HUH?

OK, now I have to admit that I've never seen a wheelchair scam before (or even knew about it) but have to say I witnessed this first hand at the LAX airport. As the wife and I were at the airport waiting to fly to Peru I noticed a couple sitting close to the wife and I. The wife of this couple was sitting while the husband was wandering all over the place checking things out. I then saw an elderly lady in a wheelchair being wheeled to the front of the line. I guess this set off a light bulb because I then saw the other lady talking to the airline employees. So what happens next? Yep, you guessed it! I then see another wheelchair being rolled out so that this lady could have her perfectly able husband sit in it. This enables the lady and her husband to be second in line. Jeez! Unbelievable! I mean we all have assigned seats so what's the big deal about where you stand in line. Anyway, my wife and I just shook our heads at this ridiculous behavior. Oh well......

SAXOMAN IS BACK IN THE U.S.A. - YEP, IT'S TRUE

Yes, after 4 weeks in Peru SAXOMAN is back in the good old U.S.A!

First of all I would like to give thanks to my wife as well as family in Peru who treated me with overwhelming kindness and kept me safe during my visit. Now I have to apologize to my many readers for my lack of blogging while on the road however trying to deal with Internet cafes where the letters are worn off the keyboards and the lack of a @ key was too frustrating for me to deal with. I figured I would wait until I got home and then blog about the many things I have seen and experienced and boy oh boy do I have lot's to talk about. Things like small hotels, small doorways and even smaller taxis. a dead body (what?), a horse in the restaurant (huh?), traffic, hot water (or lack of), noise, wheelchair scams and many, many more. All I can say is stay tuned! HAHA!