Of Pisco and Peru: Mancora
Mancora: Pt. 3
After settling into my room, I look into the mirror at the fashion squall staring back at me. Every stitch of garment, from the bright red ‘Bond, Cholo Bond: Peruvian Secret Agent’ t-shirt to the oversized sombrero, to the teal cargo shorts with a big yellow cartoon alpaca’s shit-eating grin absolutely screams tourist dork. Oh well, you go with what you know.
I set my backpack on a gurney, like for a masseuse or an ob-gyn, tucked against the wall. Strange? Auntie M’s voice radiates from next door, playfully imitating a false baritone for a children’s octopus character. I cross the room, taking in its wry charms.
A king-sized bedspread beneath a wide dreamcatcher. A tasteful black-and-white portrait of a Japanese woman posing in a kimono from the play The Mikado. An old TV, a decent-sized couch, and a table with a small cloud of fruitflies swarming over a plate of overripe platinas.
The TV reverberates from next door. A telenovela. “Thin walls.” I giggle and shake my head, then don my knock-off Moscot sunglasses and venture outside.
Ahhhh. Bright, fresh sunlight and a gentle sea breeze. Maybe this is what I needed all along. Move to a forgotten beach. No daily grind. No traffic noise. Get straight with life. Boil my cares away in a jacuzzi, then ooze into a lounge chair, making circles in the sand with my feet while sipping Chilcanos.
KAAATHUNK! A head-splicer of a coconut carves a deep gash in the dirt not a kindergartner’s softball toss away from me. I nervously eye the batch of blurry palms towering above.
I let out a soft whistle. What a funny way to check out, being de-brained by the world’s largest nut.
I just started your Substack and it’s highly entertaining. I’m thoroughly enjoying your stories! Your writing style inspires me to practice more. Thanks!
-once, somebody right next to me got hit on the head with..I want to exagerrate and say "coconut" but it was something smaller. still, very painful it was. I shudder to think what it'd be if were a coconut..
-what was the telenovela, I asked with an interest? I can watch only two: "Rubi" and "Teresa", "Rubi" because she is very beautiful, the actress I mean. and "Teresa", because she is also bad albeit not as crazy bad as Rubi. I tell myself it helps me with learning Spanish..))
-thank you, again, for the beautiful, well, everything