So I was talking to some lady yesterday and she asked me where I came from. I said "Los Estados Unidos" and she got all excited and started bobbing her head enthusiastically and repeating, "Oosa! Ooosa!" After being rewarded by looks of general confusion on my part, she explained that instead of saying " U.S.A." that Peruvians run the letters together producing the mysterious "Ooosa." The phonetic associations I make with Oosa are as follows:

1. an Uzi (the gun)
2. oozie, as in an adjective for something that oozes

It somehow pleases me greatly to be a representation of a word that conjures both of these associations simultaneously. Perhaps because I start picturing myself with my deranged pigtails as a sort of swamp thing toting around an Uzi, and it makes me laugh.

Anyway, I am leaving Lima tomorrow for Huaraz, a town at the base of the Cordillera Blanca mnt range.

My plan is to be a yeti and gallop around at altitude in the mountains for a week before setting off for the jungle. We will see how that works out.