cultural experience
...asy, but I could finally find a decent deal on a room that was adjacent to a small convenience store. The Ibarra family owned the building that was half a store and half a house. Meeting them was clearly the best decision I made in starting my little adventure in Peru, for I could taste an aspect of the real local life that other tourists would easily miss. Living with the Ibarras, I could eat local dishes that real local people made in the home kitchen: Anticucho, Ceviche, and Salchi con papa, etc. Living with them helped me pick up the Spanish language fast, not to mention that the family helped me to understand the culture as well. Of course, once being in Peru, I couldn¡¯t miss El Museo de Oro. The museum was full of sculptures made of gold during the flourishing era of the Inca Empire. One could easily guess that those unique Inca sculptures are not found in any other places but in Peru. They were truly genuine, and of course mysterious, at least to the eyes of a stranger like me. I visited the museum three times to see more of the masterpieces on exhibition. The local culture was interesting. Because of the political turmoil during the 1980¡¯s, everyone was issued a new form of national identification cards, which rid political dissidents of legal tender. The Peruvians who became my friends...