Tasty

Today, I got taken on a big excursion, by Antonio and his friend Clevér (yep, that's his name!). The three of us went to Chaclacayo, which is virtually a town by itself, right on the Eastern edge of Lima, almost in the mountains. There, we visited Alexis Bellido — another of Antonio's Linux friends — who has a house out there, and who is also the only (known) Drupal developer in Peru!

After an afternoon nap, I met up with Antonio again for dinner this evening. However, this time there were 10 of us dining together! Seems that Antonio managed to get together a whole bunch of Lima Linux people, and at very short notice. We went to a restaurant called Norky's, which does great meats of all varieties, and we discussed all things geeky.

Today, I finally met my Lima-based friend Antonio Ognio, the king of all Peruvian Linux geeks. As an introduction to his home city, Antonio suggested that he take me to a nearby all-you-can-eat buffet — serving a wide variety of popular local dishes — and that he give me a small walking tour of Lima. Turned out to be a great day.

For my final few hours in Vancouver this afternoon, Genna took me on a little tour of the Steveston Village area. This is a beautiful little wharf and seafood spot, nestled at the very bottom of Richmond Island, and overlooking the Gulf of Georgia. It's also apparently the oldest part of Vancouver. This is where Vancouver started, as little more than a modest fishing village. There are great restaurants, great cafés, and great ice-cream shops along the boardwalk here.

Spent all day today down at the Sunnyvale Sheraton, where the Drupal folks managed to hire out a big room, and to fill it with an abundance of Wi-fi, coffee, and donuts. So that we could conduct the Drupal Hackfest. The day was a great success, with close to 100 developers churning away code throughout the room, and working through the core issue queue, and with three core committers present to help get those patches in once and for all, by making core CVS commits.

The Green Tortoise is in the middle of Chinatown, and I've been taking advantage of the good food around here already. I had a nice Chinese lunch yesterday, and I grabbed another nice Chinese meal for dinner this evening. But on both occasions, all the Asian folk around me were given chopsticks, and I was given a spoon and fork. Apparently, unlike back home in Sydney — where everyone gets chopsticks, unless they request otherwise — here in America, non-Asians are assumed to be both chopstick-illiterate and chopstick-a-phobic, and are by default not given them. I guess that this is an interesting and a sad indication of the cultural differences between the United States and Australia.

I only had it so I could say: "I went to Mexico, and I ate a falafel". There, see, I said it :P. But actually, the falafel in the small, Israeli-run shop in downtown San Cristóbal was one of the best meals I've had in a while, and it was possibly the best falafel I've had in my whole life. Fresh pita pockets, hommus mixed with oil and whole chick peas, coleslaw salad on the side, and sauces of salsa verde and salsa rojo. Mmm... ¡sabbaba, amigo!

During my two-and-a-bit days in El Panchán, I ate every breakfast and every dinner at Don Muchos. Considering that it's really the only place to eat at El Panchán, this should come as no surprise. Also, considering that they have a total monopoly over everyone who's staying in El Panchán (and who can't be bothered to go into town for food), they're quite reasonably priced.

Tonight will be remembered as the great feast night of Tulum. Kyden, Steve, and myself decided to make it a boys' cooking night, and we whisked up an authentic Mexican dinner of tamales, BBQ chicken, and guacamole that was extremely delicious, and that was also of ample quantity for about half the hostel to dig in and have a bite.

Ordered this big fella with my (overpriced) lunch at Chichén Itzá. It's got a whole lot of different fruits in it, including strawberry and mango. The cup itself is also quite an attractive number — it could hold enough tequila in it to help intoxicate thousands of poor, sober Ethiopians.