Restless Nights

The nights here are anything but quiet. It’s the dogs mostly, but also the car horns that are used to warn or cajole. They usually taper off at about midnight. The dogs however, are vocal all night. For the most part there is noisy harmony, but occasionally it is raucous chaos that shoots adrenaline through my body as I listen for the inevitable high pitched whimper as one or more dogs gets attacked.

The dogs are in fairly good shape as dogs go in developing countries. Most of them have collars which means they are owned, but not fed. There seems to be a genuine love for the dogs, but the love stops at a collar and a place to come home to. They are like wild street kids running in odd packs. Down the street there is a group of little fuzzy dogs that hang with an enormous scruffy dog. Size and type don’t seem to dictate the gangs- it must be smell.

The main street that leads all the way to Cusco is two blocks below us. It is a busy 4-lane road (which translates to an amorphic 6 to 8 land road). There are occasional intersections with red lights to allow cross traffic to enter the busy road. These red lights also mean Go-Dog-Go. And they do. Either the dogs in Peru are born smart or the dumb ones don’t last long. I am constantly cringing as we drive all too rapidly down narrow streets with dogs every 30 or 40 feet. But they seem to dodge our every attempt to eliminate them. I don’t believe the drivers really want to hit the dogs but they certainly can’t be bothered with trying to avoid them.