Empty Bottles.....

So, I was telling my friend Katie Bechtold the other day on Facebook, at this point I feel very much acclimated to my surroundings and so many things in North America are going to be weird to me now. But one thing that struck me the other day was many uses of empty pop bottles here.

So here are the Top Five Uses For Empty Bottles:

# 5 - Use as a refillable bottle, not too strange, we do this in the states. But they do refill the bottles with juice and tea sold on the street corners.

# 4 - So those ladies selling the juice and tea on the street corners are vending their homemade drinks with reused pop bottles. The "2 liter" pop bottles here are actually the size two 2 liter bottles combined in the states. So imagine a large dirty 4 liter pop bottle filled with some ladies homemade tea on the street corner.

# 3 - Refill the large "4 liter" bottles with household items such as cleaning solutions, liquid garden fertilizer, or oil. Take your pick!

# 2 - Many times I have seen children kicking around an empty pop bottle like a soccer ball. No need to buy the kid a soccer ball for his birthday, just get a pop, drink it, and give him the empty remains as a toy. The kids will have fun for hours. (Much like cardboard boxes in the states! Forget about the toy; just give the kid the box!)

And my favorite use for empty pop bottles in Peru.....

# 1 - Take a large, empty (of course), 4 liter bottle and bang it against the wall at your work while you are on strike. It's actually quite a good noise maker and annoying for all those around!

Obviously, this is a whole different country with a different culture and ways of doing things. I just thought you would like my list of interesting ways to use empty pop bottles so you all can get the trend started in the states. But really, there are so many things we can learn from each other! For example, reusing these pop bottles seems silly at times but how resourceful! In the states I know I jump at the chance to buy something new I "need". One of my favorite quotes from "What About Bob" is: "Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie, I NEED, I NEED, I'm doing the work, I'm not a slacker!" Just ask my Dad, I quote this to him all the time! Well, I'm learning to live in a more simplistic and resourceful way and I'm excited to see what else this culture has to teach me!

Here is a video of a little piece of a mercado here in town. This market is huge! My friends (Garren & Trevor) and I had fun walking around the market especially in this Pet Store. Oh wait, its not a pet store, its a grocery store! Haha! Another cultural difference!