doctor juvenal was a cool dude
he drove us all about the salaar de uyuni
with a big smile on his face
he didnt really speak english
and none of us spoke quechua
but his spanish was good
my average italian meant i could communicate a bit
so as usual the babel fish did the vast majority of the work
the quebecoise could also get by a bit
but the bogans up the back had no hope
he was funny too
he made an ongoing joke for days about about maggots big hair
saying 'pollo!, pollo! and giggling like a school kid
it took a while before my foetal stage monoglot brain got that he was referring to
his hair being like a roosters comb...
poyo! poyo!
points at head
tick tick tick
poyo? poyo?
tick tick tick
ahhhhhh!
pollo!
bahahahhahha
pollo! pollo!
for a seeming eternity a line from a song came into my head
but i coudnt figure out what it was from
or even what the lyrics were
i just kept singing
doctor juvenal!
doctor juvenal!
and calling him doctor juvenal....
none the wiser as to who what why where when or whow
as it was in an age of scarce internet
just the odd internet cafe in big towns
or zero on the altiplano
it was only months later that it occurred to me...
