At any central market and in many corner stores in Lima and around Peru, you can now find superstitious lucky soap product, Jabon Ruda.  It claims the soap is derived from a secret preparation formula from the “Palacio del Imperio” (Imperial Palace) and that Ruda has been used by pharaohs and Inca kings that attributed magical conquering powers.

Accorgding to Wikipedia, Ruda, or Common Rue, is a plant with some acknowledged medicinal properties from digestive aid to arthritis relief but also used as an abortifacient to horses and humans. It is also said that cats dislike the smell of it and has been used to deter them. But no mention of any esoteric belief attached to it. Ok.

Originally I bought this soap to put on my wall menagerie (I have a menagerie? whoa) since I think its a cool little foreign trinket, but upon opening the box when I got home from Peru last night I realized this soap actually smells damn good.  So I have decided to use it and in the meantime report any blatant luck may occur during the lifetime of the soap.   To be fully fair to this experiment I will declare an open mind to the product and just report the facts.

I will post updates.

Alpaca’s experiencing post Ruda bliss?

UPDATE 4/14/09:

By some conventional definitions of getting lucky It would be fair to suggest I got lucky the first day I used the soap. Yeah, I totally got laid, but that does not mean you will and it also does not mean that this soap will give you the same result.  I will update if more blatant luck persists.