so, um, remember that line about my big white squishy body? well, after 2.5 hours on the beach here...well...let's just say i hurt. i hurt all over and i look retarded. i'm a joke. how can a girl from los angeles, land of sun and surf, make this classic rookie mistake???
well, i was confounded too, but there is an answer, folks, and it's not that i'm as dorky as i look right now. i lathered on sunscreen. it's no mystery to me that my thigh meat is blinding when looked at directly. i juiced it up. really i did. and my arms, chest and face even had two doses, one in the morning and one before going out to the beach. and still...i resemble, if not could totally pass for, the red lobster right now. at first i thought it was only a few blobs that i missed, but no, it's el todo cuerpo. i started to think that i got ripped off and bought fake sunscreen...a stretch, but remember i'm coming from cusco where they can figure out really creative ways to rip you off.
but then my saving grace came into the hostel. her name is jane (i suppose if her name was aloe, then she'd really be my saviour) and she's british living in ireland (my first hostel friend). she got the crap burned out of her two days ago...all while sporting a healthy coating of spf 30...
a guy told her yesterday after she was commenting with confusion, that apparently there is little to no ozone directly above uruguay. so now i know why this town has the name it does...because it's hell here. hot and about as good to your body as the grills at carl's jr. at least i have an answer, because i have never had this happen after 2 hours in the sun with sunscreen. man o man. sort of puts a cramp in my "ain't leaving the beach for 5 days" plan! now i guess i have to stay on my little balcony in my hammock overlooking the beach all day :)
i feel you cursing me again. trust me, i suffer enough right now. always...there is a fine balance to the universe.
anway, brief recap, so i won't be the asshole who stays on the computer too long:
b.a. was totally daunting and i felt pretty alone in such a huge city that really couldn't give a crap about tourists and whether we can find cash or internet. i was at my second atm that had no cash to dispense when i ran into matt from colorado. he's traveling alone around s. america and was also alone and cashless in b.a. so, as desperate lonely american travelers do, we bonded and hung out for the day. it was welcome company for me! he had been in town for a few days, so he showed me around a bit and then we met again for dinner in cute little palermo. good stuff. he's exactly my age (unheard of in peru!) and was easy company. exactly what i needed that day.
yesterday i left early for uruguay and went straight for montevideo, where i walked around and enjoyed my first gelato of the argentina/uruguay area. delightful! not quite as good as that of rome, but a fine, fine second. i wish i had a tub of it right now and i would sleep in it.
this morning i took a 3.5 hour bus ride to punto del diablo and immediately proceeded to burn my skin off. the swim in the atlantic was good stuff, though. the atlantic across from africa no less! this little town is delightful. my perfect tiny beach town and if i lived closer, this would totally be my family's vacation spot. absolutely my speed and size.
i hope to take a bus and then hike 3 miles to a nearby beach outpost that has no roads to it, but has been on my list of things to visit for months now. apparently it's an even more delightful little beach town that sports its own huge sea lion colony to boot. going to try for that place tomrorow or friday. maybe friday so my skin can heal tomorrow...
sunday i bus back to montevideo, spend one last night there and then make my way back for a week's visit in b.a. on monday. should be a good visit...much less daunting than my first night because there will be a guy from work (bob payne from our sports web dept.) there visiting and is an old pro at b.a. planning on meeting up with him on wednesday for a little tour and, even better, one of my new argentinian friends from my random meeting that night in ollantaytambo wants to try and tour the graphics department of clarin (the b.a. newspaper with the kick-ass graphics) with me. he's studying graphic design in college and was excited that i had a visit to the paper planned. seems he'll be in b.a. next week too and wants to try to do the visit with me. that's the kind of fun travel-inspired reunions that i like! i want more of that!!!
ok. it hurts my skin to be in contact with itself right now. i go lube and recline.
(and i think i already officially became the asshole who won't get off the computer)
later, my opus about how hostels kind of suck. and that the correct spelling is actually hostile methinks...at least for the inhabitants. so freaking cliquey!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
ain´t no looking back!
ok, here goes nothing folks...
just when i´ve got this place figured out, secured some pretty great peeps and had a satisfying argument in spanish i have to leave! and go to a land that´s big, unfamiliar and oh so daunting!
i had a slight heart attack while trying to secure housing for myself in b.a. tomorrow night...yes, i had no plans secured yet. yes, i leave in 12 hours. yes. and i was this close to paying dearly for my procrastination, but it all worked out! ha! and i now have my first two nights in palermo, b.a. secured and the following 6 nights in uruguay. i´ll be settling this soggy, white body of mine on the beaches of punto del diablo in three days time and i´m not moving it, save for acquiring beverages and comestibles, for five days. staying at a hostel near the beach and i have my fingers crossed that i will encounter good people, good weather and friendly sea lions. don´t know when i will check in next. do they have computers in buenos aires? ;)
about to step into the unknown...about to be heckled by really beautiful argentinian people with robust wardrobes...
wish me luck.
vaya con dios y hasta luego, cusco!
just when i´ve got this place figured out, secured some pretty great peeps and had a satisfying argument in spanish i have to leave! and go to a land that´s big, unfamiliar and oh so daunting!
i had a slight heart attack while trying to secure housing for myself in b.a. tomorrow night...yes, i had no plans secured yet. yes, i leave in 12 hours. yes. and i was this close to paying dearly for my procrastination, but it all worked out! ha! and i now have my first two nights in palermo, b.a. secured and the following 6 nights in uruguay. i´ll be settling this soggy, white body of mine on the beaches of punto del diablo in three days time and i´m not moving it, save for acquiring beverages and comestibles, for five days. staying at a hostel near the beach and i have my fingers crossed that i will encounter good people, good weather and friendly sea lions. don´t know when i will check in next. do they have computers in buenos aires? ;)
about to step into the unknown...about to be heckled by really beautiful argentinian people with robust wardrobes...
wish me luck.
vaya con dios y hasta luego, cusco!
Friday, January 25, 2008
hay mas!
back from the jungle.
back from the valley.
and cusco is here just as i left it, full of touristas, massage peddlers and slippery cobblestone streets.
first,i start with the jungle experience. it actually began quite similarly to our favorite disney jungle book boat ride. we boated up the rio in a standard long boat and were promptly and awe-inspiringly pampered from the minute we arrived. i can easily say that was some of the best money i´ve ever spent. after many many hectic days in cusco, a warm and lux visit to the rain forest was just what the doctor ordered. wow. now it seems long ago, but last weekend, i was the embodiment of bliss. i even perfected a three-ingredient concoction of lotions and potions and managed to escape without a single mosquito bite.
· we walked among the jungle creatures (jumped when what we thought was a fake tarantula on a tree trunk darted into it´s web nest...a substantial heart attack, of which there were many in the depths of creepy crawly land.)
· we lolled in our personal hammocks at the front of our cabana. we took three showers a day (the shower was one of my happiest places) and promptly dressed in the light, cotton robes they provided for us.
· we ate three freakishly tasty meals a day in the beautiful dining room, where i encountered a dulce de leche/vanilla wafer dessert that actually gives chocolate a run for its money. oh my god. and the juice! would it be me in south america if i didn´t mention the juice?? it was better than in cusco...and who thought that was possible!? the passion fruit juice. the honeydew melon juice. my new loves. i dream of them. when i get home i´m buying the best blender you can buy and i will figure out the secret to this juice. oh yes i will.
· we walked along a 100-ft high jungle canopy walk and it was the greatest! it titillated my tree-house lover like you don´t even know...and raised the bar for my future tree house as well! so much fun. not a lot of life up in the canopy when we were up there, but of course when we were down on the forest floor again, we looked up and next to the rope bridge we were just on, was a toucan. all i wanted was to see a real, live toucan at some point, so i was happy (though a little peeved that he waited till i was so far away to show himself).
· we visited a beautiful butterfly preserve and saw fabulous little flutterers. dazzling.
· i met my new peruvian boyfriend, sherlock (yes, not your average peruvian name)who heralds from lima and is a bartender and waiter at the resort, on the boat and had a great time speaking in spanish with him the entire weekend. he was our first and very valuable connection to the dining room crew (almost all of whom were our best friends by the end of the weekend). it was fun, because you could tell that the crew isn´t used to tourists who can speak spanish...much less who are single girls under the age of 65. so every time i went up to the buffet, whoever was up there would ask me tons of questions and speak to me in spanish. it was pretty wonderful and great practice! and getting complimented on my spanish wasn´t bad either ;)
the dream vacation, of course, was as fleeting as my glimpse of the monkeys in the jungle and fizzled to just a faint memory at exactly 2:30 pm last sunday when we arrived by taxi back in the plaza de armas. and the traffic dodging and ¨no gracias¨ fun recommenced.
later sunday afternoon i taxied a little ways past pisac to the little pueblo of taray. the school´s house was pretty cool, but - as is par for the course here in peru - a bit rough around the edges. i shared a room with three other girls, two of whom were my new good friends: larissa, 26 from brazil studying to become a p.t. (and who has been in my spanish class for the past three weeks and quickly became my campañera. we share a log of the same sensibilities, but she immediately posed a great challenge for me to keep up with her rapid banter (a mind-addling mix of portuguese and spanish). it´s possible i´m the only american in the school who can understand her. and audrey, 28 a doctor in chicago who has become my music-loving counterpart here in s.a. we bonded initially over a freakishly similar taste in music and continued to share tasty details of our lives over the past week. fine, fine roommates indeed.
we banded together along with a few other sensible individuals and, with a healthy diet of mockery and judgement, managed to survive the week with the young partygoers. it was extra amusing when the batch of them got so wasted that they didn´t make it to class the next day...despite being about 10 feet away from the living room where classes were held...
they did their partying the in their little rooms in a little, native pueblo in the peruvian countryside. ´twas quaint.
i did my best to soak up my last chance at learning tenses and practicing spanish with my new professors. it was a great week of classes and i got in two last tenses, though i think my spanish is actually getting worse. it´s possible that i reached my saturation level and i´m overflowing with information. now, when i open my mouth, i just don´t know whether future, conditional, subjunctive, progressive etc. is going to come out...not to mention whether it will be appropriately male or female, singular or plural. aaaaaahhhh. and leaving for argentina might just complicate the situation further. we will see. one thing is for certain, my dream of waltzing back into the u.s. fluent in spanish ain´t happening! i think i might have been overestimating my 32-year old brain.
the highlight of studying in the sacred valley was, hands down, the insane, ass-kicking, purely will-driven hike/scramble that 6 of us went on after class yesterday. we left the house at 1 pm and returned at 7:58...2 minutes to change for dinner. i´m uploading photos now, but i don´t know if they´ll do the experience justice. i have no idea how high or how far we traveled, but looking back on it today, it looks impossible.
we started out with the simple, but logistically challenging goal of climbing and summiting one of the surrounding mountains. didn´t matter which one because there aren´t really trails. we basically followed the main road west away from pisac and picked a spot to start the scramble/climb. the vegetation was pretty forgiving, but the ridiculous degree of incline was interesting and sketchy enough that i was wondering how the hell we were going to get down. but we persevered (and at the altitude we´re at here, that is no small feat) and we climbed and climbed and climbed straight up. (background: one of the cool things about the peruvian mountains is that no matter how high they are and how crazy steep, you find crops growing all over...growing at a 60 degree angle...) so when we reached our false summit and took a break we were next to a section of crops and there were animal tracks all around. we followed a few of those until we encountered the trail that the farmers must use - that is one hell of a commute to work...
we decided to just follow the trail instead of attempting the true summit and to our greatest enjoyment, the trail just kept going and climbing and going and climbing until we had traversed the entire wall of mountains that i had been admiring for the past week. we wanted to climb one, but we managed to climb many and we ended up all the way past pisac, looking down on the mountain where the pisac ruins are. (i thought the pisac ruins were insanely high up, so my surprise at being that much higher looking down on the entire mountain was immense. and captivating.) it was a long day of countless ascents and descents, some sprinkling and a slightly scary 5-minute thunder storm/downpour, followed by a full rainbow across the valley, a cross-country descent through mountain farmland, jaunts through sudden eucalyptus forests, packs of grazing goats and summit views...
we were all worked...some a bit more than others, but they hung in there and ended up being pretty proud of themselves. (i was ready with my safety-first WFR skills to save them...except for the part about the sketchy scramble climb.) it was a breathtaking hike on a magical trail that took us everywhere we ever wanted to go and it fulfilled my reason for going to taray in the first place. perfecto!
back from the valley.
and cusco is here just as i left it, full of touristas, massage peddlers and slippery cobblestone streets.
first,i start with the jungle experience. it actually began quite similarly to our favorite disney jungle book boat ride. we boated up the rio in a standard long boat and were promptly and awe-inspiringly pampered from the minute we arrived. i can easily say that was some of the best money i´ve ever spent. after many many hectic days in cusco, a warm and lux visit to the rain forest was just what the doctor ordered. wow. now it seems long ago, but last weekend, i was the embodiment of bliss. i even perfected a three-ingredient concoction of lotions and potions and managed to escape without a single mosquito bite.
· we walked among the jungle creatures (jumped when what we thought was a fake tarantula on a tree trunk darted into it´s web nest...a substantial heart attack, of which there were many in the depths of creepy crawly land.)
· we lolled in our personal hammocks at the front of our cabana. we took three showers a day (the shower was one of my happiest places) and promptly dressed in the light, cotton robes they provided for us.
· we ate three freakishly tasty meals a day in the beautiful dining room, where i encountered a dulce de leche/vanilla wafer dessert that actually gives chocolate a run for its money. oh my god. and the juice! would it be me in south america if i didn´t mention the juice?? it was better than in cusco...and who thought that was possible!? the passion fruit juice. the honeydew melon juice. my new loves. i dream of them. when i get home i´m buying the best blender you can buy and i will figure out the secret to this juice. oh yes i will.
· we walked along a 100-ft high jungle canopy walk and it was the greatest! it titillated my tree-house lover like you don´t even know...and raised the bar for my future tree house as well! so much fun. not a lot of life up in the canopy when we were up there, but of course when we were down on the forest floor again, we looked up and next to the rope bridge we were just on, was a toucan. all i wanted was to see a real, live toucan at some point, so i was happy (though a little peeved that he waited till i was so far away to show himself).
· we visited a beautiful butterfly preserve and saw fabulous little flutterers. dazzling.
· i met my new peruvian boyfriend, sherlock (yes, not your average peruvian name)who heralds from lima and is a bartender and waiter at the resort, on the boat and had a great time speaking in spanish with him the entire weekend. he was our first and very valuable connection to the dining room crew (almost all of whom were our best friends by the end of the weekend). it was fun, because you could tell that the crew isn´t used to tourists who can speak spanish...much less who are single girls under the age of 65. so every time i went up to the buffet, whoever was up there would ask me tons of questions and speak to me in spanish. it was pretty wonderful and great practice! and getting complimented on my spanish wasn´t bad either ;)
the dream vacation, of course, was as fleeting as my glimpse of the monkeys in the jungle and fizzled to just a faint memory at exactly 2:30 pm last sunday when we arrived by taxi back in the plaza de armas. and the traffic dodging and ¨no gracias¨ fun recommenced.
later sunday afternoon i taxied a little ways past pisac to the little pueblo of taray. the school´s house was pretty cool, but - as is par for the course here in peru - a bit rough around the edges. i shared a room with three other girls, two of whom were my new good friends: larissa, 26 from brazil studying to become a p.t. (and who has been in my spanish class for the past three weeks and quickly became my campañera. we share a log of the same sensibilities, but she immediately posed a great challenge for me to keep up with her rapid banter (a mind-addling mix of portuguese and spanish). it´s possible i´m the only american in the school who can understand her. and audrey, 28 a doctor in chicago who has become my music-loving counterpart here in s.a. we bonded initially over a freakishly similar taste in music and continued to share tasty details of our lives over the past week. fine, fine roommates indeed.
we banded together along with a few other sensible individuals and, with a healthy diet of mockery and judgement, managed to survive the week with the young partygoers. it was extra amusing when the batch of them got so wasted that they didn´t make it to class the next day...despite being about 10 feet away from the living room where classes were held...
they did their partying the in their little rooms in a little, native pueblo in the peruvian countryside. ´twas quaint.
i did my best to soak up my last chance at learning tenses and practicing spanish with my new professors. it was a great week of classes and i got in two last tenses, though i think my spanish is actually getting worse. it´s possible that i reached my saturation level and i´m overflowing with information. now, when i open my mouth, i just don´t know whether future, conditional, subjunctive, progressive etc. is going to come out...not to mention whether it will be appropriately male or female, singular or plural. aaaaaahhhh. and leaving for argentina might just complicate the situation further. we will see. one thing is for certain, my dream of waltzing back into the u.s. fluent in spanish ain´t happening! i think i might have been overestimating my 32-year old brain.
the highlight of studying in the sacred valley was, hands down, the insane, ass-kicking, purely will-driven hike/scramble that 6 of us went on after class yesterday. we left the house at 1 pm and returned at 7:58...2 minutes to change for dinner. i´m uploading photos now, but i don´t know if they´ll do the experience justice. i have no idea how high or how far we traveled, but looking back on it today, it looks impossible.
we started out with the simple, but logistically challenging goal of climbing and summiting one of the surrounding mountains. didn´t matter which one because there aren´t really trails. we basically followed the main road west away from pisac and picked a spot to start the scramble/climb. the vegetation was pretty forgiving, but the ridiculous degree of incline was interesting and sketchy enough that i was wondering how the hell we were going to get down. but we persevered (and at the altitude we´re at here, that is no small feat) and we climbed and climbed and climbed straight up. (background: one of the cool things about the peruvian mountains is that no matter how high they are and how crazy steep, you find crops growing all over...growing at a 60 degree angle...) so when we reached our false summit and took a break we were next to a section of crops and there were animal tracks all around. we followed a few of those until we encountered the trail that the farmers must use - that is one hell of a commute to work...
we decided to just follow the trail instead of attempting the true summit and to our greatest enjoyment, the trail just kept going and climbing and going and climbing until we had traversed the entire wall of mountains that i had been admiring for the past week. we wanted to climb one, but we managed to climb many and we ended up all the way past pisac, looking down on the mountain where the pisac ruins are. (i thought the pisac ruins were insanely high up, so my surprise at being that much higher looking down on the entire mountain was immense. and captivating.) it was a long day of countless ascents and descents, some sprinkling and a slightly scary 5-minute thunder storm/downpour, followed by a full rainbow across the valley, a cross-country descent through mountain farmland, jaunts through sudden eucalyptus forests, packs of grazing goats and summit views...
we were all worked...some a bit more than others, but they hung in there and ended up being pretty proud of themselves. (i was ready with my safety-first WFR skills to save them...except for the part about the sketchy scramble climb.) it was a breathtaking hike on a magical trail that took us everywhere we ever wanted to go and it fulfilled my reason for going to taray in the first place. perfecto!
ahora, i am in a hotel near my school and the plaza de armas and am in for a whole ´nother kind of scramble. i have one day to figure out my next two weeks in b.a. and uruguay and to get all my last cusco experiences in. should be interesting. i´ll be back tomorrow to finish the photo upload and secure my next chapter!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
hace tres semanas y una mas
tomorrow marks the end of week three in mis clases de espanol and i reward myself with (hopefully) a remarkable trip 200 miles east to the peruvian rain forest. mi amiga, christine, y yo will fly tomorrow (yes, playing hooky from school! - that´s the best part of going to school, right?) and will enjoy three days in a jungle lodge that is accessible only by boat up the river. i´m not going to talk it up just yet, for fear of returning with only tales of bird-sized mosquitoes and brand new bouncing babies named malaria and yellow fever.
tomorrow also marks the end of my time with mama and papa cusco (yoni & fernando). my dreams of entering a lively and crowded latin american household were dashed by this fairly quiet home. it was only me and yoni for every meal this week...except for my final lunch today! there, in the living room decked out in black trousers, a black button-up shirt and a black sport coat, was fernando...or, as i called him then, fernando el mysterioso.
he was a fairly intimidating sight at first. someone i quickly likened to a latin american mafia boss, but after a moment or two with him, i found that he´s actually fairly good natured and absolutely cracks himself up. appropriately sexist and bold, he certainly made for interesting and lively conversation! we chatted for an hour and a half over lunch and the icing on the cake was his final question to me...¨La ultima pregunta, si, la ultima pregunta,¨ he kept repeating (before and after asking more and more questions) but the absolute ultima pregunta was this: "why do you think there are gays in the world?"
ha! delightful. i asked if they were unfamiliar with homosexuality here in peru and he answered no, they exist here, but he´s interested in my thoughts.
what a question for a liberal-minded people-lover from seattle! oh, fernando...
he did tell me something interesting though, if you´ve looked through my photos on flickr, you might have seen the cusco flag (it´s a striped rainbow flag) well, as one could imagine, many foreigners come here and mistake the city flag for the similarly rainbow-striped gay & lesbian flag. the city is actually considering altering their flag slightly to try and alleviate the confusion. i say they should join forces and cusco could become the main vacation spot for the gay and lesbian vacation tours out there. it really is a great vacation destination! and that way, los pobrecitos como fernando might be able to get some answers to their burning questions.
next week i have decided to switch up my housing once again and am going to study my last week of spanish in my school´s sacred valley location. just a 20 minute walk from my beloved pisac, the new home looks pretty amazing, with a comfortable living room with a fireplace and a big bonfire area outside. it´s very quiet there and nestled in amongst those awe-inspiring mountains. i have a couple new good friends who have also chose to study there and we plan to hike every day, read, listen to music and work on our spanish. it will be a wonderful change of pace from cusco. sadly, the rabid pack of yonggins at my school have signed up to go as well. we older, wiser, and far more fabulous ones are rolling our eyes and hoping that we will survive a week in the same house as these voracious partiers. and by voracious, i am not exaggerating...we´re talking up partying and dancing until 7 in the morning every day. needless to say, spanish is far from their first priority here in cusco. none of us can figure out why these creatures are interested in going to a house in the middle of nowhere...near no real towns...with no discotecas and no bars... perhaps i am judging them too quickly. perhaps, in the more subdued environs i will get to know these humans more intimately and they will expose to me some humanity...their sensitive and intelligent underbellies.
or, perhaps i will kill them in a sleep-starved rage.
update in one week.
(which, incidentally, will be two days before i head to buenos aires...oh my!)
tomorrow also marks the end of my time with mama and papa cusco (yoni & fernando). my dreams of entering a lively and crowded latin american household were dashed by this fairly quiet home. it was only me and yoni for every meal this week...except for my final lunch today! there, in the living room decked out in black trousers, a black button-up shirt and a black sport coat, was fernando...or, as i called him then, fernando el mysterioso.
he was a fairly intimidating sight at first. someone i quickly likened to a latin american mafia boss, but after a moment or two with him, i found that he´s actually fairly good natured and absolutely cracks himself up. appropriately sexist and bold, he certainly made for interesting and lively conversation! we chatted for an hour and a half over lunch and the icing on the cake was his final question to me...¨La ultima pregunta, si, la ultima pregunta,¨ he kept repeating (before and after asking more and more questions) but the absolute ultima pregunta was this: "why do you think there are gays in the world?"
ha! delightful. i asked if they were unfamiliar with homosexuality here in peru and he answered no, they exist here, but he´s interested in my thoughts.
what a question for a liberal-minded people-lover from seattle! oh, fernando...
he did tell me something interesting though, if you´ve looked through my photos on flickr, you might have seen the cusco flag (it´s a striped rainbow flag) well, as one could imagine, many foreigners come here and mistake the city flag for the similarly rainbow-striped gay & lesbian flag. the city is actually considering altering their flag slightly to try and alleviate the confusion. i say they should join forces and cusco could become the main vacation spot for the gay and lesbian vacation tours out there. it really is a great vacation destination! and that way, los pobrecitos como fernando might be able to get some answers to their burning questions.
next week i have decided to switch up my housing once again and am going to study my last week of spanish in my school´s sacred valley location. just a 20 minute walk from my beloved pisac, the new home looks pretty amazing, with a comfortable living room with a fireplace and a big bonfire area outside. it´s very quiet there and nestled in amongst those awe-inspiring mountains. i have a couple new good friends who have also chose to study there and we plan to hike every day, read, listen to music and work on our spanish. it will be a wonderful change of pace from cusco. sadly, the rabid pack of yonggins at my school have signed up to go as well. we older, wiser, and far more fabulous ones are rolling our eyes and hoping that we will survive a week in the same house as these voracious partiers. and by voracious, i am not exaggerating...we´re talking up partying and dancing until 7 in the morning every day. needless to say, spanish is far from their first priority here in cusco. none of us can figure out why these creatures are interested in going to a house in the middle of nowhere...near no real towns...with no discotecas and no bars... perhaps i am judging them too quickly. perhaps, in the more subdued environs i will get to know these humans more intimately and they will expose to me some humanity...their sensitive and intelligent underbellies.
or, perhaps i will kill them in a sleep-starved rage.
update in one week.
(which, incidentally, will be two days before i head to buenos aires...oh my!)
Monday, January 14, 2008
outside a cafe, san blas neighborhood, 14:00
the three women, heavily armed in tasteful travel gear, stopped at the top of the stairs to admire the paintings the young boy thrust in front of them. and as if pigeons descending upon dropped bread crumbs, the other roaming tradespeople closed in around them.
the encroaching crowd, however, didn´t seem to bother these ladies. with designer sunglasses and their blond hair - one short and in curls, two straight and pulled back - they instead, seemed to be invigorated by the attention of these exotic locals. with the help of their large-brimmed sunhats varying in pattern from leopard print to striped, they stood about six inches taller than their pride of suitors.
One woman flipped through the paintings, musing at the sweet peruvian scenes depicted, as the other in the striped black hat snapped photos with her noticeably large camera and its extra large lens. the local woman with the necklaces and the child strapped to her back pushed forward on the left, while the little girl selling finger puppets appeared on top of the wall. the older woman with the belts was forced to wait on the outskirts.
the blond trio had smiles spread wide as they continued on their buying safari. the locals: they were so close they could touch them. and they did. black-brimmed-hat captured every moment shared between the necklace lady´s baby and short-curls-blond. the tiny brown hand wrapped tightly around the larger, manicured white finger. necklace lady smiled as she tried to direct the attention back towards her velvet board of jewelry. once black-brimmed-hat caught the appropriate number of shots with the baby local, short-curls was able to wiggle free of the grasp.
kodak moments abound as they chose a painting from the boy and posed for a picture with the brown paper tube. the finger puppets were also quite cute - though not as precious as the girl selling them. they touched her hair. it was long, black and smooth.
it was time, then, for blond-ponytail to expose her own well-endowed camera so she could capture the frenzy - the zest - with which these locals wanted to interact with them. the older, sun-baked woman lifted belt after belt under the three noses, but by this time they had had enough of local visiting. the old woman and her woven belts weren´t quite as sweet as the children and their various goodies.
stowing their purchases, snapping their last photos and straightening their convertible khaki capri pants, they moved to part the sea of admirers. they descended two steps and looked back at their people. flashing white smiles, they waved goodbye and disappeared to the bottom of the stairs.
the encroaching crowd, however, didn´t seem to bother these ladies. with designer sunglasses and their blond hair - one short and in curls, two straight and pulled back - they instead, seemed to be invigorated by the attention of these exotic locals. with the help of their large-brimmed sunhats varying in pattern from leopard print to striped, they stood about six inches taller than their pride of suitors.
One woman flipped through the paintings, musing at the sweet peruvian scenes depicted, as the other in the striped black hat snapped photos with her noticeably large camera and its extra large lens. the local woman with the necklaces and the child strapped to her back pushed forward on the left, while the little girl selling finger puppets appeared on top of the wall. the older woman with the belts was forced to wait on the outskirts.
the blond trio had smiles spread wide as they continued on their buying safari. the locals: they were so close they could touch them. and they did. black-brimmed-hat captured every moment shared between the necklace lady´s baby and short-curls-blond. the tiny brown hand wrapped tightly around the larger, manicured white finger. necklace lady smiled as she tried to direct the attention back towards her velvet board of jewelry. once black-brimmed-hat caught the appropriate number of shots with the baby local, short-curls was able to wiggle free of the grasp.
kodak moments abound as they chose a painting from the boy and posed for a picture with the brown paper tube. the finger puppets were also quite cute - though not as precious as the girl selling them. they touched her hair. it was long, black and smooth.
it was time, then, for blond-ponytail to expose her own well-endowed camera so she could capture the frenzy - the zest - with which these locals wanted to interact with them. the older, sun-baked woman lifted belt after belt under the three noses, but by this time they had had enough of local visiting. the old woman and her woven belts weren´t quite as sweet as the children and their various goodies.
stowing their purchases, snapping their last photos and straightening their convertible khaki capri pants, they moved to part the sea of admirers. they descended two steps and looked back at their people. flashing white smiles, they waved goodbye and disappeared to the bottom of the stairs.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
whitbob gettin´connected!
well, i survived my first solo outing to ollantaytambo and it was just plain perfect. i ended up going straight there and straight back without any stops in the valley. i stayed at the sweetest `ole b&b you ever did see in the old train station right on the train platform (so i knew when each new batch of tourists headed out for machu picchu - fanny packs, ¨sacred valley¨ sunhats and all!)
the hostel was wonderful, though. tranquil and full of charm.
without losing a minute, i dumped my bag and headed directly for the ruins before more tourists could beat me to it. the fortress, as they call the ruins there, were pretty cool, but i wasn´t as impressed as i was with the ones at pisac. they weren´t nearly as crowded, though, which is a big plus. i explored the extent of the site and then proceeded to follow a steep little trail that shot out behind one of the walls. i climbed it far far up the mountain until i reached a very high, old incan wall that afforded me a great and sincerely private view of the entire ruins and the valleys beyond. it was my little secret way up high and the kind of solitude you long for, but never tend to find in these places.
after getting my fill of ruins (and trust me, i´m juuust about done with the ruins now) i wandered back to the plaza where there was a big town meeting taking place with all of the local gov´t officials and townspeople gathered. i listened for a bit and then snuck down the small roads beyond the plaza to explore. ollantaytambo is quite unique in that it is built entirely on the original incan foundation, streets and all. so, the streets (though no cars can drive down them) and the community itself, is quite small - as the original incan settlement was. the people, also, are mostly direct descendants of the incans so, quechua is the more popular language spoken. walking the streets was fascinating, as the original drainage systems are still in use and the walls of the houses are of that distinctive incan masonry. very cool and very laid back. even the stray dogs are chill.
i returned home to my happy place after exploring and proceeded to indulge myself... i took a nap in a hammock in the most delightful back yard i´ve seen in a while. the sun was dappled just the right amount. the birds were singing. the river babbled and gurgled next door. the wind swept through the eucalyptus trees above me. and there was absolutely not one other sound to disturb me. it has been a long time since i´ve experienced quietude like that. methinks not since my last afternoon nap in montana. and after living on the loudest street in the loudest little city in peru, i was so thankful!
after hammock time came eucalyptus sauna/steam time :) i know, there are those of you who hate me right now, yes? i realize this. forgive me. and remember that you presently have the freedom not only to go to the bathroom without the fear of catching typhus, but you also get to put your toilet paper down the toilet, where i feel it is happiest.
best part of the trip, as it turned out, wasn´t the naps and the peace and quiet, it was the fancy new latin american friends i made! i ended up running into a guy from my spanish school in town that evening and we proceeded to talk with four argentinian college students who are traveling around for their vacation. my new best friends: pablo, frederico, fernando and enzo, along with michael-of-mighigan from my school, and i chatted it up for about an hour in the plaza and then had a very entertaining dinner before parting ways. we let them practice their english (which was practically perfect) on us and they coached me on the ridiculous way the argentinians speak spanish. just when i think i´m getting somewhere and then there´s argentina! it was comical trying to understand them when they spoke fast. great fun though, indeed. so i´m covered in argentina when i visit in the future. and, after my impromptu decision to take a taxi home this morning instead of the bus, i now have a new best friend, fabiano, in brazil! fabiano and his godfather were on their way back to cusco after visiting machu picchu. thankfully, he could speak spanish quite well (his godfather could only speak portuguese) so we spoke the entire 2-hr. ride back in spanish (cue the massive applause and cheering for our little spanish-speaking whitbob) he´s a high school history, sociology and philosophy teacher and is now my contact in brazil! it´s a fine little collection i´ve got going, don´t you think? and it has made travelling quite fun indeed! i thought i´d be the lame duck who could go three months without meeting people, but i see it´s impossible not to. and it´s such a treat to have these encounters, however brief. they´re like little dashes of herbs that spice up my travels and my perspective.
okay, they are kicking me out now! only 8 photos into the upload! blasted sundays...
otay, i go now and await my family. more later.
yours,
the latin-american whisperer
the hostel was wonderful, though. tranquil and full of charm.
without losing a minute, i dumped my bag and headed directly for the ruins before more tourists could beat me to it. the fortress, as they call the ruins there, were pretty cool, but i wasn´t as impressed as i was with the ones at pisac. they weren´t nearly as crowded, though, which is a big plus. i explored the extent of the site and then proceeded to follow a steep little trail that shot out behind one of the walls. i climbed it far far up the mountain until i reached a very high, old incan wall that afforded me a great and sincerely private view of the entire ruins and the valleys beyond. it was my little secret way up high and the kind of solitude you long for, but never tend to find in these places.
after getting my fill of ruins (and trust me, i´m juuust about done with the ruins now) i wandered back to the plaza where there was a big town meeting taking place with all of the local gov´t officials and townspeople gathered. i listened for a bit and then snuck down the small roads beyond the plaza to explore. ollantaytambo is quite unique in that it is built entirely on the original incan foundation, streets and all. so, the streets (though no cars can drive down them) and the community itself, is quite small - as the original incan settlement was. the people, also, are mostly direct descendants of the incans so, quechua is the more popular language spoken. walking the streets was fascinating, as the original drainage systems are still in use and the walls of the houses are of that distinctive incan masonry. very cool and very laid back. even the stray dogs are chill.
i returned home to my happy place after exploring and proceeded to indulge myself... i took a nap in a hammock in the most delightful back yard i´ve seen in a while. the sun was dappled just the right amount. the birds were singing. the river babbled and gurgled next door. the wind swept through the eucalyptus trees above me. and there was absolutely not one other sound to disturb me. it has been a long time since i´ve experienced quietude like that. methinks not since my last afternoon nap in montana. and after living on the loudest street in the loudest little city in peru, i was so thankful!
after hammock time came eucalyptus sauna/steam time :) i know, there are those of you who hate me right now, yes? i realize this. forgive me. and remember that you presently have the freedom not only to go to the bathroom without the fear of catching typhus, but you also get to put your toilet paper down the toilet, where i feel it is happiest.
best part of the trip, as it turned out, wasn´t the naps and the peace and quiet, it was the fancy new latin american friends i made! i ended up running into a guy from my spanish school in town that evening and we proceeded to talk with four argentinian college students who are traveling around for their vacation. my new best friends: pablo, frederico, fernando and enzo, along with michael-of-mighigan from my school, and i chatted it up for about an hour in the plaza and then had a very entertaining dinner before parting ways. we let them practice their english (which was practically perfect) on us and they coached me on the ridiculous way the argentinians speak spanish. just when i think i´m getting somewhere and then there´s argentina! it was comical trying to understand them when they spoke fast. great fun though, indeed. so i´m covered in argentina when i visit in the future. and, after my impromptu decision to take a taxi home this morning instead of the bus, i now have a new best friend, fabiano, in brazil! fabiano and his godfather were on their way back to cusco after visiting machu picchu. thankfully, he could speak spanish quite well (his godfather could only speak portuguese) so we spoke the entire 2-hr. ride back in spanish (cue the massive applause and cheering for our little spanish-speaking whitbob) he´s a high school history, sociology and philosophy teacher and is now my contact in brazil! it´s a fine little collection i´ve got going, don´t you think? and it has made travelling quite fun indeed! i thought i´d be the lame duck who could go three months without meeting people, but i see it´s impossible not to. and it´s such a treat to have these encounters, however brief. they´re like little dashes of herbs that spice up my travels and my perspective.
okay, they are kicking me out now! only 8 photos into the upload! blasted sundays...
otay, i go now and await my family. more later.
yours,
the latin-american whisperer
Thursday, January 10, 2008
ollantaytambo ho!
we´re rapidly approaching the weekend and i´m scurrying to make plans to explore the sacred valley. i have the unfortunate luck of arriving the week that nobody else arrived and now, this week, everyone wants to do what i did last weekend instead of jumping on board my overnight ollantaytambo excursion. i can´t blame them for wanting to go in the same succession i did, but i feel screwed out of the true travel experience when all the lone souls band together and travel places. for about 12 hours i had two people on board with me, but then they decided they wanted to see pisac instead. (damn me for talking up pisac! i should have told then about the pukey bus ride and the dirty river!!!) so, now i go to it by my lonesome...but i found a pretty cool lodge down the valley, which should offer up some amazing views and the potential for some fun excursions. so, i´ll report back on that after the fact. i´m going to mix it up by taking the backpacker train there and then busing back on sunday through the many towns of the sacred valley. the bus is risky business, for sure, judging from the 45-minute nausea fest christine and i suffered on the bus ride to pisac last sunday. but i´m going to pack my own personal barf bag and hope for the best! on the bright side, the train is about $45 american(and that´s the super early, cheaper backpacker train), while the bus is about $3. so i´m going to say that my motion sickness is worth the $42 savings...i say that now...
i forgot to mark the day, but i started dreaming in spanish on jan. 7...three days ago. i think that´s an important step in my journey to becoming a true latin american. i speak really well in my dream, too! aaah to dream...perchance to communicate...
i also completed step two of the process...salsa lessons! last night i accompanied my little chili-pepper of a 19-yr-old-swiss-roommate to her favorite discoteca for free salsa lessons from 9 - 11. we will return tonight and hopefully i will be able to complete chili-pepper 101. right now i´d say i´m a green bell pepper at best. andrea (chili-pepper) leaves saturday to continue on her year-long travels, so i have to bask in her youth for our two remaining evenings together.
much to my tickled-pinkedness, i finally learned a super basic future tense yesterday (i knew it already, but at least we´re on the road to conversational freedom) and today we tackled two of the many past tenses! whoohooo! i have waited two long weeks for these days and now my brain hurts because i can´t absorb all this information, much less have it instantly accessible when i´m talking on the street. (the down side to finally getting to the stuff i don´t remember is that i no longer feel like the smart kid. i feel like the kid who sniffed glue and tried to eat a towel) but, i have hope that one day i will be speaking like a fully functioning spanish human. pray for me. if you need assistance, i captured a good shot of jesus on my flickr page.
oooh, and at 6 on sunday my new family picks me up at the school and they will take me home, swaddled in the traditional peruvian blankets, and feed me and love me forever. or...more likely, place me in the center of the living room, gather round and stare at me, wondering what the hell the strange noises i´m uttering could mean...
i forgot to mark the day, but i started dreaming in spanish on jan. 7...three days ago. i think that´s an important step in my journey to becoming a true latin american. i speak really well in my dream, too! aaah to dream...perchance to communicate...
i also completed step two of the process...salsa lessons! last night i accompanied my little chili-pepper of a 19-yr-old-swiss-roommate to her favorite discoteca for free salsa lessons from 9 - 11. we will return tonight and hopefully i will be able to complete chili-pepper 101. right now i´d say i´m a green bell pepper at best. andrea (chili-pepper) leaves saturday to continue on her year-long travels, so i have to bask in her youth for our two remaining evenings together.
much to my tickled-pinkedness, i finally learned a super basic future tense yesterday (i knew it already, but at least we´re on the road to conversational freedom) and today we tackled two of the many past tenses! whoohooo! i have waited two long weeks for these days and now my brain hurts because i can´t absorb all this information, much less have it instantly accessible when i´m talking on the street. (the down side to finally getting to the stuff i don´t remember is that i no longer feel like the smart kid. i feel like the kid who sniffed glue and tried to eat a towel) but, i have hope that one day i will be speaking like a fully functioning spanish human. pray for me. if you need assistance, i captured a good shot of jesus on my flickr page.
oooh, and at 6 on sunday my new family picks me up at the school and they will take me home, swaddled in the traditional peruvian blankets, and feed me and love me forever. or...more likely, place me in the center of the living room, gather round and stare at me, wondering what the hell the strange noises i´m uttering could mean...
"no gracias"
i hear that there´s a t-shirt for sale somewhere around here that has ¨no gracias¨ printed on the front. i don´t think i can express to you how badly i need this shirt. i´ve never seen it, and if it doesn´t exist, i´m going to move here and start selling them. i don´t know how long i can last with the niceties. soon, i´ll just start shoving these people -so many people!- into the road. there´s a street that leads to the san blas neighborhood that i will go far to avoid...i call it massage alley...and you can go approximately 6 inches until you´re approached by yet another girl trying to sell massages. they cover the entire street - both sides - and they make me angry. i´ve figured out a round-about way now that i can avoid them, but i´m sure soon enough, they´ll find me.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
random musings...finally
well here i go wearing my new blogger pantalones! i could use a new pair of pantalones, actually. two pair of pants just aren't much fun anymore.
randoms:
mi escuela - amauta school - ain't so shabby. i got slightly shafted when they put me in a fairly beginner class with two korean girls who could barely speak english much less an ounce of spanish. i was going to say something, but then it was kind of nice being the super smart one every day. in an effort to inflate my ego to illogical proportions, i remained in the class for the week. it turned out ok, though, because i got to review a few of the oldies but goodies and the girls left a day early so i had two classes all to my self on friday. this coming week will be my golden week...they'll go over the past, future and reflexive, which will really enhance my conversation skills. i'm getting kind of sick apologizing to random people that i don't remember the past or future tense, therefore i can only speak to them in the present. it really impedes my general goal of sounding fairly intelligent and sometimes funny..."yesterday, i go to the ruins. and tomorrow i go the museum. when i am nine years old i go to spanish classes, i here later to buy this..."
a girl in my residence was taken to the hospital on friday with not one, but count them, two infections. seems she picked up a tasty parasite, most likely from the children she has been volunteering with, along with a twist of typhoid. yes...good old typhus. i scoffed when i heard, thinking she was negligent not getting a shot before travelling, but it seems that she did get vaccinated...and still the little bugger persisted! needless to say, this has turned me into a bit of a paranoid hand-washer now, if i wasn't already. gotta love developing countries! she's fine, though and out of the hospital now. she has been here for four weeks, traveled a total of four months in s. america, and she gets sick the week before returning to germany.
stay tuned to the biological adventures of whitbob...
that makes a fine segway to the discussion of food here in cusco. i came expecting to eat a depressing menu of potatoes and rice, all the while staying as far away as possible from the dreaded guinea pig, but it turns out that the food here is actually pretty lovely. from the touristy places, to the artsy places, to the basic mexican places...everything has been delightfully tasty! and might i take the time here to say, "long live the avocado...long live peru!" here, a sliced avocado is a salad! this is music to these ears...and i have partaken of my friend, the avocado, like a good peruvian citizen should. they're big, perfectly ripe and always delicious! and there's no guilt! this will be a behavior i take back home with me - except that avocados are about 5 times more expensive at home. the juice here is also some sort of magic juice. i'm partial to the pina con naranja - pineapple and oragnge juice, but really, they're all freakishly good. i don't know how they do it, but they've mastered the art of fresh juice. every morning the nice lady at my house whips up some fresh orange, mango, banana, pineapple, papaya juice that is the tastiest of treats! how do they do it? no se, but it doesn't really matter. when you come here, have the juice! yay, juice!
ok, that's enough random bits for one day. i'm collecting more, so we'll not be lacking in times to come.
a quick action update: no photos posted yet, but we had a good couple days o' ruins. today being the best by far. we took an early bus to pisaq where - after a solid bout of motion sickness passed - we walked around while the locals set up their huge open-air market. we were absolutely the only tourists in the whole place and i can't describe how great that was. the variety of produce was astounding - and a bit tortuous since we can't eat it on our tourist bellies. all of the locals were gathered around tables eating homemade chicken stew with potatoes and spices while the local dogs sat anxiously waiting for dropped morsels. deep in the textile/tourist part of the market, vendors were still setting everything up, so they weren't interested in hussling us. we merely smiled and chatted with them as they were working. getting up at 5 definitely paid off at the market, and at the ruins, where for an hour, we had the place to ourselves. i'll post pics tomorrow...it was pretty amazing. if the pisaq ruins and the surrounding valley could knock our socks off, i can only imagine what machu picchu will be like!
now i go home and nurse this blasted cold i've picked up. manana, aprendo el pasado tiempo!
randoms:
mi escuela - amauta school - ain't so shabby. i got slightly shafted when they put me in a fairly beginner class with two korean girls who could barely speak english much less an ounce of spanish. i was going to say something, but then it was kind of nice being the super smart one every day. in an effort to inflate my ego to illogical proportions, i remained in the class for the week. it turned out ok, though, because i got to review a few of the oldies but goodies and the girls left a day early so i had two classes all to my self on friday. this coming week will be my golden week...they'll go over the past, future and reflexive, which will really enhance my conversation skills. i'm getting kind of sick apologizing to random people that i don't remember the past or future tense, therefore i can only speak to them in the present. it really impedes my general goal of sounding fairly intelligent and sometimes funny..."yesterday, i go to the ruins. and tomorrow i go the museum. when i am nine years old i go to spanish classes, i here later to buy this..."
a girl in my residence was taken to the hospital on friday with not one, but count them, two infections. seems she picked up a tasty parasite, most likely from the children she has been volunteering with, along with a twist of typhoid. yes...good old typhus. i scoffed when i heard, thinking she was negligent not getting a shot before travelling, but it seems that she did get vaccinated...and still the little bugger persisted! needless to say, this has turned me into a bit of a paranoid hand-washer now, if i wasn't already. gotta love developing countries! she's fine, though and out of the hospital now. she has been here for four weeks, traveled a total of four months in s. america, and she gets sick the week before returning to germany.
stay tuned to the biological adventures of whitbob...
that makes a fine segway to the discussion of food here in cusco. i came expecting to eat a depressing menu of potatoes and rice, all the while staying as far away as possible from the dreaded guinea pig, but it turns out that the food here is actually pretty lovely. from the touristy places, to the artsy places, to the basic mexican places...everything has been delightfully tasty! and might i take the time here to say, "long live the avocado...long live peru!" here, a sliced avocado is a salad! this is music to these ears...and i have partaken of my friend, the avocado, like a good peruvian citizen should. they're big, perfectly ripe and always delicious! and there's no guilt! this will be a behavior i take back home with me - except that avocados are about 5 times more expensive at home. the juice here is also some sort of magic juice. i'm partial to the pina con naranja - pineapple and oragnge juice, but really, they're all freakishly good. i don't know how they do it, but they've mastered the art of fresh juice. every morning the nice lady at my house whips up some fresh orange, mango, banana, pineapple, papaya juice that is the tastiest of treats! how do they do it? no se, but it doesn't really matter. when you come here, have the juice! yay, juice!
ok, that's enough random bits for one day. i'm collecting more, so we'll not be lacking in times to come.
a quick action update: no photos posted yet, but we had a good couple days o' ruins. today being the best by far. we took an early bus to pisaq where - after a solid bout of motion sickness passed - we walked around while the locals set up their huge open-air market. we were absolutely the only tourists in the whole place and i can't describe how great that was. the variety of produce was astounding - and a bit tortuous since we can't eat it on our tourist bellies. all of the locals were gathered around tables eating homemade chicken stew with potatoes and spices while the local dogs sat anxiously waiting for dropped morsels. deep in the textile/tourist part of the market, vendors were still setting everything up, so they weren't interested in hussling us. we merely smiled and chatted with them as they were working. getting up at 5 definitely paid off at the market, and at the ruins, where for an hour, we had the place to ourselves. i'll post pics tomorrow...it was pretty amazing. if the pisaq ruins and the surrounding valley could knock our socks off, i can only imagine what machu picchu will be like!
now i go home and nurse this blasted cold i've picked up. manana, aprendo el pasado tiempo!
my new dispatch home
here's what i had posted on my initial dispatch page...
DEC. 29: LIMA, PERU
no quiero lima. no sir. true, i didn´t leave the airport grounds, but there was an unsettling air there that was compounded while looking out the next morning through the haze over the bizarre, barren coastline. (and i´m not even getting into what the thick, hot and humid air did to my face and hair the few minutes they were exposed to it!) maybe one day i´ll give it half a chance, but no, i don´t think so. sorry, lima.
DEC. 31: CUSCO
here i am in my new hometown of cusco! it´s a different world, but i can say that all of my newly-birthed doubts and second thoughts a la lima melted away as we flew towards the green, uplifted mountains that surround cusco and the sacred valley. of course, the poverty still exists here and the people are desperate for the tourist dollars that pour through here. i´m growing my thick skin to rebuff the countless husslers. they hustle you for everything - taxis, handmade goods, restaurants, tourist agencies, discos... but it´s impossible not to have sympathy for these people and that gives me a little more patience as i push past them. and one of these days i´ll break down for some handmade items. the women here make some amazing scarves, sweaters and carved guords. it´s hard to turn down someone peddling such craftsmanship - a far cry from some imposter watches on a street corner. eeenyhoo, most importantly, it´s new years´eve! tonight we will all gather en la plaza de armas where everyone runs in a circle and there are fireworks and other festivities. i´m getting the feeling they take big holidays seriously here and make sure everyone has a good time. for those of you hungry for a new tradition - here, you must buy something yellow before the new year so you´ll have good luck. more specifically, yello underwear. i asked if it could be pants or a shirt, but no, it must be undies. if you prefer to have more money in the new year, you buy green underwear and if you have your priorities straight and want more sex, then, of course, you buy the red underwear. i plan on buying all three!
JAN. 2: ¡FELIZ ANO NUEVO!
well i survived new years in cusco! i didn´t really have any time to meet people before the big night, so i put all pride aside and leached onto my 19-year old swiss roommate, andrea. we began the night in a foreign neighborhood where her friend, a girl from new zealand, was staying with a family. turned out that her friend wasn´t home yet, but that didn´t stop the german guy who opened the door to invite us in! turns out this family has 9 students living with them, so after five minutes just sitting in these people´s living room, i saw more people than i had in my entire school for the past two days. the group we met was made up of 5 americans, one scotsman, one german, one new zealander and one brazillian. so, of course we made fast friends, enjoyed some cocktails and then the lot of us made our way to the plaza de armas for the big celebration. there were thousands of people and fireworks everywhere. there was no countdown, which was a little strange, but at midnight all of the cathedrals that surround the plaza rang their bells. then the fun began! everybody started to run in a circle around the plaza, including my group, arms entertwined so we wouldn´t lose each other forever. after some good midnight aerobics, we headed into Mythology, a discoteca en la plaza, for some more aerobics complete with strobe lights, techno music and an industrial fan that would turn on to cool the hot hot dancers. i was by far the oldest person in my group - i´m pretty sure i´m the oldest person travelling in south america - so i had to show the youngsters that even old people can rally on new years. granted, i didn´t make it to 6 a.m. like the rest of them, but i held out until 3 before heading home for a deep sleep. conveniently, the club was just down the street from my house, so i was quickly in bed with my ears ringing.new year´s day was a sleepy one here, as the entire city was out partying until the wee hours of the morning. i met christine, my friend from seattle, upon her arrival at her hotel and proceeded to show her around this crazy land of cusco. today it has rained constantly and it seems that cold, rainy weather affects me exactly the same in south america as it does in seattle! i had my 4 hours of escuela and have taken refuge in a cafe and internet cafe since. it´s too cold and wet to care about some churches and historical nonsense! yo quiero un fuego, un cafe y un libro! i want every single one of you to go take a hot shower and enjoy every single moment of good water pressure and warm water. let´s just say there is little incentive for me to shower here! yum.
JAN. 4: RANDOM MUSINGS
the day that mac officially let me down and made me become a "blogger" with a "blog". damn you, .mac, damn you.
DEC. 29: LIMA, PERU
no quiero lima. no sir. true, i didn´t leave the airport grounds, but there was an unsettling air there that was compounded while looking out the next morning through the haze over the bizarre, barren coastline. (and i´m not even getting into what the thick, hot and humid air did to my face and hair the few minutes they were exposed to it!) maybe one day i´ll give it half a chance, but no, i don´t think so. sorry, lima.
DEC. 31: CUSCO
here i am in my new hometown of cusco! it´s a different world, but i can say that all of my newly-birthed doubts and second thoughts a la lima melted away as we flew towards the green, uplifted mountains that surround cusco and the sacred valley. of course, the poverty still exists here and the people are desperate for the tourist dollars that pour through here. i´m growing my thick skin to rebuff the countless husslers. they hustle you for everything - taxis, handmade goods, restaurants, tourist agencies, discos... but it´s impossible not to have sympathy for these people and that gives me a little more patience as i push past them. and one of these days i´ll break down for some handmade items. the women here make some amazing scarves, sweaters and carved guords. it´s hard to turn down someone peddling such craftsmanship - a far cry from some imposter watches on a street corner. eeenyhoo, most importantly, it´s new years´eve! tonight we will all gather en la plaza de armas where everyone runs in a circle and there are fireworks and other festivities. i´m getting the feeling they take big holidays seriously here and make sure everyone has a good time. for those of you hungry for a new tradition - here, you must buy something yellow before the new year so you´ll have good luck. more specifically, yello underwear. i asked if it could be pants or a shirt, but no, it must be undies. if you prefer to have more money in the new year, you buy green underwear and if you have your priorities straight and want more sex, then, of course, you buy the red underwear. i plan on buying all three!
JAN. 2: ¡FELIZ ANO NUEVO!
well i survived new years in cusco! i didn´t really have any time to meet people before the big night, so i put all pride aside and leached onto my 19-year old swiss roommate, andrea. we began the night in a foreign neighborhood where her friend, a girl from new zealand, was staying with a family. turned out that her friend wasn´t home yet, but that didn´t stop the german guy who opened the door to invite us in! turns out this family has 9 students living with them, so after five minutes just sitting in these people´s living room, i saw more people than i had in my entire school for the past two days. the group we met was made up of 5 americans, one scotsman, one german, one new zealander and one brazillian. so, of course we made fast friends, enjoyed some cocktails and then the lot of us made our way to the plaza de armas for the big celebration. there were thousands of people and fireworks everywhere. there was no countdown, which was a little strange, but at midnight all of the cathedrals that surround the plaza rang their bells. then the fun began! everybody started to run in a circle around the plaza, including my group, arms entertwined so we wouldn´t lose each other forever. after some good midnight aerobics, we headed into Mythology, a discoteca en la plaza, for some more aerobics complete with strobe lights, techno music and an industrial fan that would turn on to cool the hot hot dancers. i was by far the oldest person in my group - i´m pretty sure i´m the oldest person travelling in south america - so i had to show the youngsters that even old people can rally on new years. granted, i didn´t make it to 6 a.m. like the rest of them, but i held out until 3 before heading home for a deep sleep. conveniently, the club was just down the street from my house, so i was quickly in bed with my ears ringing.new year´s day was a sleepy one here, as the entire city was out partying until the wee hours of the morning. i met christine, my friend from seattle, upon her arrival at her hotel and proceeded to show her around this crazy land of cusco. today it has rained constantly and it seems that cold, rainy weather affects me exactly the same in south america as it does in seattle! i had my 4 hours of escuela and have taken refuge in a cafe and internet cafe since. it´s too cold and wet to care about some churches and historical nonsense! yo quiero un fuego, un cafe y un libro! i want every single one of you to go take a hot shower and enjoy every single moment of good water pressure and warm water. let´s just say there is little incentive for me to shower here! yum.
JAN. 4: RANDOM MUSINGS
the day that mac officially let me down and made me become a "blogger" with a "blog". damn you, .mac, damn you.
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