the Sacred Valley around Cusco is without a doubt the most beautiful place i know. it will never be conveyed accurately in a photo.Monday, December 28, 2009
the road to Lares
the Sacred Valley around Cusco is without a doubt the most beautiful place i know. it will never be conveyed accurately in a photo.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
going north
I´m still here! Increasing lag time in between each post, diminishing interest and eventual abandonment is a fate that many if not most blogs face. And surely that time will come for this one, but not yet!
On Thanksgiving night, which I hope everyone was enjoying with their families and delicious feasts, I left Cusco for Puno. I visited Lake Titicaca - the highest lake in the world - with its floating islands of the Uros Indians, originally man-made and inhabited five hundred years ago and constantly renewed with fresh layers of reeds. From there I took a bus to Arequipa, where I arrived at 2:30 in the morning and safely waited in the bus terminal until about 7. I chatted with a couple who asked me all about where I was from, what I was doing, if I believed in god, and the standard "What about your parents???" As I have learned, it is NOT standard for 20-year-old Peruvians to take off on their own; especially not girls. With every person who I talk to and explain that yes I´m traveling on my own and yes my parents support me, I find myself feeling more and more a responsibility to promote the image of young women who are strong and independent and can travel safely and happily on their own. In fact, probably the majority of people I´ve met in hostels have been women in their 20´s traveling solo.
Anyways, in Arequipa I stayed only two days, long enough to spend a good while each day conversing with Nancy, a woman who makes juice in the market, and playing with her niece. She told me about how she doesn´t want to get married and doesn´t want to have kids, a rarity here, and hopes to save up some money to travel - extremely difficult and almost impossible for the vast majority of people, who might not have money to buy food for the day if they miss one day of work. Nancy was the second magical juice woman I´ve been lucky enough to get to know a bit, after Marcelina in Cusco. Note: the fresh juice stands are one of my favorite parts about living here. Normally there will be an entire row of stands in the markets, with piles of fresh fruit sitting on each counter, and any combination you ask for will generally cost about 2-4 soles and you´ll end up with more juice than you can handle. MMMMMMMMMMMM.
From Arequipa I took an awfully uncomfortable 13-hour bus ride back to Cusco, where I stayed for two more weeks. Then to Lima, for about a week and a half, where I hung out with some friends from Cusco, went to the beach, and ate delicious ceviche. Lima itself is far too busy, noisy, dirty and gigantic for me, but I enjoyed the time there. I spent a week living with Toshi & Miguel and their family - the wonderful people who I met my first time in Lima. They are the family of Tony, a zumba instructor in Maine who I met in Mama D´s. They are an absolutely wonderful family - big, lively, and generous, much like the Saudeks. I spent Christmas in their household and even though it didn´t feel very christmasy to me, it was lovely nonetheless. In Peru Christmas is celebrated on the 24th, and there were about 15 over for dinner - the traditional turkey, along with stuffing, salad, sashimi (they´re of Japanese descent), rice, and more rice. We didn´t sit down to close to 11:30pm, and at midnight everyone got up and hugged and fireworks started going off in the streets, all around. Fireworks, firecrackers...eventually we had the traditional Panetón and hot chocolate, the kids opened their presents, and everyone was still awake when I went to bed at 3am.
Now I´m in Trujillo, the second-largest and second most thievery-ridden city in Peru - also the birthplace of César Vallejo, the Peruvian poet on whom I wrote my final paper one year ago, for a Hispanic literature class. (There´s an oft-quoted excerpt from one of his poems that goes, "Hay golpes en la vida tan fuertes...Yo no sé!" "There are blows in life so powerful...I don´t know!") I´m waiting for a couple of friends to arrive from Lima, and from here we´ll go up to the beach in Máncora, where there are some other friends from Cusco, and then head up to Ecuador. December on the beach is a new phenomenon for me.
I hope everyone is well and is enjoying their vacations, wherever you may be. I wish everyone happy holidays and a happy New Year, with all of my love.
On Thanksgiving night, which I hope everyone was enjoying with their families and delicious feasts, I left Cusco for Puno. I visited Lake Titicaca - the highest lake in the world - with its floating islands of the Uros Indians, originally man-made and inhabited five hundred years ago and constantly renewed with fresh layers of reeds. From there I took a bus to Arequipa, where I arrived at 2:30 in the morning and safely waited in the bus terminal until about 7. I chatted with a couple who asked me all about where I was from, what I was doing, if I believed in god, and the standard "What about your parents???" As I have learned, it is NOT standard for 20-year-old Peruvians to take off on their own; especially not girls. With every person who I talk to and explain that yes I´m traveling on my own and yes my parents support me, I find myself feeling more and more a responsibility to promote the image of young women who are strong and independent and can travel safely and happily on their own. In fact, probably the majority of people I´ve met in hostels have been women in their 20´s traveling solo.
Anyways, in Arequipa I stayed only two days, long enough to spend a good while each day conversing with Nancy, a woman who makes juice in the market, and playing with her niece. She told me about how she doesn´t want to get married and doesn´t want to have kids, a rarity here, and hopes to save up some money to travel - extremely difficult and almost impossible for the vast majority of people, who might not have money to buy food for the day if they miss one day of work. Nancy was the second magical juice woman I´ve been lucky enough to get to know a bit, after Marcelina in Cusco. Note: the fresh juice stands are one of my favorite parts about living here. Normally there will be an entire row of stands in the markets, with piles of fresh fruit sitting on each counter, and any combination you ask for will generally cost about 2-4 soles and you´ll end up with more juice than you can handle. MMMMMMMMMMMM.
From Arequipa I took an awfully uncomfortable 13-hour bus ride back to Cusco, where I stayed for two more weeks. Then to Lima, for about a week and a half, where I hung out with some friends from Cusco, went to the beach, and ate delicious ceviche. Lima itself is far too busy, noisy, dirty and gigantic for me, but I enjoyed the time there. I spent a week living with Toshi & Miguel and their family - the wonderful people who I met my first time in Lima. They are the family of Tony, a zumba instructor in Maine who I met in Mama D´s. They are an absolutely wonderful family - big, lively, and generous, much like the Saudeks. I spent Christmas in their household and even though it didn´t feel very christmasy to me, it was lovely nonetheless. In Peru Christmas is celebrated on the 24th, and there were about 15 over for dinner - the traditional turkey, along with stuffing, salad, sashimi (they´re of Japanese descent), rice, and more rice. We didn´t sit down to close to 11:30pm, and at midnight everyone got up and hugged and fireworks started going off in the streets, all around. Fireworks, firecrackers...eventually we had the traditional Panetón and hot chocolate, the kids opened their presents, and everyone was still awake when I went to bed at 3am.
Now I´m in Trujillo, the second-largest and second most thievery-ridden city in Peru - also the birthplace of César Vallejo, the Peruvian poet on whom I wrote my final paper one year ago, for a Hispanic literature class. (There´s an oft-quoted excerpt from one of his poems that goes, "Hay golpes en la vida tan fuertes...Yo no sé!" "There are blows in life so powerful...I don´t know!") I´m waiting for a couple of friends to arrive from Lima, and from here we´ll go up to the beach in Máncora, where there are some other friends from Cusco, and then head up to Ecuador. December on the beach is a new phenomenon for me.
I hope everyone is well and is enjoying their vacations, wherever you may be. I wish everyone happy holidays and a happy New Year, with all of my love.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
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