Entiendo un poco (Woo Peru!)

Hi. So about our Colca Canyon issue yesterday, we decided to do the option that left at 3 in the AM, and cost three times as much as our original schedule, which the hotel apparently forgot to book for us.... even though we have an email saying it was confirmed. So after we made that decision last night, we went to dinner at the ZigZag restaurant. It´s a super fancyish place in Arequipa, and it has an iron spiral staircase supposedly made by Gustav Eiffel. It was a nice place to eat, except that the service was so slow. It´s just a funny thing here in Peru I think, things work differently. You have to hunt down your waiter or waitress and ask for your bill, or you could sit there allllll night long staring out the window. Which, in a way, is nice because its less stressful than the American way, where you are basically shoved out the door the second your fork hits an empty plate. However, it would be nice if there was just a happy medium between the two. Anyway, I digress. At the restaurant I had beef, alpaca, and ostrich meat, served carpaccio-style (sizzling, on a stone slab). The beef was pretty good, but nothing new to me. The ostrich meat was alright, but tasted strangely like pork (who saw that coming?). The alpaca meat, however, was AMAZING. I wonder if I could get someone in MT to raise alpacas for me. If you are ever in Peru, absolutely try it. Amazing.

Oh yah, all of that meat also came with some mashed potatoes that would make you cry tears of joy. I love the food here!

So then we went back to the hotel and pretended to sleep until 3 AM, when our tour people came to pick us up. Turns out the tour was just the two of us, which is probably why it was so expensive. So off we went, on our way to Chivay and then up the Colca Canyon. I tried to sleep, but it was FREEZING. You´d think for so much money they could at least toss us a blanket? A scrap of fabric? A throw pillow? I basically just sat with my eyes closed for 3 hours trying not to chatter my teeth. At one point I started to feel slightly warmer, and was pretty sure hypothermia was setting in, but then I realized they had turned on the heater. Which they promptly turned off all of five minutes later, at which point I´m pretty sure I heard my muscles sniffle and then start to cry.

So after lots of driving we stopped at a similarly freezing hotel in Chivay to drink some coca tea. Annnnd since neither of us are very interested in coca tea (and we didn´t have any problems with altitude today at all), I had some coffee with about five pounds of sugar in it, and Laura had some tea... with slightly less than five pounds of sugar in it. I think it was supposed to warm us up, but all it did is make my legs jealous of my warm stomach.

THEN we finally set off to the Colca Canyon. Our tour guide told us all kinds of fascinating things about the Canyon and the previous inhabitants. Basically two groups of people lived there first, and then the Incas came through and took over, and then the Spanish came through and took over. Pretty much the same story as everywhere else in Peru. But I don´t mean to make it sound boring, he was very interesting and informative. At one point we got to see a bunch of earth that was pure white, supposedly from all the bones of the animals that used to live in the canyon when it was a lake (oh yah, it used to be a huge lake, like Missoula, right?), that died when the lake disappeared. And then we saw a lagoon with a bunch of cows in the middle. It looks like they just want to go for a swim, but apparently they really like to eat some plant that grows in the middle of the lagoon. Let´s see... oh and then we stopped and saw a stone with terraces carved into it to represent the terraces of the valley, so they could bless that one stone before the sowing and harvests instead of having to bless every single terrace. Did I mention the terracing? No. Sorry, I´m assuming you all have been here with us the whole time learning all about the culture. So this valley, and many others, have lots and lots of terraces for growing crops. The reason they are terraced is because the stones used for the terrace gain heat during the day, and keep the soil warm during the (previously mentioned) freezing nights, so that the crops don´t die! Those ancient cultures were so darn clever.

Hmm... Oh and then we saw a tomb up on the high cliffside where an important person was buried. They basically believed in three worlds, the underground, represented by the Snake, the now world, represented by the Puma, and the aboveworld where the really important people and gods were, represented by the Condor. So this person that was laid to rest in the tomb was considered someone really important, so instead of actually being buried underground, they were "buried" up in the sky with the gods. They were also put on a cliffside that gets the morning sun, because they believed in reincarnation of sorts (not exactly by that term but kind of the same), so the morning sun was kind of a rebirth, and they were also laid to rest in the fetal position, so they could start their new life anew. Whew. Got all that? Sorry, time is money on the internet (I know i´ve said that before) so I´m kind of rushing, like I have been with all of these entries.

So THEN we went on to the area where the condors show up in the morning, riding the thermals. (I felt so cool because I knew all about this since I learned it in one of my classes!). So we got to see... oh, 10-15 condors maybe? It was awesome! They really are huge, its hard to believe. I don´t know if I got any good pictures or video of them, so I´m hoping Laura got some good ones. It was kind of hard because people really like to get in the way of my pictures on this trip apparently. Especially french people. Zut alors!

Oh YAH, while we were sitting and watching and waiting for the condors (and shivering uncontrollably still), we felt a small tremor in the stone....area...thingy...that we were sitting on. Laura and I both felt it and looked at each other questioningly (its a word, don´t look it up). No one else seemed to have felt it, but later our guide showed up and said that there had been an earthquake a little ways down the canyon and a bunch of rocks had fallen and done some pretty good damage to a tour bus (no one was inside). So since we were the only two in a ten seater van, we let 4 of those people ride with us, along with 4 other people who ... I don´t really want to talk about this much. Two of them were a couple from England who were pretty nice, and they asked if they could ride back to town with us, and then promptly included two other people they knew, who were two girls from Belgium (?) who were possibly the two most annoying human beings I have had to spend time with. Our tour guide continued to talk to Laura and I since we were technically still on the tour we paid for, but then the annoying girls kept interrupting and-or talking so loud we couldn´t hear him... and-or following us around like they were part of the tour they didn´t pay for. I got kinda cranky about it, but I´m done talking about it now

So on the way back to Arequipa we got to stop and see some interesting Andean birds, OH and we also stopped at the highest point on our trip, at 4,900 meters (around 16,000 feet?). It´s the highest we´ve been on this trip so far, so that was pretty exciting. Up there you can see all the volcanoes of the area, including Ampato, where Juanita was found. Juanita is one of the best preserved mummies in the world. We are going to go to the Museo Santuarios Andinos tomorrow to see her! We are also going to go to Cafe C.V. which gives most of its profits to an orphanage, and we´re gonna try to give them the rest of the school supplies we brought down with us. Back to the highest point, its really interesting because there are little rocks stacked up on each other all over the place there. Our tour guide said that the ancient people knew that it was the highest point, so they brought rocks and stacked them up there, representing leaving all of their troubles behind up at that highest point close to the gods.

I have pictures of all the interesting things I´ve talked about from today, but apparently there is a pretty low limit on photos you can upload to this blog per month, and I already exceeded it with all of the five or six photos I put up. Lame.

Our tour guide also explained the difference to us between alpaca and llamas, and we got to see wild vicunas, which are so cute! It´s all really quite interesting. There´s even a hybrid between a llama and an alpaca that is SO SO SO CUTE! Its this adorable tiny little white fluffball.

Hmm... I think everything else was pretty uneventful from there. We tried to go find some really nice restaurant for dinner, and couldn´t find it. So we ate at Trufa instead, which was also good. Instead of the Peruvian food, this time we got fetuccine (sp?) alfredo and sprite (hehe). It was a delicious little taste of home. Annnnnd then we came here, to the internet place. And then I typed that last sentence. And that one. And that one.

Yep, you´re all caught up. OH. I remembered a few things.

One, I don´t know if I told you about the drink we tried in Urubamba. Havier picked it out. I guess it´s corn...something... cooked with pineapple... and served warm? I didn´t understand all of the details, but it was really really really good! I´m going to try to look up what exactly it was when I get home.

Second, we also saw a really neat plant called a yareta up in the canyon. I didn´t get any good pictures of it, but you should look it up. Neato frito.

Third, the website that I told you I would give you, for the corn necklaces, I believe is www.pumaruna.org (under conservation?). Unfortunately, its´apparently under construction right now. Maybe later. Darn.

Fourth, I forgot to tell you that once the sun actually came out it got boiling lava hot, and I have this really awesome sunburn on half of my forehead but not on the other half. Silly Peruvian weather.

Okay, that is all for now I suppose! Tomorrow we go to the museum and the cafe (and maybe to this one store to buy a purse I´ve been obsessing over...), and then we fly to Trujillo! Then after two days there its off to the AMAZON!!!! I can´t even TELL you how excited I am about that. Hooray!

Bye bye for now!

So, I wanted to take a second to discuss one of the important topics I´ve been thinking about since I´ve been here. And that would be: discrimination. This is very interesting to me, because it´s not something I expected or thought I needed to prepare myself for on this trip, but it has become a pretty big thing for me down here. Now, I´ve felt discriminated against before at home because I am a female, but I´ve never really felt any discrimination because of my appearance or skin color. And I have absolutely felt that here. It is quite the feeling. One of the biggest places you feel it is the bathrooms, ironically enough. If you appear foreign, you have to pay for the bathroom. And all the while, Peruvians walk past you straight in to the bathroom. I´m not joking. You also seem to get less attention at restaurants and the like. I can´t imagine dealing with this constantly. No wonder people get so upset about it. It´s horrible! It´s such, SUCH a good lesson to be learning. I know it´s nothing like what some people have to deal with, but even a little dose is enough for me. I don´t really have much else to say about it, but wanted to mention it. I am learning so much on this trip. It´s exactly what I needed at this point in my life. And its exactly the right place to have come and visit. Hooray.

Lyric o´the blog:
"Because you never know where life is gonna take ya
And you can´t change where you´ve been
But today
I have the opportunity to choose

Here I am now, lookin at 30
And I´ve got so much to say
Gotta get this off of my chest
Gotta let it go today

I was always too concerned
about what everybody would think
But I can´t live for everybody
I gotta live my life for me

I´ve reached a fork in the road
of my life
Ain´t nothin´gonna happen
unless I decide

And I choose
To be the best that I can be
I choose
To be authentic in everything I do

My past don´t dictate who I am.
I choose."

Aha! I am almost caught up on my travel blog now. Thank goodness! It´s been harder than I thought to find decent internet, and more importantly, time down here.

So we arrived in Arequipa late at night, found a taxi to take us to our hotel, checked in, and passed out in the most comfortable beds of the trip. We are staying at Hostal Solar, which is gorgeous! Many of the buildings here in Arequipa are made of a white stone called sillar I think. The town is much much much nicer than anywhere else we´ve been yet, with street lights, nice cars, happy people, and beautiful volcanoes looming over town. It just seems to be a happier place in general, which I suppose makes sense, since it is mainly Spanish and less Peruvian in composition. My book says that Arequipa has even talked about secession because it feels so different from the rest of the country. That doesn´t surprise me that much.

Yesterday morning Laura was still feeling pretty sick, so we took it easy in the morning, taking our time getting ready to go and explore. The plaza de armas in Arequipa is the most beautiful of all the cities in Peru. It has large palm trees and lots of beautiful architecture. I took some good pics of it at night. We went and ate lunch at Mixsos, a cute little restaurant behind the cathedral with rooftop views. I promptly knocked over a glass and cut my finger. Then I ordered an avacado stuffed with chicken, which was pretty yummy. Then we went and spent most of the afternoon at the Monestary de Santa Catalina (i´m quite sure I´m not spelling that right but I don´t care right now), which really is like a city within a city. It was amazingly beautiful and we took tons and tons of pictures. I´m excited to post them.

Then we went for a "tour" of the Catedral on the Plaza, which really just amounted to walking inside, being quite uncomfortable because there were some sort of services going on, walking around a little, then leaving. Then we went to have some cocoa at (insert name here when I look it up). It was DELICIOUS, and I also got some strawberry shortcake which I will remember for the rest of my life. Seriously.

One thing I´m definitely noticing here is that although the men are still pretty forward about things, it´s actually flattering and not offensive. One guy said just one word to me when I walked by: "beautiful". How can you be offended by that? Anyway, then we went back to our hotel and tried to make sure our tour of the Colca Canyon was confirmed for today, the 5th. And even though the guy there didn´t speak any English, we were pretty sure we were okay.

However, when we got up this morning and got ready, we found out that there was no tour for us. We have the emails saying it was confirmed and reserved, but the hotel owners claimed not to know anything about it. They tried to say it was our fault, which is absolutely is not. I´m a little disappointed because I wanted to really like our hotel, but its so unprofessional to blame something like this one the customer. Mistakes happen, but come on, just own up to it and try to fix it. So now we have to try and figure out how to still get to see the canyon with our limited time left in Arequipa. Not sure we will be able to do it, and of course everything is closed today because it´s Sunday, so we can´t even talk to anyone about it. So we decided to go find some internet to try and look it up, and here we are. There is some sort of big parade and celebration going on today here in the Plaza, so we had to walk by tons of people lined up, including tonnnns of military people. That was an interesting walk, as I got whistled at a few times and had a couple people say things to me, but again, here its flattering and not offensive. It´s quite a strange difference since just a few days ago I was horribly uncomfortable and attempting to walk with my left ring finger visible to everyone and their dog to stop the disgustingness.

Well, so now we don´t know what we are going to do for the rest of today or tomorrow or the next day. At one point we hope to go to the museum where Juanita is, the Incan mummy they found up on one of the volcanoes around here. Supposed to be one of the most complete finds. Exciting! I don´t know when I will be able to update my blog next, so it might be awhile. After we leave Arequipa we are going to Trujillo for two days, then its off to the Amazon for 4 days where we surely will not have any internet. I´m so excited for the Amazon! Hopefully my bug-bitten legs will not have any added bites. I´m so paranoid about bugs now...

Well, wish me luck!

Lyric o´the blog:
"Blackbird singin´in the dead of night
take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arrive."

I place this blog in the category of luxury travel... with intense sarcasm.

On the 1st of October, we left Cusco and Torre Dorada (with great reluctance), to head to Puno. We chose to spend the extra money and ride the Andean Explorer train instead of the bus, and boy am I glad we did. The train was very nice, but I had a fun combination of motion sickness as well as altitude sickness, so I pretty much took some dramamine and passed out all day. The train ride was very pretty though, and I know Uncle Roger would have loved to see all the trains we got to ride on during this trip. We took pictures for him

Getting to the train station was a little hectic just because the traffic in Peru is craaaZy, AND the road to the train station was closed, but we made it there okay. Everyone honks all the time here, just as a way of telling people you´re coming. There are very few street lights, and you have to look both ways like five hundred times before crossing the street. Despite all of this, I did not, however, see any accidents yet. Interesting.

Anyway, so we rode the train out of town, and all the people came to the tracks to wave at us as we went by. It´s a beautiful little moment of belonging when that happens. It doesn´t matter who is on the train, they will wave at you. Especially the kids. The kids get SO excited when you wave back. I hope they all get a chance sometime in their life to hop the train and wave goodbye, even if just for a short while. I´m going to tangent right now for a moment, just because I am realizing on this trip how LUCKY I am to have been born where I was. To have the opportunity to come here. To travel. To choose my career. Good gracious, we are all so lucky. I can´t explain it. Actually, I´m quite thankful for all of the things that have happened in my life. Good and bad. Especially bad. I learned so many important things when I was so young that I really wish for some of the people I know to learn soon. I would have been a much different person if I hadn´t had to face some tough moments. I know that sounds so cliche, but what the hell, its quite true.

Back to the train. We got free pisco sours on the train, so I got to try Peru´s most famous drink. I didn´t drink very much since I had taken the medicine, but it was pretty good. Nothing too amazing, but hey I tried it! I don´t really like sour things very much, but it was alright. Then we had a fancy lunch included, and I got Andean sushi, vegetarian lasagne, black tea, and we had a yummy dessert of some sort of rice pudding and a mysterious pink fruit, all in a sugar-cone-like cup. It was really delicious. It reminded me of the black sticky rice at the thai place in missoula and how badly I want to go there right at this exact moment. Yum-o.

So after sleeping for most of the trip, I woke up and went to the open air observation car at the back of the train with Laura to watch Juliaca as we went through it and take some pictures. And, apparently, wave at people again. Unfortunately, this was also accompanied by some whistling and wildly inappropriate gestures from some of the men we passed. Oh, Peruvian machismo, how I will not miss you at all.

We arrived in Puno to discover that our hotel had not arranged a taxi to come pick us up like they said they would. So there we stood, out in the street, at night, in a strange city in a strange country where we hardly spoke the language. Good times. We got it figured out, but the hotel never did apologize for that. The hotel, also, was... um... a crap hole. I don´t want to think about it. It wasn´t THAT bad, but it was not a very nice place. But I think that in Puno, thats what most of the hotels were like. Puno was not a very friendly place. It was smelly, dirty, and the people were horribly unkind. A little old man who I´m pretty sure was drunk got up in my face one day and from my understanding of Spanish told me to get the &$%"!&% out of his way. So that was neat.

The next day, after sleeping fully clothed so our skin didn´t touch anything in our hotel room, we went for a tour on Lake Titicaca. This was also the day that we started to speak pig latin so we didn´t feel as awkward about not understanding people. Our tour guide was really nice and funny. His name was Angel. Except you don´t say it that way. We went to the Uros islands, which are floating reed islands. The only people who are allowed to live there are people that were born there, so the population is slowly declining. They have to continually replace the reeds on the top of the islands since the ones on the bottom rot. It´s pretty neat, actually, because they use the reeds for just about everything, and its all very cyclic and not wasteful. Laura took a ride in one of their reed boats, and I was too cheap to spend the money so I just took pictures of her.

Then we went to the Taquille island, which is an actual island in the middle of the lake. It was very pretty and we enjoyed our time just sitting and enjoying the views while the rest of our group ate lunch at the restaurant. On the way back a guy from Argentina and I chatted, and he was very nice. He looks EXACTLY like one of my friends from home, which freaked me out like crazy, so I´ll have to tell him when I get back that his twin is living in South America!

Later that evening we went to the Plaza and found a hotel to eat at. We got some thai-style noodles, which were delicious. However, they had a side of spinach and carrots with them, and Laura ate quite a bit of that. Pretty sure that´s why she´s been feeling quite ill for the last few days. I did finally convince her to take some medicine, so hopefully shé will be getting better soon. We also had some apple and fig (?) wontons for dessert, which were pretty yummy as well.

That night when we got back to our hotel we went up the hundreds of stairs to the top floor where the foosball table is and where they serve breakfast. It was very dark so we had to look out for the onsters-may. I charged my mp3 player upstairs since it sparked down in our room when I tried to plug it in, and I would rather not start a fire in Peru, and we also played some cards and some more bananagrams. We pretended like we were going to write our postcards, but that didn´t happen. It still hasn´t happened. Sorry folks. I´ll get on it soon.

The next morning we walked down to the bus station and dealt with the process of Laura being sick, waiting for hours for our bus, and then managing to get our tickets and get on the bus. It was sort of a blur and not that fun, so I´m going through it just as fast on here. We finally got on the bus, and made the 5 hour journey to Arequipa. They showed Pan´s Labyrinth and You, Me, and Dupree on the way, so I had something to focus on while I dealt with the motion sickness. I´m generally not that prone to it, but with the roads and transportation here, I´ve been getting motion sick just about everytime we´re on something that moves. Sometimes just walking down the street. No, I kid.

So, to summarize, I didn´t like Puno. At all. But at the same time, it was so good for me to go there, and I´m glad that I did. Because I needed the experience. That is what a lot of this trip is about for me, forcing myself to see the not so pretty side of life elsewhere. Even though I hated it, I´m glad our hotel sucked. I´m glad people yelled at me. And made me uncomfortable. But I´m also pretty glad to be gone from there now! I´m thankful for the experience though. It´s teaching me to not only be more aware of the unpleasant reality of life for some folks, as well as to be more thankful for what I have. Funny how that works.

Oh, I also want to touch on something someone told me before I left. They told me with such certainty that I would find that everywhere really is pretty much the same, just in a different location. I must say, not true.

Lyric o´the blog:

"Individually wrapped
placed in neat little rows
Becoming a piece
of everything that grows

Some numbers, a name
to indicate you played the game
Came empty handed
and left the same

A soul is a soul
A shell is a shell
the border in between
is full of everything you´ve felt

Some cling to a cross
´cause they´re tired and lost
They leave it up to the weather
to measure the cost

And when the sould begins to reap
she´ll know me from the sleep
I keep caught in the corner
of my blood shot eyes

And if she has the nerve
to let me dump a couple last words
I´m ´a turn to the earth
and scream Love Your Life!

I never expected a bowl of cherries
I´m just a virgo
trynna find my own version
of the Virgin Mary

And when I let them carry me
to a cemetary
I wanna be buried
with a pocket full of clarity."

Whew. Here we are. I have to talk about this. I can´t not talk about this.

In Peru there are lots of dogs. Everywhere. Wandering around. Eating trash. Ribs sticking out. My book says that in the mountains dogs have gone back to living in packs, and you have to be careful if you come across them because they can be very dangerous. In the cities I have seen them. Hundreds. Everywhere. Matted fur, broken legs, missing body parts. It´s breaking my heart. No one is taking care of them. Hell, many of the people here cannot take care of themselves, how can they take care of the dogs?? There´s no one to spay and neuter them, nothing to stop them from multiplying into a world without the resources to support them. And here´s the real rub: I don´t know what to do about it. What can be done? Times like this make me wonder why exactly I´m chosing to go into a career to help humans, when my heart really belongs to the animals. BUT, I have to remind myself that the only way they can have a chance is if the people have one first. The people here need help. But they need to help themselves. And only then can they help their fellow critters out. It is SO FRUSTERATING to be here and not be able to do anything. What can I do? I have to do something. I don´t know what. I don´t know how. It´s so hard sometimes to maintain the perspective, see how the steps I´m taking today are leading me to the place I want to be, that I have to have foresight. I just don´t think my conscience can see all that I´ve seen here in this country and go back home and only care about clothes and cars and making enough money to buy them. Not that I did that before, but I´m saying... how can Anyone do that? How can you choose to have a job that benefits no one but yourself? I just feel so responsible for this. So responsible to try and help. Let´s face it, I´m a meddler. I like to meddle. Not to make things worse, but I want to always try and help fix things. I like to fix things. I also am realizing, though, the truth in something I learned in one of my classes... that people have to help themselves. It seems so glamorous to work globally and help all those poor africans or etc., but the only way they can really work out of it is to... work out of it. Pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. We watched an interview in one of my classes with a Kenyan economist, and he was very adamant that the only way things could change is if we STOPPED trying to help. That they had to help themselves. And that´s starting to make a lot more sense to me now. Here. I still want to pursue my career goals, but I think maybe I´m best off trying to start local. Put my energy back into my own country. We have plenty of problems to work on there as well. And I don´t have to spend the time learning the culture and the language and getting accepted there before I can start to accomplish things. I´m already accepted there. Already know my way around. I have this sense of urgency with my life, like I don´t want to waste any time getting to work. I want to get as much done in my alloted century as I can. I want to not be selfish. I want to not be anything like the person I used to look up to so much, who turned out to be as selfish as they come. Yah, most of you know who he is. And if you don´t, heck, ask me. I´m not afraid to tell you the truth about all of it. Wow, where did that tangent come from? Um, does anyone want a puppy? I can bring you back one to love. They need love. That´s all a puppy really needs ever. And some food. But food is part of love. Love is all they need. Love is all any of us need...really. Right? To know that someone cares? So does anyone want one? Or... how about 25 of them each? Would you guys do that for me? I´m wondering if I can clear up some room in my carry on bag...

I must think on this. But I´m going to do something. You watch.

Lyric o´the blog:
"Just because I´m losing
doesn´t mean I´m lost
Doesn´t mean I´ll stop
doesn´t mean I´m across

Just because I´m hurting
doesn´t mean I´m hurt
doesn´t mean I didn´t get what I deserved
no better and no worse

I just got lost
every river that I tried to cross
Every door I ever tried was locked
Oh and I´m just waiting ´til the shine wears off

You might be a big fish in a little pond
doesn´t mean you´ve won
´Cause along may come a bigger one.

And you´ll be lost
every river that you tried to cross
every gun you ever held went off
Oh and I´m just waiting ´til the firing´s stopped
Oh and I´m just waiting ´til the shine wears off."