you know that saying; " its been real, and its been fun, buti cant say its been real fun." well that doesnt sum up peru at all.
Peru is a poor counrty where indigenous people use thier clothing, culture and everything else to make a sole( or a buck). I met an amazing pollish man. a histerical irish woman and an older and interesting english woman. We travelled as a pack for a little bit and I learned the joys and pains of meeting people and saying goodbye all in the name of a journey. We definatly got swindled a few times but i just chalk it up to south american lessons.
people dont turn the car off when they pump gas! i was convinced that we were going to blow up while our cabbie filled up the tank on the way into chile.
This trip has been going for a bout a month now. it seems like a day and a year at the same time. its not at all what i expected, but i dont really know what i was expecting anyways. Its almost like burning man, where its fun and im always laughing, but its hard and i find myself almost overly introspective.
Those people i was talking about...well, sara and i found a tour in Arequipa to go to Colca Canyon, a canyon bigger than the one in the us, and we convinced them all to come, we got a sweet deal and were all ready for some 3 day trekking.
first off they put us in a two day tour, even though we payed for three, sprung two meals on us that we had to pay for and then gave them to us for free because we( and by we i mean i because no one else spoke spanish) bitched them out untill they did.
then they dropped us off in a godfoprsaken town to wait for an hour and a half in the sun to find out that "we" were too late to do our trekking, and had to walk straight down the canyon(very dangerous), just to turn back the next morning at 2am to hike back up.
well we dealt by going down, swimming in the pools and of course drinking beer! i mean of course thats what you do before a strenuous hike at 2 am right?
needless to say i threw up within an hour of the hike, but made it up without the donkey that they told us we needed and woulkd cost 20 buck. booyah, thank you ODP for making keep walking even when i wanted to die!
after that we needed out of peru. so into chile we went.
guess what.
its chilean independence day, that actually is a huge fesitval that lasts all weekend.
amazing, i love how these things work out.
meat on sticks and fair games. i couldnt be happier, actually im just happy to be out of peru, but in retrospect..i kinda miss the simple life.รง
everyone here smokes and wears black and is sooooooo emo!
also, no ones clothes fit, its like no one bought new clothes after junior high, even though they have all had at least 3 babies since then. but im no fashion police so what the hey, do what you gotta do!
i am learning and growing in ways that i dont understand yet,
and im sorry that my bloggs are so scattered. im not a good blogger and i leave so much out and say things that dont need description, but hopefully i will get better.
on a different note... i feel that this needs to be said:
I recently learned the news that a highschool aquaintence died in a car accident last weekend. even though we were not the closest of friends i felt crushed and almost defeated that i couldnt be home to be with the ones i love. I cried and cried and sent emails filled with love and saddness. in the end it reinforced all the reasons that I came here even though for now my heart and soul are in santa cruz with all those that are hurting and struggling to make sense of the sensless.
RIP Chris, i know that you will be missed
much love to the world,
christina
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
I went for the tits, but all i got was caca
haha, just kidding. Lake Titicaca was awe inspiring, when you are on it you can hardley belive that you arent on the ocean(its cold enough to be the ocean)! I can safely say that it was a journey to get to the lake.first i will bullet point alittle:
1.ruins
2.stolen credit card number (they tried to buy$2000 worth of shazz from overstock.com, with my 900 limit, silly them)
3. three failed jungle tour attempts
4. Lamb on the bus
ok this one needs some explaination. taking busses in Peru is a cheap and semi fast way to get around the country. sometimes for short distances and some long. the short ones are very inexpensive, maybe 1.40 soles ( less that $1), and the longer are around $10, for about and 9 hour ride.
ok well on these long bus rides periodically through the towns people jump on (litterally jump on and off) with food and drinks to sell to the passengers.
I was so hungry...lika always, but i didnt buy the bag of potatoes and other stuff, no no, i was holding out. for what i do not know, so the next time someone came on I was all eyes on them. you know what I saw?
two women with a huge blanket with a bag inside with a whole, a WHOLE cooked lamb inside. some one asked for 5 soles worth and she picked up the leg and started hacking at it with a machette. seriously, it was as normal as apple pie.mmmmmm pie, anyways. yeah, ou know your in a thrid world country when....
5. was dressed by a peruvian woman in authentic clothes, i looked so peruvian. except that i didnt, but it was still fun.
all in all this is just the begining.
sara and i spent alot of time talking about the things that we left at home that we really should have brought, but hey, just more peruvian lessons. alot of other times we talk about what we are seeing in the context of our livein america. even when in went to ecuador i did not feel so deeply affected by the poverty and living conditions of people in developing countries. there is so much trash, and there is no system put into place to hadle the situation, or at leasnt not that we can see.
I am doing a lot of reflection as well as having a blast, but i wont bore you with all my life reflections just yet......give it a month.
the culture here is so different and most of the people we meet love to comment on how loud and friendly california girls are, but i think its just sara and me.
well long live love and whatnot,
your South american adventurer,
me
1.ruins
2.stolen credit card number (they tried to buy$2000 worth of shazz from overstock.com, with my 900 limit, silly them)
3. three failed jungle tour attempts
4. Lamb on the bus
ok this one needs some explaination. taking busses in Peru is a cheap and semi fast way to get around the country. sometimes for short distances and some long. the short ones are very inexpensive, maybe 1.40 soles ( less that $1), and the longer are around $10, for about and 9 hour ride.
ok well on these long bus rides periodically through the towns people jump on (litterally jump on and off) with food and drinks to sell to the passengers.
I was so hungry...lika always, but i didnt buy the bag of potatoes and other stuff, no no, i was holding out. for what i do not know, so the next time someone came on I was all eyes on them. you know what I saw?
two women with a huge blanket with a bag inside with a whole, a WHOLE cooked lamb inside. some one asked for 5 soles worth and she picked up the leg and started hacking at it with a machette. seriously, it was as normal as apple pie.mmmmmm pie, anyways. yeah, ou know your in a thrid world country when....
5. was dressed by a peruvian woman in authentic clothes, i looked so peruvian. except that i didnt, but it was still fun.
all in all this is just the begining.
sara and i spent alot of time talking about the things that we left at home that we really should have brought, but hey, just more peruvian lessons. alot of other times we talk about what we are seeing in the context of our livein america. even when in went to ecuador i did not feel so deeply affected by the poverty and living conditions of people in developing countries. there is so much trash, and there is no system put into place to hadle the situation, or at leasnt not that we can see.
I am doing a lot of reflection as well as having a blast, but i wont bore you with all my life reflections just yet......give it a month.
the culture here is so different and most of the people we meet love to comment on how loud and friendly california girls are, but i think its just sara and me.
well long live love and whatnot,
your South american adventurer,
me
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