I entered this in the "Women make it Happen! End Poverty 2015 Millenium Campaign" photo contest. Not one thing, but the simplicity in her struggle to maintain the culture that means so much to her well-being represents making it happen so much to me.
Entry:
This picture was taken a few miles from the shores of Lake Titicaca in Puno, Peru, where the indigenous customs and languages, mainly Quechua and Aymara, still pertain to a significant part of the population. This particular indígena is the epitome of the phrase "keepin' it real". Despite social and nationalistic oppression from the Hispanic population in South America, her pride and efforts to keep her ancestry alive speaks volumes. She has not chosen to throw away thousands of years of her civilization and will pass these beliefs and customs to her children. The vicuña on her left still remains part of the Inca culture today, an animal that produces extremely precious wool once every 3 years. She is making a difference by not converting, selling out, or sacrificing anything that her people have ever considered letting go of, maintaining her way of life that has continued to be established for centuries. Her chosen life path is well-respected within her own community and should set an example for anyone that faces a life-changing decision: stay true to yourself. If anything, the warm smiles from "La infdígena con vicuña" will surely brighten up your day.
Before I came to Perú, I thought of astonishing green mountains, bright colors, delicious food, a majority of the population being indigenous and, of course, llamas. Well the instant I left Lima I got all of that. The 2 weeks I spent travelling around the south part of the country were fantastic, I just wish (like always) that I had more time.
Arequipa is incredibly homely. I don't know if it has to do with leaving the natural "garua" (the continual grayness that the Humboldt current casts over Lima) of the big city, but I can't really remember seeing brighter nights than in Arequipa.
"estrellas brillantísimas por aca! nada de polución de luz, montañas pasando por el fondo. es bacan de verdad!!" (Bright stars here! No light polution, mountains in the background. it's seriously sweet!), tweet
It's a great tourist destination for those who enjoy the outdoors (as about 1 out of 4 people I saw were definitely not Peruvian). There were plenty of opportunities to go hiking, rock climbing, bird watching, mountain biking & rafting!
Also, even though I had to wait for a tour bus to pick me up at 2am (and they didn't show up till 3:10!!!), the tour of the Colca Canyon was worth it. After all this bullshit happening in Arizona recently, I thought the only thing they had was the deepest canyon in the world; well, they don't, so the Grand Canyon state officially sucks. We also got to sneak a peak at some condors. They were pretty far away, except for when they flew right over us and my camera was dead :-/ It was a long day, but I'm glad I got to see the world's deepest canyon!
"Lots of bussing. Condors and canyon was worth it, saw some snow, meet some folks, but I'm deadddd.", tweet
Puno is an adorable little city on the edge of Lake Titicaca (which I thought was the highest lake in the world, but is the highest navigatable lake in the world). The streets are narrow, littered with delicious restaurants that start at a mere 2 soles per meal and I heard Quechua & Aymara everywhere. I visited the floating islands (Uros) and also a natural one (Taquile), as well. It was interesting to see a population so disconnected from another that (I feel like) is already so disconnected.
"Titicaca feels like an ocean. There are 60 islands, only 35 are natural; the rest float from reeds/roots, originally to escape Inca attacks!", tweet
The people seemed to always be smiling. I don't know if that had to do with the elevation, the lake, or the higher concentration of indigenous people, but it was very relaxing to see everyone so content. Their graffiti also reflected this happiness & love, as I saw "te amo" everywhere!
Even the Puneños at the hostel I stayed at were great. One of them randomly saw me at the bus station, as I stared so tourist-like at my Lonely Planet, then told me about a cheap, comfortable & well-located place to stay. He took me there and gave me a room that was supposed to be for 3 (with cable TV, internet, personal bathroom with hot water) for only $8/night! One night when I was shmoking and playing with my iPhone on the patio, the only hostel employee asked me what it was I was doing. I showed him CubeRunner... an hour later of playing & smoking, I think I changed his life.
"Smoked out with the hostel manager and showed him CubeRunner. He was AMAZED. High score: 101. Sweetness!", tweet
They even got me set up in a great hostel in Cuzco, plus a discounted bus ticket there (which I made sure was cheaper than I could find anywhere else). Great town, great people.
Cuzco was pretty much the pinnacle of my trip. If you google "Peru", a ridiculous amount of the results pertain to Cuzco or Machu Picchu. It was quite touristy, but I was OK with that. I liked that it took a little navigating about the city to find a cheaper place to eat or more exclusive clothing. The only thing I didn't like was the struggle to speak Spanish. A large percentage of them speak English, so when I approached them, even if I started in Spanish, they responded in English. We would both continue to speak in our second languages until one of us pulled the other completely into the other tongue; sometimes, the whole conversation would be in both languages and we would never settle on one. I was frustrated because English/Spanglish is something I do (and like to do) in the US, but I went to Perú to live my life in a second language.
The town itself is gorgeous. The scenery reminds me so much of the inland northwest: deep canyons covered in pine, lots of rock & rivers, & a fairly dry climate. As we got closer to Aguas Calientes, the town where you start the hike up to the Machu Picchu, it started to get a little more moist, bright jungle flowers began to appear and the shades of green became deeper. Still, on the train to Machu Picchu, I felt like I was on I-90 headed to Missoula.
"it is really weird how much the interior of Perú is like the NW. i love it. i love both!", tweet
Machu Picchu was... amazing. It's location, precision & beauty are things that just need to be seen to really appreciate. I started the hike at 3:30am, hooking up with these Australians who were passing people left and right on the trail. I didn't have a light, and they were quick, so I just went for it. At the top, they said "Man I'm surprised you could keep up! Most can't." They then saw me with their headlamp; I looked like I had just dipped in the pool, and they were without a drop of sweat on their bodies. I said "I'm glad I ran cross country and didn't play football". I felt good up there, and was about the 120th person to make it. Even though the whole ordeal was a little pricey, it made the whole experience that much more awesome.
"Lonnng & expensive couple days. The bus, train, hike and and early rising were all worth it tho. This is the longest I've been off twitter!!", tweet
I also took the second hike up to Wayna Picchu, the peak that looks down onto Machu Picchu. Only the first 400 to arrive at the site get this privilege, so even though I was tired, I was glad to make the hike! It ended up being one of the coolest smoke spots I've ever been to.
In all, limeños, arequipeños, puneños & cuzqueños: gracias por todo! Me ha encantado tu país, y tengo ganas de volver muy pronto :-)
I have to admit that the last week and a half I was in Lima, I was just ready to get out of the city. My roommates were slowly going their separate ways, my classes didn't seem as interesting anymore (although still helpful), I already went to the discotecas/saw the nightlife I wanted to and I felt like I had already seen all that would interest me of the city. I realized that, of the 43 districts, there were only 9 or 10 that had something worth it: good food to eat, cool ruins, a pretty beach or a cool market. The rest of the city was just something I would maybe wanna drive by to see (and honestly, probably not because the edges of the city exhibit the most poverty, construction & social disorganization... Or rather just no sign of anyone being able to give a shit and do something about where they live). So, a few goodbyes and I was off with the tentative plan of: Arequipa --> Puno --> Cuzco --> Lima --> Home :-)
After quite a luxurious 17 hour overnight bus ride, I have arrived in Arequipa. The bus had first class airline size seats, TVs, blankets & pillows, plus a not so bad dinner and breakfast. And as always, ridiculously cheap ($30).
I looked into hostels online before I got here, but as there is no way to book things online here, I just kinda showed up and asked for a room. Meeting other travellers who have been in South America for at least six months, they all pretty much just wing it. They have a general final destination, but just kinda go to the bus plaza, buy a ticket somewhere, then just walk around the new city looking for a place to stay... And it works! I actually do like this sort of freelance system as compared to European travel, but with so many natural hazards and lack of organization and correspondence between travel companies here, I could see it getting frustrating at times. For now, I dig it (let's see where I'm at when my plane takes off in 10 days...)
Might I just say that I loooove Arequipa. It is Peru's second biggest city, but by a huge margin (Lima - 8,000,000; Arequipa - just under 1.000.000). It's beautiful and situated between peaks higher than 14,000 feet, navegatable, lovely people, not dirty, super cheap taxis (never more than $2) & soooo many things to do outdoors and see. In 2 days, I've went river rafting, seen the world's deepest canyon (Colca), visited a perfectly preserved Inca girl discovered a few years ago in the ice-capped mountains (Juanita) & seen the last pre-Incan cemetary exisiting; PLUS I've seen llamas, alpacas, vicuñas (who, when males fight, they just try and bite each other in the balls!), some weird ass pigs, hawks, eagles, and condors (yes, CONDORS!). Also, the altipano, as in the southeastern part of Peru that is a couple thousand meter high plateau, reminds me of central washington: very dry, rugged, some cacti and scarce vegatation, with ur occasional Columbia River Valley type agricultural areas scattered about.
So I'll be uploading pics on the 26th, as I am computerless on this little voyage. I'm super excited for Lago Titicaca and Cuzco to come, there's just so much in this country to see. I do feel, though, (as a Seattlelite from Capitol Hill named Pete I just met at the Cruz del Condor put it so well) "dripping with wealth" when I walk among the indigenous (and even other Peruvians sometimes) folk, as they sell there 30 cent necklaces, walk their napsacks of hay for miles or just look at the ground with their hands out, praying in Quechua and Spanish for someone to drop in coin their way. I'm sure everyone feels this to some extent when they leave their more fortunate country and visit others that are struggling (like the Swiss travelling Europe right now? lol), but I can't help but mention it. A positive aspect is that there exists a tourist industry at all, which is now one of the biggest in Peru, and that I'm contributing to that.
These past 2 weeks, Lima has opened up a little for me. A few house parties, discotecas, pubs, markets, and I've actually even started to jog a little (which I realized is probably my most preferred way to explore a new town). Still though, I've seen 5 of the 43 districts in Lima, and it's enormity still shocks me. Today, for example, I rode a combi for an hour and half and only covered about 2" on a map of Lima that represents the city as 11" long, for a cartographic perspective. I was a little hermitish at the beginning, being as I landed in Lima a little sick already, and so the first week of rum 'n cokes with the roomies didn't help that situation... but now it's better, and I think my body is going to slowly adapt to the water. It's hard to avoid though, as it's used for everything: coffee, rice, washing vegetables, boiling anything, etc... I assume by the time I completely adjust physically, it will time to head back to the states. But whatever, I'll manage!
Last week, Marlene, Kyra and I went to our friend Alejandro's house, a Peruvian who lives in a very nice part of the city. His house looked like some of the upper-middle class houses my friends had at Mt. Spokane, and everyone there was super nice. We just chilled, had a BBQ, drank some rum n cokes (what else), and... of course... we ended the night with salsa. A few hours in, I could see the Hispanics getting antsy, hips-a-movin & liquor-a-flowin, so I saw the salsa coming. I personally am not biologically blessed with those rubbery hips, so I could do without the suave seductive salsa music, but it came, they danced, and I drank a little more. It was funny cause I made reference to my genetic 'flaw' of lacking these hips to my roommates by calling them "maderas" instead of "caderas", the former actually meaning wood. So, not only do I not have these hips, I also have been calling my hips "wood" for the past few weeks... so maybe this is a sign and it's actually true? Lol whatever... also, I loved his dog.
One of the coolest bars I went to was a German pub called "treff" (which literally just means meeting place) to watch the Germany vs. Australian game. Along with my German roommates, there were students who are from Lima that attend a German business school here, plus some other German exchange students that are here studying. Everyone ended up going Deutsch on me, painting their faces and wearing the colors... I swear I would have erupted had Australia scored a goal, but ze Germans ended up with a 4-0 defeat and the cheering didn't get any less ecstatic after each goal. Good german beer, some alright French fries, then a walk in Parque Kennedy afterwards made for an overall giddy up experience!
Last night was my first time in the Central Part of Lima, which is the most (what I would call) South American Colonial part of the city. It was pretty dark so I couldn't get any pictures, but the buildings were super 'what you would expect' from a city founded 500 years ago by Spain. A Peruvian guy named Marco, who is super cool, said they were restored a few times and probably not more than a century had passed since the last remodel. We went through 4 or 5 bars in Plaza San Martín (here is a wiki pic of it, hopefully I'll get some of my own soon), ending up at what I would consider a hipster bar. All the bars there were a little dirtier, a little tighter, and a littler cheaper than what I've been experiencing in Miraflores (definitely one of the most upscale districts in Lima).... just how I like it! It was the goodbye party to my roommate Mathilde, the French, who I very much love for her attitude, opinions, humor and laid-backness (yes, I am the king of creating words)... just a lovable human being. I'll miss ya girl!
Today I ended up taking a combi to somewhere I've never been before, the district Jesus María. My plan is to do this every other day for these last 3 weeks. The whole way I wanted to get off every few minutes to look at something, which I did end up doing a few times, but there's just so much I don't know how I could manage that unless I walked the 6 miles home... actually, maybe I should just do that! Anyways, there are soooo many opportunities to eat food, anywhere you are. Little stands with sandwiches, chips, cookies, soups, coffee, candy, full meals with rice/potatoes/meat/salad, and of course beer are always within a block, no matter where you go. I just see all the prices, divide by 3 (exchange rate), and just think to myself "Dude, that is like $2... do not pass that up!". The only thing that does make me pass it up is their abundance. But sometimes, that dank aroma just gets me :-p I kinda like that the price of living here is so low that people can actually support their families by selling stuff on the street like that (even though I'm sure they'd prefer something else), even considering all the economic/political/humanity struggle stuff I just jumped over with that statement (yes, I know...). In any case, check out this 3 pounds of fried rice for $3! (No, I thought they were little bags of drugs too, but it was just the aji and other sauce)
I have also come to realize why I really enjoy (and miss) the big(ger) city life in the US: no one looks at you. In Spokane, I feel like most everyone looks at everyone else as they walk by each other, maybe because it's small enough that you feel like you could know them, or because it's so suburbish that being close to other people and possibly brushing shoulders with them would be... weird. In Seattle, or San Francisco, or even Portland, people just walk with their eyes fixed ahead, not giving a shit about the people passing by. This is what I like, and this is something I am definitely not experiencing here in Lima. I think I have to come to accept the fact that any non anglo-society or 3rd world country I go to, I will most likely be stared at when I walk by, but still, I have a hard time not wanting to not look at them looking at me (sorry about the f.u.b.a.r. sentence, but you catch my drift...). I'm tall, I'm white, I have blue eyes, I wear different clothes than the people here... I would probably stare at me too, but I just don't dig it. Especially when I'm on a combi fitted for 15 people and it has 30, it's made for people that are under 5'4", and I have diarrhea (for example... I've had quite a bit of stomach problems like I said). I'm starting to get over it though. Most of the time I just take a seat somewhere until the passing crowd forgets to notice me, and take a few snapshots of graffiti :-) It floods the city, everywhere... I love it
GRAFFITI
As far as my plans for travel after Lima, I have a loop in the south of Perú planned that will take me through Arequipa, Cuzco (& Machu Picchu), Puno (& Lago Titicaca... which always makes me think of Beavis, anyone else?), and hopefully a town deep the Peruvian Amazon. As far as my weekends in Lima, I definitely want to visit Caral, the oldest city in all of the Americas. The Nazca Lines are also doable in a weekend, and I think a roommate or two might wanna do it with me. But we'll see...
Spanish-wise, I feel like there was a dramatic increase in my speed at the beginning, and now, reviewing hypothetical tenses and moods of verbs & having written down over 200 words I didn't know (or didn't remember), I feel like I am really trying to be careful with my structure and word choice. I came to realize also that I really don't have much opportunity to practice the academic Spanish that I will be using at the University level for the rest of my career, but only the quick, ever-so-efficient (or I would just say ever-so-minimal-physical-effort) street Spanish that is needed to successfully function in a Hispanic society. I am learning a certain style at my school, then using a different one daily, so it's kind of a weird balance. Don't get me wrong... I am very pleased with my teacher so far, as she knows some English & Portuguese as well (which is perfect for me!) and always has extra insight that I wouldn't expect or anticipate, but it's like I need to call my professors at ASU or go a certain setting to apply what I'm learning. I will feel like I learned so much and made so much progress in a day, then get on a combi and not understand what the fuck the driver is saying... Then again, I've heard combi drivers are some of the biggest mumblers and 'whatever' type speakers, as my roommates and even Peruvians have said they have problems with them, but still, it kind of shafts me mentally. I was listening to the combi driver saying the word Benavides, which phonetically should be /be-na-BI-des/, but when I actually transcribed him literally, there were absolutely no consonants, so it was /we-a-(barely a 'v')i-eee/ (sorry for the lack of phonetic symbols, but still... it was just fucked).
Anyways, that's all for now. More adventures to come, more shtuff to be done! Tweet/update/blog/email/text/call ya later! But I ask you...
