There and Back

How to understand the sensation of one moment being in a place, living a certain way, experiencing a particular kind of weather, surrounded by specific peoples and environs, and then only a few hours later being in a entirely different kind of place, living an alternate way, experiencing other kinds of weather, surrounded by people and environs of another world away. Sometimes travel just boggles me: the sensation of flying someplace and being plopped in a new place where you do things completely differently I find to be disorienting always. Even so, I feel that my transistion home was smoother than usual. I think I was ready to come home. And figure out what and where that is.

But enough about that. Reflect on the trip! What was splendid? What was not?

Well, it was a trip that I would have never taken on my own. I never would have gone to Peru. Knew nothing about Cusco and had never really had any desire to see Machu Picchu or Lake Titicaca or herds of llamas. And yet I went and saw there things. And found that if you are bold you can communicate with rudimentary Spanish. And that you must be bold, because in a country of much poverty, tourists are the harbingers of money. No prices are set in stone. Bargain for taxis, for souvenirs, even for the price of the room you will spend the night in. When you have nothing left to sell, you can sell your culture. You can sing, dance, wear traditional clothing, sew your stories into tapetries. When you are a gringo tourist, your role is to buy the crotchetted llama fingerpuppet from the red-cheeked Quechua child on the street.

Guatemala was in some ways like Peru, but of course not. Every successive country felt like different stage, so Guatemala was Stage 2. The culture is Mayan, not Quechuan, but the poverty is the same. The men, women, and children knitting, painting, and weaving constantly to pile their wares in overcrowded stalls is the same. But it is not the same. We ride in school buses across the countryside, butt cheek to butt cheek squeezed on brown vinyl seats. We eat tortillas instead of rice and potatoes. And we watch from the canopy top as the Mayan city of Tikal emerges from the mist of the rainforest. As you may guess, the further I got from the Cusco, that city of cultural wholesale, the better I felt about traveling.

And it was like taking earmuffs off my ears in Belize. I could finally understand what ppl were saying and speak with them back, well as much as someone speaking English can communicate with someone speaking Belizean Criole. Fanciful beach paradises of sand and sea, palm trees and beach cabanas, tropical fish and coral reefs. Such an ethnic mix too of Black Belizeans, Mayan Belizeans, Chinese Belizeans, and Germanic Mennonite Belizeans. A small small country with kind people and gorgeous landscapes.

Finally, Mexico. Still a language I can hardly comprehend, but a culture that is not so foreign. Seeing places that I have been before or heard about by myself. The independence and joy of discovering something on my own for myself alone. But still alone and lonely too. Seeing the splendor of Teotihuacan, my favorite ruin city of the three. Basking in the Mexican celebration and love of fruit that so matches my own. And stepping into a place where the people are stewing for change and a political voice. A place where the tourists are Mexican and the children have parks devoted to them. A place of variety and differences, that cannot be experienced in simply seven days.

Meanwhile, everywhere I go I encounter Chinese people. We really are everywhere. From the Barrio Chino in Lima, to the guava sellers in Guatemala, and the restaurant owners in Mexico City. We leave our cultural stamp. The grocery stores and chifas. But still the fear of the others, the seperatism, and the reluctance to engage outside of one's ethnicity. If we participated more in the societies we lived in we would not be hated, feared, or mocked so. Or if we could at least organize amongst each other we could rule the world! [In a Chinese restaurant in Mexico City I hear the sound of a keyboard in the back kitchen. Or course, the Chinese owners would have a keyboard so that their daughter can practice the piano. You aren't a Chinese child - even in Mexico - if your parents did not make you play the piano, violin, or flute.]

And home again, where my family wonders why I would want to go to Latin America, but knows that what is important is that I am back and safe. While within me germinates a new bug. Not malaria, which I still have to take gargantuan pink pills to prevent contracting, but the desire to travel. See places, meet peoples, and eat great foods! This I can do and will do. Let's see what time and resources will allow. But Southeast Asia isn't that far away.

hasta luego, mexico!

Very cool inside. No pictures allowed though, they said.

Cactuses pegged to the art museum

Lobo.

Giraffe!!!

This is the sadest rhinoseros I've ever seen. (Of the 2 I've seen in my lifetime...)

so...many...children...in...the...zoo

taking off tomorrow. i´m leaving tomorrow? at 5 i´ve got to catch the subway to the airport. will make more lucid and composed closing remarks later. just a quick rundown for tonight.

- went to frida´s house. beautiful art and touching coziness. her bed is there. her pots. her art. her collected things. wuite something.
- on the way back to subway met a mom and daughter pair from puebla. they were super nice to me, thinking that i was going to get horribly lost with my horrible spanish. gave me their address and invited me to visit them anytime. so nice!
- went to the zoo. some amazing collection of animals. super crowded! every child in mexico city must have been there! half of them all sitting around in blue t-shirts with a summer camp. the biggest summer camp in civilization, i swear. other kids with their families, tethered by leashes that the vendors are selling. never seen so many kids in all my life. a city of children.
- say museo de arte contemporario. kinda small and underwhelming after frida´s house.
- sat in cafeteria and read book. ate yummy torta de hawaiiano. and another dessert, this time of flan, chocolate cake, whipped cream, and frutas. i love dessert!

I now have 12 pesos to my name. Please let me get to the airport on my 2 pesos metro ticket! Have to be at the airport by 5am. i think i can swing 5:30. three hours ahead of a flight is a bit crazy.

vente cinco

Three eras of architecture side by side. History bleeds in this city.

Talismans of the Virgin.

Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe

Quetzalcoatl

View of the main boulevard from up top the Temple of the Sun.

View of the top of the Temple of the Sun.

I am officially 25 years old. Yoohoo! Actually very low key. I didn't even mention it to my roommates. No point in foisting unnecessary celebrations on strangers. I had a perfect day anyway. Oh, recap of previous day.

- took 4-hour bus ride from morelia back to mexico city after thinking about all the cool things i wanted to do in the city. squished against fat woman who crossed herself when we arrive in mexico city. terrible american movies playing over tv. slept through most of it so journey just fine. :o)
- took the subway and found the hostel i wanted behind the main cathedral after getting lost a bit. settled in 6-bed dorm room with nice Australian girls on a 4-month world trip. very cool. i have my own locker! my passport is finally secure.
- took tourist circuit bus ride through central district. kinda bummer because it started to rain and we were stuck in traffic. also were let out on the main boulevard istead of at cathedral because tour stops promptly at nine. ai! so walked the mean streets at night! but perfectly alright and street well lit. made it home with body and possessions in tact.

And then today...Teotihuacan! I saw the great Aztec ruins that lie just outside Mexico City. Well, first took a detour to Tlatelotco (i may be horribly mispelling that) ruins within the city of pre-Spanish marketplace. Right by a Fransiscan church. And also surrounded by 50s housing complexes upon which Mexican police and army stood to fire down and kill 20,000 protesting students in 1968. Mexico bleeds history. Also a stop at the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, where our guide gave us an objective history of the shadiness behind the Catholic church's use of saints and images for conversion. Somekind of huge service doing on. Rode on conveyor belts to see the image of the virgin. Also saw the caravan used to carry Pope John Paul II when he came to visit Mexico. When he died the bus was drived empty through Mexico and thousands stood in the streets to see it pass and say their goodbyes. Wow. Ah, then to the coolness. Huge boulevard like formation with the temple of the moon at the end, the temple of the sun at the side, and thirteen smaller pyramid bases all around. So organized and clearly laid. A rush of human enginuity and a culture far different but also perfectly logical and empassioned as our own. Or not. Thankfully no rain, just sun behind the clouds as we trekked up and up and up. Amazing to see how the pyramids were meant to mimic the mountains around. Sad that what was once forest was probably decimated to make the stucco used to cover the stone walls. Stone walls and steps that ran with human blood from daily sacrifices. And there is so much of the culture that is similar with the Mayans and Incans. So much cultural exchange and technology. Must have been amazing with runners bringing fresh fish from the coast and ice from the mountains. Wow.

And then back again to Mexico City, where I enjoyed a dinner of Chinese food (halfway decent but veggies doing my rollicking digstion good) and then a cup of yogurt, fruit, and gelatin from a great pastry-dessert place. Gonna hit that place at least one more time before I head out in two days.

Love being in Mexico City. Love being 25 in Mexico City.

Mexico!

Even the public trash cans are pretty!

Kids and animals: cuteness!

Critical Mass by the Spanish Aqueduct. Check out that dude scowling at me.

Deformed fetuses in the Natural History Museum.

Balloons for sale outside the artisan market.

Corn husk Jesus

Pineapple ceramico!

Ok, writing from Hostel Catedral in Mexico City. Decided to leave Morelia a day early after I found that I had pretty much hit everything I had wanted to see in one day. Here´s the rundown of Morelia.

- traipsed all over the main plaza several times and poked my head into the church, though mass was going on so I didn´t want to disturb.
- walked to the main park where duckies swim in the fountain. kinda wet all around with the rain. strange because i remember that too from when i was here before, lots of wetness. walked along the old spanish aquaduct. visited the museum of natural history, which was mini, like in a house. had a mini exhibit on climate in morelia and also a small room filled with deformed animals and fetuses! i will post some pictures that some viewers may not want to see.
- ate gazpacho! a fruit cocktail of finely cubed pineapple, jicama, and mango topped with chili powder, Valentino chili sauce, cheese, and lime juice. fantastic!
- walked through various museums and old universities to see murals and paintings.
- ate at fancy hotel cafe on the plaza and read a book i got in peru. felt very bohemian!
- watched movie, Pirates of the Carribean 2. incomprehensible plot. i forgot how much i didn´t like the first one.
- had delicious fruit yogurt from a shop that just made yogurt.
- oh, and had a breakfast where i was served a bowl of raw eggs. eck! don´t order huevos tibio.

Weitdest thing about being in Morelia was that everyone I saw was decidedly middle class. this may have something to do with the fact that i only hung around the central district, but even the street kids selling dolls wore blue jeans. it was a very different feeling from peru or guatemala to see that all the tourists were locals! Mexicans with digital cameras taking pictures of churches or out shopping for handicrafts and pan dulce with their kids at the market. Streets clean, even glossy with all the intermittent rain. I can´t say if it was good or bad, but just was so different from it being gringos buying things and the locals begging for money. Economic prosperity.

Oi. I´ll leave Mexico City to tomorrow. I arrived kinda late so haven´t been doing too much anyway. My trip is almost over! But tomorrow is my birthday and I´ll spend it at Teotihuacan seeing the Aztec temples of the sun and moon. Very excited about it. Till tomorrow. Hasta luego!

Morelia Morelia!

I made it alive and well. City is beautiful. So hungry and need to find the tourist office so will write more later. But I made it!

The United Nations Tortilla Factory

Island cabana on Tabacco Caye. Even a shack in paradise is more than any mansion.

Island puppy

Hammocks!

The Marie Sharp hot sauce bottling plant

Dark storm clouds over San Pedro

This is the name of a tortilla shack I saw in Belize on our way out to Mexico. I´m taking off solo for Morelia, Michoacan. Ahhh. Let me explain.

From Tobacco Caye three of us went back to Dangriga to make a stop at the Marie Sharp factory (when we asked how to get there people would just call it ¨Marie Sharp¨like we were going to see the person). Marie Sharp is THE hot sauce in Belize. With a carrot base it tastes like nothing I´ve had in the states and is just absolutely excellent. We got to see the humble factory where ladies were bottling the sauce and of course did some shopping. Got little bottles of the ¨fiery hot¨sauce and grapefruit based sauce. I also picked up some canned cashew fruit that was superb. I hope the jar makes it back in tact. We went on to Hopkins, a small Garifuna town on the Carribean Sea, where we hung out and played in the ocean. Hopkins has no town center, it is just tin houses and businesses all along a street that runs parallel to the ocean. Really quite place where everyone gets around by bike. A little black boy called me Chinese and when I called him a Belizean he said, ¨Hopkensian!¨ We then headed back up to Dangriga where we met up with our friend who had stayed on Tobacco Caye to do some scuba diving.

We traveled, the four of us, together to San Pedro, the only town on the tip of Ambergris Caye, a large island off the northern coast of Belize famous for its resorts and beaches. It was such a change from the tiny island paradise of Tobacco Caye. Everyone drives around in golf carts and there are boat docks poking out of the beach every 50 feet. We did some snorkeling there at the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, beautiful coral reefs but so crowded with snorkel groups that I kept bumping into ppl constantly, and then at Shark Ray Alley, a spot where fisherman gutted their catches so sharks and rays congregate there. It was amazing to swim around with rays and sharks, but the experience was marred by the fact that the 5 or so snorkel boats there were all chumming the water, some very obstrusively, and one snorkel guide even grabbed a shark and ray for ppl on his tour to ¨hug.¨ Thankfully, our guides from Ecological Tour were much less invasive but the experience very much gave me my fill of snorkeling. There is such beauty in the ocean to be seen, but my finning all around it only interferes with what should probably be mostly left alone.

That day I also decided that I wanted to set off solo. I have had my fill of beaches and I know that going up the Yucatan to Cozumel and Cancun will only place me in ever increasingly touristy places that I don´t really want to go to. This trip has also shown me that I could totally make it on my own. I don´t know lots of Spanish but I think I could get by. And really what spurred me to go on this trip was an opportunity to visit Morelia again, the capital of the Mexican state of Michoacan. Beautiful city: modern, colonial, clean, economically diverse, cosmopolitan but easygoing. I don´t know if it will still be the place I once encountered, but it is what I left to see and my travel companions really only planned to go through the Yucatan to see beaches and ruins. So I´m taking off solo. First time doing so in a foreign country. I hope things will go well. I´m a little scared, but I am also excited. I´ve surprised myself with how strong I can be. I think I can do this ok. I take off tomorrow with a flight from Chetumal to Mexico City and then will take a bus to Morelia. Phew. I´ll keep connected to the internet daily, I think, to reassure my family that I´m not dead or hurt or penniless. So, I guess you´ll get the latest on my solo adventure. I really just plan to stay in Morelia for 4 days and then spend a day in Mexico City to see the Aztec temples of the Sun and Moon (meaning I will have seen the greatest ruins of the Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs in one go!). Then I hope to stop in Houston for a few days before heading out to California. It´s my vacation and I should do with my time what I want to do. I want to stay in one place for more than 2 days (even spend my birthday there alone, I´ll be 25 on July 25th!), and I want to see my family one more time before I have to dive into my final year of graduate school. Holy moley, let´s hope I know what I´m doing.

You Better Belize It!

Tikal spider monkey

Dawn at Tikal

Enormous turquoise jungle bug with a missing wing.

Tikal, the jungle ruins...

Cabana a Placencia

A piece of paradise

Writing from an internet cafe in a cabana by the beach. Spent the day walking the beaches, swimming, talking with Mayan kids who tried to sell me crafts, drank coconut juice from a cocunut that a kid climbed a tree to fetch for us, ate fantastic shrimp, drank delicious pina colada. Placencia, a synonym for paradise.

Ah, but how did I come to be in Belize. I believe I left off at the Mayan ruins of Tikal. I'll give the rundown.
- Got up at 3:30am for a sunrise tour of the ruins. Sleepy! Had a hike through the dark and up a temple side where we sat and watched the sky lighten to where levels of mist came in an out of view. The world awaking. Birds calling, howler monkeys screaming like resonating symbols, a temple poking through the fog and the rain forest canopy. Didn't actually see any animals, but cool to greet the day from the side of a temple and hear everything come alive.
- Walked through the main plazas and around to other temples. Amazing and so high and steep and more to be excavated and discovered it sounds like. Made all the more pleasurable b/c we hiked around and allowed all our senses to awaken to the place in the morning. Can't say better or worse than Machi Picchu but more engaging, yes.
- Hiked around the park and saw a family of monkeys several times swinging overhead and across our path. Spider monkeys! Also spotted a gray jungle fox twice, once with what looked like a bird in its mouth. Saw an ant totally chomp down on a catepillar. Also several path-blazing lines of leaf-cutter ants carrying sails of leaves in their jaws.
- Took a canopy tour, which really consisted of doing 11 high up zip lines through the tree tops. Fast and fun! Then got eated alive by mosquitoes towards the end and dusk. Oh those jungle bugs!
- Basically an amazing action packed day of nature, physical activity, and good ole recreational fun.

Next day got up at 5 to catch bus for Belize. Missed the first stop and had to pay our last bit of Guatemalan quetzals that we had been saving to pay the border tax. Turned out ok though and we caught the bus we needed. Rode 5 hours to Belize and had to pile out of the bus at the border check. Somehow we made it from Guat to Belmopan in Belize, then to Dangriga and Mango Creek where we took a boat to Placencia. (Oh, had great soy milk made by a Chinese couple in Belmopan. Many Chinere people in Belize!) Schlepped our heavy bags as we looked for a place to live and settled on a turquoise cabana right on the beach. Quiet because the tourist season seems mostly over.

Have spent the days in eating ice creams from Daisy's, Daisy being the proprietress who makes the ice cream herself every night. So yummy. And walking in the sand and the sea water. One our long beach walk we also popped into hotel pools and had to hedge suspicious lodgers who kept asking us what room we were staying in and where we heard about this place. Room 16, from a mother. Anyway, skidaddling along the beach avoiding random rainshowers. Drinking juice of a coconut fetched down a tree by an obliging kid. The people in Belize are so welcoming and friendly. Can't help thinking what is the catch? Why are you being so nice? Do you want me to buy something of help you gain a commission? Maybe residual reactions from Peru. But enjoying it. Kept running into a group of Mayan adolescents who were trying to sell crafts in order to get money for their school registration. Got to talk and joke with them, learned about school in Belize, and ducked with them under our cabana in the rain. Conclusion, kids are fantastic pretty much where ever you go. Not right that so many of them have to earn livings and have to constantly proposition people that they meet.

On to a caye hopefully tomorrow. Everyday will just simply have to be better than the last.

Dios nos acompañe!

The colors of the textiles are just gorgeous.

Lago Atitlan with mystic volcano in the background.

Chicken bus. Not your run-or-the-mill yellow bus, eh? Now squeeze in as many people as you can!

Fountain of the "mothers" in Antigua.

A church in Antigua that looks like cake frosting. Squelch!

Guat has been something of a haze of buses and dusty towns. A crazy haze. The lake that we visited was Lago de Atitlan, mentioned in my travel book as one of the centers of mystical energy like Machu Pichu or the Egyptian pyramids. After taking a 3 hr bus ride to the city of Panajachel that sits at its coast, my friend and I took a kayak out on the lake to paddle around. It is a quiet blue lake surrounded by green volcanoes and mountains. Only two small docks poke out into its waters and just a few tour boats running tourists to the surrounding towns of indigenous peoples. Also just a few boys swimming and diving off the peirs. Eerily, we were the only two ppl in a kayak out on the water and the current kept pulling us out towards the volcanoes across the lake. We kept getting turned around in the waves and had a hard time maintaining a straight path. Could just be that we had a crappy kayak and crappy paddles that exacerbated the difficulties of paddling in a double kayak, but no, i think it was mystical energy.

Shortly thereafter we had to rush back to Antigua to pick up my jacket with I had sent to the laundromat to have repaired after the zipper broke. I guess I could have abandoned it to see more of the lake, but I´m attached to my things and wouldn´t like to lose something if I could help it. My friend was nice enough to come with me to navigate the public bus system, which turned out to be a transportational adventure. First we stood in the back of a pickup truck, hanging on to a metal frame set up for passengers as we winded up the mountain, to a bigger city, Solola. From there we has to catch a chicken bus to Encuentros. A ¨chicken bus¨ is what they call the old Blue Bird yellow school buses that Guatemala uses for public transportation. I think the one we rode from Solola had ¨Williamsburg County¨written on its side. I guess Guatemalans are little or have no other option but everyone squeezed in 3 to a seat with their bags and babies. At Encuentros it started to rain as we tried to look for the next loudly painted chicken bus that would take us to Chimaltenango. On the previous bus, the ticket man who squeezed up and down the isle to collect the bus fare had gouged us by charging us 2 more quetzals than the locals. A cool lady stuck up for us and said it was unjust, though the ticket man said, ¨Hey, I am a business man. They are not from around here.¨ Goo to know that eventhough we were the only gringas on the bus, we weren´t looked upon by all as despicable future victims. The bus from Chimal. to Antigua was the last leg and the longest. It was something like 1.5 hrs of bumping along the countryside in the rain. Inevitably we kept falling asleep on the passengers to either side of us, but they were pretty nice about it too. And we did survive and I have retrieved my jacket with its nice new black zipper! Also had a great last night in Antigua eating street papusas (corn tortillas stuffed with stuff, queso in my case) and cut mangos. Also peeked into a house to enjoy a marimba band jamming away.

--------

Ah, woke up at 4am to catch our bus out to Flores to see the ruins of Tikal. Craziness abounded. Our pickup van was late and we had to stop lingering outside the door of our hotel when a pack of dogs became interested in us. Made it to the bus station ok and set out for a 10 hr bus ride. Ahh. Purposely kept from drinking water to avoid having to use the bus bathroom. Eick. But the view and sunrise in the morning, oh man.

Our bus rides have been cruises through paradise. In the mornings, the clouds touch the mountaintops like talcum smoke and the light gray of the sky makes the terraced farms and broad banana leaves seem all the more green. Little tin roofed houses are set amongst bushy trees and shredded palm fronds that punctuate the expanses of cornfields that climb up the mountains - nothing´s flat. And the volcanoes, always the most verdant green, dark and looming with the mist that only just hides their terrible tips. Guatemala. Guatemala. Guatemala.

Tomorrow we get up at 3.30 to take a tour to see Tikal at sunrise when the monkeys and birds emerge. Ahh, sleep...what is that? And then another bus voyage out to Belize. Flying through the Mayan world, Fly!

guat, guat, guat

Gates of Lima's Barrio Chino, donated by China. Where are all the Chinese people?

Church encrusted with pigeons (all the dark dots on the outside).

Our thirteen-year-old fans from outside the church. The boy in blue, surrounded by his novias, is my Chinese "cousin."

Wellness bus in Lima. Mental health for all!

Ice cream option from ice cream shop in Lima. Cultural competence anyone?

The courtyard of the hostel in Antigua. Pretty, no?

hello from anttigua! i´ve been sick with a cold for the last 2 days or so and so have not been able to stumble to el cafe de internet. So, I will try to give a condensed version of what has happened thus far.

- wandered Lima, Peru. Fantastic city, Miraflores (the fancy developed area anyway). taxi window was not smashed and bags were not stollen. Cool! Also felt good to be in a city. At least there I know that the culture is there to be commecialized, not like in the smaller towns where I wonder if i am exploiting and destroying the culture.

- In Lima, overrun by middle-school-age kids outside a cathedral overed in pigeons. One precocious boy approached me because his grandfather is Chinese, from Canton. He asked me to pretend he was my son. Ahh, gotta love middle-schoolers.

- Crazy traveling to Guatemala. layover in costa rica. what i saw from the aeropuerto was beautiful. green and volcanic. ate papa john´s pizza. si.

- Our cabbie from Guatemala City to Antigua stopped halfway on the highway claiming that the rain made his car stall. Freaking out that we are about to be robbed-assaulted on the road during a storm. We got out and were able to hail a bus and we all survived. Uh, travel adventure not so fun, but we survived unscathed.

- Chilled in hostel room watching bad American movies on HBO while recovering from cold. Loved evey minute.

- Walked around Antigua today. Touristy colonial city. Guatemalans also short. I feel tall. But Americans all tall. Darn. Handicrafts and clothing beautiful, can´t help buying things. Money does not go as far here as Peru. What gives? Alas.

Next stop the lake, can´t remember the name, but will repot more later. Surrounded by volcanoes it is. And then on to the Mayan ruins of Tikal, which are supposed to be magnificent. Entonces, hasta luego! (oh, what do you know, but I am picking up Español.)

reed islands and empanadas

The boat dock at Taquile with the lake and mainland in the distance.

Reed boat, with figureheads that bite!

An island made from reeds! And a Peruvian lady in the traditional bowler hat.

Protest of American trade dominance. We're Canadians, honest!

Yesterday we took a boat tour out to the Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca. They are a group of 48 islands created completely out of reeds and are anchored by stakes in the ground. They are amazing things, like walking on squishy mats that undulate with the water. The houses there are also made of reeds and there are elaborate reed boats. Of course all this is now touristy. The moment we land the people unveil tables of handicrafts, the reed boatride costs 5 soles, and everyone actually lives in tin houses outfitted with solar panels and satellite dishes located behind the reed houses. Dying culture it is with the kids all going to school in Puno and then going on to university and not coming back to live on the islands. Amazing things though. Each island takes about a year to construct and reeds have to be constantly layered on top to form a 2 to 3 meter thickness. The lake itself was gorgeous. It is so expansive and blue it really is like being on the ocean. We then took a long boat ride out to one of the largest islands on the lake, Taquile. We climbed high up on a rock road to eat lunch and view more handicraft markets. I want to support the locals but at the same time it is hard not to be overwhelmed with kids thrusting knit bags and bracelets at you at every turn. ¨No gracias¨ has become a regular phrase that I repeat constantly. But I don´t think I had know how poor Peru is and how dependant it is on tourism to survive, which sadly does much to alter the traditional culture that people come to see. Well, Taquile was beautiful set in the middle of the lake. From where we ate we could see Bolivia on the horizon.

Oh, there´s a protest going on outside. We saw one the other day against free trade, particularly with the US. Hm, this one has old guys wearing suits. Don´t know what it is about though.

Oh, and I finally convinced my friend to eat street food with me so I had a beef steak empanada. Sooo good. If I get sick at least I had a fantastic breakfast. Don´t worry, no jello cups for me. I think we will have an afternoon of yogurt on the docks. Splendido and çíao!

On the shores of Lake Titicaca

Sunrise over dusty Puno.

Lake Titicaca! Oh the sludgy green waters! Actually very blue and calm further out.

Made it to the lago! After a nine hour train ride that rose thousands of miles in elevation, we tripped out the train with heads reeling from the elevation change. we got to see a beautiful landscape of snowcapped mountains, yellow plains, glassy rivers, and pink spraypainted sheep. I guess that is so that ppl can identify which are theirs but it was strange to see nevertheless. also lots of llamas tied up and many small peruvian children in very cute crotchetted hats. we arrived in puno, on the shores of the lake, and checked into a really great hostel that we bargained down perhaps too much. some bad feelings may persist. spent the next day checking out the dock and different tours and walking up the mountain to a gigantic condor statue. for that hike we climbed 619 stairs! intense, especially with the elevation, but i absolutely loved the climb and the view was spectacular. also enjoyed fantastic mini ice creams. oi, traveling is stressful though. constantly moving from place to place. living out of a backpack. having to shop around for affordable lodgings, food, and transport. i think it is a lifestyle that i will just have to get used to. tomorrow, the floating islands of lake titicaca! ah, what beautiful green waters.

basketball, cow hearts, and white jesus

Cusco in the distance.

White Jesus!

I´ve had a long day. But one that I feel much more pleased with. Upon first arriving in Cusco I was overwhelmed and saddened by how touristy this place is. There are native handicraft stands everywhere hawling the same stuff. White tourists everywhere you look in their REI gear. Little kids following you around asking you to buy knit fingerpuppets or postcards. And though the cost of everything is about a third the American cost, it makes me sad and confused that I came to a place with the intention of having my money sapped from me at every turn. This is fun?

I did have a splendid time though with some free entertainment watching a baskeball game of a city league of forty-something women. They just looked like they were having so much fun and everyone´s family was there. Kids buying popsicles and rolling around, pink-cheeked, in the terraced hill behind the outdoor court. Among other things I also ate a very Peruvian meal of quinoa soup and cow heart kabobs, followed by a desert that was something like a cornstarch gravy of Robitussen. Yum! And we met up with one our friends who has been Andean jungle trekking. One more friend is meeting us soon and our group of 4 will be complete and ready to head of to Lake Titicaca and Central America. Warmth and beaches are on the horizon.

Oh, and we climbed up one of the mountains surounding Cusco to see de Christo Blanco, a huge statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched over the city. The dude at the entrance of the long stone path up originally wanted to charge us 40 soles. We reasoned that we weren´t headed for the Inca ruins, but for Jesus. Can we just see Jesus? Ok, 40 soles for you three. Finally he folded and let us go for free, but we had to swear we were only going up to see Jesus. Hey, we came to take the narrow path that only leads to our salvation. Buenos noches from Peru!