So what are you doing in South America? Well, uh, you see...

The morning after writing my last blog entry I woke up thinking, ¨What the hell have I gotten myself into?¨ It´s only my first week but I´ve already realized how many hours are in a day, how many days are in a month and how six months is actually quite a long time. While in the central plaza surrounded by traveling couples and groups and locals constantly asking me to buy things, I found myself feeling lonely and lost. I really have no idea what I´m doing with this trip but I´ve decided to be ok with that - especially since I made some friends to distract me.

At a salsa class last night I met a lovely German couple named Siggi (that´s right, they both have the same nickname) and today we went on a horseback ride to some ruins. While I was embarrassed to find myself yelling when we broke into a gallop (it definitely felt like I was about to fly off) the trip itself was great. Sunshine, the biggest clouds I´ve ever seen and the Temple of the Moon - a sort of cave constructed by the Incas where at exactly two o´clock either the moon or the sun shines through a hole in the roof, illuminating a vast shelf where they used to sacrifice alpacas.

Speaking of alpacas, here´s some Peruvian visuals for you. Women and children on the cobblestone road playing jacks while baby alpacas cuddle in their laps. A group of about twenty teenagers practicing some sort of native dance to a flute. Signs in the bathrooms reminding you not to put even toilet paper in the toilets because Peruvian plumbing is so bad (they provide little trashcans instead). Miniature taxis honking at you to get out of the way while they barrel through the narrow streets and ignore medians. Dark brown older women with long black braids wearing a traditional sort of top hat, long skirts and colorful cardigans.

But there are many sides to this city. Last night the Siggies and I had a long talk with the owner of their hostel. He spoke of how difficult it was make enough money to support his family. 50% of his profits go to the government, 5% to electricity and 5% to water. He blamed the president for certain things, and the mentatility of the people who don´t want to work for others, which I found it to be an interesting juxtapostion. We also talked about the justice system in Peru, and he mentioned that while women are often beaten and the men aren´t punished, child molesters have been burned alive by the villagers or raped by the police. Es ojo por ojo. Pretty heavy stuff, but poverty and lack of justice are clearly a reality here, especially in rural areas.

I have much to see and much to learn. Tomorrow I will start my trek to Machu Picchu, passing through several indiginious villages that hadn´t been in contact with the ¨modern world¨ until sometime during the last hundred years. I am quickly realizing how much I have and how much I could cast off and be totally fine without, both in my backpack and in my life. Ah, having the free time to philosophize - I hardly know where to begin, let alone where I might end up.