Time vs. Money

True to my word, I´ve done nothing this last week except for veg out. I´ve been sharing a room in Lima with two forest firefighters from California. While they went to the gym every day for a few hours (to get in shape for the upcoming fire season) I lounged around reading, eating, walking and sleeping. The two interesting things that I did do were take several hours of salsa classes and go hang-gliding for ten minutes off the cliffs of Miraflores, the coastal area of Lima in which I was staying. To be honest, I didn´t even visit downtown Lima, because you know what? I just didn´t feel like it. Initially I felt guilty for not getting out and doing things every day but then I realized that it´s all my perogative.

I did have the best meal of my life when Stuart, my friend and former boss who was visiting Lima on business, took me out to eat at a classy restaurant called Rodrigo (http://www.restauranterodrigo.com/home.htm). We spent twenty minutes poring over the exotic menu, which read like a book and was bit overwhelming. In the end I settled on vacuum-stewed lamb´s leg with mushroom risotto. Oh man - it was to die for, along with all the little morsels they brought in between courses (including a shot of creamy asparagus and hall´s mint syrup mixed together). As you may have guessed, I´ve given up my recent attempt at vegetarianism while traveling because it´s just too much of a hassle.

Today I arrived in Trujillo, and tomorrow I´ll check out some of the ruins that are nearby. After that I´m off to a beach town called Mancora where I´m going to attempt to learn to surf. I don´t know where I´ll be for Christmas or New Year´s because since I´m by myself it doesn´t really seem to matter that much. I have decided to start telling cab driver´s I´m traveling with a boyfriend though, because otherwise our conversation turns to me traveling solo and then they start hitting on me. My being the whitest white girl around also elicits about a million honks from taxis driving by because they assume that I´m a tourist and therefore must need a ride somewhere, so they´re always honking and shouting ¨taxi?!¨ out their windows at me.

OK, that´s it for now. I must admit I feel that this post has been exceedingly boring and just touched on surface issues, which is exactly what I didn´t want this blog to do. I suppose I should share with you how I´m really beginning to realize what does and doesn´t matter in one´s life. This book I read called Vagabonding - The Art of Long Term Travel got to me with its discussion about how we all get wrapped up in this culture of production and consumption. It becomes a way of life to the point where it seems impossible to break away and travel. But you know what? It´s all about priorities (Augie - all your philosophies are proving true). I´m actually spending less a day then I would in Juneau and while I may have less stuff/money because I´m not working, I have endless amounts of time, which in my opinion is much more valuable.