Feliz Navidad.

Where to begin? I suppose by wishing you all happy holidays. Personally, I feel like I´ve kind of skipped them. My Christmas was the most uneventful ever, consisting of Macaroni and Cheese on Christmas eve and the sad discovery on Christmas day that the champagne I had bought was accidently drunk by someone else. But I´m actually very happy. While I must admit the season has got me thinking about Juneau a fair amount, I´ve pretty much become content traveling alone. I´m still in Trujillo actually, in a lovely hospedaje that until today only housed myself, a french girl, and a man from Denmark. We sat around on Christmas eve waiting for midnight, where in Peru everyone lights firecrackers. Other then there being hardly anyone on the streets on Christmas, it seemed like a pretty average day to me. All I did was buy a strawberry daquiri and a dessert which I decided to give to a homeless lady and her kids because they needed it more than me.

The picture you see above is of ceviche - raw fish and onions - which I ate at this little beach town 20 minutes from here. I also took a surfing lesson which quickly shattered my dreams of being a natural when I was pummeled by waves and never managed to stand up on the board. What else since I last wrote? I suppose I´ll just give you a quick rundown. Lev, a friend from Juneau who is traveling South met up with me in Huanchaco, the beach town right next door. We crashed a local party one night and ended up in a bar with live music drinking sangria and having a grand old time. I also saw some more ruins (Chan-Chan), went dancing, experienced what it´s like to work out in a Peruvian gym, made friends with a local tour guide and then ended that relationship a few days later by slapping him across the face after he seriously insulted me. I´ve sort of had it with these Peruvian men.

Hmm, the truth is that throughout the week I´ve had all kinds of great ideas for blog entries but at the moment I´m feeling like I have so many observations to make that instead I´m making none at all. I think it´s more effective if I write smaller entries but more often.

So sorry this is a bit boring, but stay tuned for the next entry where I will recount the spirit quest I´m about to go on with shamans in Huancabamba. Tonight I leave on a 16-hour bus ride to make it to this region famed for its healers and witch doctors. After that I´ll be in Mancora, another beach town that looks to be a good place to party on New Year´s.

Peruvian hairless dogs, which are protected. Yes, they are rather creepy looking.

Blog Features

First of all, be sure to scroll down as I´ve added pictures and a video! I just wanted to let everyone know how to comment because it sounds like there´s been some confusion. If you click underneath an individual blog entry where it says ¨x number of comments¨ it will ask you to choose an identity. If you click name/url or anonymous you don´t have to enter in an e-mail address or anything. The little envelope icon next to the number of comments link is if you find my blog entry so fascinating that you want to e-mail it to someone else. Thanks to everyone who has commented or e-mailed me, it makes my day!

Love and miss you all,
Lauren

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.

Photos

At the Sacsayhuaman ruins in Cusco, otherwise known as Sexy Woman - I´m demonstrating

Great picture, but I had to pay her to take it. Cusco loves to hassle tourists

I thought my butt hurt from horseback riding until I tried the mule

View of oasis in Colca canyon on my way back up (via the mule)

Classic Macchu Pichu shot

I have many more pictures of these grubby but beautiful children

Some of the wildlife along the trek

At the Temple of the Moon in Cusco

The Wheels on the Bus

Ten minutes before we are to arrive at the bus station in Arequipa, he stands up. ¨A few minutes of your attention please¨. I judge him to be in his mid-twenties: he is muscular, tan and impassioned. He says he doesn´t want to bother anyone. He realizes that many of the people on the bus are older and wiser than he, and he´s not crazy or disrespectful, he just has to speak his mind. Think of it, he says, think of your children and your grandchildren and the opportunities they have or don´t have. Imagine if they were to grow up in the same rural town their whole lives and never have the chance to leave.

Some people say that we are poor. But what is poverty? It is not lacking a house, but lacking a home and a family. It is not lacking a golden cross, but losing your faith. You can have all the money in the world and still be poor. Yes, money buys you things that can temporarily make you happy, but in the end all you will have are more things. It is not money that makes a man rich, but rather depth of spirit and the love we recieve from others.

I am captivated by this hearty speech and wonder where it is going. The young man´s voice is strong and angry and I feel like he´s making a lot of good points. I am stunned by its conclusion. ¨So please, think about all that I have said. And consider buying these caramels I have for sale - five for one neuvo sol (the peruvian dollar). There´s an assortment of chocolate and fruit fillings and they´ll make great gifts for whoever you´re going to visit. Or maybe you just want to help me out with a donation, or a gift of cigarettes. Whatever you can spare. Thanks again for your time.¨

I am horribly disappointed that instead of being a revolutionary, this well-spoken individual is actually a salesman. After inspiring me with his talk about the emptiness of money-driven society I can´t bring myself to buy his caramels with the cash he has just disparaged. Perhaps the point is to spread the wealth around? Either way I feel that he has cheapened his message. However, it´s very easy for me to make this judgement when I have the luxury of being able to travel for the next six months.

Speaking of which, my most recent trip was a visit to Arequipa, where I spent hours roaming around a monastery and contemplating what it would be like to lead such a sequestered life. I also got to view Juanita, the frozen mummy of a young girl who was sacrificed during Inca times (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_Juanita). Now that was museum exhibit worth seeing. After that I took a trip to the Colca canyon, which I hiked down into but chose to ride a mule back up. The mule ride was intense, because my mule kept trying to pass the other one on the side closest to the edge of the canyon, which is about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. The best part was the thermal swimming pools at the bottom, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The mosquitos also enjoyed my presence, and I literally have over one hundred chieckenpox-like bug bites to prove it. And since I was wearing my bathing suit, they are everywhere - and I do mean everywhere.

I got back to Cusco early this morning after a marathon 16-hour bus trip. At this point I´m ready to relax and do nothing for the weekend before I fly back to Lima on Monday. I only survived the bus trip with the help of This American Life episodes I had on my ipod, including one about road trips. I was originally going to Lake Titicaca after the canyon, but I was so burned out on being a tourist and getting on and off the bus that I just decided to skip it. Perhaps I´ll make it to Bolivia later and approach it from the other side. In the meantime, I´m still not sure about this whole aimless traveling thing, but I think I´ll head to Ecuador next and try the organic farm thing. Some old-fashioned physical labor ought to put things into perspective.

Week Two: Lauren gets burned.

Not only are my entire face, neck and ears peeling (post-blisters) from the worst sunburn of my life, but I also managed to get carsick, food poisoning, left behind and nearly molested. But aside from all that it´s actually been a phenomenol week.

I arrived at Machu Picchu two days ago, but not before completing a three day trek through the Lares valley. Don´t let the valley part fool you though; the highest peak on our trek was 4,500 meters up. There were many points where the incline was so steep that we were only able to hike about five minutes before stopping to catch our breath. A detailed description of the hike can be found at http://www.sastravelperu.com/english/alternativetreks.html.

The Andes were very impressive, and no picture can really capture what it feels like to be in the middle of these massive mountains. It did remind me of Denali National Park, perhaps because it gave me that same sense of insignificance. It´s easy to forget that humans aren´t everything when you´re in a city surrounded by human-sized things, but it´s all put into perspective when you´re just a dot on this vista of magnificent proportions. One of many dots really, the others consisting of llamas, alpacas, bulls, cows, chickens, boars, horses, sheep and dogs (of which there are breeds of all kinds roaming freely through Cusco).

I was blown away by the people living in these mountains, villagers who are extremely poor and live off of the land. We´d go for miles without seeing anyone and then in the middle of nowhere we´d run into these beautiful grubby children or women in traditional dress who were set up on a blanket with things to sell us. We brought gifts for the kids and I gave away my bottle of painkillers to a family who had lost a child since the last time the guide had visited them. They were all so happy to recieve anything, even something as simple as a yellow balloon, a leftover bowl of soup or a dollar. The whole experience was possibly more overwhelming than Machu Picchu itself. I won´t bore you with all the little details, but suffice to say Machu Picchu is everything it´s cracked up to be and the Inca legacy is fascinating.

Unfortunately, I wasn´t feeling that great while touring the ruins because of the previous day, so I didn´t hike Wayna Picchu, the neighboring mountain. First I had to stay an extra night away from Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu town) because my train ticket hadn´t been purchased ahead of time, then when I did arrive I became violently ill from something I ate. Worst of all was when a random Peruvian dude who worked at the hostel came into my room at 2:30 in the morning to ask if I wanted company. It was super creepy and I had to spend five minutes convincing him to leave while he was touching my arm and I was retreating under the covers. Needless to say, I reported him the next morning and will be locking my door from now on. I will also never again forget to put on sunscreen, or to remove my card from the ATM machine - two lessons I´ve learned the hard way.

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.

"Good morning cherry pie..."

Quite possibly the best pickup line I´ve ever received. I almost forgot what it´s like to be in a country where machismo is the norm, but I was quickly reminded as I strolled around Lima on Tuesday in shorts and a tank top. I was definitely the whitest person around, and felt like I was on display for every guy that walked by, be they fourteen or seventy years old. But it was probably 80 degrees and very humid, the kind of weather where you never really feel clean or cool. I was worried that for the rest of the trip I would smell like sweat and sunblock, but now that I´m in Cusco it´s not so bad. It´s much less sticky here, although apparently we´re at the time of year where it might rain some - but only for hours at time, as opposed to days. Coming from the Juneau summer of hell, I´ll take it.

I only had a full day in Lima (although I´ll be back on the 8th), which I used to walk to the beach and read books. I was thrilled to find that dinner - which included a sandwich, salad, smoothie, and gelato - only cost me $5. I flew to Cusco really early this morning and slept till one in the afternoon in an attempt to preempt any altitude sickness I might get from suddenly being 11,600 ft. above sea level. I guess I left Lima at a good time because there´s an international conference going on this week and things will be shut down for security reasons. There were hundreds of guards milling about and it sounds like Bush and his gang have commandeered the entire Marriot hotel.

In Cusco I´m doing a homestay for $90 a week, meals included. I´ve already had my first cup of cocoa tea, which instantly relieved the stuffy nose I´d gotten from the humidity and mold in Lima. I might have to send some home along with a box of all the beautiful handicrafts they have for sale. It´s a veritable bazaar of jewelry, sweaters and artwork, but I´ve forced myself not to buy anything yet since I´m backpacking.

I haven´t really taken any pictures yet, but have no fear, they´re coming. I wanted to take my camera out in the cab this afternoon, where my driver had little postcards decorated in glitter that depicted Jesus lashing himself along with some sort of religious quote. They were hanging from the inside of his windshield via those little suction cups. He also had a plastic handle with a dove in it in place of where the stick shift knob normally is. It is also important to note that driving here is not for the faint at heart. As far as I can tell you just go wherever you damn well please and honk your horn at whoever happens to be in your way. Never mind the white lines on the road or right of way.

So that´s enough observations for now, I don´t want to bore you before anything´s really happened! Next item on the agenda: a four-day hike to Machu Picchu beginning on Saturday.

Novels and Sunshine

I've been in Arizona this last week, trying to relax a little before I hit the road. My stepfather has a house in Bisbee, a tiny little town that used to be a big mining town but is now more of haven for artists and old hippies. They sell bumper stickers that declare Bisbee "a liberal oasis in a desert of conservatism." I like it.

The first day I arrived here (Monday) was probably one of the best days I've had since leaving Juneau. There isn't television or an internet connection at the house, which leaves music and books and the outdoors as my only company. Given that the places where I was staying in San Diego and Portland both had cable television, one with HBO on demand, this is quite refreshing. I've decided to never live anywhere with cable because I absolutely cannot turn it off, perhaps because I didn't have access to it growing up. Now before you know it I've watched six hours in a row of a show about vampires living in the modern day.

No, from now on it's the simple life for me. My first night here I sat in the garden for a half an hour and just studied the leaves and the bugs. Then I listened to all of the CDs that we have lying around, which are all throwbacks to earlier generations: Neil Young, Bonnie Raitt, The Eagles, Billie Holiday, etc. I've been reading nonstop since I arrived and have easily fallen back into my childhood habit of walking around with a book in my hand, completely absorbed while skillfully avoiding running into things or people.

Today I bought a copy of Tuesdays with Morrie and read the whole thing in a few hours while sitting outside in the sun. It was the perfect book to read before I leave, what with its reflections on what is truly important in life versus what our culture emphasizes. My most recent fears about my trip, like that I would bring the wrong kind of shoes or that my new water bottle would still taste like plastic, were quickly erased as I realized none of that really mattered. I'm making this journey and everything will fall into place regardless of what I do or do not plan for.

That being said, I'm finally feeling like I've got everything ready. I've packed well - my bag is 50L and weighs about 25lbs. when fully loaded. I bought enough dramamine to knock out a bull and finally settled on an anti-malaria pill that doesn't cost $1,000 or induce psychosis as a side effect. I've brought along a harmonica and a journal and just picked up a copy of one of my favorite books, In the House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende. I know where I'm staying Monday night and have a ticket to Cusco on Wednesday, from which I'll book a hiking trip up Machu Picchu. I've been fretting about the little details for the last few days now, but after reading in the sun for a few hours I've let it all go.

There is the fact that I'm not feeling very confident about my Spanish which I, well, majored in, but I suppose one of the points of this trip is to get it back. I found an awesome book in the used bookstore from 1960 called A Practical Spanish Grammar, which pretty much contains all the notes I ever took about verb tenses. The funny thing is that it's adapted from A Practical Spanish Grammar for Border Patrol Officers. But in this day and age I can't imagine minutemen studying to improve their Spanish in the hopes that they might better communicate with Mexican immigrants. I guess we've advanced in some ways and regressed in others.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Sorry for such a long post; I've had a lot on my mind. Thanks for taking the time to read this - I hope to post at least once a week. Oh man, wrapping this up it's really starting to hit me - by Monday night, I will be in Lima. No job, no cell phone and no return ticket.

But you know what? I can't wait.

Election Day at Willamette University

Yes, that's right - I'm visiting my alma mater before heading off to Peru (on November 17th). I'm currently sitting in front of the television in Delta Gamma watching election coverage. Four years ago I was following the presidential election from the University of Oviedo in Spain. After the New York Times had confirmed Bush's reelection, I glumly walked out of the computer lab with my head bowed, my spirit crushed. Someone stopped me and asked if I was an American, and when I said yes they nodded at me knowingly and said "Lo siento" (I'm sorry).

Now it's four years later, two weeks before I'm to be in another Spanish speaking country, and I am witnessing history in the making. It's still early and they're not calling it yet, but it's looking less and less like McCain has any chance of winning. I am relieved, and eager to see what the USA will look like under the leadership of a man like Barack Obama. My generation is looking for someone to unite us, looking for a sense of purpose. Lately, all we've been faced with are grim prospects - a floundering economy, lack of jobs, high gas prices, etc. We've gone from having too many choices to not enough.

One thing I've realized while visiting Willamette is that my future life choices must include getting a higher education (a Master's or a PhD). Unfortunately for me, a liberal arts degree is slowly becoming the equivalent of a high school degree in regards to the jobs it gets you. And to be honest, I really miss school. The reason I left Juneau to go on this trip is that I needed something different. I needed the kind of intellectual stimulation that I just wasn't getting working as a waitress in the town I grew up in.

I still don't know what I'm going to do after this trip, or to be honest, even during. But I'm hoping that it will help lead me in the right direction.