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.