Pictures of Things!

Finally! I found an internet place where I can directly plug in my camera card! Here are some pictures relating to the new blog entry below. I have also downloaded the majority of my pictures onto facebook in different albums: Machu Picchu Trek, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. I have several hundred Galapagos pictures which I didn´t feel like sorting through at the moment, so those will come later. Enjoy...

Lucila and her daughter (Otavalo)

Otavalo Market

Secret Garden Cotopaxi Refuge

Cotopaxi

Fresh pineapple on a stick

Cutting plantain leaves into strips used to weave bags

Sugarcane processing - no corn syrup here (Colombia)

San Augustin Park

Beautiful flowers everywhere

Near San Augustin

I wonder what our culture will leave behind...

Otavalo, Cotopaxi and San Augustin, Colombia

¨Colombia: The only danger is that you won´t want to leave.¨ I saw this slogan in a commercial for the country when I was back in Peru, but I didn´t realize how true it was. Fellow travelers confirmed its appeal and quelled the fear that had been instilled in me by basically everyone back home due to stereotypes. In the short time that I have been here I have fallen in love with this beautiful country and its people. In fact, since I have less than two months left of my journey (I want to be back in Juneau by Folk Fest) it´s possible I may spend the rest of my time exploring Colombia. It´s huge, and with all kinds of different climates and things to see I could definitely keep myself busy.

I crossed the border last Wednesday after saying goodbye to Angela, with whom I had met up with again to travel together to Otavalo and Cotopaxi. In Otavalo we met up with a family who supplies sweaters for an import store I worked at for quite a few summers in Juneau, Invisible World. Lucila, an absolutely gorgeous lady and the boss of the whole business, was super hospitable even though I showed up unexpectedly with only a letter from Stuart (my former boss) as introduction. She invited us into her house for dinner and walked us around town and was generally one of the nicest people I´ve ever met. Her son was also great, and took me to see various waterfalls and a lake in the crater of a volcano (which has bubbles coming up from the bottom because the volcano is still active). The Saturday market in Otavalo is the best in Ecuador and Angela and I had a great time scoping everything out. There are so many artisans around it´s ridiculous.

A few days later we found ourselves at a reserve an hour from Cotopaxi, one of the highest active volcanoes in the world (19,347 ft. / 5,897 m). Although we didn´t attempt to summit, simply being in its presence was impressive. One of the guys working at the reserve had tried to summit the week before but got cerebral edema 100 meters from the top and had to turn around. Someday I´d like to climb it but at this juncture I just used the two days we were there to hike and lay around in a hammock reading. It was great to only use candles and a fire at night instead of electricity, a theme I´ve continued to enjoy while staying in my current bamboo hut in a rustic hostel / organic farm in San Augustin, Colombia. I find that I enjoy the simple life.

Crossing the border took me all of about ten minutes. I got my passport stamped in Ecuador, walked across a bridge, got my passport stamped in Colombia. There was no questions asked, no looking in my bags, no nothing - very anticlimactic. The biggest difference I´ve noticed so far is the presence of young men in army fatigues with semi-automatics - but they´re there for protection. Everyone I´ve talked to says that the latest president has done a good job of stamping out FARC and that the country is the safest its been in years. There is a lot of poverty, which I´ve confronted in every country, but at least it is safer.

On Valentine´s day evening I participated in a spontaneous dance party at my hostel which consisted of myself, a bunch of Argentinian travelers, the fifty-something hippie dueña of my hostel and some Colombians. For the past week I´ve been speaking nothing but Spanish which is refreshing after speaking English in most hostels. The previous two days myself and two Argentinian girls visited a bunch of places together, including the archaeological park which is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO and has sculptures from indigenous cultures which flourished between 6th century B.C and 12th A.D.

Oh man - I could go on and on about all kinds of stuff that I´ve been thinking and experiencing, especially in regards to human kindness. In Quito, the night before she was to get on the plane, Angela left her backpack in a taxi which contained her passport, camera, ipod and money. Unbelievably, the driver tracked down the hostel in which we were staying based on an old receipt he found inside and returned everything four hours later. In my travels I constantly meet people who amaze me with their friendliness, philosophies and non-materialistic way of life. Everyday I am thankful for what I have and what I have experienced.

Alright, I´m heading out of this rainy but charming pueblo mañana. Next stop? Bogotá.

A disappointing insight into myself

I am sad to admit that I am not a badass. For years I have had this notion that I am - or better put - would be, if put in the right situation. I have been grooming myself with what I consider to be badass-appropriate activities: longboarding down steep hills, kickboxing, the Polar Bear Dip, rock climbing and once I shot guns in Indiana (it was awesome). So when I climbed over the fence of a bridge overlooking a river 100 meters below, 30 meters of which I would be free falling, I pictured myself fearlessly leaping off at the count of three. This was my chance to take it to the next level. I would channel Angelina Jolie.


Instead I stood on the platform for a few minutes before deciding I wouldn´t be able to force myself to jump. Defeated, I climbed back down and got out of my harness to watch another friend try their luck. Thankfully the desire to live out my fantasy of being a full-fledged adrenaline-seeking bridge-jumping badass chick eventually won out over my (somewhat rational) fear, and I found myself back on the edge. I had decided I should jump off immediately to get it over with.

Two minutes later and I still haven´t jumped. Everyone is shouting at me about how easy it is. "Don't think!" I ask myself, ¨Why is this so difficult? Just do it!¨ I knew I would be forever shamed if I backed down again. And so, in a moment of clarity, I stepped off. I immediately regretted the decision, but by then I was free falling. When I landed, I thought I had thrown out my back, but at that point was so ecstatic at what I had just done I didn´t care. Turns out I messed up my neck - but I paid $15 two days later for a chiropractor from California to (literally) snap it back into place.


Welcome to Baños, Ecuador, where the tourism activities are all rugged and outdoors. In my week here I´ve toured waterfalls, done a bunch of hiking, seen a (smoking) volcano, biked 40km (in one go), gone four wheeling and of course - jumped off a bridge. I have also had the pleasure of soaking in the town´s namesake - thermal baths full of minerals which alternate between scorching hot and feezing cold. I guess going back and forth between the two is good for your body (even though it feels a bit like being stabbed by a thousand tiny needles). There´s also a lot of massage places around, so I treated myself to an hour´s worth after the bike ride.

Hard to believe that only last week I was lying on the beach and now I´m back in the mountains. I know there´s probably a lot more I could share about the Galapagos, but I´ve been in Baños for a week so that´s what´s on my mind. I´ve realized I´m a very slow traveler, not at all good at getting in and getting out. It seems like the majority of people I meet are always packing in the activities and then moving right along while I just tend to chill and not even necessarily do a whole lot. There´s also just too many places one can visit. I have decided not to feel guilty about the things I´m skipping, because hey, this is all my priority.

A few days ago I watched The Motorcycle Diaries for the first time - the film about the road trip Che Guevara took through South America when he was about my age. It was odd to see him in the same places I had been, witnessing injustices against the indigenous populations that are still occurring today. The difference is that while I too am saddened by the poverty and pain that exists here and throughout the world, I´ve yet to do anything about it. In the movie, a couple who had lost everything and were traveling looking for work asked Che why he was traveling - was he looking for work too? When he said he was traveling just to travel you could see how ridiculous the notion suddenly seemed...That´s how I feel sometimes.

But hey, onwards to Quito then Otavalo then Colombia. I don´t have all the answers and I expect I never will. Some days I feel like I´ve almost reached Nirvana and other days I am completely lost. But such is the nature of my journeys...

PS: I do have a few hundred pictures of the Galapagos which I really want to share, but it´s just such a hassle to download them at the moment that it´ll

have to wait. I know, I´m sorry! I want you to see them as much you to do.

A New Era

First of all, I would be amiss if I did not start this entry by sharing my joy and excitement over yesterday´s inauguration of Barack Obama. President Obama - it sounds a bit funny after hearing about President Bush for so long, doesn´t it? But of course it´s so refreshing, and I am ready to see what he can do. Unfortunately, I missed his speech when all the cable on Santa Cruz Island cut out a few minutes into it. But it was dubbed over in Spanish anyway, so I was already missing a lot of the pizazz. No matter - I will watch it later when I´m back in mainland Ecuador with a faster internet connection.

I have officially ceased living the life of your typical backpacker and have lapsed into the easy day to day routine of those fortunate enough to spend an extended period of time in the Galapagos. Angela, a girlfriend from college who I have been here with, met an amazing chef in Quito who manages a beautiful restaurant here. We have been fortunate enough to crash on his couch since we got back from spending a few nights on another island, Isabella, a few hours boat ride away. Before that we were on our boat cruise. Unfortunately, Angela takes off tomorrow and we lost Rebekka on Sunday, but I suppose I´m ready to revert back to solo traveling mode. It has been refreshing to have companions though - it really does make for a whole different kind of traveling.

How do I even begin to tell you about what I´ve seen and experienced here? There´s just so much. The highlight has probably been snorkeling with sea lions and sharks. The sea lions love to play and shoot right by you at very close range. I´ve also seen giant sea turtles, rays, tons of fish, penguins, fur seals, a million birds and marine iguanas which are only found in the Galapagos. The boat tour was great because we got to visit a bunch of islands in a short amount of time. I was initially proud of myself for not getting sea sick (I´m very prone to motion sickness) thereby proving that I might be able to indulge a recent whim of mine to live on a boat. Sadly, it seems I only do well on very calm seas, since on the extremely bumpy ride (on a smaller boat) to Isabella I threw up the whole time.

It was worth the trip though. I have never seen so many stars in a sky so clear on a white beach so empty. The streets aren´t even paved - they´re still sand. I have never spent an extended amount of time around beaches you would want to swim in, but here I float around in the warm ocean every day. I walk a lot, eat ice cream and fresh pineapple every day and have probably eaten more shrimp in the past week than I had previously had throughout my entire life. I feel like I´m settling in, which would be nice except that I am also getting anxious about getting back on the road.

It is frustrating that it has been so long since my first Galapagos entry because it is not a general summary I want to give you, but rather soundbites of moments and emotions. I am storing up quite a collection of little stories which I suppose you will have to ask me about when I return. One of the most recent observations is how I´ve realized that my level of fluency is not going to end up as good as it was after I studied in Spain unless I spend more time with locals. I discovered this when at a party with a bunch of Galapageños only speaking Spanish and I couldn´t understand everything. It´s not enough to be in a Spanish speaking country. One must begin to live, talk, think and breathe the language - total immersion - before it truly becomes second nature.

Damn, I am so lucky to be here. I am even more grateful that I still have money left to travel after this expensive side trip. But I´ll tell you - my skin has never seen so much sun and salt water. I walk over lava (not to be confused with magma) all day in flip-flops and drink a ton of fruit juice. My only problem is too much free time and that I can apparently still get a sunburn after applying SPF 70 ¨Babyface¨sunblock twice. What a life, eh? Tonight Angela and I will take a water taxi over to the restaurant of our friend so that we might indulge in a gourmet dinner and cocktails. I have to get out of here before I get sucked in. But in the end I suppose I would eventually get restless - one can only spend so many days relaxing in paradise before craving the excitement of a rougher life, the life on the road.

Note: I will have to wait to add pictures until I get back to the mainland because the internet connection here is just too slow. Also, for additional stories about my time in the Galapagos you can check out my friend Angela´s blog.

Journal Entry Highlights

Since I haven´t been consistent in updating my blog while in the Galapagos I thought I´d include some excerpts from my personal journal:

*Tourism is a weird form of voyeurism. All these people live their day to day lives in places I consider exotic and want to learn from. But all I´m seeing is just a slightly different / more impoverished version of what I´m doing. We´re all people and therefore we are all subject to the laws of human nature. We may come in slightly different cultural packages but we share the same basic wants and needs. The most I can do is alter the scenery in order to focus on what is important instead of getting caught up in society´s artificially constructed values.

*I´ve realized that (so far) the places I like the best - Vilcabamba, Galapagos - are places that remind me of home. I have to be somewhere with a lot of nature, not too many people, a laid back/artsy community feel and fascinating residents.

*I think I´m getting more serious about pursuing journalism as a career. I love to observe people, places and experiences and then write about it. All I need is guidance and discipline, which I suppose is what I´m lacking in most of my pursuits that founder.

*Things I´m loving on this trip (inspired by the first two items on the list which I am enjoying right now): breezes on a warm day, good music that goes with the mood, girlfriends, food that is not chicken and rice, books, full days, dancing, laughing, snorkeling, aloe vera, people, home, reminders that money is of minimal importance, how I feel after hiking, stars, never knowing what time it is (and that not mattering), showers and cold water.

Still alive

...and will be posting an actual entry with photos and everything in the next few days. I am still in the Galapagos and am having a blast - currently traveling with a friend from college. I am getting an actual tan and have freckles on my face for probably the first time ever. This internet cafe that I am in right now is super hot and I am covered in sweat (something I do not think I will ever get used to) but I just wanted to post this quick note. Highlights of the entry to come include our boat trip, snorkeling with sea lions and sharks, hanging out with locals, white sandy beaches, good times with the girls, and our current adventure - surfing on the couch of a five star Canadian chef that Angela met back in Quito. I am supposed to leave the Galapagos on Tuesday but I might stay a week longer and get certified to dive...

Paradise Found

Iguanas. Pelicans. Lizards. Sea lions. Mocking birds. Giant turtles. Dragonflies. Crabs. Finches. King salmon-sized electric blue fish. Cactus. Volcanic rock. An orchid biologist who looks like Wolverine. An oasis. More fish. A friendly gay couple from San Francisco. Salt flats. A white sandy beach with crystal blue waters. What do all these things have in common? I´ve run into all of them in the roughly six hours I´ve been on the island San Cristóbal in the Galapagos. I don´t even begin my four-day/three-night boat tour until tomorrow and I´m already in awe of this place. I spent all afternoon swimming, scuba-ing and jumping off cliffs in a little oasis a 60 second water taxi ride and a fifteen minute hike away from my hostal.

Where I was last week was amazing too. Rebecca and I had a great time hiking and relaxing in Vilcabamba, a town that I instantly fell in love with. It reminds me of Juneau, what with its great hiking trails and granola cruncher feel. Our hostel, The Hidden Garden, was absolutely charming and had the best included breakfast I´ve eaten my whole trip. I´m talking real, homemade bread here (the bread so far is generally awful) along with eggs, fresh fruit and fresh juice. All this and our room for only $12.50. I´m telling you - this is the life. Actually, the hostal is for sale at the moment, so if anyone has a spare $450,000 lying around please do consider buying it because I´ll totally volunteer to be the manager.

A funny thing about Ecuador - they use American money. I guess they ditched their currency a few years ago in favor of using ours, although Ecuadorian coins are still in the mix. It´s weird seeing dollars again. I feel like things are a bit more spendy here than in Peru; although hey, I did get a full body salt scrub and a facial in Vilcabamba for only $13, so I can´t really complain.

After my tour in the Galapagos I have at least until the 19th to do some exploring on my own, although I could change my ticket and hang out even more if I like. I´m thinking about returning to Vilcabamba (before making my way to Colombia) because I dug the vibe so much. I´m quickly coming to the realization that I probably won´t make it through all of Central America - hell, I might not even make it out of South America - but I am totally ok with. I am absolutely getting something out of every experience and I think that´s what´s really important.

It has been great traveling with Rebecca and we´ve had some good discussions. I have learned a lot about Sweden from her and I find it to be a very impressive country. To start off with, I never realized that the bands ABBA, Ace of Bace and The Hives are all Swedish. But more importantly, in Sweden they have universal health care, public universities that you can go to for little or no cost, six weeks paid vacation a year, free oral contraceptives for everyone until they´re twenty, maternity leave worth 90% of a woman´s pay for one year, and so on and so forth. They even have a law that you can only use naked/scantily-clad women to sell things like lingerie. When trying to figure out things that supposedly make the US superior, all I could come up with was our war machine and the possibility of making it rich. In Sweden, it sounds like family and free time are more important than money and one´s career, which unfortunately I fear have become the focus in the United States.

But anyway - here I am. In the Galapagos and I have at least another three months of traveling to go. I keep hearing people say oh I wish I could do that. But you know what? You can. It´s a choice. Obviously it´s easier for me when I don´t have a ton of commitments. But I think that with a year or so of planning everyone should be able to break away from their established routine and just get out there. Check out the Vagabond link in my ¨Books I´ve Been Reading¨ section, it´s got some good stuff related to this theme. In the meantime, I´m glad you´ve been reading my blog and I promise some good stories after this Galapagos trip.

Bad times with the shaman man

The scene - Huancabamba. Ten thirty at night. Myself and ten Peruvians sit in a small room with a dirt floor lit by a single light bulb. I have paid $100 for an all night visit with a healer recommended by the owner of my hostel, a man well known around town who many of my compatriots have come to visit from other parts of Peru. He has a good reputation and I even spot him in a video about the region. I have no particular ailment, but figure the visit is good for some general soul cleansing as well as an interesting blog entry. In the corner of the room is the ¨mesa¨, which isn´t really a table at all, but a few rugs laid out with a bunch of ceremonial trinkets: shells, rocks, swords, and curiously enough - a skeleton popping out of a little orange halloween pumpkin. The roof consists of wooden beams and dozens of cardboard boxes.

The action - The ceremony lasts until five in the morning and mostly consists of the the maestro and his assistants imbibing flower water and spitting it all over us. Sometimes it is spit into our hands and we are then instructed to rub it on ourselves, while at other times it is sprayed directly on our chests and faces. In between rounds the maestro does a bunch of chanting and asks God to help us out with whatever we came there for. We also snort tobacco juice through our nose via a sea shell, and later on some flower water. At one point we drink San Pedro cactus, which is supposed to be hallucinogenic, but I don´t notice any effects. At the end of the ceremony we cleanse our hands with sugar and baby powder, clap our hands and then throw flower petals into the air.

The problem - Some of you may wonder why this entry seems particularly matter of fact and unemotional. That is because of something that happened towards the end of the ceremony which completely turned me off to the whole thing. At one point in the night certain people were singled out for some individual cleansing. In my case this involved being cleansed (aka rubbed) with a rock while in my skivvies. Now to be clear, I have no problem participating in traditional ceremonies and stepping outside my comfort zone. (WARNING - This next part may be upsetting to some people.) But I became a bit suspicious that I was being taken advantage of when the guy started by pointing out that the particular rock he was using was phallic. Suspicion turned to alarm when he started rubbing it vigorously against my crotch while asking me to think of the best sexual experience I´d ever had. Oh my god, I thought, is this really happening to me? He asked me to tell him when it felt good, and so to get him to stop I said that yeah it was great, and then that was that - he called on somebody else and we went back to the group ceremonies. I spent the next hour and a half freaking out inside my head.

Afterwards - The maestro noticed that I was withdrawn and sulky, and from then on spent extra time talking with me to try to make things bettter. I flat out told him that what he had done had made me extremely uncomfortable. I was sure that he hadn´t done anything like that with anyone else so why had he done so with me? He skirted the issue and started talking about how a healer was like a father figure and how I´d better watch out because there were plenty of men out there who wanted to take advantage of me. I think he realized I knew that he had crossed the line, but played it off like everything was totally normal. He also predicted a white car in my future and a husband by age 27. Don´t worry, he said, everything is going to go well for you after this ceremony.

I left feeling disgusted and disappointed. I refused to attend the final part of the ceremony, which would have involved heading into the mountains to bathe in the lakes that the region is famous for. I talked with the owner of my hostel about what had happened and she admitted that while bodily cleansing with rocks is normal, the other part was a bit weird (especially since I hadn´t gone there to deal with men problems). But as is typical, she ultimately refused to place blame or admit wrong doing on the part of this respected man.

As for me, I got the hell out of that town and spent the last week (including New Year´s) in a popular hostel in Mancora that housed about a hundred other backpackers. It was on the beach and had a pool and constant sunshine. I feel much recovered, but felt that this was a significant experience that I should share. I was going to write two seperate posts, one on this experience and one on the positive things that have happened since then. Unfortunately I´ve just had to retype this whole entry after it was accidently deleted, so I think this will be it for now. I will report more on the good times in a few days, which mostly include getting a tan, meeting some great girlfriends and eating a lot. I´m currently in Vilcabamba, Ecuador with my friend Becca from Sweden, and will be relaxing here before heading to Guayaquil and the Galapagos.

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.