There's no place like home

Clicked my heels, and 4 flights (and 1 crying, fidgety, touchy baby) later, I am back to my true home: San Jose, California. Which was good for me to clarify at the LA airport this morning so my luggage did not go to Costa Rica.

Lots of time in airports and planes over the past 30 hours! Though being stuck in the seat right next to aforementioned baby for the longest flight (7 hours from Panama to LA), which those who know my thoughts towards children and germs will understand this experience for me, was mitigated by having an interesting conversation with the little tyke's mom during the 2 (precious) hours he was asleep. She is Ecuadorian, married to an African American in Arizona, and was returning with her 1 year old son after her first return to Ecuador in nearly 10 years. So we had a lively exchange about North and South American cultural differences, which really allowed to to summate and reflect on my own little glimpse into life in South America and how this relates to the world and my place in it. We talked about family, economics, immigration, marriage/relationships, raising kids, and food. I will post more about what is rumminatig in my head in thinking about these topics -- once I get some sleep and figure out what time it is, where I am, and what language to speak. Though this IS California, so I am permitted to continue by mesh of Spanish and English. Thankfully not to negotiate with taxis anymore...


For now, I am going to recoup some energy and spend time being spoiled by my family here before heading back up to Seattle early next week.

I won´t let the Ecua-door hit me on the way out

Today is my last full day in Ecuador, and as much as I am eager to get home for several reasons, I am suddenly very sad to leave the city of Cuenca that has been my second home for some of the past three months. I appreciate that I got to LIVE here, for nearly all of November and nearly the past couple of weeks. And I most grateful to Adrian and Julie for being my hosts and friends (and Beth, for making it all happen!). It worked out to be a good complement, of getting to know one place and its people, to the backpacking all over S. America in the past month.

The last few days, I have gotten to know more Ecuadorians and practice my fledgling Spanish. Most of the people I know own or work at the tasty restaurants and cafe that I frequent! Food is a great bond.

And food will be my cultural transition facilitator back to the States. Specifically, In N Out Burger near UCLA tomorrow night, around 11 PM. Although re-adjusting to the prices of food will be quite the shock. I predict eating a lot of PBB sandwiches (peanut butter & banana) and at the taco truck in Wallingford, as I will be too poor for anything else. If only I could bring back a fresh fruit salad in my massive backpack, but that could get messy and liquidous. And then serve as a terrorist device, according to the US government.

So please send me good travel karma for my long journey to In N Out in Westwood (and that I do not sustain any major injury from the pre-Carnival water balloons in town. I am serious. They hurt, and I have a walk home that the locals know their gringa target takes). My day o´travel on Tuesday will begin with heading to the airport in Cuenca at 7 AM (so 4 am for all you West Coasters), flying to Quito (I chose to pay 10 times the price of a bus to get there - 10 hours for bus vs. 45 minute flight - riiiight), having to wait there a few hours before my flight at 4 PM (I am debating visiting the Equator line or Quito for the day, depending on my strength at the time & dealing with transport and traffic and potential for getting robbed during my last few hours in the country), layover in Panama for an hour, then onto the City of Angels (Thanks, Justin, for being my escort from LAX!). I just saw the movie CRASH this past week, and it makes me just as concerned about safety in Los Angeles as in South America! Just kidding.

Chao, South America, and gracias por todos.

Do the Peru

So, I did do the Peru. And here are the photos to Peru-ve it. Finally posted (a characteristically overproflicitude of) pictures from Christmas through the first part of January. Allow me to present some more highlights before you find enough time in your busy, Real World life to let the photos & captions relay some of my fortunate life in the past weeks.

Cusco: Heart of the Incan Empire and Tourist Consumerism. Lots to see and do, and I got to meet up with some friends from college (go Model UN!) and the language school in Ecuador because it was SO the place to be during the 2007-2008 transition. http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/Cusco

New Years Eve, in Cusco: http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/NewYearsEve
No better way for a gringa to keep herself warm in the outdoor cold air than boxed wine. The Plaza de Armas in Cusco was full of festivity - tons of people, fireworks, booze, and running around the plaza!

Sacsayhuaman: An important Incan site overlooking Cusco City, though my favorite part is the name, for it literally sounds like Sexy Woman. Maybe because that was my nickname in high school. http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/Sacsayhuaman

Sacred Valley: And bathrooms must be sacred, too, because they were kept well hidden. This day tour of Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Chinchero was more exercise than the endurance class 24 Set at the gym, with all of the climbing, walking, and continually trying to find our guide among the millions of other tours (akin to the skilled game of ¿Donde es Jualdo?) http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/SacredValley

The Big MP: You just have to go there, I cant really offer you much with photos. Except a glimpse at the constant rain and fog on the day we went (of course, it was gorgeous and hot the day prior). My friend, Al Paca, "hung out" with me. http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/MachuPicchu

Puno: More of a place you just sleep in while visiting Lake Titicaca, we took an interesting day bus tour there from Cusco to make it more of an experience (and by interesting, I mean that I do not remember anything about any of the places we went, but I like the photos! I will just make up stories about their relevance when I show the pictures to my family, which I mention because only people who are FORCED to love me will endure the hours of going through my South American photos one by one. Mwhahaha, that´s love). http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/Puno

Lake Titicaca: The floating islands of Uros are amazing, with people going about their daily life activities (which now include hosting a crapload of tourists, sigh) on these man-made masses of floating reeds, which truly did float my boat. Or at least the one made of reeds that we took a little ride on. We also stayed with a Quechan host family on Amantani island, who endured me butchering their language as well as Spanish. But they still gave us great food and dressed us up in traditional garb for a fiesta! http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/LakeTiticaca

Arequipa: Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, in my opinion only because of the intriguing Santa Catalina convent. My inner Japanese tourist had a field day taking shots of the vibrant colors, interesting architectural angles, and scary religious figures. http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/Arequipa

Woooo Peru.

Better to have liked and loss than never to have liked at all

I am currently mourning the loss of my flash drive. The one Ming brought me from the States because my previous one suffered disaster (my friend borrowed it, left it at an internet place, which I went back to retrieve a week later - because I had been away - and actually got it back, but with everything erased from it because the guy who works there thought it had been abandoned and gave it to his friend. He went to his friend´s place to get it back for me, but it had been through some torture in addition to having its contents erased, so it doesn´t really even work any more).

Flash Drive II was just stolen from me, at another internet place in Cuenca. While I was in the bathroom, for 5 minutes - the story of my lost purse in SF a couple years back, for which I take full blame. But this time I was typing away on a computer (job negotiating time again, sigh) when I HAD to use the bathroom, pronto (part of my living in Ecuador, and I will refrain from any more colorful details). I grabed a usb cable from the comptuer and my purse, but neglected to take the flash drive during my scramble - though it was obvious I was still using the computer. And 5 minutes later, the flash drive had disappeared. Luckily I obsessively email documents to myself (lessons from grad school), but still ... so sad.

And makes me think of all the other things I have lost in South America. I thought I would give those a shout out, just to acknowledge our brief time in history in which these things belonged to me, but now have new homes thanks to my absentmindedness and other people´s desire for things (or lack of having things and seeking other people´s, however you look at it).

-- 2 carabiners. 1 of which Ming brought me to replace the one I had stolen off my bag during airport transit. Such was the fate of the new one, as well as one of Ming´s, you would think I learned but obviously not.

-- ATM card. You have heard enough about that. But thank you to Christina for sending it from Seattle (and Maria being on stand-by!) and the Islas for trying to receive it in Lima.

-- 1 and 1/2 pairs of pants. And the half was not the half you would expect. Being a fan of detachable pants, as in those with segmented parts that you can take off to make shorts, I took our rafting trip in Mendoza as a perfect day to wear mine but it was so HOT I only wore the top part (so shorts) to the river. So of course we were soaked when we returned to the "base camp" near the river, and since I was also wearing my bathing suit I thought to myself, "Self, why not take off your shorts to dry in the hot sun whilst you drink your celebratory beer?¨ Great plan, but after the wonderfully cold beer to commemorate survival, I forgot all about my shorts and left them at the campsite. And thought nothing of it until we returned back to our hostel in Mendoza and all that remained were my pant bottoms. Kinda useless, except maybe for dusting.

-- Peruvian hat, taken right off the top of my head on New Years Eve in Cusco (after having bought it a few hours previously, but again I deserved this because I actually bought it for my brother so should not have been wearing it anyway).

-- 100 (or more) pesos in Peru, because I tried the system of placing money in multiple places. The squirrel region of my brain is apparently damaged, so that was a dumb idea to begin with.

-- Several snacks for trips, in Argentina and Peru. I think it was 2 or 3 bags worth of little goodies like crackers and cookies (and Ming´s really expensive Pringles, sorry!) that I was in charge of carrying whenever we were on a bus or train or plane. Which I left on said means of transport or taxi or who knows where.

-- 1 hoop earring, somewhere in southern Ecuador.

-- One pair of white (and therefore not my favorite anyway) socks, somewhere in Peru

-- 3 pairs of underwear, lost in a different sense and I will not clarify. But I will take the opportunity to gripe that the replacement process was very frustrating because Ecuadorian woman are either unnaturally tiny or just really like floss-like thong underwear.

-- My alarm clock, which I loved. Many other people have the same Timex - I see its characteristic indiglo light in many people´s homes (and have recounted with other people about the little sound the indiglo makes, which some people love and others hate). I actually just lost the BACK to the battery cover, but that eventually made the clock go bezerk and the screen stopped working, so it was pretty useless and was abandoned in Argentina.

-- A gift for Vinay. Sorry. I´ll tell you the story someday.

-- My innocence.

Okay, just kidding on the last one. It could have been much worse (and I still have a week to go!), but I thought I would commemorate those lost in batttle. Which is often my mind fighting to remember to keep my head attached to my body, much less keep track of posessions.

Kibbles and Bits

I am getting old.

Yes, at the tender age of 27 ... though I thought I´d be an "adult" at this age, true real world responsibilty and adult mindset still alludes me, for which I am very happy. But my body and mind are starting to slow down. The past month was quite a whirlwind for me, visiting so many places in Argentina and Peru (and Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil, for the record). Or really just a whirlbreeze, but backpacking for a month was not as easy this time around for me than it was in Europe in 2002! But what a great time I had seeing so many natural and human treasures in South America. I cannot even begin to describe...

Which is why God - or was it Al Gore? - created Picasa. Next time you use your employer´s time to surf the internet (you know you do), please feel free to glance over some of the photos I am posting from the last month. I heart captions, so you can follow along some of my rambling stories of mix ups and weather trying to interrupt my Japenese tourist in a past life prolific photo taking.

Some highlights

Iguazu Falls: Sneaking to the Brazil side (me being a girl scout and all worried at first does NOT come across in the photos), taking a crazy boat ride UNDER the falls on the Argentine side, and just experiencing the pure force and power of the massive amazing falls (nearly was swallowed by the Devil´s throat!) http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/IguazuFalls

Mendoza, Argentina: Any place that is wine country and has sun is my kind of place. Add cheap beef, and a little more sun and lot more heat, and I achieved my ultimate state, contentedness (um, until I got a little sunstroke and nearly passed out on Ming one day. But nothing a little cold beer couldnt fix). And shook things up a little with river rafting, weeeeeeeheeeee. http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/Mendoza

Chile: Okay, was not there for more than a few hours but the bus ride was fun for my feet and the curvy streets. http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/Chile

Lima, Peru: In a city dissed by all South Americans for being unsafe and gloomy, our couple days were actually quite lovely. It helped crashing the Christmas Party of some locals (and seeing Seattlite friends and co-opting their families, yay!). And that the neighborhood we stayed in, Miraflores, is near the beach (ahhhhhh). And our hostel´s owner gave us a map as soon as we arrived, ,with giant Xs marking where NOT to go, and took a photo of our taxi driver and his liscene to ensure our safety. Nice. http://picasaweb.google.com/dcromp/Lima

Next up: the rainy season. But my butt hurts from sitting so long, so more to come soon!

No se preoccupes

I hear the phrase No se preoccopes - Don´t worry - more times each day in South America than there are Republican candidates in the rat race for President of the USA. That means, I am told this A LOT by South Americans.

Those who know me are aware I am pretty anxious and neurotic, though I try to hide it (and I usually worry about the unimportant things, which is why some people do not really how much I overthink and analyze things to death, since I do not seem distressed about what normal people are usually worrying about). But since I have been in South America, it has been harder to not express my constant worry or overthinking, in part because of the extra energy spent trying to decipher another language and communicate over language AND cultural barriers.

But my very neurotic personality presents one of the biggest clashes with South American culture, where the concept of time and efficiency and worry is really different than in US American culture. Whether it be a travel agent, hostel owner, taxi driver, store keeper ... everyone always tells me "no se preoccupes" even if it IS something to be worried about (What do you mean my flight was cancelled and you put me on an earlier flight without pre-warning so I am nearly late and being held up by the police who cannot find record of me in their computer and keep trying to just search my passport over and over when my flight is going to just leave without me? How do we get our train tickets that we just paid you in cold hard cash for and have come back to your office twice to get and will not have time to pick them up before our train ride for which we need the tickets?). Which ties to another cultural difference, that South Americans also never want to tell you something negative - would even rather withold information or tell a different explanation just so as not to displease you. Landslide blocking the train route? "Well, there is an incident and don´t worry, it will just be awhile" (3.5 hours of delays and random stopping later, the explanation is that "sometimes rocks fall" and don´t worry). I am just waiting for someone to say "Don´t worry, be happy."

The most difficult part of this, besides that South Americans can detect my nervous energy and want to tell me not to worry which of course makes me worry more, is that I think about how relatively LESS I have to worry about, as an American tourist compared to an average South American. What is it about our globalized, "developed" culture that people like me, who have so little to worry about in terms of a mortgage, feeding a family, advancing in a high powered career, and live in a stable middle class in the States with so many friends and family, can be so worried? Such is me, but its actually what makes me comfortable. Too bad it makes other people uncomfortable here in South America. Please, no se preoccupes about me.

Though few worries today in Cuenca, given lots of fiestaing - fireworks, dancing, and parades in the street to celebrate the holidays at this time of year (so there is an odd combination of clowns and kids dressed up in Nativity and biblical costumes and babies with santa hats in the parades; I was pretty confused at first). Although it also means that people are throwing water balloons from up high, a Carnival tradition, so that does worry me. Especially because gringos are gaint walking targets. AND I got hit by a pouch of candy that parade participants were throwing into the crowd - ouch (see reaction to the right). But I am learning more from people about being tranquila and will enjoy my last few days here in Ecuador, don´t you worry.

An Ode to the ENSALADA DE FRUTAS

The accessibility of cheap, quality, delicious fresh fruits in South America is wonderful. I will miss having fresh fruits from the mercados, natural jugos (juice - and really just juice, nothing added) or ensaladas de frutas (fruit salads) as a daily practice, once resuming poverty status in the USA.

And Ecuador wins for Best ensaladas de frutas among my tour of the Americas, as I believe I have consumed one in at least every country visited except Brazil (Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Peru). My decision is based on several criteria, in which Ecua wins for consistency, variety, presence of bananas, size, and price.

Here is a photo of the tasty ensalada de frutas I devoured earlier today, to celebrate speaking to a nice person at Copa Airlines (at the office in Cuenca; although talking to a nice person did not get me on an earlier flight than January 22nd, I at least had a good interaction with a normal person and am not confused and am on a waitlist for each day next week). Although prices went up at this veggie restuarant after the New Year, so this tasty bunch of fruit goodness set me back a whole $1 instead of 80 centavos. But YAY for frutas and mixto mango and strawberry and vanilla yogurt! The mixto concept is another I will want to bring back to the States, because getting a mix (be it of fruits or type of tea or grilled meats) lends well to my characteristic indecisiveness. I will show up at Mighty-o Donuts in Seattle and see if they can get me a mixto pumpkin and brown sugar donut. Mmmm.