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.

Lost my pants, but not my pride

Missions: accomplished!

I am feeling much better today for several reasons. Thank you so much to friends who have sent me thoughts of encouragement or empathy for my travel woes and whining about health and weather. Your positive energy has granted me a great day!

The main downside was that I left my yoga pants in Arequipa. In my defense, it was very dark in our hostel dormitory room when I snuck out at the inhumane hour of 3:30 AM to get my taxi to the airport (although it was not THAT dark because a poor Swiss girl we were sharing the room with was constantly running to the bathroom from travellers sickness. Not fun). But luckily Ming´s flight outta Peru was later in the day so he saved my pants and I will reunite with them in Seattle. I will miss my yoga pants, though, because the others I have here are capri and it has been unusually cold weather here in Cuenca (of course).

But the day went very well. I stayed distracted at the early hour during my journey from Arequipa to Lima with good companions to keep my mind off worrying about stuff. I shared a taxi to the airport and coffee once there with an interesting, older French man who was also staying at our hostel, and we discussed interesting theories about the connections among "development," religion, and trust in society (as well as topics such as strangeness of American universities with malls attached and French tongue twisters). Then he left on his flight & I found new distraction buddies with two Bostonians. We were partly ashamed and partly relieved to have a loooong, animated discourse about our impressions of South & North American cultural differences (especially because one of them is neurotic like me, which I feel is the personality trait that clashes the most with South American ways of being, I´ll post about this sometime). During our chat session, which kept us from worrying about a slight delay in getting out of Arequipa and onto Lima, time went by quickly and we made up our late departure time with a timely arrival in Peru´s capital! And the Bostonians wished me luck on my mad dash to find and conquer my wandering ATM card in the 3 hour layover I had before my flight to Ecuador.

I could barely believe it when I eventually found the Fed Ex facility across the street from the airport AND got my ATM card with plenty of time. This after countless phone calls to make sure it would be there (the most frustrating of which was in Spanglish and quite laborious the day prior, I think I actually lost weight in the effort), taking my life in my hands running across the HUGE street from the airport to find the office, being directed 3 different places by 4 different people (the most incorrect being the woman at the information booth in the airport whose job is to direct people, though close second was a policeman). By the time I reached the highly secure fortress of the FedEx building, I was all sweaty from the humidity and smelled like Lima, which is a bit like fish. Tasty. And I only had to wait half an hour for my package to be retrieved from the short flight of steps upstairs. Miracles. I thought I would treat myself upon return to the airport with an ICED COFFEE (pure luxury for its rarity in S. America) from the Dunkin Donuts there, but when I got back I did not even feel like one. Which was the other sad part of the day, though always good to save money even though I wanted to spend some just because I can access my bank account again! YAY!

And I felt relief getting back to Ecuador and getting back to my groove there - got in on time to Guayaquil, added money to my phone (double yay, I have it again! So resume texts!), had another delay with immigration at the security checkpoint (not sure why I just do not show up in their system), argued with taxi drivers for the fare to the bus terminal, ate a huge tasty sweet corn tamale that cost 50 cents, caught a bus right away, got giddy excited to see banana plantations again on the 5 hour journey back to Cuenca, and let out a HUGE sigh of relief upon walking in the door at Adrian and Julie´s place again. And even better after hugs and tea and catching up (though one of the pet bunnies died, sniff). And talking to my Dad, who had a similar long day of travel and is now in the same time zone as me in New York state to be with my uncle who is in the hospital there. I myself will enjoy having a nice, long, shower and some rest and stability over the next few days. Thanks again to those who have been so supportive and sending me your positive thoughts, I now have plenty to restore myself and project the rest over to my relatives in New York for my uncle´s recovery.

AND, pictures to come soon from the past 3 weeks of adventuring! Triple Yay!

Cold Feet

My feet are cold because they are very wet.

Arequipa is experiencing major rain and flooding (of course, because I have brought the wrath of the Incans), a nice little suprise to everyone here. Hunger and lack of the concept of food delivery available led us to brave the rain, and also drove us to the vultures of an overpriced touristy restaurant in the main square (the free Pisco Sour made up for some of it. Nothing like a margarita-type drink with egg whites on top to warm up cold feet - probably could help in the metaphoric cold feet as well now that I think about it). But now my feet and Keane shoes are soaked. Hope the shoes dry a little before I leave in about 7 hours for a flight to Lima.

If that flight even leaves, given the rain. I will consider tomorrow a day for cashing in some miracles, to get from Arequipa to Lima early in the morning, track down my ATM card in Lima during my 3 hours there, make my flight to Ecuador (Guayaquil), and get myself AND my luggage back to Cuenca 5 hours later. If I do not post again soon, I am stuck in one of various cities in Peru or alongside the road in Ecuador or am trying to get money by begging on the streets for lack of ATM card. Send good travel luck my way, please!

Perhaps even more difficult is trying to explain the American primaries to foreigners. This has made me realize several things. 1) I do not know a lot about my own country´s political process, which is partly due to to fact 2) the process is crazy, throw in 3) people who run for president are crazy, and we all know 4) CNN is overly dramatic and repeats the same stories over and over and over and over and over. Okay, I was fully aware of this last point, which fuels my love hate relationship with the news channel. And I heart Anderson Cooper.

What I have in common with Hillary Clinton

Emotions.

You can skip reading this post, because its super boring, UNLESS you know a phone operator at COPA Airlines or a Peruvian FedEx truck driver. Then you must read.

I hit my low point in South American adventuring yesterday, having a glorious little breakdown, complete with tears and pouting and cursing in four languages (okay, I made up a swear word in Quecha becuase the only words I know of the indegenious Andean language are puma titi, stone caca, and baby wahwah, which do not quite convey the emotions I was letting out). I have not been feeling 100% DeAnn lately, which is frustrating although probably of much relief to those around me who have not had to deal with my hyperactivity and incessant talking. I am getting over a cold, but also just felt generally crappy, tired of hauling from place to place, and being plagued by the loss of my ATM card back in Buenos Aires and subsequent loss of numerous hours of life in trying to obtain money (the ATM card is wandering around Lima right now on a FedEx truck, I have issues with both credit cards in getting cash that way, blah blah blah).

The straw that broke my llama´s back, though, was trying to change my flight back to the USA to earlier this month. I really enjoy being in South America and seeing difference places and people, and had hoped to do volunteer work back in Ecuador once I go back there later this week. But realistically I feel ready to come back home and get a job and be on a normal schedule. I admit defeat - and want my gym membership, my family an easy phone call away at all times, and a sense of purpose and pride with applying my degree in the public health field. So I would like to come back earlier but I am having a heck of a time with COPA Airlines to make this happen. Does anyone have a relative who works the phones there and is compentent or at least nice or at least willing to let me talk to someone higher up?! 36 minutes of phone calls with them and I have not been able to get any of those things, or an earlier flight. Sigh.

I may seem to have been emitting a bit if negativity, but this does not reflect how much I truly value travelling and again, being here in South America. It is great being in Peru and I want to spend more time back in Ecuador (and how I will miss fresh cheap fruit and natural juices, and llamas and alpacas!) and learning more about not being just a tourist but life for people here. And I really am enjoying myself and am grateful to be here - and once I start working again will probably want to be off roaming around living out of a backpack again. But I have to declare my honesty that I reached a low point - they happen, and now that I feel much better it feels cathartic to ramble on about it.

But not very interesting to the reader. You know what IS interesting, though? Llamas and alpacas. http://www.lamaworld.com.au/lama_world19.htm

Lake Titicaca (let out the giggle)

The Incan Gruge, er I mean the rainy season, continued during our exodus from Cusco and the Sacred Valley to our next adventures in Lake Titicaca. Lots of water: a pretty amazing giant lake to go with all the rain. And at a higher elevation than Cusco!

Because I have no sense of time or dates these days, I´ll try to give a recap of the latest journeys in Peru but its going to be a little repetitive and streamofconsciousnessliscious.

Sometime after spending New Years Eve in Cusco, waking up at 5:30 AM NY morning to go to Aguas Calientes (again, the tourist town created for visitors to the Big MP), waking up the next day at 4:30 AM to spend the rain-soaked day in the Big MP, then waking up the next morning at 6 AM to get on a day tour bus to Puno (the city to stay in along Lake Titicaca), was the day I woke up at 6 AM in Puno to have a little bit of time to email and write in my journal before an 8 AM pickup for an island tour of the Lake.

But we got a knock on our door at 6:50 that the bus to take us on our lake tour was already at our hostal to pick us up! Confusion and mixups go with the travel shindig, but usually South American times run LATE not early so I was extra confused. We quickly grabbed some stuff to take for our overnight stay on one of the islands, and oh yeah Ming was in the shower so first got ourselves and some stuff together before getting on the bus with my apologies to the other passengers. One other American had the same mix up, thinking the bus was coming one hour later, so I didnt think much of it.

We visited the islands of Uros, which are built upon REEDS and float about in Lake Titicaca. The first island we visited was relatively small, and we got the lowdown on how the islands are made and some local customs plus a tour of peoples reed huts (complete with TVs and solar panels, so crazy!). This was really interesting. And an explanation that Lake Titicaca in Quecha, the indigenous language, means "Puma Stone" so do not snicker because caca is a dirty word in Spanish (and immature English speakers like myself were snickering because titi aint so great either).

On our way to the next island, we realized that everyone else was on a one day tour and we were on the way to the island we were supposed to visit the next day according to our program. So after some phone calls and scrambling, we got dropped off at another floating island and hopped on the correct boat going for the 2 day tour. Though we didnt get that extra hour of time in the morning back - it that ended up being good because the RAIN came then and we were at least spared most of it for our early hour and first island visit. As well as spared the onslaught of tourists, who were in full force by later morning. Them there humans get in the way of my well-framed photos!

Once on our correct boat, we headed out on a 4 hour journey to the island where we were to stay overnight, Amantani. Having not done our Footprints homework or been told by the travel agent who arranged our program, we thought we were staying at a hostal ot hotel, but turns out our accomodations were with a local family! Which was news to us (as well as that the island was equipped with elecricity in the past but can no longer afford it). But a very interesting experience, to have a glimpse into the daily lives of the Quechan islanders. The main industries are agriculture (LOTS of potatoes are planted everywhere), fishing (and they dont really eat meat), and tourism (yours truly in a homestay). I would have been more engaged in the experience had I not been feeling weak and congested on account of having a cold, but I did really appreciate the hospitality of our host family even given the language barrier and my quietness (yes, me, quiet). We had lunch, dinner, and breakfast the following morning prepared by our host madre. Its amazing how tasty different combos of potatoes, carrots, eggs and rice can be! And the muña tea, from a kind of mint, is pretty tasty and cleared my stuffyness. We took a muña tea and donut break during a hike, located at the top of high peak on the island, from which you gain a great view of the mighty lake - and Bolivia (though make sure to take note that Peru owns 60% of the lake. They are proud of this fact). The host families also dressed us up in traditional Quechan dress for a fiesta in the evening - it took host mom and daughter a few minutes to place all the layers on me (one of which was like a CORSET, which did not go well with my feeling ill AND the altitude, especially because I stopped taking the altitude medication because it made me pee too much - too much info, but too bad you´re getting it anyway). And it took about 3 seconds for Ming to put on a poncho; its just not fair what women have to go through to look good. =)

Though I an definitely not looking good these days, as my nose clearly displays the weather I have been exposed to - a mixture of sunburn and windburn has left it peeling (and thus very unappealling, hee). But today we had sun and warmth for most of the day - before more rain - here in Arequipa. Which is, by the way, described in Footprints as having "360 days of sunshine." And it was pouring when we arrived yesterday, and part of today. Of course.

But DeAnn is a happy camper, er traveller. I had coffee, bananas, and sun today. Yay.

And belated Happy New Years...

Hope you all had a safe and exciting New Years celebration. ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

I was in Cusco, where the central Plaza de Armas was lively with people, booze, fireworks, booze, police, tourists, locals, funky glasses, yellow confetti, more fireworks, and booze. And as much as I am old and boring and partly wanted to go to sleep, it was fun to be a part of all the energy. Though I was really concerned about the fireworks and drunk people combination, I did not see any casualties (but maybe the police were there to quickly cover it up so as not to disturb the toursits). There was no actual countdown, but you could tell when the mayhem got even crazier as people started running around the plaza. It felt like the running of the bulls.

We eventually joined in on the plaza cruising - but not running, had to save our leg energy for the Big MP - and it was fun to see lots of different types of people people dressed up and just having a silly good time. Although someone stole the hat right off of my head and ran off with it, sadly leaving my ears cold. Meanies who stole my beanie. But it taught me lesson about ¨test driving¨ people´s gifts, because I had just bought the hat for my brother earlier that day. Sorry, Gary.

Hope your 2008 is off to a great start. Sure is for Obama, eh?

One of the Seven Wonders of the World...

... to me, is not exactly Machu Picchu itself, but the epic tourism industry around it. I am back-posting from my adventure to experience the Big MP (which I even have my family calling this amazing place now, in part because I like saying the Big MP ever since Ann refered to it was such, but also because I can never remember if the Machu or the Picchu has the 2 c´s).

We went to the Big MP January 2nd (after spending the first day of 2008 stuck on the train to Aguas Calientes because of a landslide), and OF COURSE it was pouring rain the entire time. No, I am exaggerating, it did not rain the first 30 minutes once we got inside the Big MP at 6:30 AM (after waking up at 4:45 that morning to catch one of the first buses up).

It truly is an incredible place, leaving one to ponder how the Incans created such a place using such few resources and in this location - and no wonder it remained undiscovered until 1911! Though if the Incans were so smart, they would have invented an elevator for all those steps - I was pretty tired after a few hours of swimming, I mean walking, around. And because the fog was so thick and visibility low, we did not hike the big mountain you see in postcards (at least, thats our excuse). I would insert an amazing photo here, but not only am I having techinical difficulties with my camera, but really it looks just like the pictures you always see. You need to experience it in person for the real effect.

But with all the mystery, inspiration, and pride that comes with the Big MP, there is so much tourism to the extreme in the Sacred Valley and Cusco that it somewhat detracted from my experience. I was expecting the overpriced train ride, bus ride, entrance fees, food in Aguas Calientes (a place erected basically FOR tourists as a stopover to the Big MP) as well as being harassed in Cusco by every tour agency in town, but there is also means to extract money from tourists awaiting you at every step (restaurants, local children and Quechans asking for money to take pictures with them and or their llamas, kids selling everything from dolls to ciggies on the street, the bathrooms, random stops on tours just to shop, wherever whatever). Granted this happens everywhere in the world, and the good ole US of A has way overpriced places like Disneyland, but my main problem here is that I constantly wonder if the money generated is really going back to the locals and improving their lives or maintaining their natural treasures.

But more on that later, I am recovering from getting sick at the Big MP (a cold, nothing too dramatic but add on 3 days of waking up early and then trekking around Lake Titicaca IN THE RAIN) and I am a bit delerious. Im still feeling swaying movements from being on a boat ... more on those adventures to come.

And hope all y´all in the Bay Area are not being swept away by the rain! But you can guess I am not too sympatheic being in the rainy season here in Peru ... whatever was I thinking I would be escaping the Seattle winter by coming South ...