Cusco, the Inca Trail, and Machu Picchu

Sunday I got back to Lima from Cusco, my last big adventure before returning to the States. After a few days of rest, I’m finally feeling up to blogging about the whole experience. But don’t worry – just as I will not be subjecting you to all 400+ pictures I took while there, I will not be recounting every little detail of the trip. Sigh of relief? Yes, I believe that’s in order.

I went with Katie and Deanna, two girls I used to live with. We flew to Cusco Saturday morning (the 4th) and checked into our hostel. We spent the next three days seeing the sights there in Cusco – the Cathedral, the Church of the Company of Jesus Christ, the Inca Museum, the Precolombian Museum, etc. It’s a beautiful town, though admittedly the central part of the town is so heavily populated by tourists that the gringo to native ratio seems to approximate 3:1. But it’s the jumping off point for Machu Picchu, one of the wonders of the world, so it’s to be expected.

Things of note: Cusco
1. Our hostel was an ass-kickingly steep hike away from all the sights. So exhausting, but good practice for the ass-kickingly steep hike to Machu Picchu.
2. Hippie backpackers. Hippie backpackers everywhere. I saw more dreads in three days than in the 22 years prior.
3. EVERYONE wants to sell you something. From little polished rocks to pictures with native Cusquenyans in traditional dress. You can’t walk a single block without being accosted by a young lady with business cards saying, “Excuse me lady, massage? Massage-manicure-pedicure-facial? Maybe later?”
4. Poo. Everywhere. Dog poo as far as the eye can see. So many stray dogs, so little time to crap all over everything.

On Monday night we went to a briefing about our trek. For anyone who doesn’t already know, the purpose of our trip to Cusco was a 5-day Inca Trail hike up to Machu Picchu. Such hikes are usually booked through an agency and include a guide and meals along the way. There are various Inca Trails of varying lengths and difficulties. Ours was one of the longer ones (5 days, 4 nights), and more challenging than the original Inca Trail. We were pumped. We were slightly less pumped after a very confusing and stressful briefing wherein we were informed of all the things we lacked for the trip and how we were going to freeze to death in our -5 Celsius sleeping bags. (We later gathered all the things we felt we really needed and managed to recover our original level of pumpedness.) At the meeting we met our guide, Wander, and our fellow hikers, a Canadian couple, Erin and Steve.

Inca Trail: Day 1
We left Cusco at 6:00 am in a van that took us to the start of the hiking portion of the trail. We stopped after a bit of driving to check out an Inca site that was, honestly, less than impressing. We spent all of 20 minutes there, took a few pictures, and then hopped back in the van. We were told we had 10 minutes in the van before beginning the hike. That was a lie – the first of many on the part of our guide. Not sure if he abides by some mountain concept of time or what, but his time estimates were more often than not utter lies. We spent another hour and a half or so in the van, all of us on the verge of vomiting from the bumpiness of the ride. Finally we stopped and piled out of the van to begin our hike. After Katie and I took our first Inca Trail pop-a-squat pee, we were off. We hiked a pretty easy 3 hours or so the first day, a nice little warm up. About mid-way through we stopped for lunch—fried trout, rice, and piping hot tang. Mmmm. The view was incredible the whole time, even when we arrived at our first campsite. Gorgeous mountains all around, some covered in snow. That first night was the coldest, but we didn’t suffer too badly. Our tour included tents and mats and after tea time and a pretty tasty dinner we took full advantage, going to bed around 9:30 to prepare for Day 2.

Inca Trail: Day 2
I woke up with sore hips, a consequence of sleeping with nothing between me and the hard ground other than an inch-thick mat. Ouch. But with some stretching and a pancake breakfast I was ready for the hardest day of the hike. A sixth person joined our group that day, Bryan, from California. We were told that we would be doing about 8 hours of hiking, the first four ascending and the last four descending. The ascent was…wow. An ass-kicker. We zig-zagged up a couple of mountains, stopping usually every 40 meters or so to catch our breath. It was definitely a challenge, but it was fun. Katie and I generally stuck together, trading off carrying the day pack we shared. I nearly got knocked off the side of the first mountain by one of the horses that were carrying people’s hiking equipment. That was before I learned about the pass-on-the-inside rule. Yeah, I let the horse take the inside while I stood inches away from falling off the face of the earth, and it bumped me with one of the bags on its back. My bad. Luckily no harm was done and I learned my lesson. We celebrated the end of the ascent by chewing some coca leaves, a custom in the provinces that involves chewing the leaves from which cocaine is made; the status of the raw leaves as a drug/non-drug is heavily contested, but I consider myself pretty sensitive and they had little, perhaps no, effect on me.
The descent began as more of a flat hike, which was nice. We learned quickly, though, that descending isn’t as easy as it sounds. It’s less of a cardiovascular workout for sure, but geez is it tough on your joints – ankles, knees, hips. The descent was as steep, if not steeper, than the ascent of that morning and seemingly endless. We stopped for lunch in the middle of it, all of us super exhausted. But it didn’t take me long to get re-pumped once again for the rest of the day. Wander lied to us again about the remaining time, and we ended up racing the sun down to our second campsite, our guide so far ahead of us that we knew he would arrive a good half an hour before us. We got to the point that we were counting flashlights and talking about the hopelessness of trying to find a place to camp on a 3-foot-wide trail on the side of a mountain should it get too dark to continue. Thanks, Wander, for that. The second night was a little warmer (though not warm), and I slept a bit better than the night before.

Inca Trail: Day 3
With the hardest day of the trek behind us, we were all in pretty good spirits upon waking up on the third day. That is, aside from being awakened by a dozen or so roosters who continued their cock-a-doodle-dooing long after dawn. Day 3 was probably my favorite in terms of hiking. We ascended and descended, but the terrain was such that we were never going up or down for very long at once. We passed (and crossed) a number of rivers, streams, and waterfalls, and suddenly found ourselves in the region they call Ceja de Selva (Eyebrow of Forest). The shift from relatively barren landscape to lush mountains covered in dense forest was abrupt, and it was really beautiful. I can’t remember how many hours we hiked on Day 3, but it was really enjoyable. After lunch we took a van to the next campsite. That night we were entertained by kids performing traditional Cusquenyan dances – so cute. We played cards, met and fraternized with a few people from other groups, and were generally jovial. I went to bed early – around 10:30 – while Katie stayed up playing drinking games. For different reasons, we both slept well that night.

Inca Trail: Day 4
We woke up, had breakfast, and were driven once again to the last leg of the hike. We were all excited that the hike that day was to be a flat one, but we would soon learn how miserable it is to walk on a railroad track for several hours. It was so uncomfortable – feet, ankles, everything. I was suffering. But not so much that I couldn’t enjoy the lovely scenery and the joy of knowing we had nearly made it. After a few hours of hiking we finally arrived at Aguas Calientes, a small touristy town that marks the last stop on most Inca Trails before Machu Picchu. I could have cried – not because of our proximity to Machu Picchu but because we got to stay in a hotel that night. Katie and Deanna and I shared a room at the Inti Inn where we nearly cried over ultra-comfy beds and hot showers (our first in four days). The group went out for dinner that night, but I stayed in the hotel and rested. I had had (inexplicable) diarrhea all day and didn’t feel like going out, much less eating. But Evelyn called me that night and talking to her for a bit really lifted my spirits. I slept like a baby that night.

Inca Trail: Day 5 (Machu Picchu)
We woke up a little before 4:30, said goodbye to our beloved hotel beds, ate breakfast, and headed to the bus stop to catch one of the first of the buses to Machu Picchu. We got in line and were told by Wander that he had our bus tickets. Lie. As we approached the front of the line, we began to wonder where Wander had wandered off to and how we were going to board the bus with no tickets in our hands. We became more and more upset as we had to let people pass us to get on the buses because, while now at the front of the line, we didn’t actually have tickets. Long story short, we took turns asking Wander what was going on and I may have utilized some of my recently acquired Spanish expletives in my inquiry. In the end some yelled at him (I didn’t) and we all agreed that he had lied to us, that we didn’t understand why or what had actually happened with the bus tickets, but that, in the end, we were going to Machu Picchu, even if it was in the LAST of the buses. Needless to say, we were all psyched when we got to Machu Picchu and saw it for the first time. I would have been more psyched and more emotional if I hadn’t been so worn out, but it was nice. We took dozens of the typical tourist pictures with the city in the background and then toured the ruins themselves. Wander described various sites to us in his often-incomprehensible English and I rediscovered my love-hate relationship with the discipline of archaeology. After the tour, we took some pictures with some llamas and hiked up to see the Inca Bridge, which was a ways away from the actual city of Machu Picchu. At the end of the day I felt pretty honored to get to see Machu Picchu and a little disillusioned at the same time. More than half of the ruins (70% according to Wander) weren’t actually constructed by Inca hands but by archaeologists reconstructing the missing bits of an ancient city based on their guesses about what it might have looked like. And honestly, they didn’t even bother trying to implement Inca construction techniques. But it was fun and it was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We returned to Cusco by train and then bus and reunited for one last dinner together as a group (this time in a restaurant as opposed to around a rickety old card table). We said our goodbyes, sharing hugs, invitations to visit our hometowns, and promises to Facebook one another.

Just before dinner that night I made an executive decision to change my travel plans. I had intended to go to Puno that night in an overnight bus, to spend a few days there and see Lake Titicaca. But I was exhausted and tired of traveling. I missed Evelyn and, while I could hardly believe it, I missed Lima. So I changed my flight, said fuck it to the $15 I’d spent on my bus ticket, and left the following morning for Lima. I was glad to be back.

Now I’m just trying to enjoy my last days in Lima. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that this whole experience is ending. Most of my friends have already left. The house is quieter than it was just days ago. It’s strange, but I think I’m okay. I’ll be slightly less okay on Monday night around 10:30 when I board my plane to Jersey, but I suppose that’s to be expected. No reason to focus on that right now. See you all soon. Forgive me for failing to update much over the past couple of months. Be well. Pictures and vids to come soon.

(A very special) Video update 7

With a super special guest star. :)

Lima video update 6

Semana Santa Vid 5

El Castillo (3).

Semana Santa Vid 4

El Castillo (2). I inadvertently revealed to the world that in the picture that I took of Katie rock-climbing, she was not rock-climbing at all.

Semana Santa Vid 3

El Castillo (1).

Semana Santa Vid 2

Canyon de Colca and Majes River. So beautiful!

Semana Santa Vid 1

These are all just little snippets. There's no real rhyme or reason to any of it. But there are definitely some beautiful scenes, so check it out.

Semana Santa: Slideshow

Just a little something I threw together. I took about 450 photos on this trip - you're welcome for not including the majority of them. The captions are hard to read at times and the quality went to the dogs somewhere between iMovie and Youtube, so forgive me. I will post the same pictures, among others, to my Facebook soon.
Note: On my computer, at least, this vid is weird. It's probably best that you click on it to watch it on Youtube.

Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is a really important and widely celebrated holiday in Peru. It's during this week that many Lima residents travel to other parts of the country, which is exactly what Katie, Mary, and I did once classes let out on Wednesday for a long weekend. We boarded a bus in Lima at 5:30 that afternoon, not to arrive in Arequipa (the country's second largest city) until around 9:30 the next morning. A number of movies were shown on the bus (I watched a Spanish-dubbed version of the remake of The Honeymooners featuring Cedric the Entertainer - pure gold), meals were served, friends were made, bedtime was announced, and inadvertent snuggle-related offenses were committed against unwitting strangers (whoops). All in all, it was a good and uneventful trip. In Arequipa we purchased tickets for another, 3-hour bus ride from Arequipa to the tiny pueblo of Aplao. After a two-and-a-half-hour 'layover' in Arequipa, we boarded our sweaty, smelly, yucky bus; I was surprised to find that this three-hour ride would far surpass the 16-hour journey I'd just completed in discomfort and overall disagreeableness. Among other things, the featured film was The Ten Commandments, and the volume was such that my wee little iPod could not compete. Ayayay.

Upon arriving in Aplao, we were whistled, shouted, and leered at in such a way as we had never experienced, even in Lima. After a few minutes of panic prompted by the apparent disappearance of Katie's backpack from the under-bus storage compartment (it was soon recovered), the proprietor of the lodge in which we would be staying picked us up and drove us to said lodge (about 30 minutes away). Strangely enough, Mary had met the daughter of the owner, Julio, at a dentist's appointment prior to leaving the States. Her recommendation led us to Majes River Lodge, which is situated in Colca Valley, one of the deepest canyons in the world, near Majes River. Julio gave us a tour of the lodge, which consists of, among other things, a dining room, several guest quarters, a fire pit, a chapel, and a bull ring. Julio also produces his own Pisco (Peruvian liquor) and wine from grapes he himself cultivates; he gave us samples of each. His Pisco is 100% pure alcohol - I got tipsy off of the equivalent of half a shot. The rest of the evening was spent unpacking a bit, having dinner, and attempting to make friends with some not-as-nice-as-we'd-hoped young people from Arequipa, one of which was apparently high on something much stronger than marijuana. Yuck. Oh, and we spent some time around a hotter-than-hot bonfire drinking wine and lamenting the loss of our eyebrows before retiring to our quarters at what we thought was a late hour but what was, in reality, approximately 9:20, thus establishing ourselves as the dorks of the weekend crowd.

On Friday we woke up early to have breakfast and set out, with a number of other guests, on a white water rafting excursion. Mary, Katie, and I were in one raft with a high school kid named Victor and a professional guide named Manuel (a son of Julio's), whom I absolutely adore. We drifted (yes, drifted - it was a class II) down Majes River for about 90 minutes, surrounded by mountains and terrain so awe-inspiring that none of us could be certain we weren't dreaming. After lunch Katie and I were itching to hike. Julio drove us to the outskirts of a huge area surrounding El Castillo, a mountain shaped like a castle. According to Julio, the surrounding area is purportedly populated by women who, though very young, are all widows. Locals believe that El Castillo killed all of their husbands because it wanted the women all to itself. While Julio waited for us in the truck, Katie and I hiked what we estimate to be 2 miles toward - and up - El Castillo. There wasn't a soul in sight - human or otherwise. It was dead silent and absolutely beautiful. Silent, that is, when we weren't screaming bloody murder and listening to our voices echo. It should be noted that the names of all of my beautiful sisters, my angelic niece, my mother, Areli, and Evan have been echoed by a breathtaking Peruvian landscape. Love. A "path" that followed the base of the mountain led us to another "path" that we followed up El Castillo into an amphitheater-type structure where we took some pictures inside a "sick crevice," as Katie called it, and observed a few minutes of pure, unadulterated, sun-soaked silence. The sun was setting as we made the trek down the mountain and back to the truck, creating a spotlight-like effect that was absolutely breathtaking and a perfect send-off. We made it back to the truck just in time to miss the spirits that begin wandering El Castillo every evening at 6:00 pm. Phew!

Dinner Friday night consisted of fried shrimp that had yet to be stripped of their legs, heads, even eyeballs. We struggled to find the edible parts, which made for a fun little game. After dinner a very delightful, if inebriated, woman from Arequipa successfully taught us some indigenous dances and quite unsuccessfully (on account of the multiple bottles of wine she'd consumed) attempted to teach us a card game. We went to bed happy.

Saturday morning we woke up early once again to go rafting. I had insisted to Manuel the day before that the outing that morning had been too "tranquilo" and I wanted to raft a more turbulent part of the river. Though the water level had risen significantly, round 2 was only nominally more exciting, but nevertheless a lot of fun. What's more, we stopped halfway through and hiked up a mountain where Manuel showed us pre-Inca ruins of the Huari and Collagua cultures. We were literally stepping over unearthed bones and handling pre-Inca pottery and textiles - whoa! It was incredible. We even ran into some grave-robbers who wanted to take a picture with us. (Seeing white people is even more foreign to them than it is to people here in Lima.) We obliged, half-bemusedly and half-awkwardly.

After a lunch consisting of fried starches and broccoli (two of my favorite things in the world), we met up with a guy about our age named Jim (Gimber) who took us horseback riding. There was only one horse - Tornado - so we took turns. I went first - my first time riding a horse (I think)! I rode Tornado up the street a ways and, as we turned onto a dirt path into the mountains, we had to stop for an unexpected and amusing cattle crossing. We rode for just under two hours. About halfway through we stopped and scaled a mountainous structure and took some beautiful pictures of the valley and the surrounding mountains. Awesome. Jim was an absolute doll and talked a lot about the struggling tourism industry in the area and his love of hanging out and tending the crops and the livestock there. Oh! That reminds me - when we got back, I milked a cow! Neither Katie nor Mary wanted to, but I was really into it. It requires more skill than you would think, and man the flies are intolerable. But it was a fun experience and one that, as Katie and I like to say, brings me one step closer to dominating future games of "I never." And isn't that what life is all about?

Saturday night at the good old Majes River Lodge was...strange. A couple from Arequipa, Lily and her boyfriend Alex, both in their late fifties I'd say, invited us to have some Pisco with them, and of course we accepted. Little did we know Lily was drunk beyond amusing, beyond entertaining, beyond sloppy, I'd say just shy of dangerous. Alex was in the same condition. Lily's speech was so slurred that I understood MAYBE 15% of what she said, and half of the time that was English (though admittedly atrocious English, bless her heart). Alex told us repeatedly that, "Los americanos, los ODIO. Los odio" - "I HATE Americans. I hate them." After, oh I'd say, the fifth time he said it I looked him in the eye and told him if he said it again I'd kill him. Four more times he said it. He also told us he had thought we were French because all Americans are ugly. Oh, and here's a gem - he expressed his desire, in front of Lily, to trade her in for the three of us. All opposed? Yes, I do believe the nays have it.

The next morning while we were eating breakfast we found out that, shockingly enough, a bottle of water was not enough to revive Lily and that Alex would be taking her to the nearest hospital right away.

After breakfast we gathered our things and piled into the van to go back to Aplao and catch a slightly nicer, but nearly as miserable as the first, bus to Arequipa. This time we had about four hours to spend in Arequipa, and we had every intention of doing as much as we could during that window. We met up with a friend of Julio's who, for a little over $5.50 per person, stored our backpacks in a safe place and drove us everywhere we wanted to go. We were starving, so we had lunch first at an Italian restaurant where I finally got to enjoy some kickass pizza. We then went to El Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a convent that was built in the late 16th century and still houses practicing nuns. It is GIGANTIC and we allowed ourselves only and hour to roam around, so needless to say we were booking it. But it was amazing. Disturbingly macabre images of a crucified Christ on every wall were no match for the beautiful gardens, architecture and rich history.

From El Monasterio we went to do a little handicraft shopping. I came upon a number of vendors who had set up on the steps of San Francisco Church, among them a little girl named Ariana and her mom. Ariana cannot be more than eleven years old, and she knew and explained to me what each piece of jewelry they sold was made of - what kind of stone, what kind of silver, what animal this tooth came from, what kind of fabric that bracelet is woven from. She was amazing and beautiful and I wanted to take her home with me. But I settled instead for two rings and a leather change purse. After snapping a few quick pictures of Arequipa's Plaza de Armas, we made our last stop at La Iberica, a renowned chocolate shop, where I bought (and later consumed) an obscene amount of chocolate.

The bus ride from Arequipa back to Lima was peaceful enough at first, but was ultimately more eventful than I'd bargained for. About halfway through the first movie of the evening, I began to sneeze practically incessantly. The usual indications of an irritating-but-not-life-threatening reaction to an environmental allergen ensued - itchy, watery eyes, itchy runny nose, itchy inner ears, and an itchy neck, all of which I'm quite accustomed to given my sensitive immune system. What happened next I was not so accustomed to. My eyes started to itch so badly that I wanted to rip them out and the itchiness of my neck spread to my arms and, worst of all, the palms of my hands. I was scratching furiously and growing increasingly concerned. My chest, stomach, and legs then began to itch and a rash appeared all over my body. At one point I turned around to Katie, who was seated behind me, to tell her that I thought something might really be wrong. Her response to my face alone confirmed it: "Oh my God, Taylor! You look...oh my God!" I began to panic and, of course, cry. The bus happened to be stopped (why, I'm not sure) so Katie and Mary informed the attendant that I needed to get off the bus and get some medicine. There was a pharmacy on the same block where the bus was stopped; I bought a couple of antihistamines. They did nothing. When a lady sitting diagonal from me, a doctor, told me I wasn't getting any better I began again to panic and cry. Somehow, for some reason, another passenger on board, apparently with a medical background as well, had with him a pill that was specifically for the kind of reaction I was having. I took it and within twenty minutes the itching waned and I started to feel better. I took a total of 7 pills and freaked out a total of I-don't-know-how-many passengers, but in the end I was fine. I still don't know what prompted the reaction. My hypothesis, in retrospect, is that I had a worse-than-usual reaction to an environmental allergen and I panicked, which caused the symptoms to worsen and spread.

Unfortunately, that was not the only misfortune I met with on our journey home. The attendant turned out the lights; it was bedtime once again on the Cruz del Sur bus. I had already drifted off by this point, but I awoke by chance to a most disturbing scene: the man sitting next to me was masturbating. To say that I was more uncomfortable/scared/confused/in need of my mommy than I have ever been in my 22 years is an understatement. There was motion, there was panting, there was...pure terror on my part. I squeezed my eyes shut and pretended to be asleep - I didn't know what else to do. I wanted somebody to hold my hand (not him). I wanted to cry. I wanted it to go away. But all I could think to do was close my eyes. As my mother would say, I got that honest. (Thanks, Mom.) One friend later told me that I should have jumped up and screamed, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Another, that I should have cleared my throat and said, "Excuse me sir, I can't help but notice you have your dick in your hand." It was terrifying and weird and uncomfortable and I hope to never experience such a thing again.

In spite of the rather traumatic ride home, the weekend was a grand success. In the end it cost us less than 1200 soles, or 400 soles per person, which is well under $150. Oh how I love the Peruvian tourism industry.

In conclusion, some key words to summarize the weekend: Pisco, rafting, horse poo, El Castillo, ruins, nature, history, mountains, cold showers, creepy crawlies, wonderful people, wonderful memories, spirits (of the dead variety as well as the alcoholic variety), flying hot ash, hammocks, donkeys, cows, cow poo, vino.

I am so appreciative of these experiences that, for whatever reason in the world, I've been afforded.

Video and photos to come...

Being silly on the beach

Sunday, 29 March.

I'm famous!

Remember that little photo shoot I participated in for the University's publicity office? Well the literature has been printed and I have, to keep with me always, one of the posters! So exciting!

The text, translated:

Internationalization at La Catolica (the university) lives

Agreements with more than 100 universities worldwide

-More than 400 students from other countries on our campus

-Professors with advanced degrees from prestigious foreign universities

-Exchanges with the best universities

Welcome excellence

Update 6 (Vid update 5)

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, movie at the cultural center, the beach, date.

Forgive me. Must vent.

This university never ceases to amaze me. I want to browse the campus bookstore - I have to leave my bag at the front and take a number. Fine. They don't want me stealing their overpriced paperbacks - I understand. I want to check out a book at the library - I have to look for the book in the e-catalog - not a problem at all. I have to write down the title, author, LOC code, date, my school ID number, and take the piece of paper with my signature to the appropriate floor where I hand said slip of paper to someone behind a desk who then retrieves the book for me. Students are not permitted to browse the stacks. That's right. How on earth do PUCP students write research papers? And if I want to sit down in the reading room I have to leave my school ID card with the security dude, who gives me a number that tells me where I have to sit. What? Are they afraid I'm going to steal a desk? No clue. I want to use the campus WiFi - a student tells me, "No, there's no password." Yes, there is. "Excuse me, sir, could you tell me the password for the campus WiFi?" "Oh you'll need to go down to the Electronic Resources Room. They have it in there."

Ugh. I just keep repeating to myself, "Cultural relativism...cultural relativism...cultural relativism....."

Update 5

I haven't really felt like recording, uploading, and embedding recently given that I'm not even sure anyone is following this thing. However, I sent an email to a friend today summarizing some of the events of the past week and it seemed like it would make a nice blog update. So here is an admittedly edited version of said email:

Had lunch today with a ling professor (not mine, but another in the department) who approached me on campus last week. I was lying under a tree and he comes up to me and is like, "You're new here, aren't you?" (Duh. Gringa. What gave me away?) I was like, "Oh. Am I not allowed to be lying under this tree?" I thought I was in trouble. Turns out he just saw a gringa and wanted to be nice. Anyhow, he's a cool enough guy. It's hard to understand him sometimes but he taught me all about the Spanish equivalent of the English work 'fuck' so I guess we're friends. Ha.

My Peruvian boyfriend is supposed to call me in an hour. He makes me mad and I know I frustrate the daylights out of him, but somehow we make it work about twice a week. He isn't really my boyfriend (obviously), but we go to movies and walk around together and go dancing and stuff so...I guess in Limenyan (anglo spelling that I COMPLETELY made up) terms we're like engaged or something.

God they love gringas down here. It is absolutely insane. It is a multiple-times-daily experience to be shouted at on the street. A car stalked me as I walked to the bus stop the other morning - the guy kept shouting out his window at me insistently, "My queen! My queen! Hey! Princess!" I wanted to be like, "I'm your queen, huh? Come lick my dirty, sweaty feet then." Ew. I don't know why I just said that. Anyhow, and you don't have to be attractive. If you're white, they holler. As off-putting as it was at first, it's quite amusing nowadays. Taxis will stop short in the middle of the street on the off chance you want a ride. And they will stay stopped there, with cars piling up behind them honking their horns, until you nod your head 'no.' When I first got here Mary and Katie and I would joke about making t-shirts to wear around the city that say "No se busca ni taxi ni esposo" (Not looking for a taxi or a husband).

My History of the Peruvian Theatre professor is in a play that's running this weekend; I think I'm going to go see it. Profesor Isola - he acts and directs as well as teaches. Very nice, very willing to help me outside of class, which I appreciate. All my professors seem nice enough. Oh, so now seems an appropriate time to tell you what I'm taking. I registered this past Monday (3/23) and got all the classes I wanted - jure! (<--That's my Spanish spelling of hooray.) I'm enrolled in Pragmatics (a ling course), History of the Peruvian Theatre, Education in Sexuality, and Modern Dance. Woot! I pretty much love my classes. My Pragmatics professor is by far my favorite. He always comes into class looking kind of solemn but when he starts teaching you can tell he loves teaching and he loves linguistics and it's just contagious! He's so funny and wonderful and...man I just love a good professor. Nothing like it. It's like the one time out of 100 that you call Time Warner Cable and you talk to someone who's really friendly and helpful and you think, "Man, that person BELONGS in this line of work." Ew. TWC. I don't miss you.

OOH! So we went on this three-hour bus tour the other day, Saturday I think it was. Mary and Katie and I. It took us all through the center of Lima, a lot of which was just dirty and looked like everywhere else in Lima. However, parts of it were really cool. We saw the Plaza de Armas and the president's (Alan Garcia) house and then we went to...hmm...how to translate...San Francisco Cathedral? Something like that. The inside is a museum, so we enjoyed a guided tour of that PLUS the catacombs underneath. Spooooooky. Not really. It was really cool. So many bones. And we learned a lot about the history of the church and catacombs. It was a little hard to breathe down there but well worth it. There was a chick on the tour - hispanic, perhaps Peruvian - who was SO hot. I was making eyes at her the whole time and I'm not sure she was really making them back at me, but she was definitely like, "Hey gringa lady. You're awfully different looking. Interesting..." But yeah that was a fun little tour. Because the three of us are absolutely, uncontrollably bonkers when we're together I think the most fun we had was waving at all the people walking along the sidewalks - we were like celebrities to them! How funny that we're as much a novelty to them as nearly everything about their city is to us. We also blew kisses to all the Peruvian men who whistled at us, and even to the ones who didn't. It should be noted that this was only fun because we could escape on the Mirabus. Obviously under normal hooting-and-hollering circumstances we simply ignore people.

Anyhoo...so I think I'll post this to my blog (an edited version anyway). I'm not sure why I just kept going and going but yeah I think that would make a nice little blog update. I don't feel like recording and uploading anyhow.

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Hope everyone's well. I may or may not update soon.

Oh and p.s.b.t.w. totally tried to record a tour of the house and Cecilia's granddaughter, Ariana, who likes to torture the rabbit, KEPT talking to me and following me around. Haha. I might post some of that footage at some point simply because it's kind of amusing watching me attempt to record this video for you guys with a little munchkin on my heels.

KISS KISS KISS!

Update 4

One of the first things I say is that this update is going to be shorter than the others but it isn't...that was false. Sorry! Forgive the bounciness of the camera - I know now not to record an update on my bed with my computer on the pillow. Love and miss you all.

Swimming with the sea lions

The ones with the life jackets are the tourists; the ones without are the sea lions. Katie and I are the two on the right, the rightest one being me. At 0:27 what you hear me saying is "Me estan mirando!" or, in English, "They're looking at me!" Haha. One of them was for real showing off for me. No joke.

Notice how loud they are!

Update 3

Swimming with sea lions, birthday celebrations, orientation, etc...

Las islas Palomino y nadando con los lobos del mar (Palomino Islands and swimming with the sea lions)

I will post a video update soon. But I thought you might like to see pics of our 4-hour tour of the Palomino Islands. Katie, Mary, and I went, and Katie and I swam with the stinky, noisy sea lions! Woot! Mary's legs got super burned and parts of mine did. But all in all it was a great deal of fun. I met a man named Hector who had lived in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area. Whoa. Anyhow, enjoy!

Wow. Update: It takes forever to upload pictures on Blogger. Lame. See my Facebook profile. For those of you who aren't on Facebook, if you love me you'll sign up.

Update 2 (Revisited)

Watch. I'm gonna do it again.

Update 1 (Revisited)

Oh yeah. This is how I embed my vids. Check me out.

Anyone know how to embed a vid in a post here on Blogger?

There's a mini cactus in it for ya if you can help me out.

Update 2 (9 March 2009)

Click on the title (Update 2...) to view vid!

Video blog - OWW! (And Update 1)

I have FINALLY managed to sort out this video blogging thing. (Apparently kids call this 'vlogging' - whatever.) So I may occasionally go to the trouble of writing a little something, posting photos, etc. Primarily, though, I'm going to be posting links to YouTube vids that I've uploaded and that feature yours truly talking about - what else? - herself. Just trying to keep everyone posted re: what and how I'm doing and so forth whilst I'm in Lima (that's Peru, not Ohio). If all works as it should the title of each post should link directly to an update vid. Let's give it a go...