October 2, 2007- To end the negligence

It has been entirely too long since I last wrote, and to anyone who is still checking this and holding out the hope that I will post some day soon, I apologize. It has been a hectic few months and I am actually looking forward to writing this entry because it might be nice to reminisce about what has gone on lately, since I haven’t had much time to process it all.

We will start with August, when Blake came down for a trip that we have been planning for a year or so. A week before he came down, I was robbed of all of our trip tickets, money, credit cards, etc. While I was checking online to make sure our entire trip was set, some punk came into my private internet box, reached into my crotch (where my wallet was being clenched between my legs), ripped my wallet away while mildly violating me, and vanished into thin air. It was almost magical how quick he was! Believe me when I say that I was super sour about having Blake down here after this. I was sure with how American he looks that someone would try to rob or take advantage of him, so I was a bit paranoid the whole trip. My being robbed came only a week after my boyfriend was badly beaten and robbed of all of his belongings in a taxi (including his sneakers and belt), so these combined experiences left me with a really bad taste in my mouth. Luckily my trip with Blake unfolded beautifully, so my faith in Peru has been restored. Now, back to the trip. Initially, we really wanted to hike the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, clearly not taking into account that I am in the worst shape that I have been in in my entire life. I am serious when I say that sometimes I am breathless after just rolling over in bed. Note to self: get off your lazy ass and work on that. 10 weeks before our trip together, Blake tore his ACL in a pretty gnarly way playing lacrosse, and had to have surgery immediately, making the 5-day trek to Machu Picchu an impossibility. After how I responded to the few physical activities we did get to do on our trip, I am thinking that his injury may have been a godsend because we (I) may have died on the Inca trek. I mean, I am not at all happy that his surgery was painful and ruined his summer (obviously), but I think I may have needed a wake-up call reminding me that athleticism and hiking are not my fortes. I really am delusional when it comes to certain aspects of my existence.

Our first two stops on the trip were short. We went to the beach, but not for too long because it would have depressed Blake since he couldn’t even surf like he dreamed of doing in Peru. Next, we came to my site in Cajamarca so Blake could see where I live and meet my family. I really enjoyed being reminded of how effectively people can communicate even when they don’t speak the same language. Blake, with his broken Spanish, still made quite the impact on my family, so much so that they told him he should move here because in their professional opinion, Peru needs good teachers like him. I wholeheartedly agree with this, but fat chance that he (or anyone in my life for that matter) would ever want to leave the states to live here with me. And that is ENTIRELY understandable. Blake was impressed by how beautiful my region is and seeing things through his eyes for three weeks was really refreshing. After Cajamarca, we headed down to Cusco (with a short stop in Lima, only to experience the 8.0 earthquake) where we spent some time in the city, hung out in Aguas Calientes, and of course, visited Machu Picchu. We had to spend a rather exorbitant amount of money to enter the ruins twice because the first day (the day we had already paid for a guide for) I was suffering from a nasty case of altitude sickness and found myself miserably perched on a rock the whole day wishing the tour guide would shut the hell up. In retrospect, he was sharing some really interesting factoids about the locale but at the time it sounded like an endless blah, blah, blah to me and I truly was feeling a bit homicidal. I´d be lying if I said that I was a pleasant person to be around that day, but even my hellishness wasn’t enough to take away from how spectacular the scenery was. Luckily, I was feeling like a new person the next day, so Blake and I woke up at the crack of dawn to take the bus back to the ruins to catch the sunrise there. We wanted to hike the most popular peak within the park, but there is competition to get there since only four hundred people are allowed on per day. This seems like a lot, but considering there were 1000 people waiting for a bus at 5am, we were worried we might not make the cut. This fear was heightened when we got to the park and realized we had no idea how to get to the base of the mountain (Machu Picchu is quite the complex structure). As I was stopped to look at a map, a Peruvian tour guide literally shoved me out of the way, clearly worried about his group´s place in the line. Blake and I started sprinting after him (I am serious, it was this pathetically competitive), and somehow secured the 123 and 124 place in line. Seeing the mountain looming above us made me really anxious because it was so large and steep and I am so pitifully soft and untoned right now. These French people behind us brought their three young children to hike though, so I was reassured. UNTIL Blake and I hear that they just biked all the way from Lima (about 400 KM), implying that they were clearly in a different category than us. I seriously would have felt less intimidated by Lance Armstrong. After passing us during minute one of the hike, the Superfamily made it up the mountain 2 hours before us, even though it was only supposed to take an hour to hike in all. Our slow pace may have had something to do with me having to stop every 5 minutes for a 10 minute breather. Blake (the injured one) had no trouble with the altitude or the hike (go figure). I am a walking disaster, or actually just a disaster, since I can´t even handle walking apparently.

After Cusco, we headed further South to Arequipa. Arequipa is known as canyon country, and is renowned for its specialty dishes. Since my life revolves around food, this was the leg of the trip that I was most excited about. Here, we ate alpaca, guinea pig, and ostrich in various forms, along with trying rocoto relleno (stuffed pepper), Arequipa´s most sought-after delicacy. After two days in the white-washed city, we headed to Colca Canyon, a deeper hole than the one we have in Arizona. We had our own personal van and tour guide (it ends up that I hate tour guides and spend my time wishing they would shut up), and we really enjoyed seeing the topography change as we took the 4 hour drive to the canyon. Along with mistaking me as a Peruvian resident and trying to tax me 19% of everything we paid for, the tour agency messed up our hotel reservation and upgraded us to the nicest suite at the base of the canyon. We had our own private hot springs, a two story condo, and access to an all-you-can-eat buffet. It was ridiculously luxurious, and I felt like I was sinning. My favorite part of Arequipa was traveling to the canyon to watch the condors fly. I don´t know that I had ever seen one before this and they are truly the most majestic animal I have seen. They were huge (with 9 feet wingspans) and just floated over the gorgeous canyon below. I was really moved by them, and they are the only bird that ever made me wish I could fly. Blake and I must have taken 100 pictures just to try to capture them, but they move so fast, while seeming so slow and graceful, that we only got a few good shots. Towards the end of this leg, we ended up really bonding with our tour guide Beatriz. She decided to wait until our last few hours together to let us know how cool she was. She used to work under Vargas Llosa (Peru´s best author) and studied under the leader of the Shining Path. The latter is obviously not something to be proud of, but because of her conflict with him and the Fujimori government, she had to flee the country until the tension had eased. She had some good stories to tell, and instead of yapping about who knows what, she should have been sharing them earlier on.

After Arequipa, we headed down towards Bolivia where we stayed right on Lake Titicaca. We tried rural tourism (a new concept in Peru) where we stayed with Peruvian families and ate food cooked by them, to try to get the authentic experience. I don´t really need the authentic experience at this point, but I think it was a really neat thing for Blake to see. Our host spoke predominantly Quechua, but managed to really inspire me with the few Spanish words he did speak. I find myself frustrated by how many excuses Peruvians generally make to keep things the way they are, instead of initiating positive change. Our host in Llachon defied every Peruvian stereotype I may have developed in the last year and a half though. He never finished high school, but in watching the fishing boats go by his house every day, thought to himself, ¨Why don´t people want to stop in my town, where beautiful people and sights reside?¨ From there, he decided to start hosting people in his and his friend´s homes. It has become a really popular experience, and he has made a huge profit, all of which he has filtered back into the community. His house was really plainly quaint, but the view of the lake and the friendship of his spitting llama were unbeatable. We took two day trips, one to an indigenous island (Taquile) where we watched some craft and dance demonstrations and hiked to the top, and another floating island made of reeds, where small clusters of families still live. These islands were made in Pre-Incan times, and it was surprising how much these people do with regular water reeds. They make crafts to sell (mobiles and other adornments), build their houses and boats, clean their teeth, and eat materials that all come from the common water reed. Very resourceful, and their teeth are so white and perfect. Who ever said that toothpaste and flossing were necessary entities? Aside from Machu Picchu, our trip wasn’t overly tourist-y, which I liked. Most times, we were traveling alone and staying in places where other tourists weren´t. I hope as tourism rises here, that Peru can still maintain its beauty and traditions, since it ends up that´s what people want to pay for and see.

It was incredibly hard coming back to my site and I thought I might be clinically depressed. I guess it didn’t occur to me before my trip that traveling might be worlds more fun than being a volunteer, and having to struggle daily to fit in and achieve anything worthwhile. I have since bounced back, only to find out that my best friend is leaving the Peace Corps 10 months early to get married and move to Japan with her fiancé, who is in the air force. I am incredibly happy for her, because I know she couldn’t be making a better choice for herself, but it is hard saying goodbye to someone who has shared everything with you from the start. It has already been quite the ride that I can´t even imagine what will happen in the months that she is gone. I didn’t come down here expecting to make friends (since I mistakenly thought I´d be isolated in a cave for two years), so how much this is affecting me is coming as a bit of a surprise for me.

To make matters worse (I promise I will end this entry on a good note), I was involved in a bad car crash this past weekend. On the way to visit my friend who is leaving (who lives four hours from me), my bus driver lost control, overcompensated for taking a curve too fast, and sent our bus careening off the road, flipping over before it came to a stop. I was asleep at the start of the accident, and woke up thinking we were being hurled off a cliff, since over half of the ride is on a dangerous cliff. Our bus driver fled the scene (we are assuming he was drunk and didn’t want to deal with the repercussions). Two bus attendants were badly hurt, along with some other passengers who were trampled, but most of us surprisingly came out of the accident unscathed. I was fortunately with friends at the time, and all of us are still pretty shaken up by the whole experience. People were crying and screaming and pushing each other, thinking that the bus might explode. Some people tried to escape through our windows (now our ceiling), not realizing that if they stepped on the windows above our heads, they would crack in our faces. It was a total disaster and I couldn’t move for a while because I lost both of my shoes in the ordeal and there were shards of glass everywhere. When we were finally pulled out of the mess by miners who were passing the scene, we were able to see how close to death we were, and my legs and arms just immediately turned to jello. I was startled to how poorly I responded to the crash. It was as if my brain just shut down. I started yelling at Peruvians in English, truly baffled as to why they wouldn’t respond to me. I also became really freaked out that I had gone deaf, not realizing that I still had my Ipod blasting in my ears. I guess I shouldn’t be a doctor or emergency response worker. An hour and a half later, our regional coordinator came to drive us back to the city, and I vomited 11 times on the way home, all over his car and my sleeve and scarf. It was a really scary day. After being assured by the bus agency that they driver would be fined and fired, never again able to drive, we saw him driving with the same company two days later. It is hard to feel safe with things like this happening. I feel like I want to go into hibernation to forget about it all.

Despite how disturbing the last month or so has been, what with the earthquake and the crash, I am still really content here. I am not just saying that, either. I can´t imagine a place I´d rather be. My friend and I just started a project that lets us travel back and forth to each others sites to teach a vocational orientation in both of our high schools. With what a challenge it has been so far, I think it will be really rewarding if we can pull it off. Also, I have started corresponding with a former PC volunteer (who served in Ecuador in the 80s) who now teaches with Blake in Seattle. We have plans do to a year-long cultural and art exchange with our students, which I am excited about. Work has picked up to the point that I am busy every day from sunrise to sundown, exactly what I hoped my PC experience would be. It only took me a year, but it seems that things might be falling into place!