Well, you'll be happy to know that it's exactly what I'm doing.
If I could describe my actions at this exact moment, it would be being safe.
My bus got into Cuzco at 5:30 this morning, so now I'm hanging out in the bus station until it gets light. It just doesn't seem like a very inteligent idea to be wandering a city by myself in the wee, dark hours of the morning.
So I'll write a little about my past travels.
I mentioned Adam & Aaron in my last blog. They are the guys from England that can eat ridiculously a lot. We ended up hitting it off and hung out a lot in Arica. We attempted surfing, climbed a mountain, bought/cooked/ate an octopus, and played Uno. Then we met some other people at the hostal around our age - Brodie and Leigh - and the 5 of us have been traveling together for about the past 10 days.
It's a really fun dynamic, because we all speak English but very different versions of it. In any sort of debate, I'm always different from Adam & Aaron, and Brodie and Leigh (Australians) tend to switch sides depending on the argument.
Words that we don't agree on: tomatoes, pedifiles, vitamins, herbs, chips/crisps/hot-crisps/french-fries, and the list goes on.
They make fun of me a lot for being American because of how America butchers the English language, terrorizes the rest of the world, and dumbs everything down.
They're favorite example is what they call "Spagetti Balinaise" (spelling it wrong) and what we call "Spagetti with meat sauce." This is the debate that gave them the idea that we just name things after exactly what they are (sidewalk, walkie talkie, etc.). So they would often say, "I´m going to go put on my soles with leather (shoes) and then we can go.! Or something similar.
The sun is up, and I want to find a hostal so I can go to sleep, so I'm going to just write a bit more about my travels. I'll divide it up by location:
Arica to Arequipa
This involves crossing the Chile/Peru border, and our journey there couldn't have been more of a misadventure. Got to the bus station 2 minutes late and spend 15 minutes looking for our bus, until we realized that we weren't taking a bus. We were taking a taxi to Tacao and then a bus from there. So we found a taxi and squeezed all 5 of us AND our giant back packs into a very small taxi. But while we were driving the boot/trunk (another word we can't agree on) kept opening. So the driver had to do something to make it close really well. Which broke it. And we couldn't get our stuff out. So then at the border to go through customs, we had to fold down the back seats to pull out our stuff, but we couldn't get it back in. So for the remainder of the ride we had all 5 of us, plus the driver, plus ALL our stuff with us in the cab. Then we caught a 6 hour 3 hour bus ride. Does that not make sense to you? Trust me, we felt the same way. When we got to Arequipa, the hostal we wanted was full, so the taxi driver brought us to another random one he probably got comission for. Which brings us to the next chapter.
Arequipa
Arequipa can be best described in chart format. . .
| Bad Things In Arequipa | Why It Wasn't That Bad |
| My drink got roofied | It was while we were out, which is always fun, PLUS my friends saw the roofie action happen, so I obviously didn't drink it. And it was a fun night, so worth losing the 9 soles ($3) on a drink |
| My bed could more accurately be described as a torture device | I got to share a room with Adam & Aaron, and I love sharing rooms. So it was worth it. Plus it I positioned myself at just the right position, it was only mildly horrible. |
Aaron almost died | That's a complete overstatement, and it was while we were white water rafting, so it was totally worth it. I did accidently push him out once, which I fel bad about. But I pulled him in twice, so I feel like I came out on the up side. |
The showers were freezing and the toilets worked only when they felt like it | . . . Conversation piece? |
| $100 USD got stollen from my bag | It was in the same pocket as my passport, and THAT was still there. Thank goodness. |
| Hostal owner was a creeper prone to offering masages and very overly touchy feely. With just me. Who later facebooked me (for the record, I didn't give him my facebook AND I scribbled out my name from the registration book) telling me he loved me. | I got to get closer with Aaron, Adam, Brodie, and Leigh because we made a rule that I couldn't go anywhere alone. Plus I got an ugly necklace that I was later able to give away to a little girl who loved it. |
(me and adam)
Arequipa to Puno
bus
Puno & Lake Titicaca
Puno is a city on the edge of Lake Titicaca, which is a huge island on the border of Peru and Bolivia. We spent some time in Puno, then went out onto the lake to visit the floating islands (man-made islands constructed out of boyant reeds that whole communities actually live on) then we came home and went to sleep early. The next morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn and boarded a boat to bring us to an island in the middle of the lake. By middle, I mean 4ish hour boat ride. And by large, I mean a huge mountain. Let me quickly mention that at this altitude (3,800m), getting onto my top bunk got me out of breath. And now we were climbing a HUGE mountain WITH our packs. I thought I might die. But I loved it. Even when I was slightly worried that my lungs might explode, I wouldn't have traided the experience for anything. It was awesome and beautiful and gave me a real sense of accomplishment.
So we stayed there for 2 days. I, like an idiot, decided to climb to the top of the mountain and almsot died again. But the view was sooooo worth it. I could see the mountains in Bolivia and the coast of Peru. . . it was really beautiful. Plua, again, I got that sense of accomplishment.
So we boated back yesterday afternoon.
Puno to Cuzco
After making sure that the four of them had tickets for Bolivia (I'm the only one that speaks spanish), I bought my ticket for Cuzco. I wasn't on the bus for more than 30 seconds before it exited the parking lot. How often do busses leave EARLY? Anyways, since it was an overnight bus and I was saving money on accomidations, I splurged and went for a VIP seat that is bigger and leans back farther. Splurging here meaning $10 USD instead of $7 USD. What I wasn't prepared for, though, was how COLD it was. I'm used to having people packed together like sardines, and that creates a lot of body heat. But here I had a lot of space. So I froze for about an hour. . . and then we pulled into a bus terminal. I ran (literally) off the bus and over to the storage compartment, asking a guy if I could get something out of my bag. I pulled out a LOT of clothes. When I was done, I had a pile almost as big as my bag. I must have looked rather silly. Back on the bus, after I had put everything on, I was wearing 5 socks (not 5 pairs, actually 5), leg warmers, 2 pairs of pants, tank top, long sleve shirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, llama sweatshirt (the last two items with the hoods on), scarf, gloves, a jacket over my legs, and a sweater over the rest of my body. I slept excellently.
Okay, my fingers are tired, the sun is out, and I want to take a nap.
Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bus
Puno & Lake Titicaca
Puno is a city on the edge of Lake Titicaca, which is a huge island on the border of Peru and Bolivia. We spent some time in Puno, then went out onto the lake to visit the floating islands (man-made islands constructed out of boyant reeds that whole communities actually live on) then we came home and went to sleep early. The next morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn and boarded a boat to bring us to an island in the middle of the lake. By middle, I mean 4ish hour boat ride. And by large, I mean a huge mountain. Let me quickly mention that at this altitude (3,800m), getting onto my top bunk got me out of breath. And now we were climbing a HUGE mountain WITH our packs. I thought I might die. But I loved it. Even when I was slightly worried that my lungs might explode, I wouldn't have traided the experience for anything. It was awesome and beautiful and gave me a real sense of accomplishment.
So we stayed there for 2 days. I, like an idiot, decided to climb to the top of the mountain and almsot died again. But the view was sooooo worth it. I could see the mountains in Bolivia and the coast of Peru. . . it was really beautiful. Plua, again, I got that sense of accomplishment.
So we boated back yesterday afternoon.
Puno to Cuzco
After making sure that the four of them had tickets for Bolivia (I'm the only one that speaks spanish), I bought my ticket for Cuzco. I wasn't on the bus for more than 30 seconds before it exited the parking lot. How often do busses leave EARLY? Anyways, since it was an overnight bus and I was saving money on accomidations, I splurged and went for a VIP seat that is bigger and leans back farther. Splurging here meaning $10 USD instead of $7 USD. What I wasn't prepared for, though, was how COLD it was. I'm used to having people packed together like sardines, and that creates a lot of body heat. But here I had a lot of space. So I froze for about an hour. . . and then we pulled into a bus terminal. I ran (literally) off the bus and over to the storage compartment, asking a guy if I could get something out of my bag. I pulled out a LOT of clothes. When I was done, I had a pile almost as big as my bag. I must have looked rather silly. Back on the bus, after I had put everything on, I was wearing 5 socks (not 5 pairs, actually 5), leg warmers, 2 pairs of pants, tank top, long sleve shirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, llama sweatshirt (the last two items with the hoods on), scarf, gloves, a jacket over my legs, and a sweater over the rest of my body. I slept excellently.
Okay, my fingers are tired, the sun is out, and I want to take a nap.
Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment