I had two interesting experiences with backstories today.
The first was when walking to a meeting about volunteering today, I passed the girl who was my best friend in elementary school. We didn't greet each other - I half-smiled, but I'm pretty sure she didn't recognize me. (To be fair, I was wearing sunglasses, and I have far shorter hair now than I did in fifth grade). She and I have barely spoken - we said a few words in middle school when we still had mutual friends, but in high school she and I saw each other maybe twice, and each time was completely by chance. It could be a situation of interesting backstories, because our paths have diverged so much. Our family situations are completely different, for a start, but we haven't been in the same school since fifth grade, and our personalities have probably developed to be completely different.
The second event concerning backstories was after the volunteer meeting. Since the place was on the way to Starbucks, I stopped there on the way home. I sat down with my pound cake and drink and tried to discreetly observe everyone and made up a back story for each of them. I will type them up here later.
Backstories are the important part of the character in a novel - it can haunt a character; it can come back to bite them; they can avoid or pursue a certain thing or feeling if they've had a certain experience with it in the past. We see it in everyday life; for example, I now avoid insects that sting with a passion because I've discovered that I will swell up and be miserable for the better part of a week if I get stung by something. Because of that unfortunate experience with Things that Sting, I avoid them at all costs. Interestingly, all the unfortunate things that have happened to me have not been when I'm abroad; I've sprained my ankle before black belt tests and before hiking in Switzerland; I've gotten allergic reactions at home but not in Peru. Interesting how things work out.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
an exercise confession
I admit, I haven't been going out for a run as much as I should (this heat wave is a big factor). So I decided (five minutes ago) to do something else: a Writer's Workout.
It's one of those things where you do some sort of workout every time you hit a goal. As I'm typing up a novel (and I have 45 minutes before I go out with my boyfriend), my workout is as follows:
It's one of those things where you do some sort of workout every time you hit a goal. As I'm typing up a novel (and I have 45 minutes before I go out with my boyfriend), my workout is as follows:
- finish a page - 10 jumping jacks
- every 5th page - 10 jumping jacks and 10 sit-ups
- every chapter end - 10 jumping jacks, 10 sit-ups, 10 push-ups
I dearly hope this works.
Monday, July 15, 2013
On Goals and the Supervillains to Productivity
The last few weeks, I've realized, I've been in a bit of a writing rut. I just don't know what to write about - nothing of the creative spark I had in high school has decided to manifest itself.
It's easy to point fingers at certain situations.
I've spent a year in college, away from a secure environment where I'm allowed to manifest my creativity. I actually have to get up every day on my own, get myself to the dining hall, get myself to class, stick myself in the library for a few hours a day, go to clubs and service events and a bunch of activities that take up time I could normally use for writing. Now I've been around lots of people who take 'no' for an answer, who allow themselves to make excuses, and maybe don't push themselves to 100 % capacity. At the end of my senior year, I definitely felt like I was not that sort of person - I was the one who, with half a glass of coffee and a few pens, was determined to do what I needed to do to get stuff done.
But, shifting over to this summer in particular, the increase in free time has lead, I think, to a decrease in motivation for doing stuff like writing, but also other things. I admit, my summer diet is not exactly healthy. I hardly eat breakfast, and lunch is normally fruit, goldfish, and trail mix. Sometimes not even that much. I can see why my parents have started to get on my back about things like getting out of the house and seeing people and having some sort of structure to the day - it helps a lot with productivity. The danger, of course, is that the mindset of Eternal Free Time - only having to leave the couch and my yarn to get some more food or to maybe go for a run in the evening, and nothing in between - is the worst enemy of productivity; I might even contest that it's ranked higher on the Supervillain list than procrastination. At least with procrastination, you can recognize that you actually have a goal in mind, but you're just choosing not to pursue it. With Eternal Free Time, the original existence of a goal is questionable.
As the next big chunk of free time looms over the horizon, I realize that I need to refocus my goals - and make sure that the goals are established in the first place. That's the real trick to getting any sort of anything done.
It's easy to point fingers at certain situations.
I've spent a year in college, away from a secure environment where I'm allowed to manifest my creativity. I actually have to get up every day on my own, get myself to the dining hall, get myself to class, stick myself in the library for a few hours a day, go to clubs and service events and a bunch of activities that take up time I could normally use for writing. Now I've been around lots of people who take 'no' for an answer, who allow themselves to make excuses, and maybe don't push themselves to 100 % capacity. At the end of my senior year, I definitely felt like I was not that sort of person - I was the one who, with half a glass of coffee and a few pens, was determined to do what I needed to do to get stuff done.
But, shifting over to this summer in particular, the increase in free time has lead, I think, to a decrease in motivation for doing stuff like writing, but also other things. I admit, my summer diet is not exactly healthy. I hardly eat breakfast, and lunch is normally fruit, goldfish, and trail mix. Sometimes not even that much. I can see why my parents have started to get on my back about things like getting out of the house and seeing people and having some sort of structure to the day - it helps a lot with productivity. The danger, of course, is that the mindset of Eternal Free Time - only having to leave the couch and my yarn to get some more food or to maybe go for a run in the evening, and nothing in between - is the worst enemy of productivity; I might even contest that it's ranked higher on the Supervillain list than procrastination. At least with procrastination, you can recognize that you actually have a goal in mind, but you're just choosing not to pursue it. With Eternal Free Time, the original existence of a goal is questionable.
As the next big chunk of free time looms over the horizon, I realize that I need to refocus my goals - and make sure that the goals are established in the first place. That's the real trick to getting any sort of anything done.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Back from ASP!
Right, I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted (and longer since I posted something that wasn't related to Peru), and for that, I apologize. I'll try to start posting more regularly now that I actually have time and stuff.
Last week, I went with my church's youth group (even though I've technically graduated) on Appalachia Service Project, which is perhaps my favorite mission project. For those who don't know what ASP is, it's a mission project similar to Habitat for Humanity, but focused in central Appalachia. This year, we went to help families in Mitchell County, NC; interestingly, this is the first summer in several years (maybe even decades) that ASP has served in North Carolina.
Every night we do evening gatherings; my favorite is normally Tuesday night, or Culture Night. This year was particularly interesting. Normally, a local band (usually bluegrass) is hired to play; this year, we went to a historic apple orchard (which has been a functioning apple orchard since 1908), and which now is an orchard and a historic preservation area. The man who runs the place, a retired engineer who helped put people on the moon in the 60s, told some stories about how he got the place and things that happened in the general area. For example, the turning point of the Revolutionary War occurred near-ish to the orchard, and it turns out that the owner of the orchard is descended from one of the men fighting in that battle.
In all, it was a very good trip. It's kind of saddening that this was my last year, but hopefully I'll be able to apply to be on staff next year. This is all I have time for now, but I'll post at some point later in the month.
Last week, I went with my church's youth group (even though I've technically graduated) on Appalachia Service Project, which is perhaps my favorite mission project. For those who don't know what ASP is, it's a mission project similar to Habitat for Humanity, but focused in central Appalachia. This year, we went to help families in Mitchell County, NC; interestingly, this is the first summer in several years (maybe even decades) that ASP has served in North Carolina.
Every night we do evening gatherings; my favorite is normally Tuesday night, or Culture Night. This year was particularly interesting. Normally, a local band (usually bluegrass) is hired to play; this year, we went to a historic apple orchard (which has been a functioning apple orchard since 1908), and which now is an orchard and a historic preservation area. The man who runs the place, a retired engineer who helped put people on the moon in the 60s, told some stories about how he got the place and things that happened in the general area. For example, the turning point of the Revolutionary War occurred near-ish to the orchard, and it turns out that the owner of the orchard is descended from one of the men fighting in that battle.
In all, it was a very good trip. It's kind of saddening that this was my last year, but hopefully I'll be able to apply to be on staff next year. This is all I have time for now, but I'll post at some point later in the month.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
"Much have I traveled in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen..." (John Keats) (Entry 35, day 15)
Saturday, June 8, 2013; 3:33 PM; plane to Panama
Right, back to recapping. First - there's a little girl sitting a row back and across the aisle playing a loud-ish game for kids her age (match the shapes! Identify the colors! Cross out the odd one out!). Second - plane meals (especially the salads) should only be consumed when hungry. They rarely taste above average.
Anyway, back to the recap.
The people we regularly interacted with were really cool - both the guides and the other people in the group. Obviously, I was the youngest by a lot in most of the scenarios - I think there was a porter on the trek, but I hardly spoke to any of the porters; the closest person in age to me that I actually interacted with was Miguel, who's twelve years older than me. It was sort of interesting at times to be the only teenager, but sometimes it was sort of frustrating, because I wasn't over thirty and I haven't had a career and my choice of vocabulary might have been different if I was with people my own age. Well, everything would have been different if I had been with people my own age - the interactions with the other people in the group were a big part of what made the trip interesting. If I had been with people my own age, I feel like we would have done a lot of things differently - for one thing, most people in my group of college friends probably would have been miserable during most of the hikes, or would have been too busy talking loudly in the Amazon to pay attention to the potential wildlife (though it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they were loud enough to irk the wild boars).
Also, this is one of the first trips where Mom hasn't been a Super Scout Mom (always tense, keeping tabs on everyone, and being rather bossy but extremely organized). That was interesting within itself - partly that Mom wasn't trying to keep a constant tab on me, but partly that there wasn't a Scout Mom type person there at all. That was probably because I was the only person below 30, and I've been out of the house for almost a year, so both Mom and I had the chance to realize that if I wasn't in her sightline there was a fair chance that I was still within shouting distance of someone we know (which was frequently the case), who could help if I broke something.
My favorite place to stay was the eco lodge in the Amazon - it was a really nice hotel because it was so open and removed from everything (you had to take a two-hour boat ride and spend an hour on the bus just to get to the airport). Also, the coffee they had there was really good (which helped when I had to wake up at 5:30. I never had to do that in high school). I didn't really have a least favorite residence - I could say that my least favorite was the tents, but camping is not the same as staying in hotels, and, for camping standards, the trek was really good.
Right, with little else to say by way of recap, I declare this the end of the Peru entries. Will write again in August for Turkey.
Right, back to recapping. First - there's a little girl sitting a row back and across the aisle playing a loud-ish game for kids her age (match the shapes! Identify the colors! Cross out the odd one out!). Second - plane meals (especially the salads) should only be consumed when hungry. They rarely taste above average.
Anyway, back to the recap.
The people we regularly interacted with were really cool - both the guides and the other people in the group. Obviously, I was the youngest by a lot in most of the scenarios - I think there was a porter on the trek, but I hardly spoke to any of the porters; the closest person in age to me that I actually interacted with was Miguel, who's twelve years older than me. It was sort of interesting at times to be the only teenager, but sometimes it was sort of frustrating, because I wasn't over thirty and I haven't had a career and my choice of vocabulary might have been different if I was with people my own age. Well, everything would have been different if I had been with people my own age - the interactions with the other people in the group were a big part of what made the trip interesting. If I had been with people my own age, I feel like we would have done a lot of things differently - for one thing, most people in my group of college friends probably would have been miserable during most of the hikes, or would have been too busy talking loudly in the Amazon to pay attention to the potential wildlife (though it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they were loud enough to irk the wild boars).
Also, this is one of the first trips where Mom hasn't been a Super Scout Mom (always tense, keeping tabs on everyone, and being rather bossy but extremely organized). That was interesting within itself - partly that Mom wasn't trying to keep a constant tab on me, but partly that there wasn't a Scout Mom type person there at all. That was probably because I was the only person below 30, and I've been out of the house for almost a year, so both Mom and I had the chance to realize that if I wasn't in her sightline there was a fair chance that I was still within shouting distance of someone we know (which was frequently the case), who could help if I broke something.
My favorite place to stay was the eco lodge in the Amazon - it was a really nice hotel because it was so open and removed from everything (you had to take a two-hour boat ride and spend an hour on the bus just to get to the airport). Also, the coffee they had there was really good (which helped when I had to wake up at 5:30. I never had to do that in high school). I didn't really have a least favorite residence - I could say that my least favorite was the tents, but camping is not the same as staying in hotels, and, for camping standards, the trek was really good.
Right, with little else to say by way of recap, I declare this the end of the Peru entries. Will write again in August for Turkey.
"Much have I traveled in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen..." (John Keats) (Entry 34, Day 15)
Saturday, 8 June, 2013; Plane to Panama; 1:59 PM
We haven't actually left the airport yet - we haven't even moved from the gate yet. We're all in our seats and the security video just played, so now I guess it's all just waiting for the signal to go.
Apparently, the signal to leave the gate happened as I was writing that sentence.
Anyway, not much happened this morning. We woke up at around 8:00 (at least, I did - Mom was up earlier) and we moseyed around, finishing the packing and stuff and eating breakfast and all the regular morning activities. I finished the bracelet I was working on, which turned out to be more of the length of an anklet, so that's where I'm putting it. It's interesting - I started it on the plane down to Perú, and I finished it on the day we leave. Interesting how these things work out.
I think I'm going to miss the scenery in Perú the most. I know that the US has some pretty wicked views, but not where I live. Unless you want a wicked view of suburbia. Otherwise, don't bother. (DC? Go for it. A-town? Nope.) In Perú, however, there's so much of everything - history, culture, nature, the whole shebang. I see it that way probably because it's all so different from the US, or at least suburbia/ college town environments. I'm fairly certain that if you put a Peruvian tourist in DC, they'd say something similar about he way stuff is done there.
The hardest part of the trip was probably either the language barrier or not being able to drink the water. Or the stairs. Yeah, it was definitely the stairs. For real, though, I think the language thing was the biggest problem - I know a passably functional amount of Spanish, which is more than many of the people I was traveling with. I can ask where we need to go if I have a map, but that's the most complicated I can reasonably do. The hardest day in that regard was when we toured Pisaq, because the guide's English wasn't great, so we had to communicate in Spanglish, and there was probably a lot that was lost in translation.
My favorite day was either any given day in the Amazon or the day we hit the Sun Temple on the trail. The Amazon was just super cool in general, but reaching the Sun Temple gave this huge sense of accomplishment. It's higher up than Machu Picchu, so you have this spectacular view of the city and Wayna Picchu and the mountains that surround them. It wasn't necessarily the highest altitude on the trek, but it was definitely one of the best views in the whole trip.
The hardest day was the third day of the trek - the one where we hiked for basically the whole day, and with the hardest overall terrain and with the grossest weather. On the other hand, the cloud forest is really cool, and towards the end of that day, the fog sort of added to the etherial nature of the place. It was easy-ish to joke about the fog and the views, though - when we passed the second summit, I paused to put on a tour-guide sort of voice to say something like, "here, we have a lovely view of the fog," as if I was pointing out a feature of a mountain, and Maggie and Ellen jokingly tagged on with some "awestruck" type comments about the mist and the "view."
The best thing we ate is hard to choose, because all the food was really good. I can't recall anything that was atrocious, either, but the first breakfast on the trail was a bit lacking (it was basically granola, yogurt, and your hot beverage of choice). The most interesting drink is perhaps the only one that I can't recall the name of. It's a Quechua drink that involves fermented black corn, and a bit of sugar. There is an alcoholic version that I didn't try, but the regular kind is really good. My least favorite drink was probably the few sips I had of Cusqueña, a really popular beer in Peru. I don't know whether it's made differently from American beers, but I wasn't really a big fan of it. I'm not a huge fan of Pisco sours, either (Pisco is a region in Peru, I think, but it's also a sort of alcohol here). If you go to Peru, you definitely need to try a Pisco Sour, because it's one of those things you should try when in Peru (like in New York City, you have to go to Times Square and a pizza place and have a bagel somewhere), but I wasn't a huge fan of them (maybe because, in my highly limited alcohol experience here, I have discovered that I have a taste aversion to it, and that taste matters a lot for me).
In a way, it was fairly liberating to be mostly away from the Internet and cell phone reception fro two weeks. We had connection sometimes in the Amazon, but only for a limited time, and it was slow enough to make me not want to go on. In Cuzco and Lima, we had Internet and cell service, but by that point, Facebook was mundane, almost, and we had to conserve texts for the occasional message when Mom and I were apart for prolonged periods of time and needed to locate each other. On the trail, we only got reception on the third night of camping, when we were busy taking photos of the llamas (which were really photogenic), taking photos of the view, and feeling tired, so it didn't much matter. I also didn't take my phone on the trail, so it didn't affect me either way (when possible, I don't bring my phone on treks or vacations unless it's kind of important that I do).
One of the interesting things about the different environment's effects on us is that all of us had really trippy altitude/ exhaustion dreams (like the one with the baby and the elephant in the Amazon; I also had a really weird one on the trail where my boyfriend proposed by putting words in Oreos and hiding the ring in a dinner roll. The next day, we got Oreos as a snack. I'm never looking at them the same way again.)
Right, we're getting food now. Will write later. Maybe.
We haven't actually left the airport yet - we haven't even moved from the gate yet. We're all in our seats and the security video just played, so now I guess it's all just waiting for the signal to go.
Apparently, the signal to leave the gate happened as I was writing that sentence.
Anyway, not much happened this morning. We woke up at around 8:00 (at least, I did - Mom was up earlier) and we moseyed around, finishing the packing and stuff and eating breakfast and all the regular morning activities. I finished the bracelet I was working on, which turned out to be more of the length of an anklet, so that's where I'm putting it. It's interesting - I started it on the plane down to Perú, and I finished it on the day we leave. Interesting how these things work out.
I think I'm going to miss the scenery in Perú the most. I know that the US has some pretty wicked views, but not where I live. Unless you want a wicked view of suburbia. Otherwise, don't bother. (DC? Go for it. A-town? Nope.) In Perú, however, there's so much of everything - history, culture, nature, the whole shebang. I see it that way probably because it's all so different from the US, or at least suburbia/ college town environments. I'm fairly certain that if you put a Peruvian tourist in DC, they'd say something similar about he way stuff is done there.
The hardest part of the trip was probably either the language barrier or not being able to drink the water. Or the stairs. Yeah, it was definitely the stairs. For real, though, I think the language thing was the biggest problem - I know a passably functional amount of Spanish, which is more than many of the people I was traveling with. I can ask where we need to go if I have a map, but that's the most complicated I can reasonably do. The hardest day in that regard was when we toured Pisaq, because the guide's English wasn't great, so we had to communicate in Spanglish, and there was probably a lot that was lost in translation.
My favorite day was either any given day in the Amazon or the day we hit the Sun Temple on the trail. The Amazon was just super cool in general, but reaching the Sun Temple gave this huge sense of accomplishment. It's higher up than Machu Picchu, so you have this spectacular view of the city and Wayna Picchu and the mountains that surround them. It wasn't necessarily the highest altitude on the trek, but it was definitely one of the best views in the whole trip.
The hardest day was the third day of the trek - the one where we hiked for basically the whole day, and with the hardest overall terrain and with the grossest weather. On the other hand, the cloud forest is really cool, and towards the end of that day, the fog sort of added to the etherial nature of the place. It was easy-ish to joke about the fog and the views, though - when we passed the second summit, I paused to put on a tour-guide sort of voice to say something like, "here, we have a lovely view of the fog," as if I was pointing out a feature of a mountain, and Maggie and Ellen jokingly tagged on with some "awestruck" type comments about the mist and the "view."
The best thing we ate is hard to choose, because all the food was really good. I can't recall anything that was atrocious, either, but the first breakfast on the trail was a bit lacking (it was basically granola, yogurt, and your hot beverage of choice). The most interesting drink is perhaps the only one that I can't recall the name of. It's a Quechua drink that involves fermented black corn, and a bit of sugar. There is an alcoholic version that I didn't try, but the regular kind is really good. My least favorite drink was probably the few sips I had of Cusqueña, a really popular beer in Peru. I don't know whether it's made differently from American beers, but I wasn't really a big fan of it. I'm not a huge fan of Pisco sours, either (Pisco is a region in Peru, I think, but it's also a sort of alcohol here). If you go to Peru, you definitely need to try a Pisco Sour, because it's one of those things you should try when in Peru (like in New York City, you have to go to Times Square and a pizza place and have a bagel somewhere), but I wasn't a huge fan of them (maybe because, in my highly limited alcohol experience here, I have discovered that I have a taste aversion to it, and that taste matters a lot for me).
In a way, it was fairly liberating to be mostly away from the Internet and cell phone reception fro two weeks. We had connection sometimes in the Amazon, but only for a limited time, and it was slow enough to make me not want to go on. In Cuzco and Lima, we had Internet and cell service, but by that point, Facebook was mundane, almost, and we had to conserve texts for the occasional message when Mom and I were apart for prolonged periods of time and needed to locate each other. On the trail, we only got reception on the third night of camping, when we were busy taking photos of the llamas (which were really photogenic), taking photos of the view, and feeling tired, so it didn't much matter. I also didn't take my phone on the trail, so it didn't affect me either way (when possible, I don't bring my phone on treks or vacations unless it's kind of important that I do).
One of the interesting things about the different environment's effects on us is that all of us had really trippy altitude/ exhaustion dreams (like the one with the baby and the elephant in the Amazon; I also had a really weird one on the trail where my boyfriend proposed by putting words in Oreos and hiding the ring in a dinner roll. The next day, we got Oreos as a snack. I'm never looking at them the same way again.)
Right, we're getting food now. Will write later. Maybe.
Friday, June 28, 2013
"O lands! O all so dear to me - what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is." (Walt Whitman, "The Lands") (Entry 33, Day 14)
Friday, 7 June, 2013; hotel, Lima; 9:33 PM
Back.
Anyway, after we got to Lima, we went to the hotel to set down our stuff and figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to take a taxi out to the edge of the city by the coast, which was kind of interesting. (for those who are curious, we went to a neighborhood called Miraflores).
The most terrifying part, of course, was the traffic. If you think New York traffic is bad, you haven't been to Lima on a Friday, especially when Lima is hosting a World Cup match against Ecuador. It's the craziest traffic I've ever been in - made worse by the fact that everyone is super aggressive and decides that the time to merge is NOW, not in two seconds when they have a lot more space. On the way back, I found myself leaning away from the door, because I was half-terrified that we were about to get hit.
At dinner, I got my first real view of the Pacific Ocean, which was cool. We saw a lot of surfers and some hang gliders.
On the way back, we got some gas and nearly got run over a few times. The ride back took almost two hours because of the traffic, especially because it's World Cup night. Soccer is really big here, like in many South American countries, so everyone was either going to the game or finding a friend/ bar with a TV to watch the game
Interestingly, a lot of cars in Lima run on natural gas, not gasoline - so now we know why the city of 28 million people smells a bit better than downtown Manhattan (point of reference - New York City has around 8.3 million residents. The US needs to step up its game in environmentalism). Lima also houses over half of the Peruvian population - there are 42 million Peruvian residents, and 28 million of them live in Lima (and 27 million of them are trying to watch the game tonight).
So far in the game, Peru is winning, 1 - 0. I can't understand the commentary too well, since my understanding of Spanish is minimal, but it's fairly easy to know what's going on (I played soccer for a while, so I know the game).
Now it just passed an ad for what appears to be a soap opera called Avenida Perú. It appears to involve shooting people in the head, illicit dealings, and some making out - in other words, the standard soap opera (though perhaps without the shooting people in the head bit).
One major difference I've noticed between Lima and Cusco is the type of shopping available. Admittedly, tourism is the #1 industry in Cusco, but that would make one think that the latter is the more "modern" and "developed" city, but that's not really the case. I think that's mostly because Lima is younger than Cusco - the structures in Cusco are mostly Inka or pre-Inka, so they're historic locations within themselves. Both cities are sprawling, but Cusco has so many more people selling on the streets, or in open-front stores. They all sell basically the same thing, as I mentioned earlier - "alpaca" goods or restaurants, and sometimes some will have laundry opportunities, too.
In Lima, however, everything (at least the bit we saw) is a lot more developed. There are a lot more Western-type stores - I saw a Nine West and Adidas and Starbucks (though there was a Starbucks in Cusco as well), just to name a few. The architecture is definitely more modern than Inka times, and there are pretty much no street vendors that looked like they were there regularly (there were some, obviously, that were taking advantage of the World Cup traffic to try to sell some team apparel type stuff). We did see a lot more couples making out in Lima than we did in Cusco, though. In all, I think Lima's population is younger and has a smaller percentage of tourists than Cusco's does.
Right, I'm done for now. I'll write tomorrow on the plane, most likely.
Back.
Anyway, after we got to Lima, we went to the hotel to set down our stuff and figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to take a taxi out to the edge of the city by the coast, which was kind of interesting. (for those who are curious, we went to a neighborhood called Miraflores).
The most terrifying part, of course, was the traffic. If you think New York traffic is bad, you haven't been to Lima on a Friday, especially when Lima is hosting a World Cup match against Ecuador. It's the craziest traffic I've ever been in - made worse by the fact that everyone is super aggressive and decides that the time to merge is NOW, not in two seconds when they have a lot more space. On the way back, I found myself leaning away from the door, because I was half-terrified that we were about to get hit.
At dinner, I got my first real view of the Pacific Ocean, which was cool. We saw a lot of surfers and some hang gliders.
On the way back, we got some gas and nearly got run over a few times. The ride back took almost two hours because of the traffic, especially because it's World Cup night. Soccer is really big here, like in many South American countries, so everyone was either going to the game or finding a friend/ bar with a TV to watch the game
Interestingly, a lot of cars in Lima run on natural gas, not gasoline - so now we know why the city of 28 million people smells a bit better than downtown Manhattan (point of reference - New York City has around 8.3 million residents. The US needs to step up its game in environmentalism). Lima also houses over half of the Peruvian population - there are 42 million Peruvian residents, and 28 million of them live in Lima (and 27 million of them are trying to watch the game tonight).
So far in the game, Peru is winning, 1 - 0. I can't understand the commentary too well, since my understanding of Spanish is minimal, but it's fairly easy to know what's going on (I played soccer for a while, so I know the game).
Now it just passed an ad for what appears to be a soap opera called Avenida Perú. It appears to involve shooting people in the head, illicit dealings, and some making out - in other words, the standard soap opera (though perhaps without the shooting people in the head bit).
One major difference I've noticed between Lima and Cusco is the type of shopping available. Admittedly, tourism is the #1 industry in Cusco, but that would make one think that the latter is the more "modern" and "developed" city, but that's not really the case. I think that's mostly because Lima is younger than Cusco - the structures in Cusco are mostly Inka or pre-Inka, so they're historic locations within themselves. Both cities are sprawling, but Cusco has so many more people selling on the streets, or in open-front stores. They all sell basically the same thing, as I mentioned earlier - "alpaca" goods or restaurants, and sometimes some will have laundry opportunities, too.
In Lima, however, everything (at least the bit we saw) is a lot more developed. There are a lot more Western-type stores - I saw a Nine West and Adidas and Starbucks (though there was a Starbucks in Cusco as well), just to name a few. The architecture is definitely more modern than Inka times, and there are pretty much no street vendors that looked like they were there regularly (there were some, obviously, that were taking advantage of the World Cup traffic to try to sell some team apparel type stuff). We did see a lot more couples making out in Lima than we did in Cusco, though. In all, I think Lima's population is younger and has a smaller percentage of tourists than Cusco's does.
Right, I'm done for now. I'll write tomorrow on the plane, most likely.
"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train." (Oscar Wilde) (Entry 32, day 14)
Friday, June 7, 2013; hotel, Lima; 9:06 PM
My apologies for not writing again yesterday - I've gotten to the point where my sleep schedule says that 10:00 PM is WAY too late to be up (it's also said that 5:30-6:00 AM is a reasonable time to wake up, so that's why).
Yesterday afternoon, after a train ride where we got snacks, we took a bus from Ollantetambo to Cuzco, where we bade farewell to Miguel and Mark and Maggie. Lesley, Mom, and I had a late dinner at the cafe we ate at before the trek. I did not have a milkshake. (I forget if I wrote about this earlier, but I had a milkshake at the cafe and it gave me a stomachache because SUGAR AND SUGAR AND SUGAR AND MILK!).
This morning, I woke up feeling gross and low-blood-sugar-y, which persisted through the tour/ visit to the Alpaca factory (wool, not the animal). There, I got a kilo of legit baby Alpaca wool (as opposed to the questionable content kilo I got in Pisac), so now I have enough wool to make at least 3 sweaters and a few hats. (I got two skeins yesterday, too, so now I have a good 3-4 kilos of yarn that I may run out of ideas for).
After that, we went to the airport and flew to Lima. I dozed off most of the time, because I still felt kind of gross, despite having had food and stuff.
Right, we're walking Lesley out to the airport. Brb.
My apologies for not writing again yesterday - I've gotten to the point where my sleep schedule says that 10:00 PM is WAY too late to be up (it's also said that 5:30-6:00 AM is a reasonable time to wake up, so that's why).
Yesterday afternoon, after a train ride where we got snacks, we took a bus from Ollantetambo to Cuzco, where we bade farewell to Miguel and Mark and Maggie. Lesley, Mom, and I had a late dinner at the cafe we ate at before the trek. I did not have a milkshake. (I forget if I wrote about this earlier, but I had a milkshake at the cafe and it gave me a stomachache because SUGAR AND SUGAR AND SUGAR AND MILK!).
This morning, I woke up feeling gross and low-blood-sugar-y, which persisted through the tour/ visit to the Alpaca factory (wool, not the animal). There, I got a kilo of legit baby Alpaca wool (as opposed to the questionable content kilo I got in Pisac), so now I have enough wool to make at least 3 sweaters and a few hats. (I got two skeins yesterday, too, so now I have a good 3-4 kilos of yarn that I may run out of ideas for).
After that, we went to the airport and flew to Lima. I dozed off most of the time, because I still felt kind of gross, despite having had food and stuff.
Right, we're walking Lesley out to the airport. Brb.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
"I never travel without my diary. one should always have something sensational to read on the train." (Oscar Wilde) (Entry 31, Day 13)
Thursday, 6 June, 2013; 4:24 PM; train to Ollantatambo
The details I can remember from yesterday are as follows:
The details I can remember from yesterday are as follows:
- There were some killer stairs, but it didn't take too long to get up them.
- we had fried rice for lunch (Peru has a really cool variety of food, because Italians, Chinese, and others emigrated there)
- I am very done with stairs.
- the view from the Sun Temple is amazing - both of Machu Picchu and the mountains in general.
- I do not want to climb Wayna Picchu. Like, ever. (Well, maybe another time when I've psychologically prepared myself for a really steep climb).
- Machu Picchu's main coolness factor is that it's super huge. Otherwise, I wasn't hugely impressed (that changed today).
- We had a group dinner in Aguas Calientes. It was a lot of fun. Except for the stairs.
Today, we actually went to Machu Picchu. IT WAS SO COOL. There were two main parts: the urban and the farmers. Surprisingly, only around 600-1000 people lived there. Also surprisingly, the farming area couldn't support that many people, so they had to build some more terracing elsewhere, because they didn't want the nobles to starve.
The annoying thing is that we don't actually know the actual name of the city - Hiram Bingham called it Machu Picchu, meaning Old Mountain, after a nearby mountain of the same name. Wayna Picchu ("Young Mountain") is the name of a nearby lookout tower on the mountain of the same name. They couldn't have picked a better place - it's easily 1000 feet above the city, and the cliffs are very steep. If Machu Picchu ever needed a place to make a last stand, it would be Wayna Picchu, because they could confuse people for hours as they tried to find the trail up (of course, if their enemies did make it up, the residents of Machu Picchu would be pretty much stuck in Wayna Picchu, but I guess that wasn't the point). Nowadays, only four hundred people are allowed up each day - 200 at 7:00 AM and 200 at 10:00 AM. If I ever get to climb Wayna, I'm not doing it after I hike the Inka trail - there are a lot of stairs up to Wayna, and I will never look at stairs the same way again. I also refuse to climb any stairs for as long as I possibly can. I can do uphills. I cannot do stairs.
Interestingly, the Spanish never made it to Machu Picchu - there are no writings on it (and the writings of the Conquistadors are a big part of the information that we have now); the other indicator is that the Spanish would have left a cross and probably more destruction than what the jungle did to the city (the Spanish were still on the tail end of the Inquisition).
Unsurprisingly, Hiram Bingham found the city completely overgrown by forests - it's a very fertile area (sun! rain! mild weather!) and the natives had come to accept that there were random rocks in the area. That was also why Bingham had trouble finding guides up to the city - the Andeans were all like, "dude, it's just a bit of terracing and some rocks. Who cares?"
Of course, it took about a hundred years to build, and is one of the engineering wonders of the world. It was built by the Ninth Inka, Panchatutaq, whose only claim to fame is commissioning Machu Picchu (that we know of). He was one of 14 Inkas, who reigned for around 300 years (that's counting the time they were all tribal and still forming the empire).
(distracted. Will write later.)
"One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things." (Henry Miller) (Entry 30, Day 13)
6/6/13
H. Bingham - history professor
- looking for last refuge of Incas
Inkas built 100,000 km of trails
July 24, 1911 (scientific discovery)
Called it Machu Picchu - "Old Mountain" (after the mountain nearby)
Don't know the actual name of city
Wayna Picchu - "Young Mountain" (lookout place)
H. Bingham - history professor
- looking for last refuge of Incas
Inkas built 100,000 km of trails
July 24, 1911 (scientific discovery)
Called it Machu Picchu - "Old Mountain" (after the mountain nearby)
Don't know the actual name of city
Wayna Picchu - "Young Mountain" (lookout place)
Machu Picchu - important for Jungle Conquering
- close to river - natural defense
~ 1,000 people living there?
Built bottom up
wall - urban/ farming
water - soul purification, not irrigation
16 fountains
respect environment, adapt to existing environment
Sun + water together as much as possible
Under sun temple - earth
Sun + water + earth
astronomy - temple of sun
summer - December; winter - June
aligned windows for solstice
3 levels of world - gods (condor), humans (puma), mummy/ dead (serpent
graffiti
sacrificed animals and humans - women (fertility)
Andean priests - knew of solstices, etc
- had own house
- two floors
chose the most different girl in society (not necessarily prettiest)
- drugs - purify
- stone to head, cut stomach, put muña
- buried in fetal position
walls built with incline for strength
coca - has a lot of nutrients
passionfruit - seeds = number of thorns in Christ's crown
Wiñawayna - "forever young"
Andean Cross - solstice
- 3 levels - worlds
- hole - one empire
Audio conducting in houses - very good
Certain girls could only go out in public in certain situations?
Happy mountain! - Machu Picchu surrounded by impot mountain
Pachacutaq - Inka who built Machu Picchu - 9th Inka
Inkas - 300 years total (small --> big) 12-15th centuries - earlier, were a mix; came from Bolivia + PUno, looking for farmland, found sacred valley. REALLY ANDEAN SOCIETY. 16-18 century - colonial. 18th century - now - republic.
Llama bones found by sacred rock
Poo (llama, guinea pig, human) - fertilizer + fire. Used Jungle Toilet.
Andeans - short (5'0" ish?)
Juanita - frozen mummy - found near Arequipa
Condor - messenger god
mountains - holy
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