Thursday, July 31, 2008

Finding our Path as a Group

Our time in Nazca was great... leaving was a bit harder. Nothing to do with sentimental attachments, simply cultural differences and capitalism at its ugliest. We had to pay an extra $50 on a bus ticket that had increased rates due to a parade in Cuzco. The frustrating part was that the parade was over by the time we got there, so we didn´t even get to reap the benefits of the surcharge. Add that to the two and a half hour wait we had at the bus stop (we finally boarded groggily at 1 am), and the bumpy ride through the night with the smell of the bathroom mingling with the vomit from tourists with unacclimated stomachs (sorry Kathryn). And then there were the headaches and nausea from rapid elevation ascent...

That of course is from an overall perspective. From my perspective, I expected the late bus and, although the high fares were a thorn, the ride itself twisting through the Andes was incredible. I think the others appreciated the last couple hours also, as we neared Cuzco, the historic Incan stronghold in the mountains.

There was supposed to be a guy waiting for us at the bus stop to transport us to our hostel (again, a new travel concept for me... reservations), but not surprisingly, he never showed. So we took a ride with another tout who promised us a good hotel for cheap (Granted, I know this is a last resort move, and I knew he would take us to somewhat dirty back rooms at a nicer hotel, but it was getting dark and the city was booked up due to being independence day). We looked at the hotel´s somewhat dirty back rooms for somewhat reasonable prices and JooYeon said no. At this point, I was a bit tired, we all had headaches from the altitude and I didn´t want to walk around looking for a room with our bags just in case anyone had any complications from AMS. So we told our driver no, who was disgusted about losing the commission and left us standing there in the rain. Luckily, the rain soon turned to hail as it got darker, so at least we had a massage for our bodies which were tired from the 14 hour bus ride.

We looked at about 20 other places, 18 of which were full, 1 of which only had dorms (which was a no go for our group), and 1 which was reasonably priced and friendly, with vacancies, but apparently too dirty. At this point, heads ready to explode from the pressure and walking separately, I saw this great beginning to the sunset over the horizon (the picture does no justice of course, even though I at least followed the rule about not centering people)...


It helped me maintain a sense of peace and calm in a frustrating moment... I knew how I could handle the situation alone, but it was a new experience to handle it with a group. But seeing the stability of the sunset gave me strength and before long, JooYeon turned around, gave me a big hug and said it was okay to take the aforementioned dirty room. So we braced ourselves wo weather another round of bedbugs and dust allergies, unpacked our bags, and went out to get some dinner.

At this point the tone completely changed. Something about knowing where we would sleep that night, even if it was a dirty, infested room with public showers that had no curtain and a couple inches of stagnant water due to the hair caught in the drain... (At least 25% of us felt at home... not as in Sharon Showalter´s home, mind you, which is the exact opposite, but ¨home¨in the sense of India travelling). Anyway, the point was, the mood picked up and people were suddenly elated as we walked stone streets with llamas, romantically lit 500 year old buildings, fire jugglers, acrobats, and super corn!



We also stumbled across a wonderful pizza place with a wood stove (yes I know what I said in my last entry about eating local food, but some times you just have to... this was one of those moments). The owners daughter Brenda befriended us and cried hard when we left...


Returning to the room, the group was very adaptive and we did what we needed to do. I guarded the shower for JooYeon, completely ¨remodeled¨the bed with what was available from our bags, and Kiwi used his bedsheets for a towel (can you see his imprints in the picture below?)



The night´s sleep went well enough and by the morning, we were recharged and ready to head out to the countryside. We walked past the Plaza de Armas (central square) and the Peru and Incan flags were flying majestically in the air to celebrate Independence Day (although I´m not sure exactly why the Incans would be so happy about the whole affair, but at least they were good sports and everyone seems to regard them higher than the Spanish here).


I almost felt like I was in India when we stepped out of our hostel into a crowd of people, yelling, and firecrackers... turned out to be a typical Catholic-indigenous parade with lots of dancing and general celbration. Unlike India, I was not invited to sing for the parade. Although I did go back into the room to work on my dance moves...


Ever wonder how CocaCola got its name? As most trivia buffs know, the original formula used leafs from the coca plant, the same plant which has caused much strife since then in a much more modified form as cocaine. Here in Peru, the coca leaf is still a commonly prescribed tea and medicine (which I should mention has a much different and much more legal effect than its counterpart.) One of its main uses is to offset altitude sickness so, since we had just climbed over 3,000 meters in one day, we all sipped on some tea to help the pounding headaches and heart rates abate.


So, we had some ups and downs, but they all served to bring us closer together (as trite and cliche as that might sound). JooYeon´s insistence on searching for rooms ended up saving us about $15 because hotels kept giving us discounts after seeing the reluctance on her face. So, keep marching and hold onto those sunsets!!!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Artistic and Mysterious Animals

Leaving our grand museum guesthouse in Lima, we went to the bus stop to get a ticket for Nazca, eight hours away. We had three choices, economic, business, and executive. Because of Peruvian Independence Day, the prices had more than doubled above their normal and so we decided to take the economic route (again, ¨we¨consisting mostly of I, although the others were fine with the decision). The bus was dusty, late, and slow as it winded down the PanAmerican through beaches and deserts but it got us there eventually and everyone felt pretty good about the ride overall...
I´ve thought a lot about expectations lately and how they affect emotions, situations, and ultimately relationships. In my opinion, your expectations and how they are met (or not met) make up a considerable portion of the dynamics in romantic relationships, general everyday life, and especially during travelling. For instance, I remember going to Budapest, Hungary after wanting to go for six or seven years... mapping it out, researching the history, etc. and when I got there it was nothing but disappointment. Krakow, Poland on the other hand... I had barely heard of it, and so was continually impressed with my findings. In reality, Budapest probably had a lot more to offer than Krakow, but because of my expectations, my lens will be forever tinted towards Krakow and against Budapest (unless I go again of course).
In the same way, having read that Nazca was just a dusty town with nothing to boast of other than the famed mysterious lines made over 1,000 years ago (if you don´t know about them, they were the ultimate ¨crop circles¨with elaborate animals and spiritual ritual designs... to this day, no one knows why they were made and some people think they were a result of aliens...), our expectations were very low (hoping mainly just to get the glimpse of someone that we could theorize might have alien ancestory).

Anyway, we found it to be a lovely and charming little town and ended up staying for three full days. The independence day celebration (or week celebration rather, this is Latin America) had jacked the prices to see the lines way beyond our range so we settled for exploring local cuisine, music, hanging out, etc.

It was a very positive time for me because I got to see the group willingly break into the culture. All along traveller routes, there are almost always possibilities of foreign comfort food, foreign comfort buses, foreign comfort hotels, etc., but not only are these things unsustainable financially for a backpacker, but they also make it harder to soak into the culture (although in small portions, they have the opposite effect and energize to travel more).

For example, JooYeon and I stumbled into a local restaurant one morning and ordered two cafe con leches (coffee with milk). The waitress eventually brought us out two cups of steaming hot milk. When we asked if there had been a miscommunication, she pointed to a corked bottle in the middle of the table and said, ¨There´s your coffee, this is your milk.¨ We were a bit disappointed at first because we´ve really been enjoying the fresh Peruvian coffee each morning, but we added some of the concentrated solution to our milks and... WOW! It was excellent! Minutes later, a musical group from the highlands came in and played for everyone (keep in mind this is no fancy restaurant... our egg sandwiches were only 35 cents apiece for a nice full portion). JooYeon successfully asked for an extra portion of onions in Spanish which was a high for her, and a very elated mood was set for the rest of the day. (Yes, these things seem small, but again... expectations)


Even the dogs seemed happier in Nazca...


And then there are times when the local route is a bit extreme (like feet in my chicken soup), so I just pick around the edges... being a vegetarian definitely helps in this aspect.

It´s also been interesting to see how the two boys approach travelling. Despite the fact that they are 23 and 27, JooYeon occasionally treats them as little children, keeping in line with the traditional Korean age culture. However, as they gain confidence more and more through travelling, they are increasingly willing to step out on their own and seem to be maturing significantly. Which really has nothing to do with this picture of JooYeon tucking Kiwi in (to protect his nose from dust allergies).

Pienso que debo escribir algo en espanol por mis latino amigos (y prima, hola Kathryn!) que puede leerlo. Casi cada noche, leo una cuenta para ayudar mi espanol. Si Ud. puede escribir en espanol, escribame (1aslanseyes@gmail.com) y podemos practicar juntos!

Friday, July 25, 2008

General Reflections and Lima Otra Vez


I remember my first trip abroad in Jr. High, which was a two-week choir tour through Europe with a small group of Mennonites. One of the group, Randy, took several hundred pictures, with only a handful including pictures of people. I realized as I was making my last blog that virtually every picture on here has someone from our group in it... granted, I try to give ideas of the culture, etc. through the backdrops, but the focus is always centered on us (literally too, which I´ve heard from certain Rameric sources is a sign of photographic immaturity). Photos reavel just as much about the photographer as the subjects... so I probably won´t change much about that, but just wanted to share a reflection as this blog is becoming a sort of travel journal for me.

So, anyway, we flew out of the jungly Iquitos and back into Lima where we said our goodbyes to Wes and Jenny, who were in a daze from their whirlwind tour of activities (they took a faster pace than us due to only travelling for 2 weeks) and probably got dazed even further as they intended to spend that night at the Lima airport. We grabbed a taxi into the center city and arrived at Hotel Espana, which turned out to be essentially a museum (and incidentally is how we refer to it now). This greatly appealed to 50% of our group, intrigued but frightened a superstitious 25%, and significantly unnerved 25% (understandably with all the statues staring down from everywhere, even in our bedroom). In any case, it was an excellent find at about $5 per person (although I´m biased since I was part of the 50% portion).



Everyone agreed that the jungly assortment of plants on the rooftop was fun though. I particularly enjoyed the "statue" of a turtle that suddenly got up and walked away halfway through our rooftop breakfast to everyone´s surprise. Made me wonder about the other 100 more humanesque statues in the museum. We also had a nice view of the typical colored assortment of houses on a nearby hill... (note that there are no visible people in this picture, and if there are, they certainly are not centered)

Traffic was crazy in Lima. As we careened through the streets, screeching, missing other cars by inches, and hitting bumpers in front of us as a manner of saving on brake fluid, the driver laughed and told me, ¨Si puede manejar en Lima, puede manejar in cualquier lugar en el mundo.¨ (If you can drive in Lima, you can drive anywhere in the world). Sounds like one of those typical macho things a local resident says with an eccentric pride, but in this case I actually believed him. I was more nervous than when Wes and I arrived in Calcutta and our taxi got in not one, but TWO, small accidents on the way to the train station.

So, we then began walking, until two people in a row warned us to stop walking because we were in an area of a lot of violent crime even during the day. At that point, we jumped in a local bus because we figured that, if and when we were in a wreck, we at least had a lot more momentum power. At first, it was questionable as we stood still in traffic stopped due to protests and exhaust fumes poured in the windows, permeating our pores which were open from sweat rolling off us as we stood in the crowded aisles. But enough people got fed off and got off, giving us seats, the bus took a detour to start moving again, and a typical Peruvian troupe of musicians jumped on the bus and gave us an incredible seranade (so much so that I wasn´t even offended when they repeatedly used each picture I took as an excuse to give JooYeon an extra kiss on the cheek. Hmmm... I hope that´s not a very minor form of prostitution - cheek kisses for photo opps? In any case, JooYeon loved the whole situation, so I felt good about it...)


We got off the bus where we soon ran into a crowd of people with blue noses marching around. I wondered what they could possibly be protesting, but upon asking it turned out that they were just shooting a cell phone commercial. I guess I´ll have to wait to see how blue noses would make one cell phone company preferred above others. Incidentally, we saw the leading lady on a TV show the next day, except that she was a man...

After hearing all three of my companions go on long and passionate monologues about the juiciest, most savory Korean foods that they were missing, I chased down and abrubtly stopped a couple Korean girls on the street (who nearly jumped into the road with surprise at hearing Korean in the middle of Lima) and asked them if by any chance they had found a Korean restaurant in Lima. After recovering their voices, they told me they indeed had and gave me directions which we promptly followed. If you could have only seen the look in their eyes when the food arrived on the table (actually you can because I took a picture of JooYeon two pictures down)...


There must be some sort of addictive chemicals in Korean food because everyone was in extremely high spirits after the meal as we walked along the malecon bordering the Pacific Ocean in Miraflores. Gyu was so high he decided that he wanted to live right there and even began looking longingly at apartments with ¨For Rent¨ signs on their windows.

After walking along the wall for awhile, we came across a neat little mosaic coated park entled, Parque del Amor - a great find for a couple on their honeymoon...






As the three have been learning increasing amounts of Spanish and general flow of travel, I gave them their first test by telling them to get us home from the malecon without any help at all from me. JooYeon took the lead, led us to a busy road, flagged down a few taxis, bargained, and got us a good price for the trip home. For me, watching JooYeon´s growth (much more than acquiring taxis) has made these travels especially worthwhile (although granted, there have been PLENTY of highs for myself also in these past four months of travel since leaving Korea).


I´ve also reflected on the differences between this South America trip so far and my India journey. One is that I met many more travellers and invested energy in those relationships, whereas this time, although I´ve talked with a lot of other travellers briefly, that same energy has been put more into inner group dynamics. Also, where budget was once my top priority, I find myself compromising it constantly now for safety, pleasure, better food, group happiness, wife happiness, etc. Slightly of course. I still wash my clothes by hand, eat as much local cuisine and take local transport whenever possible. Another difference is that, where I was very spiritually turbulent throughout my Asian travels, I´ve melted into a calmer stage where I observe, marginally participate, and very rarely make any doctrinal changes. What is my current ¨doctrine¨ or philosophy, you may ask... well, simply put, it is as follows...

I believe tha...aaaah... whats happening... computer screen flickering... power going down.... talk to you lat.....................................

Making new friends

With Joo Yeon feeling strong and super-adapted to travelling, we made a final trip up the Amazon before leaving Iquitos...

Honestly, I was the only one who really wanted to go, but in Korean culture, it´s normally understood that everything is done with the entire group, even if people dont want to (as opposed to US culture where we might split up, do our own thing, and then meet back up). So anyway, I drug three halfhearted but unwilling to split up Koreans up the river to a little village where a German woman was rumored to have started a butterfly farm.

When our boat arrived at the village, we had a short hike which should have only been 15 minutes, but I led us astray and so we got a more full jungle tour, which, along with the humidly scorching sun didn´t help the group morale so much. But eventually, we arrived and saw the butterflies...


Which were pretty neat I suppose. But much better were the animals we began to interact with, including a tapir, an anteater, sloths (well, they were in a cage), birds (are they parrots?)...

But by far the greatest part of the experience (and the one which changed everyone´s mentality about the trip...thankfully... I would have felt really guilty if they didn´t like the trip after I had pushed the Korean limits of group travelling) were the monkeys. They were swinging all around us, dropping in, grabbing our stuff, hanging off our body, riding on our head, biting anyone who screamed, and even holding our legs at the end to stop us from leaving!

And as we left the monkeys (who were sleeping after having played with us so much), we took a boat back, grabbed showers (monkeys stink... bad), and said our goodbyes to the Amazon...