still just starting out...

I'd have to say that the trip is going well. Despite a somewhat rough start, things have turned out well, and I've been having a lot of fun.

When I arrived at the airport in Lima, one of the many people accosting the people getting off the planes (Taxi! 3 Soles! Hotel, Hot Water All Day!) asked if I wanted to go to Cuzco. I said that I did, and was promptly whisked away to the
ticket office, which I had not yet located, and had a ticket handed to me. Then, arrangements for a hotel were made. All fine.

When I got to Cuzco, someone met me at the airport and took me to the hotel. Then sat me down, and told me what he thought I should do for the next 4 days, and gave me a price. I told him I wanted to look around, but he said I had to decide in a few hours as the trains were going to be full, and so on. So, I thought about it for a bit, and bought a bunch of stuff from him. It turned out that the trains were nowhere near full, and I could have saved a bit of money by going it on my own. I was feeling pretty frustrated by this until I got to Machu Pichu.

Machu Pichu was sufficiently amazing so as to make me not care at all that I had paid a little too much to get there. I wandered around myself, rather than sticking with a tour, which I think was a much better option. The ruins, the mountains ... everything about it was amazing, and on a scale that just doesn't translate to a postcard or a picture.

That night I went down to Augas Calientes, 30 minutes away by bus. The highlight of that night was meeting a couple of Peruvian women who worked in one of the restaurants there. I wandered by the restaurants after most people had finished eating (and, it being low season and high competition, this meant that the restaurant was empty) and they invited me to sit down and talk for a while. We ended up talking for a couple hours, me mostly listening and occasionally commenting in my broken Spanish. They were both really nice people, and seemed genuinely interested in telling me about Peruvian life and learning abut the states. And, it was great Spanish practice as neither of them spoke Anglish. We ended up going out to the disco for a while later that night, where I tried for the first time in my life to salsa dance. Needless to day, it didn't work out too well, but it was fun anyway.

I spent the next day in Machu Pichu, then returned to Cuzco. I then spend the next couple days looking at the ruins around there. Many of them are quite impressive, and it was a lot of fun just wandering around.

There was an undertone of a strong desire for money in Cuzco that left me feeling uncomfortable. I didn't feel like I could trust the tour guides or the travel agencies, and as soon as you walked out on the plaza people wanted to sell you postcards or shine your shoes or get you to go to their restaurant. This is not necessarily all bad, and it is a clear consequence of heavy tourism in an impoverished area, but I didn't like the feeling all that much. Odly enough, Puno seems to have a very different feel to it.

I've met a lot of amazing people already on the trip. It's strange, though. To borrow the phrase from fight club, the people that you meet when traveling are usually 'single serving friends'. Because everyone is traveling on a different agenda to different places there is an ephemeral quality to the relationships that you have with people. This is both nice and frustrating -- it's fun to meet lots of people, and the relationships are always pleasant due to their short nature. On the other hand, people tend to disappear before you get to know them very well.

I've met very few other Americans on the trip (and those that I have met have been from the bay area (2 groups) or from Buena Vista, Colorado); most of the gringos seems to be Europeans or Australians. There is clearly some self selection here in the type of people that travel. I've already met one SCUBA instructor, one snowboard instructor, and one person who is sick of working behind a computer all day and wants to travel for a while, then go study geology. Sounds familiar.

Overall, it's been a good time so far but I m only just beginning. Tomorrow I'll be heading out on Lake Titicaca for two or three days. I'm looking forward to seeing the islands.

Posted by vanwie at December 9, 2003 03:31 PM