the journey of death

so about a week and a half ago i decided to go cusco for Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun.

its been a looooooooong past 56ish hours. summary: depart salta, argentina at 7am on sunday morning. salta to calama=12 hours. calama=waiting 3 hours. calama to arica=10 hours. arica=waiting 2 hours bc the border doesn´t open until 8am. arica to tacna=sketchy car ride for a couple hours. tacna=i find out there are no buses from there to cusco and probably none from arequipa to cusco. the strikes in peru have made transportation difficult. tacna to arequipa=7 hours. arequipa=i almost give up because all the bus companies are saying buses are not going to cusco. then just as i was about to go get a hostel and shower i hear someone in the corner shouting CUSCO! i ran over and was like en serio? en serio? and yes, they were going an alternate route leaving at 8:30 pm...supposedly 13 or 14 hours instead of the normal 9 to 11. 19 hours later of winding through the mountains on gravel roads on a crappy bus i made it to cusco!

i hadnt slept in a bed for 2 nights. i smelled. i ate shitty sandwiches with the meat picked off. BUT i´ve made good traveling companions. i´ve laughed. i´ve listed to all the songs on my tiny ipod several hundred times. i´ve slept. i´ve watched bad movies. i´ve contemplated life.

somehow i made it to cusco alive. barely, but alive. 56 hours of travel straight is a bit much. but now im showered, have clean clothes, am full of coca tea. i got a bed in the hostal with friends. so life is good.

today is the festival! im going to enjoy!

thoughts on travel

yes, travel is about seeing things and places. it is about eating new foods. it is about adjusting to new cultures and customs and ways of doing things. it is about meeting new people--both locals and other travelers. it is about sharing experiences. BUT more than anything its about learning how to survive and thrive outside of your comfort zone. it is about meeting each new inevitable challenge with a smile and figuring out how to overcome it. its the moments you realize you are on the wrong bus or you wander into the neighborhood lonely planet said to avoid at all costs. its the little adrenaline rush of being lost or threatened or confused. but somehow it all works out. then you can breath. and what you are left with is the confidence that you can do anything and overcome any challenge. you have a little more faith in the universe and in people and that everything will work out in the end. and then you have a story to tell. because what is a travel story without some challenges and obstacles to overcome?

the other night i was in a hostel in mendoza, argentina and i overheard some girls talking that they had been on this 3 day tour in that place then were heading from there on another 5 day tour to somewhere else and from there they were joining another tour...BORING! they could never get lost. they could never be confused. to me, that just loses the adventure and the real POINT of travel.

brief summary of the past week or so:
-left Chloe and valpo (sad day :( )
-Santiago, Chile- couch surfed (CS) with a sweet girl from Ecuador, went out to a party with a bunch of CSers to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the website, went to a ¨gringo¨ themed party with a guy we had met the night before, checked out some urban agriculture projects with a guy a emailed after coming across his blog.
-Mendoza, Argentina- bike and wine tour with 3 irish guys and a danish girl i met in my hostel, hanging out and resting up to recover from a bit of a cold after many late nights, couch surfing with an incredibly creative and fun guy, enjoying the beautiful autumn like weather!
-Córdoba, Argentina- currently traveling with 2 girls i met in mendoza from germany and denmark, spent the day enjoying the history, art and culture of the city.
-Next stop: Salta, Argentina tonight then i will begin a several day journey heading up to Cusco, Peru in a hurry because i decided to get up there for Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun and Cusco´s biggest festival of the year, which is next week.

I love the freedom of traveling alone!

Abrazos!

awkwardness

witnessing chloes life in valparaiso is incredibly awkward and highly entertaining. highlights of the day:

host mom offers to wash my laundry cheaper than at jumbo (where i washed my laundry when i first got here). i decline bc i hadnt washed my laundry for like a month so i did it before leaving for buenos aires got but now its only been like a week so clearly i dont need to do laundry again...shortly after host grandma offers to sew some clothes for me. i decline saying i dont have anything for her to repair. this all occurs while chloe is at class and i am alone.

in the afternoon i busted out my mate gourd that i bought in buenos aires and while trying to make the tea host mom insists i put rum in it. then host dad arrives and insists i should put marijuana in it. there is no marijuana in the house...that i know of...

everytime host brother enters the room chloe and i make awkward turtle signs with good reason. nobody knows what is going on so we giggle.

host dad thinks it is highly entertaining to teach me the chile chant and every 10 minutes make me do it bc there is a big game today. chi chi chi le le le! Viva CHILE! i changed it to cheese cheese cheese cake cake cake! viva CHEESECAKE bc chloe and i wanted to eat the cheesecake that we made. they laughed at me.

they all laugh at me a lot and usually i have no idea what is going on po. and i thought i understood spanish...lies.

tomorrow i hit the road again. santiago for the weekend where i will couch surf and celebrate the 10th anniversary of couchsurfing with people in Santiago, celebrate the 21st birthday of a friend from grinnell who is studying there, and meet with a guy involved in urban agriculture there. on sunday i will head to mendoza for a few days, then up through northwestern argentina.

Adventures with Chloe

Somehow managed to meet up with Chloe Neely in Santiago, despite getting dropped off of my bus in a huge parking garage terminal that opened into the most confusing shopping mall I have ever seen. There is something to be said for cell phones, but I have really enjoyed living without one the past month or so.

We got to Valparaíso that evening and spent 2 nights there before taking off. I got a taste of Chilean Spanish which is really really hard to understand and made me feel incompetent. I did some laundry and got to catch up with Chloe which was amazing after 6 months apart from my best friend.

On Wednesday we took off by plane for Buenos Aires. This city is incredible. I still can´t put a finger on exactly what it is about it, but the vibe is just good. Its beautiful, its open, its clean, its colorful, its diverse, its liberal (for south america), its quirky, its alive. We met some great people in our hostel in San Telmo the first couple nights. Learned a bit of Tango, the dance that is widely popular in the city, and went out to a Milonga--a social gathering for young people to hang out and tango. We´ve been wandering the city and exploring the sights and tastes and sounds.

Tonight we went out with a guy from Grinnell who is studying abroad here this semester and some of his friends. The empanadas here are awesome!

Pretty sure I will be coming back to Buenos Aires someday soon, maybe to stay a while.