My entire vacation in Cusco I did not blog.
That doesn’t mean nothing worth reporting didn’t happen.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t have some life changing revelations (yeah, I know I been havin’ those a lot lately).
I think it just means I was surrounded by people I could talk to.
Cuzco has this fabulous mixed culture. I think about half the population is made up of people who traveled there to visit from all over the world and they just stayed. Cuzco has an ancient magnetic energy that reminds me very much for Granada, Spain. The beauty of the rolling mountains, distant clouds, and timeworn culture create a strong aura that is undeniable.
Like Austin, Portland, and Granada, Cuzco is a place where I can feel confident and comfortable being me and continuing my life of discovery. I made dear friends in no time. We could share our truest thoughts with one another and work through.
Like the theory of the United States, I, and those I hold dearest, search for land where many cultures live simultaneously constantly learning and teaching together.
Some highlights of the trip:
The day before New Years we traveled to Pisac, a small town outside of Cusco that is hippie central. Full of artisans, Cesar, our friends and I felt right at home there. We did a small purification ceremony next to the river to prepare our bodies for the new year. We passed a lime(can also be done with an egg) over our bodies to pull out what we don’t want to have in our spirits for the year to come. We crushed salt in our hands and through any sadness over our shoulders. Then we smoked a local tobacco which was extremely relaxing and chatted about our goals and feelings for the new year.
After a delicious dinner at a friend’s restaurant we spent New Years Eve in the Plaza de Armas where the entire population of the city and surrounding towns gathered (in their yellow underwear), to set off fireworks and run around the plaza in circles to bring travel in the year to come.
The days before new years I had been searching for a dress to wear New Years Eve night. Cesar wanted to dress up and I didn’t have anything I felt appropriate. I packed for the Peace Corps. I spent an entire day looking for a dress and a pair of heals and couldn’t find anything that was my style or fit quite right. Cesar met up with me one afternoon to see three dresses I had picked out. Of course, he loved all three, no help at all. When I said I should just buy all three so I have dresses to wear in Peru he said, “That is not the woman I fell in love with”. I am telling you, he is fabulous. Pleased, I left the market without buying a single dress and decided to make it work with what I had in my backpack.
We spent the days following New Years sipping the least expensive coffee we could find (as money between the two of us was thin) and chatting with friends from Germany, Peru, Jordan, Australia, Holland, and more. The bounce between languages always gives me a high.
When the money ran out we hopped on a bus and headed back to Arequipa. Our good friend from Jordan came with us. It is a big running joke that Josef and I are such good friends because according to pop culture United States citizens and citizens from the Middle East should be threatening each other’s lives, not chatting in Spanish over dinner. When we boarded the bus Cesar acted out a huge drama when Josef got on begging him not to bring a bomb on board just because his girlfriend was a gringa. Josef played along perfectly and went to the bus attendant and asked that he speak with the disruptive passenger sitting next to the white girl. When the attendant walked over to politely ask Cesar to be more quite and accepting of other cultures on the bus ride I burst out laughing. The poor attendant must have thought I was a lunatic. Cesar cried he was laughing so hard, “Well played Josef”. Similar scenes have been acted out in coffee shops, restaurants, and bars, usually at the workers expense, but always, in the end, to everyone around us’ enjoyment.
On the below zero ride down the mountain in the unheated bus, both Cesar and I got a cold. I slept all of the following day until my bus left for the Canyon then slept the entire 5 hour ride and arrived in the canyon the following morning.
January 4th I met with a representative from the Non-Profit Quechua Benefit and we traveled to 5 pueblos in the canyon where we are coordinating free dental visits with the Non-Profit Health Bridges International. It was an exhausting day with a variety of emotions. One nurse actually said she would be happy to give us permission to come use her facility but couldn’t promise she would be there the day of the event to unlock the doors (yes, my ears were literally fuming as I gripped the smile on my face with all my might). Other nurses were more helpful and offering to help organize the people in their towns that needed the most help (god-sends). I have much more work to do for this project and less than a month to get it all worked out. It will be a very exciting event for everyone involved in the end.
I slept most of the day of the fifth and kicked this cold in the butt then hopped on a minibus back to Madrigal with a backpack full of dirty clothes, fruits and veggies, belated Christams presents, and a runny nose. It was a lovely vacation.
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