Finding Solace in the Small Things

Sexy Town. That was the great idea I pitched as a way to rebrand our Old Town. Sadly, I don't think the idea will stick.

I can only attribute my whimsical idea to my post-vacation mode, which as I revealed earlier, appears to be fading fast.

But even still, I managed to make the best out of my workday. How, you may ask? Excess...

1. Enjoying a hot tea out of a tiny elephant mug at Changs Thai Bistro in Monrovia. And we managed to get a very cute photo on the Customer Wall of Fame (I don't think that's the real name for it).

2. Enjoying a triple shot of espresso from Friends Cafe. Unnecessary, yes. Delicious, yes. Caffeinated...an understatement.

3. Stopped into the new Old Town Monrovia store, Puff Monkey. Cute stuff if you have a child who likes Hello Kitty.

4. Filmed co-workers displaying their hidden talents. Filming has taken a long time dud to the fact that our employees are either camera shy or talentless. Or a third more viable option: they don't like me.

Meanwhile, my boss seems to want uptight Jen back. I'm sure that Jen will be back in a week...

Honeymoon's Over

My dear boss pointed out that I was glowing yesterday at work. Vacation, it seemed, had served me well. I'm tan. No bags under my eyes. Even my hair had grown thicker and shinier.

I'd like to think that this glow - and shiny hair (not to be confused with greasy) - will last until the next vacation. But I think this vacation euphoria is fading fast.

The good news, however, is I'm still trying to hold on. I'm still dedicated to taking a salsa lesson, enrolling in a Spanish class and booking a longer South America Trip.

But seeing as that I'm both out of money and time, it will be about a year before the next vacation. So what to do between now and then? I'll start with downloading my photos from the trip. And looking for a bar that serves Chicha beer with a side of coco leaves...

Worst Flight Ever

The flights on the way over we're terrific. Spacious seats, no one next to me, on time. But not this flight.

I was fine with us being thirty mins late. If anything it was better because it means my layover in Mexico City is shorter.

But what made this flight special - on a bad way - were the people sitting by me. There was the young woman for Mexico who kept speaking Spanish to me even though I didn't know what she was saying. Shame on me for not speaking better Espanol.

But the main issue I had was why, despite having a free aisle seat, she insisted on sitting next to me.

Midway through the flight, a very chatty Italian man sat in the open seat. I don't know why other than to flirt, which he proceeded to do with the flight attendants, too.

But my favorite character on the plane was the woman behind me, who started screaming and sweating as soon as we took off. She managed to grab and shake my seat throughout the flight.

Oh, and while on the plane it was announced that someone lost their wedding ring.

I'm very grateful for headphones, my iPod and my book.

It was the worst.

But now I'm here at the Mexico City airport, where ill be until my flight departs at 630 pm. So my goal is to do a bar hop. I had a warm up appetizer in the food court - the same food court that was shut up in July of this year. I had a chicken huarache, which is served on a open face tortilla.

I started with a beer at Wings watching a soccer match, now I'm at Taba Bar watching the New Mexican President get sworn in. It's pretty cool - all eyes are on the screen and passerbys are stopping to listen to the speech. Meanwhile, protests continue outside of the Congressional building in downtown Mexico City.

At least I end the trip with a little excitement.

Day 16: Adios el Sur America

I did not party all night. But the rest of Lima did. And seeing as that the location of the hostel is near a strip of bars - and that the windows don't close in the hostel - I may as well have partied. I at least got to live vicariously through my dorm mates, two of which had a conversation about whether they would bring a girl back to the hostel to "smash" or get a hotel by the hour. I think it was wishful thinking on their part, because they came home alone and went straight to bed.

The cab showed up ten mins early - which was a relief since Peruvian custom seems to run late. I have read and heard many a people get robbed or tricked by the cabs throughout South America.

One scam I heard of was a cabbie who told his riders that all the bills they paid with were fake. So these guys kept on handing out bills until the cab drive away. Even though that sounds stupid, who knows how you'd act in the thick of it. And that was just one of about ten stories I heard of people being mugged, scammed or screwed . Needless to say, my heart sunk a couple of times when my cab drove through desolate parts of the airport. But, as he explained, there was simply no traffic that way.

Anyway, I am relieved I am at the airport, that my flight wasn't cancelled, and that I have all of my credit cards and a ton of pics. See you on the other side in about fifteen hours :)

Last Day: Wrapping Up

Well, this is it. I spent most of the day wandering around downtown Lima - where four random high school students came up to me wanting to practice their English (I was convinced the whole time they wanted to jack my stuff).

My lunch was anmaaaazing. It was ceviche served with giant corn and two pieces of sweet potato. Yum.

Lima is completely different compared to La Paz and Cuzco. It's the home of many government buildings, including the equivalent to the White House. Their public transportation is efficient, and there is shopping everywhere.

The hostel is a party place. Last night I bunked with a group of people from the Peace Corp. They were a very smart - and spirited group - to say the least. Tonight I have two guys from a Peruvian traveling basketball team; one Argentinan who works here as the bartender (and I have no idea what he says when he speaks) ; a girl from the peace corp; and a guy from Michigan who now lives in Alaska where he works as a salmon fisherman.

The flight leaves at 8 am tomorrow. As the young dorm mates have recommended, "I should party all night."

But I'm 30 now...and much too sensible for that type of behavior...

Days 14 and 15: Rafting then Lima

I went rafting yesterday in the turd river with a pot head couple. I'm glad I made it out alive, though I'm sure whatever disease I developed following my impulsive decision to jump in the water will start to show when I return.

And I'm hoping the couple has recovered from their anger with me. The guy asked me to throw his sunglasses in the boat. So I did. Problem was the stupid raft was so bouncy that the glasses bounced right out of the boat and plopped into the water. Oops.

After rafting we zip lined. At some point I realized this was a bad idea. Maybe it's when I realized the line was wrapped around a tree and a rock. Or maybe it's when I noticed that the "brakes" for the zip line was a pair of holey gloves. But it ended up being fine.

Now, I'm in Lima until Saturday before I head home. It's sunny here and the coast is beautiful. I plan on walking around, drinking, and eating lots of ceviche...

Day 13: Hoping for a Poo Free River

I called it an early night last night following the departure of my English friends, who I'd been traveling with since La Paz.

The problem with going to bed early in a hostel is that there are still another five people in the room who are out and about. And yes, more times than not I have been the oldest one in the room. But good thing age is just a number...and the rooms are only $10 a night.

So it was just me and some Swedish surfer in the room until about midnight when some drunk girls came rolling in. But they passed out quickly, so I ended up with a decent night's sleep.

I had a hankering for Starbucks when I woke up, so now I'm just finishing up my morning coffee - and thank God for Starbucks because coffee here generally tastes like either tar or pure sugar. The Starbucks has a balcony overlooking the main plaza, which is anchored by two churches. It's a perfect people watching spot. Kids are dressed in uniforms headed to school, tourists are armed with their Nikons and backpacks, and people are headed to work - though I haven't seen too many people wearing a suit and tie.

In an hour, I'm going to head off to a river rafting, zip line and sauna excursion. I think it is on the Urubamba River. I have my doubts about rafting only because one girl in the hostel said her friend did it, and there was human poo in the river. A lot of it. If that is the case, I really hope I don't fall out of the boat.

Days 8 - 11: The Old Mountain"

Let me start by saying I feel very blessed to have had this experience. It is something I never thought I would do, but it is now something that I will remember forever and inspire me to make future journeys.

Now enough with the sentimental stuff.

The trip to Machu Picchu - which means the "Old Mountain" started at 5 am. Of course I was too proud - or more like too cheap - to hire a "porter" (or chuskee in Quechua) to carry my bag. And of course I packed waaaay too much for the four day hike. But at least I was prepared for anything on this trip.

A group of 14 of us - later named by our guide as Team Tupac (all because I asked why there are buses out here named Tupac Amaru) - were picked up by bus. We drove about three hours and stopped for an awkward breakfast together where we were playing nice and trying to get to know each other. On the group was a youngish Australian couple, an Australian father-son team, a couple from Seattle, three med students from Australia, a crazy couple from Quebec who now live in Mexico, an Englush couple who just graduated "uni," and me, the sometimes socially awkward American.

Our guides names were Agosto aka Kungfu Panda - who is a cop in Peru and I'm pretty sure he was just there for protection - and David, who was wonderful despite his addiction to Coco leaves (though he claimed it's not addicting).

But back to the journey. It is a four day, 26 mile hike. The Inca trail was created by the Incas (surprise) as a religious pilgramage to Machu Picchu. In total, the Incas created nearly 200 cities in less than 500 years. Cusco was the center of the Incan empire, but the purpose of Machu Picchu is still debated. One theory is it was used as a spiritual location. The Incas believed that the higher the buildings were, the closer to the Sun god they were. The reason it wasn't ruined by the Spanish, however, is because they simply didn't know about it.

We hit the trail about 2 pm on Friday, and it was a nice hike for the first couple of hours until we reached the campsite. At this point, I was in awe of a few things:

- The porters. There were 19 of these 5 foot 2, sandal wearing guys assigned to us. Most of them were from the Andean mountain communities and do this for the money, of corse. They carried at least 100 pounds each on their backs of our tents, food, and equipment. And they sprint up way ahead of us to have time to set up camp by the time we arrive. It was amazing to see but also hard to watch because parts of the trail are friggin hard.

- The random domestic animals. I took waaaay too many photos of llamas, cows, sheep, pigs and chickens. These animals belong to the people who live in the mountains.

- The bathrooms. Good news - there were bathrooms and you didn't have to pack out your crap. Bad news is the toilets were holes and you had to just aim. Much easier for guys. Double bad news - because the bathrooms were so nasty, people would go Nos. 1 and 2 in sneaky places. Yes, I'm pretty sure I stepped in human crap, which is way smellier than animal turds.

- The food. I ate better during the hike than the entire trip. I'm talking about five course meals, starting with appetizers like fresh guacamole, soup, a main dish with tons of sides, dessert and tea at the end. Oh, and on the last day, there was a cake!

- Tourism is still pretty new. Apparently, the Shining Path communist turned terrorist group that existed in the 80s and 90s crippled tourism to Machu Picchu. But once they moved out of the area combined with Unesco's activity at Machu Picchu, tourism started playing a larger role in the community as of 2001. Today, about 200 people each day are granted a permit to hike the Inca Trail. Still, it seems like this area will only become more and more commercialized. I noticed a couple of brand new hotels being completed in Aguas Calientes, the town at the start of the road to Machu Picchu.

- Oh yeah...and of course there was the landscape. It was very serene, lush, and had a constant view of glacier Mt. Victoria.

The hike:

Day 1 was a breeze, even with my 15 pounds if gear. We walked about three miles in a gentle sloping trail. On Day 2, shit got real. It went from steep to steeper for about ten miles. The weather fluctuated from sunny and then misty, windy and cold. But the terrain we covered was breathtaking. We passed waterfalls and climbed thousands of steep steps.

Day 2 was the hardest, but Day 3 was a nice combination of steep uphill, lots of Incan ruins and trekking through the jungle. Oh...and lots of downhill. And by this time the group members were all bff's and had warmed up to each other. Yes, even to me and my dumb jokes. for example, I made them listen to my joke about the "Anis" tea that was served at each meal. You know, like "I've had enough Anis for one day." Or, "I don't like Anis." I know...it should Anise. But that's not what it says on the tea bag.

Day 4 was the Machu Picchu day. We started at 330 am, and made it to the Sun Gate about 630 am. When we arrived, the Sun Gate - which provided a view of the valley where Machu Picchu was - was completely covered in fog. But after about 20 mins, the fog burned off. It was amazing. It was like we were standing on top of the world.

From there, we hiked about another hour to Machu Picchu, which by that point had started to become overrun by tourists who took the bus I without doing the Inca Trail hike. Yes, we copped an attitude against those cheaters.

By the time we hit Machu Picchu, we were pooped. David the guide made us listen to him during a two hour tour. Most of us just wanted to pass out on the grass because we were so tired. The truth of it is that while Machu Picchu itself is amazing and beautiful, I found the hike to be more enjoyable than the destination itself.

We strolled around for about three hours until we made our way to Aguas Calientes, where we would eventually take a train home. But for the four hours that we waited, we decided it would be a good idea to relax with a beer or two. Twenty liters and many rounds of Spoons later, it was finally time to head home.

I know that this recap is too wordy, but it doesn't give justice to the experience and the friendships that were formed on this journey.

As one woman said as she was standing on an Incan terrace looking down at the valley: "The world: isn't it great?"

Yep.

Machu Picchu Quick Recap

It took thousands of steps up...then down...but after four days my group of 14 made it to Machu Picchu. Parts of the hike was like walking through scenes of Avatar. We were a little bit grimy by the end of the hike, but our crew provided us with five course meals, tent side coffee service at the 330 am wake up calls, and carried and set up our tents for us. More to come later.

Day 7: Prepping for the Big Hike

Cusco - So as everyone is shoveling down tons o' turkey I am prepping for the big Machu Picchu hike tomorrow. The bus picks me up at 5 am (ick!) tomorrow, and I return on Monday night after 10 pm.

So how have I been prepping? Drinking lots of water, making sure the camera is charged, renting a walking stick, buying yummy snacks, doing laundry and telling myself that a beer is a bad idea. But it is early...and one wouldn't hurt.

All in all, today has been a very low key day. We only had about ten vendors come up to us trying to sell massages, candy, Coco museum tickets, and the oh so necessary little guitar.

We spent a very leisurely few hours at Starbucks in the plaza pictured below and then lunched at some cafe. Weather is about 70 degrees, but one trekker who just returned from the hike said it rained every night. He also said it was incredible.

Hopefully I will have some guinea pig tonight for Thanksgiving. I had the English girls share a little Thanksgiving tradition by saying what they were thankful for - and what they weren't thankful for. The consensus is everyone is very thankful for the trip, health and the chance to do Machu Picchu.

As for the not thanksfuls? One girl said her "ginger hair," another was not thankful for losing her ATM card in a cab in Argentina, and me - I'm not thankful for that very tiny sandwich I had for lunch. It's Thanksgiving! I should be in a food coma!

Until Monday...

Days 5 and 6: Cusco and the Sacred Valley

Well, it only took a 12 hour bus ride split over a couple of days but I made it to Cusco, Peru from La Paz. And I'm glad I'm here.

Cusco has a European city feel but with the random South American quirks, like stray dogs everywhere and houses made of mud.

Yesterday my new English friends and I did a walking tour of Cusco, and today we did a tour of the Sacred Valley. Our guide today was pretty bossy and mean, actually. Most of the other guides have been funny and charming, but this guy was a drill sgt.

He would tell us to be back at meeting spots at random times, like in twelve minutes or at 12:47. He told us we had to take pictures of certain things. And he mocked us when he would ask questions and we gave wrong answers. He was a little scary, but at some point I realized he didn't know what he was talking about. The turning point was when we were in some church looking at a picture of the Virgin Mary and little 8 pound 6 ounce baby Jesus. He started the story by saying that everyone in South America thought she was black, but at some point they thought she was white.

Irrelevant detail.

But I laughed out loud when he said that Baby Jesus is depicted with red cheeks and wrapped like a tamale because that's how babies look here - tightly wrapped and born with flush cheeks because of the altitude. I'm pretty sure he made that up.

But it was a great tour and very amusing.

Tomorrow I hope to eat my heart out, hydrate and get ready for the Machu Picchu hike on Friday morning.

Day 4: The Lake

Lake Titicaca: Today a group of about ten of us from the hostel visited the world's highest navigable lake, Lake Titicaca. We visited these floating reed islands that were first created back in the 1550s as a way to evade the Spanish conquistadors.

Our boat driver, Joseph, who sounded a little like Jack Black in Luca Libre, was full of jokes and funny/sad stories. Like the one about how we couldn't sit on the top of the boat because the Peruvian navy banned it after a group of school children who were dancing on the boat sunk the boat. Or that the boat fits 25 Americans or 50 Japanese people. That was a fat joke, for sure.

And I get the sense that Peruvians view Bolivia the way Monrovia views one if its neighboring cities. I'm pretty sure I heard Joseph say, "Stupid Bolivia."

Fun facts about the lake:
- Puno used to dump all its sewage in the lake, so now that side is still polluted. They stopped doing that about 15 years ago, but people still have to go out like ten miles to go fishing.
- In the old days - not sure when - whenever the floating lake people would die, they would be "buried" in the lake. Now they bury them on the mainland in Puno.
- There are about 1,400 floating island inhabitants, and the number is going up because the young kids are having hard times finding real jobs.
- I look really good in the traditional floating island outfit. I mean, really good.
- They have solar panels on the islands because they have lit the houses - made of dried reed - on fire a time or two.

That concludes my report. Bus takes off to Cusco tonight at 9.

Adios.

Day 3: Be Flexible

Yeah, so about that jungle tour. It didn´t happen. My flight was cancelled. So instead, I opted to quit while I was behind and make my way to Cusco so I could at least be on my Inca Trail hike on time.

I took a bus this morning from La Paz to Copacabana. The bus had to take some scary little boat across the Lake Titicaca - yeah, say that five times. It´s fun. I wonder how many vehicles are on the bottom of that lake? From there, I was lucky enough to get a bus due to some confusion about which bus was mine, and was able to finagle my way on a small little Volkswagen bus. It wasn´t too bad - it didn,t break down, and there were three people from the SGV on it!

Now, I´m in Puno, where I will stay until tomorrow to check out the lake. From there, I will take a bus to Cusco at night...if all goes well.

But if there´s one thing I´ve learned so far, it´s to be flexible and give yourself enough time for things to go wrong.

Day 2: From the City to the Jungle

La Paz: I started the day bright and early with a brisk walk to my double decker red sight seeing bus. I know, they are cheesy, but the only thing I love as much as boat rides  are open decker bus rides.  Me and a group of German tourists started off at the Plaza de Estudiante for the hour  and a half journey. Among the highlights were:

• For my reverse racist friends: I learned that the Bolivian population is made up of one percent  white people.
• The average annual income in Bolivia is 1,100 Bolivianos a year - which is about $157 a year. The average Congressman makes about 4,500 Bolivianos a month. That is one of the reasons for the intense political unrest here, according to the tour guide.
• La Paz has the highest soccer field in the world, and apparently,  futbol players hate coming here because of it. I don´t  blame them.
• Our scenic point today gave us a panoramic view of La Paz. I´m glad we got to go up there because a fifth of it was wiped out last week from a landslide.
• Speaking of landslides, Eucalyptus trees are planted  in the hillside as a way to help stabilize the foundation.
• Bolivia seems to have constantly fought with its neighbors because of the rich minerals  the country contains. And it was particularly depressing to me to learn that Bolivia lost a war to Chile about 60 years ago, and in the process Chile took its access from the ocean away.
• We passed one of the traditional Andean markets, where my favorite hat ladies were pouring out unidentified drinks, selling soup, and just chillin on the side of the road. I love those ladies.

That's all I can remember.

My Spanish, meanwhile, is really crappy. I thought it would come back to me, but I do not  sound fluent. But it hasn´t stopped me from getting by.

My flight to the jungle is at 5,  so I´m off.

Day 1 in La Paz: Lots of Charlie Chaplin hats

I awoke to the sound of children screaming and cars honking. Granted, by the time I went to bed it was 6 a.m., so when I finally stumbled out of a bed, it was 11 a.m. The altitude here literally takes your breath away, which made it even harder to get going. Even walking up a flew steps of stairs makes me feel like I have been smoking a pack of day for the past ten years.

Weather in La Paz today was around 60, but as one woman said, if you do not like the weather, just wait five minutes. One minute it is sunny, then windy, then sprinkling. Strange.

Today I walked around a few major streets in La Paz. When I asked the guy at the front desk for any recommendations, his one recommendation was on what areas to avoid. I was expecting, oh, go and see this museum and grab lunch here. No, it was more like, Don,t get mugged. So, per his recommendation, I did not go south of the cemetery. Instead, I just tried not to get hit by a car, taxi or minibus and walked around the cobble streets to a few popular plazas with pigeons and armed guards everywhere. I also headed to Witches Market, where they sell random things like baby llama fetuses and dried alpaca = yes, they smelled = and then had a two dollar dinner of a fried piece of chicken, french fries, chow mein and rice. Any place that has three starches on one plate is a special place. And it was all washed down with a coke out of the bottle.

So, all in all today was pretty laidback as I was kind of getting acclimatized and acclimated to the new surroundings. The highlights was watching some little girl shove toilet paper up her sleeping brother,s nose, and seeing all the street vendors selling slices of watermelon, some tea looking thing, peanuts, random nick knacks. They are everywhere.  Not pushy, but everywhere.And seem to sell everything.

Oh, and there is not one Starbucks. But Burger King is popular.

But the most noticeable thing so far are all these indigenous ladies wearing Charlie Chaplin hats with braided hair, shiny, knee length skirts with shawls. I love them. I was lucky enough today to see about 100 of them at a time because they were protesting something.

Here's what the Lonely Planet has to say.

Para manana, I'm going to tour La Paz in the morning then head to the Bolivian side of the Amazon, in Rurrenbaque.

Hasta luego.

Ryan Reynolds

He's on my plane. Not much more to say on that except for that I like his very expensive looking sweater vest.

It's really early

Monrovia - My day started at 2:28 am, just in time for the shuttle to pick me up at 3. At that point I was thinking this was the worst idea I've had yet considering the early morning and that I only have ten pounds worth of clothes and shoes to last two weeks.

still, I pressed on and remembered how cool it will be to not work for two weeks and eat many varietals of potatoes.

A brief moment of excitement about the trip during my shuttle ride quickly disappeared when I realized I was getting car sick. Already. So my Chatty Cathy-ness and 100 questions about where everyone in the car was going - Florida, Portland and Cancun - was quickly shut down.

But, alas, l made it without throwing up and asking too many questions. It is simply too early to be communicating with people.

Maybe I'll be awake when I arrive at Mexico City.