Should I Stay or Should I Go Now

Okay, it´s been two weeks since my last post and there´s alot to write about but most of it will have to wait as there´s so much more to do then time to write. Lo siento. Seems the best place to start is still in Lima.

I finally got my debit card. I had to switch hostels because I never reserved enough days and it filled up Thursday and through the weekend. But I was staying nearby so I walked over everyday and then on Saturday it was there and I was free to move on. Only, I no longer wanted to move on, and I didn´t. I spent almost another week in Lima and now after five days in Cusco I´m running into the same dilemma.
To stay or go is a question I´m finding comes up often in the backpackers world. The benefits of moving on are you will undoubtedly see more. Travelers are limited by two things: time and money. You can´t do this forever (though you can work in hostels or volunteer and extend your trip significantly), so if you want to see as much as possible you have to keep moving. I met one American who in ten months of traveling had been to 32 countries. I also made friends with a backpacker who in three months had stayed primarily in Columbia in Bogota and Medillan. In the end it comes down to personal choice and preference. Do you want to see the world or experience a different culture? Not that you can´t do both. If a city strikes you then it´s not difficult to push back plans and stay. Maybe take a Spanish lesson (or whatever language for whatever country you´re in. Just, I'm in South America.) or dance classes. Something to immerse yourself more into the culture (my advice is at least try with the language because locals appreciate the attempt). If you find yourself restless up and leave and see all you can. Backpacking is a lifestyle of freedom. But what I´m finding through countless evenings of backpacking conversations with experienced travelers is most have a clear preference: stay or go. And I´m finding my preference is to stay.
So I stayed in Lima longer and am so happy I did. If you´re looking for the tourist bars you have to go to Pizza Street near Kennedy Park in Mirraflores. You´ll meet fellow backpackers and English speaking locals (beautiful English speaking locals). Decide if you´ll be enticed by the offers of free drinks or the more crass promoters who offer you pussy in loud unabashed English. Personally, I recommend starting at the end in the pub, relax with a beer or two, maybe make some new friends, and then hop from bar to dance hall and experience it all. Just be sure to make it out before three so you can eat, because right up the street is the best sandwich shop I´ve ever been to. Simple (bread, meat, cheese, sauce), cheap, delicious, and just what a late nighter needs after a late night.
What I really recommend, however, is make friends with a local. I was lucky enough to befriend a backpacker, Pri, who introduced me to his freind Dante, a Peruvian from Lima he´d met in Columbia. The usual with Dante was to go out into the city during the day and then meet up with his local friends at night. Site seeing, salsa dancing, gorgeous bars with multiple levels, and I even went to a baby shower. Yeah, a baby shower. Peruvians love to be hospitable and Dante wanted to hang out with us everyday for as long as possible. He never minded driving, translating, or answering all of our questions, and he made my stay in Lima. And as far as I can tell, all he wants in return is similar treatment if and when he comes to California. I am happy to oblige.
Now, as I said, Dante was always bringing us out with his friends from Lima, and anyone who knows me knows two things about me 1) I love to meet people and 2) I´m a talker, and the latter is where my greatest frustration lies. My Spanish can get me through the day, ask and answer questions about work, food, travelling, etc... but after that I´ve exhausted what I know and my audience moves on. This does not sit well with me. And there is only one obvious answer: lessons. For between 6 to 9 dollars an hour I can take individual Spanish lessons for either 10, 20, or 30 hours a week. I´ve decided to do this early in my travels so as to reap the most benefit. Also I have a small crush on a Columbian dancer/waitress I met in Cusco whose English is as good as my Spanish. Everyday we meet for a few hours to practice each other´s native language (mother language in Spanish translation). The rule we attempt is I can only speak in Spanish and she in English. We always break it, but we try not to. My pocket dictionary has become my best friend.
Well friends, thanks for following but I´ve been rude hogging the computer and it´s time for lunch and to plan out my next few days... Puno then back to Cusco? Site seeing the 16 Inca ruins? Macchu Picchu, finally? or maybe I start those lessons and stay in Cusco for a few weeks to a month? No se. But I´ll find time to write more and update you on Sandboarding in Huacacina, the 17 hour bus ride through the Andes, dance clubs in Cusco, hikes up the mountains and the ruins of Sexywoman (that´s honestly how it sounds), the necessity of sunscreen, and Peruvians love of classic rock and grunge (live bands in dive bars, and one of the singers did Eddie Vedder justice. Very impressive.).
Ciao.

The First Week of Many

I´ve been in Lima for a week now, and will have to stay until Friday to pick up my new debit card. I can´t wait to move on and start travelling again, but it has been a fun week. Below are the highlights.

Story 1: Monster City

The trip starts poor. Melissa, my traveling companion and romantic interest, changed her mind at the gate. There were several reasons for this, but mostly it was my fault. I couldn´t act like I was comfortable being just her friend and instead I acted like a jealous and frustrated suitor. It´s probably for the best she didn´t come since it´s obvious I have deep feelings for her, but even a week later I wish she was here. So I left for Lima heartbroken, lonely, and for the first time scared. I´d expected to travel the first few weeks in the comfort and familiarity of a friend and loved one. Now I was really on my own.

My connecting flight was in Mexico City and as the plane made it´s descent I glanced out the window. What I saw was astounding. El Ciudad de Mexico is home to 35 million people and nicknamed the Monster City. It was easy to see why. The sprawl began behind the few mountains (which looked volcanic, or otherwise sites of massive excavation) and then continued, and continued, and continued until the plane was over the airport and all you could see, in every direction and as far as the horizon, was the sprawl of the city. In the center was a strip of sky scrapers over a wooded street but there were outcroppings of similar buildings all over the city like patches on a worn quilt and each one declaring ¨the city continues.¨ I´ve never seen anything as collosus.

My flight from Mexico City to Lima was delayed, and two hours later it was canceled, the only flight that day. I ran back through security to the check in line. In the chaos that followed I learned how lost I could truly be in a sea of Spanish. It was over an hour before I overheard a word of English. ¨Thank you so much!¨ gasped the mother and I rushed over and asked what she´d been told. Apparently, if I was willing to come back the same time mañana I could catch the same flight to Lima. She helped me sign up and I tried to figure out how I would spend the next 24 hours. The airport hotel cost $190 (about 2600 pesos) so I decided to sleep in the terminal. My next move was to wander around looking for someone who looked like an Enlgish speaking traveller and that´s how I bumped into Devin. He was a student in Argentina after transfering from Penn State. We walked a little into the city for cheap tacos (2 for 10 pesos, which is a little less than a dollar) and he helped me brush up on some basic Spanish. At 11pm he left for his flight to Buenos Aires and I spent two hours trying to sleep on the cement steps/benches in the terminal. It didn´t work. I gave in and got an almost $200 hotel room, and you know what? It was a great idea. I was still heartbroken and lonely but after a very long hot shower and a night´s sleep in a king size bed all to myself I was ready to continue on. God, I felt great the next morning. That is, until I went to buy coffee and found that my debit card was denied.

I called the international number they´d provided me (which only cost me 5 pesos a minute from the hotel. For the life of me I couldn´t figure out how to use the calling card Melissa had given to me.) and found out that a fraudulent transaction had taken place in Hollywood while I was in Mexico. They denied it, refunded my money, but I couldn´t lift the hold on my card as long as someone else had the number. In the end I lifted the hold for 20 minutes, went to the atm and took out 4000 pesos (about $250. Also I need to note here that I didn´t exchange it for American dollars before going to Peru so when I finally found an exchange place that would take Mexican pesos they charged me a third of the money in the exhange. The lesson here is US currency is strong always so don´t take chances.). Then I boarded the plane and flew to Lima, Peru. I ordered a new card to be shipped to the hostel I´m staying at in Miraflores, Lima, Peru and after three attempts I´ll finally be getting it in two days.

Story 2: Lunch

I love menus. These are set priced meals offered for lunch that include usually an Entrada and a Segunda plus a drink (sometimes dessert is included as well). So far I´ve paid anywhere from s/7 to s/14 (about $3 to $5) a meal, but the first meal I had was the best so far (and only s/11).

The entrada was ceviche which is raw fish lightly cooked in a bath of lime jiuce (citrus acid) and spices, and it´s also delicious. The segunda was a meal of fried fish and squid covered in a buttery sauce and served over a bed of rice. It too was delicious. And the drink was Chicha morado which has become a personal favorite. It´s a corn drink that tastes like berries and has a thicker consistancy, almost like jello before it coagulates. The add cinnamon or clove and the effect is the drink tingles your tongue and better cools your mouth after a spicy meal. It´s really wonderful. It also happened to be a hot day, which they´ve almost all been so far (in the 80s and humid). I could tell I was getting sunburned and had walked for several miles exploring the area and working up a sweat. Obviously I needed a good beer and for only seis soles more I bought a cerveza grande (630 ml) that topped off the meal. I included a tip since the waitress was very patient with me attempting spanish while flipping through my pocket dictionary and still all total I paid s/20 (about $7.50).

Story 3: The Dead de Lima

My second day I went out with Natalie, an Ausy friend I´d met the day before, to the ruins of Huaca Pucllana and to the Iglesia de San Francisco. Both were inexpensive and well informed tours, though I´m not really a tour type of guy, but at the top of the ruins was a good view of Miraflores and in the catacombs of the church were thousands of skulls and femur bones piled in pits some of which were 10 meters deep. Awesome, right? But the two greatest take aways were an understanding that Peruvians respect their indegenous ancestry, from the Lima people, to the Waris who conquered them, to the Incas who then conquered the Waris, and that the Lima peoples´ view of death had changed from the indegenous belief that the soul was attached to the body to the Catholic belief that death releases the soul from one´s body. If the Lima or Wari people had been piled like those in the Catholic church it would´ve been a dishonor and an attempt to rob them of an after life. It was a fun contrast to discover completely coincidently.

Story 4: Water and Light in the City

If you come to Lima you have to visit the Magic Water Circuit. 2nd world my ass. Near the center of Lima is a new park of fountains that is sure to entertain all age groups. From ones you can run through (yes you will get wet) to ones you can walk under (no you don´t have to get wet) to ones of epic scale that grow and change and jump and dance. But by far the greatest show that evening combined the use of water and light. Lasers used the constant streams of water to project images. A large portion of this show was dedicated to several Peruvian dances and the dancers, projected onto the water, appear as ghosts in the mist. Worth the s/4 entrance fee and the s/10 cab ride I split with two others. Smiles all night.

Story 5: A Night in Barranco

This is a similar story to many we´ve all had, I´m sure. A group of us went out bar hopping. We hoped to find salsa but instead found LMFAO. I party rocked in Lima until the first of us fell asleep at a table and we all went home. It was a fun night.

Story 6: The Cliffs of Miraflores

My friend Hasib and I decided to walk to the water, which neither of us had seen yet, after a large lunch with a group of friends. We didn´t have our cameras which was dissapointing because it was the most beautiful day of the summer. When we reached the cliffs overlooking the ocean we were even more upset to have forgotten our cameras because everyone else in Miraflores had also realized it was the most beautiful day of the summer. But the images are burned into my memory.

A sky full of paragliders. For s/150 you can tandem paraglide off the cliffs and I´m considering it once I get my new debit card, but on this day everyone was coming out to ride the updrafts off the ocean. There must´ve been more then 50 of them dotting the sky infront of me. One more launched every minute. First the strap themselves in, then they open up the chute and heft it into the air, immediately the wind takes it up and they brace themselves so as not to leave the ground. They walk towards the edge of the cliff and sway and jump. They fall no more then ten feet before they´re lifted up, up, up and over the land again. It was an amazing site to see, and yet there was more to come.

Further down the park, for the cliffs are one giant park which I´ve yet to walk to the end of, a group of caballero fighters had formed a cirlce and gathered a crowd. Caballero is a Brazillian form of fighting that masks itself as a dance. During the time of slavery it was illegal for the oppressed African people to have a way to fight back so the practice of caballero had to be hidden. Using a stick, a string, and a stone to adjust the pitch and by adding clapping and hand drums the caballero fighters created musical instruments and then chants to play and sing and trick the slavers. While the slave owners saw only a dance the slaves practiced martial arts. The practice looks like two people break dancing, their moves playing off one another, but these moves are really kicks, blocks, strengething poses, and grappling moves. The group in the park this day were of all different skill levels and ages. A large man, 250 pounds easy, was capable of hand stands and flips. A young boy of around 9 could hand spring into a round house kick. And every now and then two equally matched fighters would actually engage and break from the circle to wrestle it out on the grass. Always the two opponents and friends would hug it out and return to the circle. But the most amazing thing was how the circle began as a class, all in the same uniform, and grew as more and more strangers joined, all of whom entered the circle and fought/danced.

The park continued and continued as we passed more groups of talented people. A skate and bmx park was filled with Peruvian youths jumping, ollie-ing, and grinding along rails, dirt jumps, and half pipes. A drum circle with dancers performed by the edge of the cliff just past the skate park. And other groups of mixed ages practiced break dancing and a form of martial arts involving rolling techniques.

The day ended with a sunset over the ocean and a sky of red and orange clouds in a bed of pinks and yellows. And I still can´t believe neither of us had a camera.

Story 7: Surfing in Lima

Miraflores is a coast of pebble beaches and small but steady waves. Surfers are always out and about and for s/70 anyone can get a surf lesson and 3 hours of rented gear. I went with a group of 4 and so we cut a deal for s/60 a piece. I was given a wet suit, booties because of the pebble beaches (though I wish I hadn´t so my feet could´ve felt the board more), and a 9 foot board. The wet suit was difficult to put on until an American intern gave us plastic bags to put around our feet so they would slip right through. It worked like a charm. Her name was Jackie, and she had a distinct Long Island accent so I asked her if she lived near West Islip where my cousins are from. Turns out she was from West Islip and used to swim with my cousin Olivia. Small world.

The lesson began with a short run and a series of stretches and then we formed a circle around a bench. Our instructor, Carlos, showed us on the bench how to lie down, paddle, grab the board and lift yourself up when a wave came so as not to get a face full of board or salt water, and most importantly how to stand up. The trick is to take your back foot and bend it against your other knee so that the back side of your foot is against the board. Then you lift your chest up like you´re practicing yoga and with your other leg you plant your foot in front of you and stand up. It is not as easy as he made it look.

The water was warm yet refreshing from under Lima´s hot sun. The wet suit was unnecessary. We paddled out and out and out about 200 meters or more from shore. One at a time we would lie down facing the shore until our instructor told us to paddle and then we´d launch into a furry of strokes as we felt the wave reach us and lift us. At the last moment our instructors would give us a push and tell us to stand up and we would react in a chaotic spasm, our front leg coming forward, our back leg bending to the knee, and then we´d stand and fall off into the wave. And this is how it went everytime for me, except once, when I listened to my teacher and took my time. ¨Chill, Etan. This is surfing. This is feeling.¨ I heard stand up and rather then rushing into an awkward position I slowly brought my back foot forward, lifted my chest, placed my front foot on the board, and stood up. I was surfing. I rode that wave all the way into shore until I realized the pebbles beneath me would hurt and threw myself off into five feet of water, hitting my feet on the bottom but no more. I think it´s safe to say I´m hooked.

All four of us stood up that day, but none of us could last three hours. After only an hour in the water we´d paddled ourselves into a comforting exhaustion. Our shoulders ached from paddling, our necks ached from keeping our heads up, and the next morning my back ached from lifting myself off the board over every wave. It felt great. I can´t wait to take up surfing when I return to California.

One more week (double checking and waiting)

I leave in a week and it could not come sooner. I've enjoyed being home with my pops, seeing old friends and old haunts, but with zero plans or responsibilities I feel like a kid again (especially since I'm staying in my Dad's house). So I've started going back to the gym, trying to get a routine going, and I've double checked I have everything I need for Peru and South America. And I do (well, I need to decide on a travelers insurance plan, and set up a google voice account synced to my mobile number. But I know how to do those things and am just waiting until I leave). So now what? Count down the days people. I swear I'm having trouble sleeping at night because I'm so excited to go. Alright, check list.

Ticket - Check!

Hotel near JFK airport for the night before - Check!

Hostel in Lima - booked my first two nights ahead of time. Check!

Cab ride to Hostel - I arranged for a cab to meet me at the airport through the hostel I'm

staying at. Check!

Gear - (see my video post. I've now also added better bug spray at 98% Deet and a quart size

ziplock bag of liquids including soap that will work as body wash, shampoo, and for my

clothes) Check!

Money - Debit card (warned my bank I would be traveling so they wouldn't freeze my account),

and $200 worth of soles (Peruvian currency) for when I first arrive which equals 490

soles at my banks exchange rate (it will be cheaper out of ATMs but I'll be charged

about $3 to $4 per transaction). Check!

Companion - well, huh. Originally I planned to go alone, and I still might, but there's this woman who might come as well. She's a friend but she knows I am romantically interested and up until a few days ago she was going with me, but I may have blown it. See, I've always been the aggressor when going after what I want but a man who's dear to me changed my mind and gave me a new perspective (a paradigm shift). He said sometimes it's better to let things come to you (well done Dad). So if she does go then it will be as friends and I know we'll have a grand adventure together. And if not, then lesson learned. If not then I'll go see all I can, experience all I can, and learn all I can, and then when I get back... well... who knows?