So, yet again, I'm lying to you. I promised to tell you about the bug in my arm and yet again, I'm not going to today. I know, I know. I suck. But actually, this is better, I swear. I was going through some of my old emails yesterday to think about which of my hairy travel stories to include in my little tidbits collection of blog posts. And looking through them, I decided that I'm kind of over that particular string of posts. Cuz, come on, don't you feel like you could pass a few "getting to know me quizzes" by now.
The travel stories are pretty entertaining in and of themselves. I wasn't even sure where to begin, and if you think the last few posts have been long, detailing the random stupid shit I've done while traveling will be novellas. So I thought you might be interested, over the course of the next week, in seeing some of the emails I sent while I was in South America back in 2003. I think they're a pretty good representation of my travels in general, though lately I feel like my trips are few and far between. Sure, you'll miss a few stories with these emails. Like hearing about that time my friend was supposed to meet me in Istanbul and never showed. Or my crazy scary border crossing from Turkey into the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Or getting trapped in Dusselforf with no flight out and being as sick as a dog. But if I didn't have something to keep you on the hook for later on, what kind of of blogger would I be?
In 2003, I was in Peru and Bolivia for 6 weeks, mostly traveling alone. During that time, I sent emails to a long list of friends detailing my adventures. My apologies if you were one of ones who actually received these emails originally. Hopefully, its been a while, so they'll seem fresh. Oh, and I do have pics, but since I just thought of this whole string of posts this morning, I can't get to them. This was before I had a digital camera, so I have tons of prints somewhere. Maybe I'll have some time to scan some and put them up before I finish.
So, without further ado, and with some minor edits, here's the start of that trip on Dec. 26, 2002.
My first meal in Lima turned out to be at a hole in the wall Chinese place. How's that for an exciting South American experience? This guy I've been traveling with is vegan and didn't want to eat anywhere else. You know, I always decide that I'll eat whatever while traveling because there's no point going somewhere and not trying everything there. But this happens to me all the time. . . I end uptraveling with people who have way more dietary restrictions than even I do. I've found vegan kosher meals in Paris, vegetarian restaurants in Turkey and Georgia, etc. all because of the people I've traveled with. It obviously doesn't matter. I just think it's funny. This particular meal was an adventure because we weren't quite sure that we were ordering didn't have meat until it actually came out to the table, despite all of our broken Spanish-filled attempts to ask.
So I guess I've found a temporary traveling companion. This guy Mike who'd been on the plane with me since SFO and we finally started talking during a LONG layover in Costa Rica. His Spanish is worse than mine . . . you should have seen us at the restaurant last nite. He sits there trying to figure out every word anyone says to us by slowly looking it up in his dictionary. It seems to take him forever to get ready to go anywhere. It takes him forever to figure out change, what to order in a restuarant, and all those sorts of things, too. He loses even more stuff than I do. But he seems to be pretty good with a map. He's already pulled me out of the way of crazy Peruvian drivers a couple of times already. And he lets me make fun of him as much as I want. :) So I guess it'll be ok for a while. Besides, I can't quite seem to shake him anway. :-) So I figure I'll hang ontil Machu Picchu which is where'll probably split off. He's an interesting guy though, and a lot of fun. I guess in his real life, he lives in Portland OR and runs a small vegan food cart. Already, in the course of a couple of days, I know a lot more about him than some of my friends. That's the nice part about traveling that I've always loved, the instant bonds that develops with fellow wanderers.
Nothing too crazy so far. Lima's not that exciting. We were offered weed several times, just walking down the street. :) I didn't accept, of course. Someone tried to rip Mike's watch off from his wrist. Mostly, it's just like any other big city. But a lot poorer. Kinda dirty. Street vendors all over the place. Kids coming up to you in restaurants while you eat trying to get you to buy pieces of candy. Everything's really cheap. We felt proud that we walked around after our first night and managed to find a kick ass hotel that wasn't on Lonely Planet.
I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing next. I want to do the Machu Picchu trek before I meet my friend Daniel in La Paz. So I'll probably head out there tomorrow. Originally, I had been planning on taking a few more days to get there because there's this train that goes part of the way. And it's supposed to be a great ride. It goes throughone of the highest stations in the world. The scenery's supposed to be gorgeous. But apparently they've cancelled that train now. So Imight just head straight for Cuzco and start the trek.
Hope y'all are well. Happy New Year!
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