Sunday, December 28, 2008

Bolivia 1: We're back!



Man at visa counter: $110 USD for the visa, payable in Bolivianos.

Char and I: can we pay in USD?

Man: No, only Bolivianos.

Us: We don't have any Bs. We can pay $220 USD.

Man: It is *takes out calculator* 1540Bs.

- after security-escorted trip to money changer on the other side of Bolivian customs -

Us: here is 1540 Bs

Man: You can also pay in USD.

--- a little part of us dies ----

****************
The (brief) backstory of why we were in La Paz, Bolivia:

Me: I have one last trip to S. America, where should I go?
Eujin: Bolivia. It is weird and wonderful.
Unsuspecting Me: Ok!

****************

After the visa debacle, we attempt to check in for our flight to Rurrenabaque (gateway to Amazon rainforest). But no one was at the Amaszonas counter. We were starting to feel light-headed and nauseous from the altitude (LPB airport is at 13, 313 ft), so we went to a cafe for breakfast. It was 7AM. Our flight was scheduled for 11AM. 

A guy finally appeared at the counter, and said that it had rained the night before, so it was uncertain if it was safe to land on the dirt strip (aka runway) at Rurre.

The rest of the day passed in a drowsy blur, going something like this:

1. Feel dizzy. Sit down and fall asleep.
2. Wake up. Feel really good! Go to Amaszonas counter to talk to guy.
3. Guy says we have to wait. But maybe we will fly today.
4. Head starts to spin. Standing up is a bad idea. Grope my way back to seats.
5. Repeat from step 1.

2PM, the sun had apparently dried the runway enough that we would fly.
4PM, we got on the 19-seater twin propeller plane.
5PM, we landed in Rurre! Rurre reminds us of Malaysia/Indonesia/Guatemala. Dusty streets, chickens and motorcycles. But it's definitely a tourist town. There are many tour agencies, provision stores, and pizza bars.


6PM, we've booked a 3-day pampas tour with Fletcha tour agency
7PM, we've bought sunscreen, mosquito repellent, toilet paper, and water
8PM, we've had dinner, and think about going to bed. Picture below shows Charmaine in the fetal position, as she contemplates 2 more weeks in South America....

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Leonard visits during Thanksgiving wkend

Leonard came by frm Thurs-Mon, so I brought him to places that I wanted to go to before I left the bay area...
On saturday, we went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. It was awesome. Sometime between 2004 and now, the resident population of harbor seals and sea otters had been busy pro-creating, because it was even better than I remembered. Sea otters are really cute, especially when they're floating on their backs, munching on crabs and other delicacies from the river bed. Unfortunately, they tend to get scared and dive down when they see leonard enthusiastically paddling towards them on his kayak.

On the way back we stopped by the Gilroy factory outlets, to do our part for the US economy. They were having thksgiving sales, so stuff was cheaper but harder to find than usual.

The next day, we met Lennon and April in SF. We strolled down Haight st, walked into funky stores selling rubber chickens and staggeringly overpriced Japanese dolls, and had brunch at the Pork Store Cafe. The Cafe reminds me of Pete's Grill in Baltimore-- seating at the counter, staring in fascination while the cooks juggled hashbrowns, eggs, burgers, grits and pancakes on huge grills. We walked out replete, filled with food and kindness towards mankind. We also smelled like grease, but that's ok.
Next, we headed for the Sutro baths and the Land's End trail. It was a fabulous day-- great weather, amazing views of windswept cypress trees, ragged rocks, and SCARY waves. The trail was quite a trot. The first part was paved and full of families. The second part was less wheelchair-accessible, and definitely more quiet. 2 miles later we emerged at Eagles Point, next to beautiful and opulent houses. We walked back through city streets, with Leonard n Lennon discussing property prices and the impossibility of buying an apartment in SF.


Leonard's last day, we went to the San Jose Tech Museum. It was underwhelming. Too many kids, and not fun if you're over 12 yrs old. The 2 cool exhibits were 1) the robot that can draw you after taking a webcam pic; 2) the computer where you can design a rollercoaster ride, then 'ride' it in a stimulator. The best part of the trip was going back to Mt View and having ramen at Maru Ichi.

Beloved Ramen!
Thy scrumptious broth seeps inside
Bringing blissful thoughts

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Stuff to do

I've been trying to keep busy. trying to sort stuff out.

My to do list:
1) decide on the plan for bolivia.
2) work on hfb website
3) enjoy the bay area
4) work on publishing those papers
5) check out possible labs in singapore
6) make my keystone poster
7) finish reading my books on the portrayal of women in the media in the 1960s, and green economics
8) get over my current QE obsession

so far, I have
1) made a list of possible labs
2) watched many drama serials
3) looked at random bolivian websites

conclusion-- supremely unproductive. I think i will make a good vegetable. no wonder i find myself gravitating towards those 10 pound bags of potatoes at the supermarket. clearly, i recognize them as kindred souls.


The darkness beckons.
Land of opportunity
or enticing trap?

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Pearline is...

- watching the seconds tick away.
- listening to Bruises (by Chairlift) on repeat on youtube
- wondering whether I can just disappear
- very impressed by Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin
- in search of something that will silence the little voice inside my head
- lacking the motivation to do work
- wasting her time procrastinating while she could be somewhere over the rainbow
- clearly in need of drugs
- pink and black and blue

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Everclear - Santa Monica

I usually don't post lyrics, but this song struck a chord.

----------------------------

I am still living with your ghost
Lonely and dreaming of the west coast
I don't want to be your downtime
I don't want to be your stupid game

With my big black boots and an old suitcase
I do believe Ill find myself a new place
I don't want to be the bad guy
I don't want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore
I just want to see some palm trees
Go and try and shake away this disease

We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die

I am still dreaming of your face
Hungry and hollow for all the things you took away

I don't want to be your good time
I don't want to be your fall-back crutch anymore

I'll walk right out into a brand new day
Insane and rising in my own weird way
I don't want to be the bad guy

I don't want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore
I just want to feel some sunshine
I just want to find some place to be alone

We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die

------------------------------

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Why I like being home

- Being home = holiday = no work
- Being taken care of (and shamelessly taking advantage of it)
- Food, endless food

Leaving home for America always surprises me by the pang of.. um... homesickness? regret? despair?... that it evokes. Je ne sais quoi. But once I get back it disappears and I slip right back into the usual home-lab-home routine. So I know this reluctance is very temporary.

Luz is talking about marriage and looking at condos. I saw Gerry's kid at the class reunion. He is very cute. He runs around. And um.. Yirong's bf looks disturbingly like Tiannuo.

These past few weeks I feel like I've been living in a bubble-- I see and hear stuff going on outside, but I have this buffer zone. I observe but nothing seems quite real to me. Or it's like I'm at the zoo. I dunno.

I need to string together coherent sentences and thoughts, but am kinda mixed up now. Life will be better after Sept 2nd. It's a spectre that invades my consciousness and sub-consciousness and unconsciousness. I'm glad I'm going back to Stanford. I need to focus on work. Too many distractions.

Monday, May 05, 2008

I want to go home

cheesy but true. I always start to miss home about a year after my last trip. But this time there's a greater fatigue, I think. Maybe I just lack stamina... but the whole PhD thing has been an awfully long process... Ok. whatever. Will stop complaining.

Yesterday I volunteered to been an extra in the inde-documentary, the 'Qiu Jin Project'. It's about the life and deeds of Qiu Jin, 'China's first feminist' according to the website. So apparently she went around inspiring women to become independent, educated, and demand equality in the household. She also trains a 'woman army', which is where we came in. Filming was yesterday at Berkerley, and they sent emails to all the Bay Area wushu lists to ask for Asian women who know wushu to be part of this 'army'.

There were roughly 30 of us: young and not-so-young, beginners to advanced, at Tilden Park. The person who played Qiu Jin is Li Jing, formerly of the Beijing Wushu Team. She taught us a basic routine, which we then did for like, 20 takes. Then we did a sequence of 10 punches for roughly 15 takes. Then we sat around looking inspired and awed while she demo-ed a routine. (10 takes) Then we sat around looking thoughtful, confused and maybe slightly inspired and awed while she made a speech about how women should be independent (10 takes each for 2 speeches). The whole thing lasted frm about 9am - 2pm.

I've decided that being a movie star is not for me. And probably being a director/camera man/producer etc is also not for me.

Check out the movie trailer, and a Lijing demo reel:



Monday, March 24, 2008

Explosion

It's spring again. I know because my nose is blocked and my eyes are dry and itchy, I sneeze ALL THE TIME, and I generally feel like crap. The weather is gorgeous, the flowers are producing pollen like there's no tomorrow, and here I am, wanting to rip my eyes out to wash in a bowl of cool saline. And people wonder why I'm bitter and cynical.

xiao mei is off for break. clearly, the only bright spark in my life now is the roll of dark chocolate digestive biscuits sitting on my desk.


Just watched "Lust, Caution", the film directed by Ang Lee about the head of the Taiwanese secret service (Tony Leung) during the Japanese occupation, and a young student (Tang Wei) roped in by the resistance movement to become his mistress in order to spy on him and eventually help kill him. There's all this outrage about the film because it has some very graphic sex scenes. But after watching the show, I think that those scenes are actually necessary for plot development. Perhaps not quite as many? But at least some of them are needed. Because they demonstrate Tony Leung's dominating character, so that when Tang Wei tells her spy master to hurry up and kill Tony Leung because he is burrowing into her heart and soul, you see the empty look in her eyes, and you remember all the sex scenes, you just FEEL for this poor woman. And when the spy master simply leaves the room without ONE WORD of consolation or apology, both char and I were like "WTF!! What is WRONG with these men?"

*sigh*

Joanna was saying that women find it hard to divorce physical intimacy with emotional intimacy. Actually, I think it's probably true for most men too. Raul was telling me about his friend who was with this girl, but told Raul that it was 'just for the sex'--- but after 3 months he became all lovey-dovey and emotionally needy.


Haven't read much in a while. Am trying to take time off to write my thesis. So far, progress has been excruciatingly slow. No motivation. But today I met Nancy who defended in Dec and just turned in her thesis. And Serena has set her defense date for May.

WTF am I doing? I feel like I'm losing focus. It's hard to maintain focus because it's such a long process. I think: Ok, I need to do expt A, B and C. But expt A takes 1 month to set up (waiting for mice to breed), and 1 month to see results, and it's similar for expt B and C. so meanwhile I try to write, but I get distracted and depressed because it's taking so damn long.

I thought that maybe taiji will teach me to be calm. But I've done taiji for 3-4 yrs now and I don't think I'm any calmer than before.

Maybe Lena is right. We need to set up a thesis support group. I need someone to hold me accountable for my work. Define clear goals. 10 achievable steps to success.

1. Write chapter outlines. Decide roughly what figures and tables are needed where.

2. Plan out what other expts need to be done to fill in the blanks

3. Do the expts

4. Write chapter 2.

5. Write chapter 3.

6. Write chapter 4.

7. Write chapter 1 (intro)

8. Write last chapter.

9. Write abstract.

10. Proof read.

There! with these '10 Steps to Success', I CANNOT FAIL!!!

*mwuahahahahah*

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Final day in Lima, and final thoughts about Peru

Our final full day in Peru! We're not sure what to do, and don't wanna spend any $$. From our hostel in Miraflores, we decide to walk 2km to see this adobe pyramid that the LP guidebook says is free. They LIED. It costs 7 soles. and looked really pathetic from the outside, so we didn't go in.

Instead, that afternoon we catch a bus to Lima Centrale. That was definately an experience. The main plaza was filled (as usual) with lovely colonial buildings. We were intrigued by the presence of a police armored vehicle with a water cannon mounted on its roof:


We also went to Chinatown. It was the most chaotic Chinatown I've ever seen. In my entire life. There were people EVERYWHERE. and half of them were trying to sell you underwear, skipping ropes, brooms... it was incredible. Also of note were the men with the big boobs and cute behinds:


*grin*

We had a good time exploring Chinatown. Not much else to say about Lima, apart from the fact that Chris, whom we first met on day 1 without his camera, is STILL at the Samay Wasi, waiting for his mother to send him a new one.


In summary, Peru was awesome. The food was generally good, the sights were spectacular, the people were friendly, and the entire south american vibe was weird and wonderful. Much thanks to JM, Jon, Bert and Char for coming along, and being great travel companions. (One observation about traveling with guys-- they are ALWAYS hungry. ALWAYS.)

I also got a deep dark tan, and nice rosy cheeks that last to this day.

My next trip: Bolivia! Details to follow next year. =).

Monday, February 04, 2008

Machu Picchu At Last!

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to buy our MP tix (a hefty 60 soles pax for students), and caught the first bus (5.30am) up to the site (round trip tix costs 36 soles -- this is turning out to be an expensive trip).

Upon entering the site, we dutifully take the first left turn as instructed by the guidebook, and emerge upon a terrace with the classic postcard view of Machu Picchu:


There! Isn't it pretty??? Note how the mountains behind kinda looks like the face of an Inca -- on the right is the forehead, the big one (Wayna Picchu) is the nose, followed by the lips and the chin. Cool, right?? At the time the picture was taken, the sun was still taking it's time to emerge from behind the surrounding mountains, so only Wayna Picchu is nicely illuminated. But when the sun came completely out, the view was even more spectacular.

We spent the next couple hours just exploring the site,


glorifying at the incredible stonework,


watching the free-roaming llamas that were grazing on the grass,


and climbing Wayna Picchu.


It was great. I was almost afraid of going because with such anticipation, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. But MP did not disappoint. It was every bit as beautiful and spectacular and wonderful as all the guidebooks and blogs and websites say it is. I mean, it's a charming stone-city set atop a hill, surrounded by awe-inspiring mountains. Just the sun reflecting off the buildings is cool. Add the lush surroundings and you've got a sure-winner. It's amazing to imagine the Incans living here, terracing the slopes, running off on the trail to other cities... btw, the rows upon rows of agricultural terraces make me dizzy. If you're an Incan suffering from vertigo, you're in big big trouble.

Then we took the bus back and looked for lunch. To our amazement and delight, all the restuarants at Aguas Calientes had cuy! Finally! They roast it in a stone oven, and it tastes pretty good. A little stringy (think tough village chicken) but I like the slight chewyness. Charmaine couldn't eat very much because she kept thinking of how cute they look when they were alive-- ironic because she was such a proponent of eating cuy in the first place.


Not much else to say about MP. The next morning we returned to Cusco, and the morning after flew back to Lima. One quick observation about the Cusco airport: it kinda worked like a bus terminal: We check in, and give them our bags. They staple number tags on your bag, put them on a cart, and bring it to the back of the office, which leads to.... the runway. It was a bit of a surprise. but we ended up safely in Lima, so all is well.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Cusco and the Sacred Valley

It was with great excitement that we set off for the last leg of our journey-- Cusco and Machu Picchu! MP, the legendary 'Lost City of the Incas', was my primary motivation for coming to Peru in the first place.

After an epic 9hr bus ride from Puno to Cusco (involving a bus driver who would stop for inordinately long and unexplainable lengths of time; loud latin music, all of which seem to be lamenting this woman named 'Mariesol'; lights that would flash on and off; a little girl that started playing footsie with me...), we finally arrive with our nerves shaken, but intact. We drop our bags off at the Pirwa Hotel at the Plaza de San Francisco (nice place, free internet, but barely any hot water in the evenings), and head to the Plaza des Armes for some chow.

Cusco is wonderfully quaint. Cobblestone streets, narrow roadways, beautiful plazas. Unfortunately, the Plaza is a huge tourist trap. We were immediately accosted by one heckler after another, promoting this bar, or that restaurant, promising free Pisco Sours, etc. Didn't help that it was 10pm, and there were hardly any tourists around except us. Still. We wanted to have guinea pig (cuy), but it takes 2 hrs to prepare, so we settled for a place that had alpaca meat. Alpaca is a llama relative. 100% alpaca wool feels like merino, but smoother, and is well worth the hefty price tag. Alpaca meat is very tender-- slightly more succulent than beef. But it has a slight gamy-ness, though not as strong as lamb. It reminds me of venison. I really liked it. *salivating at the memory*

The next day was Christmas eve! The entire stretch of Plaza de SF - Plaza des Armes became a huge fair/market. Vendors had little stalls as far as the eye could see, selling typical Christmas wares-- fireworks, fruit cake, brandy, and cute little animal figurines for DIY nativity scenes!!! There was also the usual tourist stuff. It was fun. We were very tempted to buy a fruitcake. None of us liked fruitcake... but we somehow felt this incredible peer pressure (?) to get one, since they were everywhere, and everyone seemed to be buying them. I am happy to report our success at resisting temptation. Instead, we bought our train tix to MP and took a collectivo taxi to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. (On the way, our driver made a stop at his home in Urubamba, so he could drop off some tires with his parents. We were told to hang out at the Plaza to take pictures...)


The next day, we decided to explore the ruins at Pisac. It's an Incan fortress perched on the hillside, and the entire site is way larger than MP. It was surprisingly fun to explore. The guys especially were scrambling up the omg-are-these-steps-or-crumbling-slides, going through the tunnels, climbing to the top of little outposts etc with evident enjoyment. Charmaine and I were pretending to be Incan guards on patrol, scanning the hills opposite and valley floor below for signs of invaders. It was great!!! We also met a German couple who had lived in Singapore for some years, and were delighted to once again meet *german accent*: "SING-GA-PORE GIRLS".


We search in vain for cuy (guinea pig) for lunch. After lunch, I finally ask a nice man if he's heard of these 'castles of cuy'. We follow his directions, and end up... HERE:


Oh Joy! They are so cute! And they make cute gobbledy noises! We're really upset that we didn't find this place before lunch, although how would we be able to eat roast cuy while sitting next to their adorable and alive brethren???

Ah well. We catch a bus back to Olly, passing towns that had multiple processions of maidens in white dresses and weird face masks, in celebration of Christmas (Navidad). ???

That evening we take the train to Aguas Calientes, the nearest town to MP.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Lake Titicaca and the Uros

Lake Titicaca is a huge freshwater lake, in the highlands (12,500ft!) between Peru and Bolivia. It is also home to the Uros people, who live on the lake, on floating islands made of totora reeds. While trawling the LP forum, I read a post by some guy who actually arranged to spend a night on one of the islands. After reading his enthusiastic review, we decided to contact Victor and Cristina, who run the setup. This led us to the most unique experience of our 2 weeks in Peru.

From Arequipa, we call Cristina to arrange pick up from the Puno bus terminal. We were met by Mariebelle, Cristina's daughter. In the taxi to the lake, I try to make conversation, but my spanish is woefully inadequate. Char was in the 2nd taxi so i was missing my translator.. We end up smiling a lot at each other. Mariebelle seems like a very happy person.

At the lake we were met by Victor, and his reed boat! He rows us to the island-- Isla Qhantati. Words fail to adequately express our wonder and joy at this moment. The reed boat is so cool! The sun was marvelous! Victor was wearing this cute woolen cap! And telling us about the lake and the ducks and the totora... He tells us that each boat takes 1 month to make, and uses many bundles of totora, and 200 plastic bottles (a modern innovation). They slowly soak up water, becoming harder and harder to row, and are retired after 18-24mths. We make a mental note to give them our water bottles before we leave the island.


After navigating through a maze of reeds, we arrive at the Uros village (?), and Isla Qhantati. The island is not very big-- maybe about 10 huts, housing 5 families. (when an island gets too small for the families, they simply make a new island) It's next to many other islands, all of them anchored to poles driven into the mud. The 'floor' is made of layers of totora, which is invitingly fresh, and springy to walk on. All the Uros walk around in bare feet, but Victor advises us to wear shoes, because some of the reeds can be sharp.


Victor tells us about the history of the Uros, about how they were fishermen, who traded with the other Andean tribes. However, when the Spanish came, half the tribe fled to Bolivia, and the other half decided to escape by living on the floating reed beds in the shallow part of the lake. They still make a living by fishing, and trade fish for other necessities at the market. However, they are now also doing the tourism thing to make money to send their kids to university. Victor proudly shows us the modern improvements they have made to Qhantati-- they have solar panels, a porta-potty (for the tourists), and a little garden made from composted reeds.

In the evening, after a delicious meal, we meet the extended family, who express their delight at meeting us. They sing us a traditional song in Aymara, about the sun, the lake, and the waters of their fathers, and also a song in Quechua about being happy that the sun is shining. They then launch into an impressive repetoire of songs that other guests have taught them, in spanish, english, french and german-- one of which is 'My Bonnie lies over the ocean'. It was quite surreal. We feel obliged to also share a song. In the end, we teach them a song in mandarin about 3 little mice, and a song in english about catching fish alive..... not quite a fair cultural exchange, I felt. Here we were learning about their amazing traditions, and the bond they have with the reeds and the lake, and the only thing we can offer them about our culture is a song about 3 mice.

*sigh*

The next day was equally fabulous and enchanting. Early in the morning we went out to harvest the fishing nets that were placed the afternoon before. Victor kindly let us 'help' untangle the fish from the net. He told us that the yellow-bellied ones were female, with more fat, which is good for the brain. Apparently the Uros children are fed a lot of this brain-food, so they become very smart. =)


When we got back Victor teaches us how to weave thread around small strips of totora to make a sun-pattern. The sun is one of the most important elements, and features heavily in their crafts and embroidery. We are extremely slow learners, but Victor is a patient man.

Lunch is truncha from their fish pond! Cristina removes the spine, and stuffs it with tomato, garlic and cilantro. It is then wrapped in aluminium foil, and baked in the sun. It is AMAZING.


Unfortunately, we had to leave for Cusco that afternoon, and could not enjoy more of Victor's and Cristina's hospitality. It was the most meaningful experience I had in Peru, and I would do it a hundred times over. Highly highly recommended. However, they don't speak much english. So if you have zero spanish ability, please go take a class or two before going, or beg a spanish speaking friend (thank you Charmaine) to come along.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Arequipa, and the Life-changing Colca Canyon

The bumpy bus ride from Nasca to Arequipa was not as wonderful as advertised. Bleary-eyed, we arrived sometime ard 7 or 8am, and checked into our hostel, the aptly named "Home Sweet Home". Indeed, this was the best hostel of the entire trip. For 20soles pax, we had: a private room for 5, free breakfast, free internet, and UNLIMITED HOT WATER. Oh the Joy!!! Never underestimate the moral-shattering ability of cold water.


We take a short nap, then go out to explore. The main plaza (Plaza des Armes) is extremely nice. There's a big cathedral on one side, and low colonial buildings on the other 3 sides. The square in the middle had a lovely fountain, nice trees and flowers, park benches, multitudes of pigeons... Charmaine was delighted to see that there was a protest going on. Many people were holding up banners... Didn't bring the dictionary, so don't know what the banners were saying... something about the judiciary(?) The protesters were also delighted to see us. When C went forward to take a picture of them, they shouted 'Chino!', and waved.


After lunch, we went 'shopping' for a Colca Canyon tour. The Colca canyon, which reaches depths of 3400 ft, is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon (1600ft)! We choose a 2D/1N trek from a cute tour operator named Lady. She assured us that it would be an easy-moderate hike: the guide will pick us up at 1am, we'll take a 6hr bus ride to Cabanaconde (town on canyon rim), get breakfast. Hike down to the canyon floor takes 3hrs. After lunch, we'll meander ard the canyon floor, passing several villages. 3hrs later, we shd arrive at our final village, where we relax, have dinner, then sleep. Next morning we'll wake up at 3am, hike up the canyon (3-4hr) back to Cabanaconde.

At 1am, we wait expectantly for the guide.
At 2am, we give up waiting and go back to sleep
At 2.10am, we hear a knock on the door. It's Lady, our travel agent! Apparently the guide could not find the hostel, gave up, and left for Colca without us. Lady hustles us into a taxi, and gets us tickets for the next bus to Colca.

10am, we arrive at Cabanaconde. The guide (Anhil) is there with the rest of our group-- 2 Israeli girls (Maya and her sister A--). We start hiking down the Canyon. 2hrs later, we're still hiking down. Man... this canyon goes on Forever! We can see the bottom, but it's taking a heck of a long time to get there. Also, the path is often sandy and gravelly. And Bert and Char have bad knees. This is harder than we'd thought... Conversation became as thin as the air.


1pm, we reach the bottom! Yay. Now for a short but extremely steep section up to the lunch spot. But finally! Lunch! We are so tired. Lunch was a great onion-quinoa soup, followed by tofu with rice (apparently one of the Israelis is vegetarian and had requested a veg-menu). Quinoa is an important Andean grain, regarded as the "Mother of all grains" by the Incas. An extremely interesting page about quinoa can be found on wikipedia.

After lunch, we start hiking again. The canyon is pretty green and lush this time of year, and we see random vegetation, as well as fruit trees and maize. The trail gets pretty interesting-- we were hopping over streams, and walking through a field... Oops. In front of us was a massive gully. Er. The guide mutters something, then instructs us to wait in the field. Apparently we had missed a right turn, followed a cow-route, and were now in prime grazing property.

*sigh*

we retrace our steps, and were once again on the right path. we hit the gully again, but this time there was a steep trail leading down, and a dauntingly long n steep trail leading back up. wow. this trek is turning out to be a journey of epic proportions.

suffice to say we finally make it up, and walk for roughly another hour (downhill again!?! why can't these !$^#&* people make trails on level ground?) to the final village of the day. To top things off, it was rapidly getting dark, there were storm clouds above, and it started raining towards the end.

At the village we gratefully sank onto the beds provided, in little huts with dirt floors. Although the showers were COLD, I was just so grateful to be 1) clean and 2) not walking.

The next morning, we wake up at 2am to begin our ascent back into civilization. It is a steep trail with never ending switchbacks. Charmaine was really suffering through this. Her knees had taken a beating throughout the 3 hr descent the day before, she had flat feet so her arches were just dying with every step, she was tired, and we forgot to bring food for the way up (our luggage was being carried up by a mule that would start the ascent an hour later). Our superhuman guide must have been part mountain-goat, because he showed zero signs of fatigue.

When the mules started to overtake us, one of the guys offered us a ride up for 25 soles. Char gratefully accepted, and trouped off ahead. The rest of us trudged determinedly onwards. I'm not sure how all of us survived and made it up, but finally, one of the summits ahead was indeed the true summit (and not yet another evil imposter). As I emerged onto the plain above, the sun lighting the mountains in the distance with its magical alpen glow, the town where breakfast would be served clearly in sight... emotion welled in my chest.

Unfortunately, our guide managed to get us lost again on the way to breakfast. It was another 20mins to the Most Amazing hot tea, eggs, bread and jam that I have ever had the privilege of consuming.

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. We went to the Cruz del Condor, but couldn't see any condors because of the heavy mist, then returned to Arequipa via the town of Chivay (pronounced 'chee-vai'-- this has disturbing similarities to a swear word in hokkien). But that day was also the day of our most amazing Peruvian shower, and our most delicious dinner (3kg of fried pork: chicharrón de chancho with our tour operator Lady).


We left Arequipa the next morning for the town of Puno, at Lake Titicaca.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Onward: To Nazca, and Beyond!

We did not linger long in Lima, but caught a morning bus to Nazca, 7.5hr away by bus. It was slightly startling to discover that our taxi to the bus terminal harbored a stowaway in the hatchback....


The bus ride was supremely boring, and was not at all assuaged by their choice of in-flight movies: Broken Arrow, Cheaper by the Dozen, Sorority Boys and Jewel of the Nile, all dubbed in spanish, with No Subtitles. As we rolled by sand dune after sand dune, I definitely had a mild 'why am I here' existential moment... But I must say that compared to the sardine-like chicken buses in Guatemala, Peruvian buses were a lot more comfortable-- with assigned seating (only 1 person per seat!) and even movies.

That night, we celebrated JM's birthday with Pisco sours (pisco is a peruvian grape brandy) and our first taste of Lomo Saltado (a 'tipycal' dish: strips of beef fried with onions and french fries-- tasted pretty good, and actually a little asian...). Back in the hotel, we went to bed early, in preparation for our early morning tour of the Nazca Lines.

Unfortunately, sometime ard 4am, we were vaguely awakened by mosquitoes, roosters, noises from a fiesta, and by people stomping around outside our room. Bert told us the next morning that he was convinced that the people outside were preparing to storm our room to kidnap us and our valuables... Um. Perhaps those nefarious characters were aware that we had 2 highly trained military personnel in the room (B & JM); Suffice to say that the noises eventually died down (hopefully someone managed to strangle the rooster) and we drifted back to sleep.

Anyways. The highlight of our Nasca adventure was the famous Nazca Lines! These are massive geoglyphs (drawings on the ground) found in the gravel-desert near the town of Nasca. While it is now widely accepted that the lines were created by the Nasca culture sometime ard 200BC and AD700, there was a theory that the lines were made by aliens!?! You can read about one attempt to disprove the alien theory-- by recreating one of the Nasca figures in a field in Kentucky-- here. I also like the Nasca info pages by BBC and the Discovery Channel.


The best way to see the lines is by plane. For US$40pax, you can hire a teeny weeny (non-polka dotted) plane to fly u over the lines. These planes seat 4-6 people total, and the pilots are extremely anxious that u get a good view of the lines-- ours obligingly tilted the plane nearly 90degrees to the right and left, to ensure that we don't miss out on the marvels of the whale, dog, monkey etc etc... My stomach was definately regretting the one cookie I had for breakfast.


After the over-flight, we arranged for a tour of the Chauchilla cemetery. The Nascans mummified their dead, and buried them in small underground tombs with objects that they'll need in the afterlife-- gold, pottery, some textiles, tools.... The chauchilla cemetery is estimated to contain about 5000 tombs!! The mummies are quite, quite macabre. There were even babies and children...


The gut-churning flight, in addition to the mummies, left us in no mood for lunch. We basically spent the rest of the day hanging out in the hotel lobby, playing cards, then caught a night bus to Arequipa.

Peru 1: Hola Lima

Happy new year!! Sorry for the spoiler, but I'm back frm Perú! Safe and in one piece.

To start at the beginning.....

Last yr's trip to Guatemala was but a detour from our ultimate destination: Perú! I was convinced that I needed to see Machu Picchu before I die. This year, our merry band consisted of Bert, Jon, Jianmin, Charmaine, n myself.

We were much better prepared this time! Both Char n I had taken a quarter of Spanish, and C summered for a month in Argentina. Also, I had spent a lot more time bonding with my Peru guidebook, and drew up a rough plan on my post-it pad. Best of all, we had pre-booked our 1st night in Lima, and someone would get us frm the airport.

The adventure started at SFO: arriving in plenty of time to check in, we were horrified to find a sea of people and luggage at the TACA counter. After 1.5hrs of standing in line, and listening to the guy behind us (Mike) talk about himself and all the Silicon Valley bigwigs he knows and whom invite him to their houses in Carmel, we finally make it onto our flight and arrived in Lima without further mishap.

Our Lima hostel was in the tourist district of Miraflores, a lovely beachside district. Monica at the hostel recommended that we go to the LarcoMar mall-- a frou-frou hangout for trendy Limeños and tourists. Our first Peruvian dinner consisted of risotto, seafood paella, seabass, and ceviche. Ceviche is raw seafood marinated in lime juice, and the citric acid denatures the proteins, so it tastes cooked. Read about it on wikipedia here.


The next day, we wake up to find that Jianmin had arrived safely from Cornell. His flight was actually due 2 hours before ours, and throughout the night we had been envisioning all the possible gruesome kidnapping scenarios that might have befallen him. It wasn't helpful that some guy at the hostel (Chris) had just returned that evening from central Lima, after having 2 guys attack his Adam's apple and running off with his bag and camera. Chris was now spending the night commiserating with a Korean girl who had had her bag stolen in a bar at Cusco.

Turns out, JM had not been kidnapped. His flight was delayed due to bad weather, and he also spent some time in an interrogation room in Columbia during his stopover in Bogota. (I'm not too clear about the details here. gotta ask him yourself)