I have been struck with a mad case of the winter blahs. How does one know if one is suffering from this condition? I shall list the symptoms in no particular order:
• Lack of pizzazz (check)
• The strange desire to crawl into bed at 4pm and not come out until spring (check)
• Heartache for those people suffering on an island flattened by nature's fiery (check)
• Missing one's love due to distance & above heartache (check... 567 Km to be exact)
Perhaps this is why South America seems like a vague memory wedged somewhere between fuzzy moments and exciting times, in my memory bank. With all the sad images and newsbreaks and thousands lost buried disappeared it seems strange to be reveling in past fun-cations. Perhaps this is why the shelves filled with fluffy good time memories are wedged somewhere in the dark corners, collecting dust and mites. Let's see if we can dust them off shall we?
After shlepping our way to our dreamy beds back in Cusco (same rooms and beds for all of us!!), Mom and Maggie took nice hot showers and left Molly and I sans warm water, another night to marinate in our own trekking juices... Yum.
We'd booked ourselves three days in Cusco, to see and do everything we'd missed prior to the big hike. What did we do? Not much. Honestly, it was lovely. After being on a tight schedule with every minute calculated and accounted for it was like skipping out on history class for a day at the coffee shop gossiping with an equally unmotivated friend. Did I ever tell you about the report card I brought home in grade 11 which noted my 30-something "absent" classes??? I LOVE skipping school. Rebel without a clue or care, baby.
We popped our heads into the odd art gallery or museum, but really what we wanted to do was just stroll and eat and read and eat and shop and eat. So we did. Picking up Peruvian art work, sweaters, scarves... my god, my mother was unstoppable. The woman was born to shop.
I mostly sat outside the shops and stared at people passing, pretending to analyze the cobblestones or skyline, in hopes of maybe understanding the local gossips, sitting across the street. But alas, as much as I'd hoped, my mouth did not spill forth spanish words and phrases, nor did my ear suddenly, magically pick up the perfect understanding of what was being said. On a positive note, it meant I wasn't really eavesdropping as much as hoping to catch any word I might know. "oooh they're talking about guinea pig, maybe they're discussing dinner?" "Chico?What did the boyfriend do I wonder?" And so on and so forth. I can only imagine what they thought of me, some white girl with a burnt nose sitting outside, squinting and tilting her head, looking most perplexed or perhaps even constipated. Sigh... so much for being mysterious.
At one point while on holidays from our vacation abroad, the skies opened up and drained every ounce of fluid collected in each foreboding cloud. The streets turned to churning rivers of brown soupy water, collecting sewage and drowning rats as it went. But we didn't care. We happily rooted ourselves to our table in an australian cafe, where they served homesick travelers, comfort food like avocado on toast, traditional english breakfasts and giant salads.
Not that we were homesick or food sick for that matter. Peruvian food is delicious in every way, though none of us dared try the guinea pig. It would be like eating dog in Asia. Or a child in Canada... just not right.
By the time our itinerary (neatly printed and folded in Molly's travel pouch) told us it was time to leave Cusco, we were revitalized and ready for the amazon basin... a little heat was needed to stave off the mountain chills seeping into our bones in the Cusco squares. Loaded down with another suitcase full of artesian stuff we said good bye to our host mother and beat it to the airport ready for the next leg of the adventure.
PS I took a little break from lugging around my camera while in Cusco. Sometimes I feel the giant lens and camera body makes me stand out and I often want to blend in. So I've picked out a few photos from we heart it to illustrate our stay there. Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment