Cuzco

Aaaaand the vacation has officially begun. Packing took forever and was horribly sad, because I wasn’t just packing for 3 weeks in Peru, I also had to clean everything out of my room so that my host mom can paint it and turn it into her office while I’m gone… the classic “oh, we rented out your room while you were away” — only it’s literally true in this case, she’s a psychologist and also renting it to another psychologist starting in mid-August. But luckily I can still stay there when I’m in Buenos Aires, which won’t really be that much time between now and September, so it’s okay.

Anyway, the trip here was pretty uneventful. The flight from BA to Lima might have been a little turbulent — or maybe the spontaneous passenger applause when we landed was for some other reason — but I’m actually not really sure, because I slept the entire time. But luckily I managed to keep my eyes open from Lima to Cuzco, because the view was spectacular. I had a hugely hard time not using up an entire memory card just with those out-the-window shots (the ones that I always have to take, but that never come out well). Soooo now I’m in Cuzco, and getting really worried because John was supposed to get in yesterday and I still haven’t heard from him!!

Just kidding. (that was pretty funny, wasn’t it, Mom? Rest assured that he was thrilled you followed his flights second-by-second over the Internet.) Actually, he got in yesterday morning, a couple of hours late but with no major problems other than a serious lack of sleep, which he is busy making up for at the moment. Yesterday we didn’t really do much, just walked around Cuzco and visited a couple of tourist agencies and ate lunch and tried to fend off the hordes of little boys selling postcards on the main plaza. I’m telling you, that last bit took some effort — those kids are seriously aggressive. It took us almost 5 minutes to convince one boy (maybe 6 or 7 years old) that I really, really, really was serious when I said that I didn’t want to buy anything, and that him placing the whole pile of postcards on my arm when I wouldn’t take it voluntarily did not change that fact… but finally he got the point, turned around angrily, and “accidentally” kicked me as he walked away. I’ve officially made my first Peruvian enemy.

After that incident, we decided we’d better get out of Cuzco. Well, there maybe wasn’t such a cause-and-effect there, but Cuzco can be a little overwhelmingly touristy and we weren’t planning to stay here forever anyway. Probably we’re not going to do any sort of Inca Trail hiking — the main one has apparently been completely booked since March, and the alternates don’t actually sound that thrilling. So we might spend a couple more days in the Sacred Valley, and then head to Machu Picchu, and then to Lake Titicaca, although nothing’s definite yet.

One thing that’s fun (and amusing) about having J here is that I get to watch his reactions to various S. American weirdnesses. Like how you can’t trust the plumbing enough to flush anything down the toilet, and how it’s the biggest pain in the world to get change for any bill over 20 soles. And (his biggest complaint) how the sun is always in a different part of the sky, so if your sense of direction depends on remembering where North is, expect to feel permanently lost. I think he brought that one up about every half-hour yesterday. And once again, I get to feel like a wickedly good Spanish speaker, because instead of having to compare myself with Argentine university students I can compare myself with other tourists. Although I do have my moments… yesterday I tried to ask what time Sunday Mass (misa) was in the Cathedral, and instead I ended up asking for the “time of the dough” (masa). Confusion on all sides. Oops.