A typical problem: When I'm in one place I'm often wishing I were in another. So I find myself now, sitting in my bedroom at Yale College and wishing I were somewhere else. This may be a symptom of the liberal arts education. How am I supposed to enjoy being here, in the dry shackles of academia, when everything that I study tells me that there is so much more to see in the world? How am I supposed to avoid wishing for elsewhere?
I never thought I would want to visit the middle east, for instance, until I began taking my Islamic art class. Guess what? Islam has such a remarkable visual tradition. Thank goodness there are classes around to teach me about it! Thank goodness that I've been given the distinct privilege to take such classes. But how am I supposed to continue enjoy something like a CLASS once I've been given a little taste of what's out there to be seen, when the professor is hinting at this vast corpus of knowledge available OUT THERE.
The same goes for my Radical Cinemas class. It's such a deeply provocative subject, but how misplaced it feels to be seriously considering radical representations of the plight of the poor when you're in a school that runs on a 30 billion dollar budget, where the walls are sprouting ivy. It's problematic, really.
I fear that I am becoming too suspicious of the establishment. How to solve this?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Fluxx
I'm glad that's school's started. The summer ended with a weekend at Monica's, which good fun. It was cool hanging out at her place, which was incredibly comfy even though there were a ridiculous number of houseguests there at the same time. Easily my favorite part of the weekend was our ride down the Providence East Bay bike path on Sunday morning. I hadn't gone on a bike in a while, but we had a really lovely ride (quite long and grueling but fun) through some of New England's best urban scenery, arriving at a very old carousel and a private beach where the ground was like sludge but the water rang pure.
I took the Amtrak back to New Haven the day dorms opened. New Haven doesn't ever change much, except that the 'residents,' the people who hang out on street corners and park their bikes curbside, seem especially discontent. Must be the state of the country right now; it's got everyone tied up in knots. That first day back, I zipcar-ed to pick up Kirsty at the airport in Hartford, and we ate burger king and listened to awful music on the way back. That night BF performed, at later on we met up to hang out and watch planet earth. Things got weird after that though- I fear that they've even taken a turn for the worst, but that's another conversation, I think.
I picked up Ming in Newark a couple of days later. That was something of an adventure, in that I had no idea how to get there and found myself quite nervous to be on the toll road with such poor directions. I got kind of lost- but found myself again without too much trouble (and with Ming's help). At her place, her mom made a really delicious lunch of Chinese foods. I hadn't met Ming's mother before, but found it wonderful that the two of them looked so much alike. When all was said and done, we had quite a humorous moment in which, as were leaving, I went to give her mom a hug, but then demurred, and then was awkward, and then hugged her after it was already so very awkward. Good stuff. We made the long ride home, stuck on the highway for some 5 hours, then had Thai food and went to bed.
I love my friends. I love seeing them here, on campus where I shall probably always imagine them, incapable mostly to picture them tucked away in the corners of the world from which they come. We all try to make each other understand something about the place that we come from- I think of how Kelly tries to paint Lancaster (this is something of a shoutout to the only person who read my blog all summer) - yet we never quite get there, as I can probably tell you more about Kelly's Lancaster friends and family than I can say about the town itself. Perhaps these people are the place itself. Hmm...that sounds right.
So if people are what defines a place then Yale is a good place because I'm around good people. I can't deny, though, that everyone's changing bit by bit, and so Yale stands in flux, not getting any worse or better but qualitatively becoming a different experience. It's one that I'm determined to enjoy. I will love them all and I will love Yale because I cannot help but do these two things. But I find myself increasingly unsure of where everything will settle. I excitedly wait to see it play out, as it will do when Autumn sets in and leaves whir down from branch to plush grass.
I took the Amtrak back to New Haven the day dorms opened. New Haven doesn't ever change much, except that the 'residents,' the people who hang out on street corners and park their bikes curbside, seem especially discontent. Must be the state of the country right now; it's got everyone tied up in knots. That first day back, I zipcar-ed to pick up Kirsty at the airport in Hartford, and we ate burger king and listened to awful music on the way back. That night BF performed, at later on we met up to hang out and watch planet earth. Things got weird after that though- I fear that they've even taken a turn for the worst, but that's another conversation, I think.
I picked up Ming in Newark a couple of days later. That was something of an adventure, in that I had no idea how to get there and found myself quite nervous to be on the toll road with such poor directions. I got kind of lost- but found myself again without too much trouble (and with Ming's help). At her place, her mom made a really delicious lunch of Chinese foods. I hadn't met Ming's mother before, but found it wonderful that the two of them looked so much alike. When all was said and done, we had quite a humorous moment in which, as were leaving, I went to give her mom a hug, but then demurred, and then was awkward, and then hugged her after it was already so very awkward. Good stuff. We made the long ride home, stuck on the highway for some 5 hours, then had Thai food and went to bed.
I love my friends. I love seeing them here, on campus where I shall probably always imagine them, incapable mostly to picture them tucked away in the corners of the world from which they come. We all try to make each other understand something about the place that we come from- I think of how Kelly tries to paint Lancaster (this is something of a shoutout to the only person who read my blog all summer) - yet we never quite get there, as I can probably tell you more about Kelly's Lancaster friends and family than I can say about the town itself. Perhaps these people are the place itself. Hmm...that sounds right.
So if people are what defines a place then Yale is a good place because I'm around good people. I can't deny, though, that everyone's changing bit by bit, and so Yale stands in flux, not getting any worse or better but qualitatively becoming a different experience. It's one that I'm determined to enjoy. I will love them all and I will love Yale because I cannot help but do these two things. But I find myself increasingly unsure of where everything will settle. I excitedly wait to see it play out, as it will do when Autumn sets in and leaves whir down from branch to plush grass.
Friday, August 21, 2009
SA post-SA
Since returning from South America, I have spent about a month in San Antonio. I wish I could remember everything that's happened since then, but... I can't. Funny, because I think I could probably repeat every single day of my Peru trip, yet right now I'm having a hard time even thinking of three or four big things to blog about. I guess I'll just have to do my best.
So, I'm not sure whether I've yet confirmed this or not, but my brother is definitely getting married. His fiancée is wonderful and we're all very glad to be welcoming her into our family soon. I guess in terms of things worth mentioning, our family has met for a few events with hers. About two weeks after I got back, the two families had a dinner at Sunny's house- it was alright; we ate fajita tacos and played guitar hero, and it was a decent time really. Then, last weekend, we had a big 'engagement party' at mom's house. That was fun as well, but it turned out to be a big to-do in the classic style, with over a hundred guests, barbecue, tents and a whole lot of work for mom and me. It turned out to be a really nice time, though, and my cousin Josh was back from Drum Corps, having lost over 40 lbs and gained a lot of independence that we haven't really seen out of him before, which was cool.
Um...what else...I really loved the movie Julie and Julia, which I saw with Mayra. Meryl Streep was so good as Julia Child (though the whole 'Julie' side of the story bored me a bit). Mayra and I have also played tennis, which was good, I think, because we're pretty evenly matched, as neither of us is especially good, nor are we terrible. Another nice thing that I almost feel badly about mentioning is that Mayra, as an employee, has a 50% discount at Banana Republic, which I've used to buy a new bag that I could never justify buying at full price. But we had some fun shopping and lunching at Paloma Blanca, which might be one of the best Tex-Mex restaurants in the city, even if it's so expensive that only cash-laden tourists seem to eat there.
I should maybe say something about my job real quick- the McNay was the first museum that I ever visited as a kid, and so it's been kind of wonderful to be able to work there. While I wish that I had gotten the chance to do curatorial interning this summer, or to work with the director, which is what would've happened in Monterrey, it was nevertheless really illuminating to work in the development department. I hadn't given much thought before to that side of museum work. I'm not so silly that I believed museums just sort of ran themselves financially, or off of admission sales, even. But I didn't fully appreciate the amount of momentum that has to come from the development office just to keep the institution alive. This job also gave me some insights into a similar job that I did at the Red Cross the year before- I almost wish that I could go back, now, and bring the RC some of the tools that the museum has, since I think they would really help the Red Cross out a great deal.
The highlight of the San Antonio leg of my trip, without a doubt, was the Los Campesinos! concert in Austin. Damn...there's not really anything like seeing a band that you really, really like play a show. I mean, I've been to other shows where I ended up liking the band by the end, but LC! is probably the one group I've most wanted to see live, and for whatever reason I've tried but it's never worked out before. Leni and I had quite a time with Carl and Pooneh seeing this thing. In some ways, it reminded me of what high school was like, not because we were acting like dumb babies or whatever but because the kind of lax, hanging out and sleeping on couches and watching movies late at night and driving around and all that is more HS for me than college. Even if I do waste plenty of time at Yale. I don't know... I'm not really expressing too well. But I found myself falling into internal habits as well, emotional habits that I had forgotten about. It's something like this knack (for better or worse) that I have for taking a small moment and trying to imagine it stretching to eternity- asking myself, 'can we go on this way forever'? This is something that I used to do alot, junior year most of all, and it's funny to me that I'm doing it again now that I'm going to be a junior. Last time, the answer was, 'no', this time, I hope to skip the huge upset that I caused me but we'll see. Mostly, this has to do with love I think. But by now I should know better than to fall in love with a few nice hours.
I'm worried that this will seem cryptic. What it boils down to is that I used to be in love, and then I it was over, and now I'm not so sure. But rather than falling in love with a person, I've fallen in love with a time of my life, I think (though this time is sort of best epitomized by a person) and I ask myself whether loving the person will make the time last forever... and the best way to ensure that it won't is not to be loved back. So there it is, plain as day.
Sheesh, San Antonio is rough on me.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Home Again, Home Again
I left Huaraz for Lima, to spend the last couple days shopping for souvenirs, enjoying for the last time Peru's delicious Ceviche, and hanging out on the hammock at the backpacker's family house. What a wonderful few days, spent lying in the sun, strolling the Malecon, or tucking in at the Rincón Chami. I walked from Miraflores to Barranco on Sunday, a peaceful stroll to outdoor food markets where I ate Ají de Gallina, one of my favorite Peruvian dishes, for the last time. It was a lovely walk, all along the cliffsides overlooking beaches. It gave me the opportunity to think back on my trip, draw some conclusions about what it's like to be by yourself and how much I've grown (I'm wary of writing that melodramatic travelogue about how much I've changed, but suffice it to say that this trip did change me in some way- it had to, or else I would've really hated my experience).
Anyway, I'm back in SA now with a much better understanding of ancient Andean art and architecture, and with some alterations in my understanding of modern Latin America. I hadn't given much thought to the Andes before, but from now on I think I'll have to think about the Andes when I think about South America- turns out they dominate a whole lot more of the continent than I previously realized. I guess thats the kind of thing that you could learn from an Atlas, but it's more surprising than that, because I'm having to accommodate this huge region into what I already thought was more or less a pretty sophisticated understanding of Latin America. Hmmm. I guess you never know what you think you know.
Um, anyway. San Antonio. Right now I'm at the McNay, doing my internship, so naturally I have plenty of time to write my blog. I guess I'm getting pretty excited about going back to school. A few things that make this especially exciting: 1. I got a Zipcar account, so more mobility = more FUN. 2. New job at the African Art department of the YUAG. More non-western art = more FUN. 3. English seminar on Coetzee. More Disgrace = more FUN. 4. Friends' summer stories are FUN too. 5. BF. More tapatío = more FUN.
Also, Monica Garcia (a close friend from High School) and I have officially committed to spend New Years in Mexico, DF!!! I know, I've been there 3 times since college started, but I can't help but feel excited anyway! I love the capital so much and busing it there is bound to make for an incredible holiday. What's more, we have also committed to spending three kings' day in Mexico, though by that point we hope to be in one of the provincial towns, possibly Xalapa, which I've heard is one of the most beautiful small cities in the country. Oh I'm so excited!!! And if anyone wants to join up for some good old holiday-time fun in Mexico, they're free to join us! All in all, we're thinking of doing from December 26 - January 7 (or 8), starting in Oaxaca and ending in Xalapa, with (like I said) New Years in Mexico DF, and we're going on the cheap- 13 dollars or less / night for lodging, $10 or less/day for food, and $100 for sightseeing, plus the cost of transportation (all buses).
Anyway, that's about it for now. San Antonio is on track to have the hottest summer in history, with temperatures reaching 110 degrees for 40 days in a row now. Good thing we have all that civic charm to make up for hellish temperatures.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Chavin, Huaraz, and darling Gilda Moreno
I never intended to spend much time in Huaraz. I´m still glad that that was the plan, but I ended up having an awesome time while I was there!
I got in really early in the morning and then quickly found a bus headed to Chavin de Huantar. On the bus ride, I met a lady from Lima named Netti who really, really loved to talk. Behind us sat this lady from Montreal and this girl named Sarah from the US. At our lunch stop, the four of us sat together and the Lima lady recommended that I order something called Pachamanca, which is a really cool dish, mostly because they prepare it in such a bizarre way. To make Pachamanca, you dig a whole underground and lay coals, creating a sort of subterranean oven, and then you stick three different kinds of meats, a tamale, a humita (another kind of tamale) and some potatoes and avas in there, and let it cook for like ten hours. What comes out is heavenly! Although I really only ate the tamales and chicken.
Chavin is such an amazing site! It´s now easily one of my favorites, partly because its really fun to visit. Chavin is...i don´t know... interactive, I guess, because it has all of these tunnels that they dramatically call ¨labyrinths¨ to wander around in, and because the whole experience of approaching the Lanzon, a giant sculpture at the heart of these socalled labyrinths, is so otherworldly. As if that weren´t surreal enough, on the wall at the beautiful new site museum (funded by the Japanese embassy) was a picture and biography of Professor Burger, who is listed as a Chavin Expert! Also, it was really neat to see the beautifully sculpted tenoned heads in person.
Chavin really put me in the mood to see some more ruins, so that American girl and I decided to take a day hike the next day for some Wari ruins about 10 Km outside of Huaraz. Wilkawain is probably the most throroughly reconstructed of any site that Ive encountered in Peru, as it looks completely intact. On the downside, they added some stairs for visitor access that can be really confusing, since they tried to make it look as if these were part of the original construction, but again, it was fun to just sort of climb into the ruins and feel our way around in the dark rooms.
After visiting this site, there was still one more about 1 km up the hill, so we headed there. On the way over, though, we heard live music and found that quite odd, since we were more or less in the middle of nowhere. As we approached the site, the music got louder and louder, until we realized that there was a little blonde lady in traditional dress dancing while her band played their instruments in the background. Intrigued, we stood at a good distance watching and snapping photos, and I soon realized that there was a lady holding a bounce card to give the singer good light and a guy with a camera... they were making a music video! And not long after we hid ourselves (we thought we had done it well) to watch, little Gilda Moreno called out to us to come over and dance with her in her music video! hahaha so we left our bags on this rock and went over to stand by her, and she just told us to follow her rhythm and look at her now and then when it matched the lyrics (kind of hard to anticipate actually) but we did our best and it was the craziest experience. Afterwards, she talked to us for a while, and she was so nice and insisted that we stick around for the rest of the shoot, so we went with the crew as they changed locations and this time posed as angered lovers behind her while she pretended to intrude in our otherwise peaceful relationship. Then the cameraman did closeups of our faces to get our eyes, and this little lady, Gilda, was just such a sweetheart with all her crazy costumes and dramatic flair...I dunnno, it was one of the best things that has happened on the whole trip!
So after our brush with celebrity, we finally visited the other ruins, and then headed back down the mountain to Huaraz. On the way, we got sic ed by dogs for trying to take pictures of sheep, saw a typical Andean woman doing her laundry naked in her back yard, and then got chased by dogs again, but it was great scenery and a nice walk. I only have twenty something seconds left...so I guess thats it for now!
I got in really early in the morning and then quickly found a bus headed to Chavin de Huantar. On the bus ride, I met a lady from Lima named Netti who really, really loved to talk. Behind us sat this lady from Montreal and this girl named Sarah from the US. At our lunch stop, the four of us sat together and the Lima lady recommended that I order something called Pachamanca, which is a really cool dish, mostly because they prepare it in such a bizarre way. To make Pachamanca, you dig a whole underground and lay coals, creating a sort of subterranean oven, and then you stick three different kinds of meats, a tamale, a humita (another kind of tamale) and some potatoes and avas in there, and let it cook for like ten hours. What comes out is heavenly! Although I really only ate the tamales and chicken.
Chavin is such an amazing site! It´s now easily one of my favorites, partly because its really fun to visit. Chavin is...i don´t know... interactive, I guess, because it has all of these tunnels that they dramatically call ¨labyrinths¨ to wander around in, and because the whole experience of approaching the Lanzon, a giant sculpture at the heart of these socalled labyrinths, is so otherworldly. As if that weren´t surreal enough, on the wall at the beautiful new site museum (funded by the Japanese embassy) was a picture and biography of Professor Burger, who is listed as a Chavin Expert! Also, it was really neat to see the beautifully sculpted tenoned heads in person.
Chavin really put me in the mood to see some more ruins, so that American girl and I decided to take a day hike the next day for some Wari ruins about 10 Km outside of Huaraz. Wilkawain is probably the most throroughly reconstructed of any site that Ive encountered in Peru, as it looks completely intact. On the downside, they added some stairs for visitor access that can be really confusing, since they tried to make it look as if these were part of the original construction, but again, it was fun to just sort of climb into the ruins and feel our way around in the dark rooms.
After visiting this site, there was still one more about 1 km up the hill, so we headed there. On the way over, though, we heard live music and found that quite odd, since we were more or less in the middle of nowhere. As we approached the site, the music got louder and louder, until we realized that there was a little blonde lady in traditional dress dancing while her band played their instruments in the background. Intrigued, we stood at a good distance watching and snapping photos, and I soon realized that there was a lady holding a bounce card to give the singer good light and a guy with a camera... they were making a music video! And not long after we hid ourselves (we thought we had done it well) to watch, little Gilda Moreno called out to us to come over and dance with her in her music video! hahaha so we left our bags on this rock and went over to stand by her, and she just told us to follow her rhythm and look at her now and then when it matched the lyrics (kind of hard to anticipate actually) but we did our best and it was the craziest experience. Afterwards, she talked to us for a while, and she was so nice and insisted that we stick around for the rest of the shoot, so we went with the crew as they changed locations and this time posed as angered lovers behind her while she pretended to intrude in our otherwise peaceful relationship. Then the cameraman did closeups of our faces to get our eyes, and this little lady, Gilda, was just such a sweetheart with all her crazy costumes and dramatic flair...I dunnno, it was one of the best things that has happened on the whole trip!
So after our brush with celebrity, we finally visited the other ruins, and then headed back down the mountain to Huaraz. On the way, we got sic ed by dogs for trying to take pictures of sheep, saw a typical Andean woman doing her laundry naked in her back yard, and then got chased by dogs again, but it was great scenery and a nice walk. I only have twenty something seconds left...so I guess thats it for now!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Cajamarca
So, the Cajamarca segment of the trip only lasts 2 and a half days, but for the sake of not getting behind Ill quickly make a note about it.
The guidebook that the Canadian girl gave me calls Cajamarca {a hidden gem, like Cuzco before the tourists came,} and I think thats about right. There are tourists, actually, but most of them are from Lima. Apparently, Cajamarca is like Perus jealously guarded secret, the place where all the capitaleños go to see the highlands for a weekend without having to put up with all the gringos.
Oops, too bad. Im here too...haha
So anyway, Cajamarca falls behind its southern cousin in the sense that theres not much to see in terms of tourist attractions. Yesterday, I got the see the Cuarto de Rescate, a room that Atahualpa filled up with gold for a ransom, but the Spanish naturally ripped him off, taking his gold and killing him anyway. Also, there is a site called Cumbemayo, with some really beautiful water canals that are naturally attributed to religious practice. A couple of smallish museums too. Once Id sort of wrapped up these activities, I went shopping for some gifts for the fam.
What Cajamarca lacks in tourist attractions, though, it definitely makes up for with charm and good cooking. Cajamarca has a lovely plaza, my favorite after the one in Arequipa, and a beautiful, verdant mountain setting. Streets are lined in Cobblestone, colonial style architecture is the order of the day, and the balconies so ubiquitous in Peru here find their best incarnation. Cajamarca is also the dairy capital of Peru, which is so lovely... today my cafe con leche was so very fresh (though Im wondering whether it was ever pasteurized?) and the cheese that went with the bread divine. There are also Humitas, tamales made of super sweet corn. On the night that I arrived, I went to dinner at a charming Italian restuarant called om gri, with a staff of two, a dinner setting of only three tables, and what may be the best ravioli that Ive ever eaten. The owner, Tito, talked to me the entire time that he was cooking. What a character! He told me all about his life studying cooking throughout Europe, his illegitimate children, and praised me for liking Lima (many visitors dont) and for eating at Astrid y Gaston, which he said was an investment. He did this whole number about how food is an expression of the pueblo and how even international cooking has a place in Peruvian culture... what a guy!
Getting to Cajamarca was yet another adventure. The bus left at 4 am, at which time I discovered that I was feeling very, very ill. I spent the first six hours of the bus ride about as sick as I had been in Chiclayo, and, at one point, was forced to use an outhouse (a decidedly unforgettable experience). A little boy sat by me on the bus eating peanuts and throwing the shells onto the ground...cute for about five minutes until he started spitting up. As if that wasnt enough, a typical highlander lady got on the bus cuddling her baby llama in her arms and sat right across from me. All the while, my heads burning up and my stomach is doing hurdles. Oh, what a ride!
Anyhow, there are a few things going on that have nothing to do with my trip, but which are interesting nonetheless. It looks like my older brother might be getting married. At least, my dad told me so yesterday on the phone. Yesterday he turned 30. Apparently, he planned to ask his girlfriend to marry him on the same day. Anyway, I wonder how it turned out. That he had intentions to get married is all news to me...I guess I shouldve talked to him more while I was actually in San Antonio, because this story is pretty much coming out of nowhere. But if he did ask her to marry him, I hope that she said yes, because all of this time I have thought my brother wasnt really a big one for commitment so this would be a huge step for him. Plus, Ive been thinking lately that it would be fun to go to a wedding.
Also, I think I have an idea for a writing project when I get home. Its sort of an elaboration of the play that I wrote last year when I was in Buenos Aires. Right now, I wish I had a means to sit down and just write, because I really cant say whether Ill have the same kind of enthusiasm once Im back in the US. Anyway, I suppose Ill just have to wait and see.
Huaraz tomorrow. My last stop before I go back to Lima, and then (I cant really believe Im saying it) Im headed back home.
The guidebook that the Canadian girl gave me calls Cajamarca {a hidden gem, like Cuzco before the tourists came,} and I think thats about right. There are tourists, actually, but most of them are from Lima. Apparently, Cajamarca is like Perus jealously guarded secret, the place where all the capitaleños go to see the highlands for a weekend without having to put up with all the gringos.
Oops, too bad. Im here too...haha
So anyway, Cajamarca falls behind its southern cousin in the sense that theres not much to see in terms of tourist attractions. Yesterday, I got the see the Cuarto de Rescate, a room that Atahualpa filled up with gold for a ransom, but the Spanish naturally ripped him off, taking his gold and killing him anyway. Also, there is a site called Cumbemayo, with some really beautiful water canals that are naturally attributed to religious practice. A couple of smallish museums too. Once Id sort of wrapped up these activities, I went shopping for some gifts for the fam.
What Cajamarca lacks in tourist attractions, though, it definitely makes up for with charm and good cooking. Cajamarca has a lovely plaza, my favorite after the one in Arequipa, and a beautiful, verdant mountain setting. Streets are lined in Cobblestone, colonial style architecture is the order of the day, and the balconies so ubiquitous in Peru here find their best incarnation. Cajamarca is also the dairy capital of Peru, which is so lovely... today my cafe con leche was so very fresh (though Im wondering whether it was ever pasteurized?) and the cheese that went with the bread divine. There are also Humitas, tamales made of super sweet corn. On the night that I arrived, I went to dinner at a charming Italian restuarant called om gri, with a staff of two, a dinner setting of only three tables, and what may be the best ravioli that Ive ever eaten. The owner, Tito, talked to me the entire time that he was cooking. What a character! He told me all about his life studying cooking throughout Europe, his illegitimate children, and praised me for liking Lima (many visitors dont) and for eating at Astrid y Gaston, which he said was an investment. He did this whole number about how food is an expression of the pueblo and how even international cooking has a place in Peruvian culture... what a guy!
Getting to Cajamarca was yet another adventure. The bus left at 4 am, at which time I discovered that I was feeling very, very ill. I spent the first six hours of the bus ride about as sick as I had been in Chiclayo, and, at one point, was forced to use an outhouse (a decidedly unforgettable experience). A little boy sat by me on the bus eating peanuts and throwing the shells onto the ground...cute for about five minutes until he started spitting up. As if that wasnt enough, a typical highlander lady got on the bus cuddling her baby llama in her arms and sat right across from me. All the while, my heads burning up and my stomach is doing hurdles. Oh, what a ride!
Anyhow, there are a few things going on that have nothing to do with my trip, but which are interesting nonetheless. It looks like my older brother might be getting married. At least, my dad told me so yesterday on the phone. Yesterday he turned 30. Apparently, he planned to ask his girlfriend to marry him on the same day. Anyway, I wonder how it turned out. That he had intentions to get married is all news to me...I guess I shouldve talked to him more while I was actually in San Antonio, because this story is pretty much coming out of nowhere. But if he did ask her to marry him, I hope that she said yes, because all of this time I have thought my brother wasnt really a big one for commitment so this would be a huge step for him. Plus, Ive been thinking lately that it would be fun to go to a wedding.
Also, I think I have an idea for a writing project when I get home. Its sort of an elaboration of the play that I wrote last year when I was in Buenos Aires. Right now, I wish I had a means to sit down and just write, because I really cant say whether Ill have the same kind of enthusiasm once Im back in the US. Anyway, I suppose Ill just have to wait and see.
Huaraz tomorrow. My last stop before I go back to Lima, and then (I cant really believe Im saying it) Im headed back home.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Chiclayo and Chachapoyas
Hmmm...it´s kinda hard for me to make a blog entry about Chiclayo, because now that I think about it, I didn´t go out of my way at all to experience it. When I was there, I really didn´t like the city, and I didn´t even find the ruins all that impressive or feel particularly attached to the local archaeology, even though it was much the same as that of Trujillo, which I loved. I don´t really know how to account for it. So I guess I´ll just quickly summarize the days.
So...the first day I got to Chiclayo, the cabbie dropped me off at the wrong hotel, but not only that, he went inside to collect commission because it´s a popular scam for cab drivers to take their foreign passengers to the wrong place. So, I go inside and realize I´m not where I´m supposed to be...but the guy behind the desk was pretty cool about it and even told me how to get to the correct place.
I´m running sort of low on money, and the ruins around Chiclayo are pretty far from the city center, so that taking a combi or collectivo of some kind really isn´t a viable option. In place of that, I decided to book a tour on the first day, in order to get a pretty good idea of where everything was. With the tour, we went to Huaca Rejada, where they found the senor of Sipan and something like twenty other burials. It´s a great story, but it actually makes for a pretty unimpressive visit. After this, we lunched (I ate delicious arroz con pato) and then went to another museum, where all of the Senors gold is stored. This was considerably more impressive, and I especially liked these giant gold and turquoise earrings that the senor had in sets. The last stop of the day was Tucume, which is basically a huge valley of pyramids, though they only actually allow you to visit two of them, which is pretty lame. But we climbed up, got a nice view of some coastal communities, and then left. Maybe I didn´t have a great time at these ruins, but on the upside I did meet some other travelers, which is a much bigger challenge on the largely unvisited north coast than in the southern highland towns (or in Lima for that matter). On the tour, I talked a lot to this lady whos actually from Lima, which was interesting because Limeans tend to have quite radical views of the provinces, I think. Also, there was a couple from Denmark doing an around the world...or maybe just around SAm, I can´t remember. Anyway, after the tour was over, I met up with this Danish couple and we went to Chiclayos newish, American style mall, called the Real Plaza. After a dinner chock full of fresh vegetables (just what we all wanted), we went for Starbucks, and then to see a movie, Knowing, at the mall´s theater. I quite liked the movie, actually. I mean, I know that it´s not a great movie or whatever, but I enjoyed myself.
The next day I was sick as a dog. Woke up at like 5 am and spent the rest of the day in bed, watching American imported TV and wondering if I was going to die.
Skipping over that unpleaseantness, I decided while I was ill that I hated Chiclayo and never wanted to return. In fact, I fell into quite a slump, probably because I had been in bed all day. I got really frustrated and wished that my trip was over and all the rest of it. So on the next, and last, day of my stay in that city, I decided to skip any sort of attempt to be a responsible student of PreColumbian civilization and I went to Chiclayo´s Mercado Modelo, inside of which is a witches market where you can buy ingredients for potions and get cured by a shaman. To get there, though, you first have to walk by the city´s produce market and butchers. Basically, it´s this huge, semi outdoor complex underneath tents. From the second I walked into this thing, I felt pretty nervous, because everyone was definitely staring at me (like I said, not a whole lot of foreigners up there, especially not to see something like THAT) and because once you really get inside of this complex you realize how huge it is, and it becomes quite a claustrophobic experience. I just tried to rush past the vegetable part, but I realized I really had no idea where the witches market was. So I past the vegetables and then ended up with the meats...which was really unfortunate. The stench was so ungodly, like everything was just rotting, and the sight was completely bizarre, which huge sides of cow sitting on a table next to this ridiculously long knife...I don´t even know. I doñt actually have a weak stomach, believe it or not, but I thought I was going to throw up in the middle of this market...which probably would´ve blended in perfectly with the general atmosphere, honestly. So straight back to the back I headed, and after some searching found the witches market, which wasn´t that interesting after all.
So by this point I´m pretty depressed, and I start wishing I were Mexico like I had planned to be ALL YEAR LONG before that stupid swine flu and the tec de monterrey cancelling the program and the state department fucking me over and all that. I had mostly stopped thinking about that, of course, because why bother? Anyway, so I leave the market and head back to that American style mall, not knowing what else to do, and I buy a ticket to see Up, the only movie showing at the time. And I know this probably sounds silly but this is how it happened : Seeing that movie actually made me renew my resolve not to lose the spirit of this adventure, to experience the best of South America in this once in a lifetime setup that Ive got going on here. There´s this sequence at the beginning where the couple is dreaming of visiting South America, but real life keeps getting in the way and the wife dies before they ever get the chance to visit. Their dreaming, though, really reminded me of everything that I love about Latin America, about the fact that Ive spent a whole LOT of my life thinking about and trying to understand and wanting to be in this part of the world. I don´t know... I regret now that I more or less wasted two days feeling bad for myself and missing out on whatever Chiclayo had to offer (which must be SOMETHING) but in the end I think what matters is that I conciously decided to enjoy what little time left I have on this trip. Which really is very little time, actually, considering how much I still want to do. Maybe Peru doesn´t exactly fit in with the way I´ve thought about this part of the world...but thats the point, right? I dont know...but when I was thinking all of this I just sat in the theater and cried, and cried, and cried, though I really can say I left renewed. I should add that there´s something in there, too, about strength in loneliness, but I can´t quite put my finger on what that is yet.
As it turns out, there could have been no better introduction to Chachapoyas, the tiny capital of the department of Amazonas. As I blog now, I´m sitting high up in the cloud forests, in the Ceja de Selva, where the warm air of the jungle hits the mountains and creates jungle like vegetation. It´s so beautiful! I can´t believe that I only get to spend two days here, but like I said, this trips almost over so Ive got to get moving.
On my first day in Chacha, I arrived at my beautiful hotel at 5 am, slept until 11, and then went to the travel agency to book a tour for Kuelap. At the agency, the guy told me that I could also, if I wished, have a visit to Gocta, the third highest waterfall in the world, just an hours drive outside (and in the jungle). With my newfound sense of adventure, I thought that it would be a great idea! So I went to Gocta and began the hike. It was far more difficult than I anticipated. First, to get to the falls, you have to hike 2 and a half hours each way, and the hike is constant up and down climbing (though it seemed, in both directions, like it was mostly up). Also, the Amazon has been having a lot of rain recently, so the road, which was not paved in ANY form whatsoever, had turned completely to mud. It was disgusting....I had mud on my pants, up to my knees, sinking in over my shoes, and all the while I´m just trying not to fall. And the whole way there, the campesinos with there lame mules were making fun of me because I was single! (It was explained to me later that they´re far more accustomed to seeing a couples set up). Anyway, I was mostly unperturbed by the mud and the peasants, though the climbing was rough. But in the end the falls were beautiful, and I got some nice photos, and when my exhausted body finally made it back to town I was happy I had done the trek.
Today I went to Kuelap. It´s a really crazy site...since we´re in such a remote location Chacha has had its own unique development, so it looks nothing like any other Andean site, what with round buildings and all. But anyways, I enjoyed that, and I ate some delicious cecina de res, an Amazonian dish a lot like jerkey.
Tomorrow, I´m off for quite a trip. At 4am, the bus leaves for Celendin, a rather treacherous ride, actually, because it goes on some pretty dangerous highways on, of course, cliffsides. From Celendin, it´s another three hours to Cajamarca, which is my main destination. I could avoid this kind of trek by going BACK to Chiclayo and trying to catch a same day bus to Cajamarca, but this could potentially take twice as long, and plus I have such ugly feelings towards Chiclayo that I´d much rather take this grueling 14 hour andean highway trek than backtrack to stupid Chiclayo and potentially overnight. Ugh. Anyway, this post has gone way too long. But as it comes to a close it´s just all so exciting and I just can´t help it!
So...the first day I got to Chiclayo, the cabbie dropped me off at the wrong hotel, but not only that, he went inside to collect commission because it´s a popular scam for cab drivers to take their foreign passengers to the wrong place. So, I go inside and realize I´m not where I´m supposed to be...but the guy behind the desk was pretty cool about it and even told me how to get to the correct place.
I´m running sort of low on money, and the ruins around Chiclayo are pretty far from the city center, so that taking a combi or collectivo of some kind really isn´t a viable option. In place of that, I decided to book a tour on the first day, in order to get a pretty good idea of where everything was. With the tour, we went to Huaca Rejada, where they found the senor of Sipan and something like twenty other burials. It´s a great story, but it actually makes for a pretty unimpressive visit. After this, we lunched (I ate delicious arroz con pato) and then went to another museum, where all of the Senors gold is stored. This was considerably more impressive, and I especially liked these giant gold and turquoise earrings that the senor had in sets. The last stop of the day was Tucume, which is basically a huge valley of pyramids, though they only actually allow you to visit two of them, which is pretty lame. But we climbed up, got a nice view of some coastal communities, and then left. Maybe I didn´t have a great time at these ruins, but on the upside I did meet some other travelers, which is a much bigger challenge on the largely unvisited north coast than in the southern highland towns (or in Lima for that matter). On the tour, I talked a lot to this lady whos actually from Lima, which was interesting because Limeans tend to have quite radical views of the provinces, I think. Also, there was a couple from Denmark doing an around the world...or maybe just around SAm, I can´t remember. Anyway, after the tour was over, I met up with this Danish couple and we went to Chiclayos newish, American style mall, called the Real Plaza. After a dinner chock full of fresh vegetables (just what we all wanted), we went for Starbucks, and then to see a movie, Knowing, at the mall´s theater. I quite liked the movie, actually. I mean, I know that it´s not a great movie or whatever, but I enjoyed myself.
The next day I was sick as a dog. Woke up at like 5 am and spent the rest of the day in bed, watching American imported TV and wondering if I was going to die.
Skipping over that unpleaseantness, I decided while I was ill that I hated Chiclayo and never wanted to return. In fact, I fell into quite a slump, probably because I had been in bed all day. I got really frustrated and wished that my trip was over and all the rest of it. So on the next, and last, day of my stay in that city, I decided to skip any sort of attempt to be a responsible student of PreColumbian civilization and I went to Chiclayo´s Mercado Modelo, inside of which is a witches market where you can buy ingredients for potions and get cured by a shaman. To get there, though, you first have to walk by the city´s produce market and butchers. Basically, it´s this huge, semi outdoor complex underneath tents. From the second I walked into this thing, I felt pretty nervous, because everyone was definitely staring at me (like I said, not a whole lot of foreigners up there, especially not to see something like THAT) and because once you really get inside of this complex you realize how huge it is, and it becomes quite a claustrophobic experience. I just tried to rush past the vegetable part, but I realized I really had no idea where the witches market was. So I past the vegetables and then ended up with the meats...which was really unfortunate. The stench was so ungodly, like everything was just rotting, and the sight was completely bizarre, which huge sides of cow sitting on a table next to this ridiculously long knife...I don´t even know. I doñt actually have a weak stomach, believe it or not, but I thought I was going to throw up in the middle of this market...which probably would´ve blended in perfectly with the general atmosphere, honestly. So straight back to the back I headed, and after some searching found the witches market, which wasn´t that interesting after all.
So by this point I´m pretty depressed, and I start wishing I were Mexico like I had planned to be ALL YEAR LONG before that stupid swine flu and the tec de monterrey cancelling the program and the state department fucking me over and all that. I had mostly stopped thinking about that, of course, because why bother? Anyway, so I leave the market and head back to that American style mall, not knowing what else to do, and I buy a ticket to see Up, the only movie showing at the time. And I know this probably sounds silly but this is how it happened : Seeing that movie actually made me renew my resolve not to lose the spirit of this adventure, to experience the best of South America in this once in a lifetime setup that Ive got going on here. There´s this sequence at the beginning where the couple is dreaming of visiting South America, but real life keeps getting in the way and the wife dies before they ever get the chance to visit. Their dreaming, though, really reminded me of everything that I love about Latin America, about the fact that Ive spent a whole LOT of my life thinking about and trying to understand and wanting to be in this part of the world. I don´t know... I regret now that I more or less wasted two days feeling bad for myself and missing out on whatever Chiclayo had to offer (which must be SOMETHING) but in the end I think what matters is that I conciously decided to enjoy what little time left I have on this trip. Which really is very little time, actually, considering how much I still want to do. Maybe Peru doesn´t exactly fit in with the way I´ve thought about this part of the world...but thats the point, right? I dont know...but when I was thinking all of this I just sat in the theater and cried, and cried, and cried, though I really can say I left renewed. I should add that there´s something in there, too, about strength in loneliness, but I can´t quite put my finger on what that is yet.
As it turns out, there could have been no better introduction to Chachapoyas, the tiny capital of the department of Amazonas. As I blog now, I´m sitting high up in the cloud forests, in the Ceja de Selva, where the warm air of the jungle hits the mountains and creates jungle like vegetation. It´s so beautiful! I can´t believe that I only get to spend two days here, but like I said, this trips almost over so Ive got to get moving.
On my first day in Chacha, I arrived at my beautiful hotel at 5 am, slept until 11, and then went to the travel agency to book a tour for Kuelap. At the agency, the guy told me that I could also, if I wished, have a visit to Gocta, the third highest waterfall in the world, just an hours drive outside (and in the jungle). With my newfound sense of adventure, I thought that it would be a great idea! So I went to Gocta and began the hike. It was far more difficult than I anticipated. First, to get to the falls, you have to hike 2 and a half hours each way, and the hike is constant up and down climbing (though it seemed, in both directions, like it was mostly up). Also, the Amazon has been having a lot of rain recently, so the road, which was not paved in ANY form whatsoever, had turned completely to mud. It was disgusting....I had mud on my pants, up to my knees, sinking in over my shoes, and all the while I´m just trying not to fall. And the whole way there, the campesinos with there lame mules were making fun of me because I was single! (It was explained to me later that they´re far more accustomed to seeing a couples set up). Anyway, I was mostly unperturbed by the mud and the peasants, though the climbing was rough. But in the end the falls were beautiful, and I got some nice photos, and when my exhausted body finally made it back to town I was happy I had done the trek.
Today I went to Kuelap. It´s a really crazy site...since we´re in such a remote location Chacha has had its own unique development, so it looks nothing like any other Andean site, what with round buildings and all. But anyways, I enjoyed that, and I ate some delicious cecina de res, an Amazonian dish a lot like jerkey.
Tomorrow, I´m off for quite a trip. At 4am, the bus leaves for Celendin, a rather treacherous ride, actually, because it goes on some pretty dangerous highways on, of course, cliffsides. From Celendin, it´s another three hours to Cajamarca, which is my main destination. I could avoid this kind of trek by going BACK to Chiclayo and trying to catch a same day bus to Cajamarca, but this could potentially take twice as long, and plus I have such ugly feelings towards Chiclayo that I´d much rather take this grueling 14 hour andean highway trek than backtrack to stupid Chiclayo and potentially overnight. Ugh. Anyway, this post has gone way too long. But as it comes to a close it´s just all so exciting and I just can´t help it!
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