These pictures loaded in a very strange order but here goes: Me with the INC group in the protest, they asked me to come visit them in the office and I helped them fix some translation they did for a project proposal that needs to be submitted to UNESCO in English.
GABIE and I, leave it to me to make a lot of friends at bakeries
Horseride to see ruins close to Cusco
Thats Saqsaywaman behind me, my favorite of the ruins
More of the protest.
machupicchu
Ximena took this picture of me outside the shop
Ximena art action photo
Looking down on Machupicchu from up up up high
Journaling at the top of the smaller of the two peaks you see in pictures of machupicchu
Me journaling atop the larger of the two peaks you see in the pictures, that was quite a hike
THE picture... Its a nice to get there before there are people walking through
Ya!I really really will write about my time in Peru, highlights being art projects with Ximena, Yanapay restaurant, horseback riding to ruins, stumbling upon the St. Antonio procession, being in a protest march, visiting Machu Picchu, meeting Mary Rothschild (first director and starter of womens studies dept. at UW) and returning to Cusco to help the Instituto Nacional de Cultural (friends I made in the march) edit a grant application they are translating to english to submit to UNESCO. Another big highpoint has been receiving emails from cuzzin Joey! Lowpoints being: homestay experiences, homesickness (if that´s what it is), a package from my parents that never arrived and general (premature?) bouts of weary-traveling-philosopher moments where I asked questions like ¨what is the marrow of my soul? what is harbored in those hollow spaces hardened by history?¨I will write about these things, it´s just that I have reached a point where I am doing so much that it is really hard to sit down and type everything out.... But I will soon.
Come to think of it, I have been recently reflecting on several parts of my journey that I have not yet written about in my blog and might go back to:
1. My time in Monte Verde, Costa Rica
2. My jungle trip to Tena, Ecuador
3. I know there was one more, I can´t think of it just now
But my theory on why I didn´t write about these times is that I was uncomfortable for one reason or another (very opposite reasons for 1 and 2). Monte Verde was a strange experience because I was suddenly surrounded by English and a side of travel where the majority of your interaction is with other travellers. There were supermarkets with brands of food and types of food sold in the US that I didn´t see anywhere in Mexico or Nicaragua. The entire place revolved around tourists, and everything came with a price. Everything, but my precious time in the tree. Maybe I said all this before, I don´t really read back in my blog very much. A very uncomfortable experience happened in Monte Verde as well. I stayed in a private room the first two nights in the really fun hostel I was staying at, and then switched to the dorm rooms. I moved my stuff in and didn´t meet my dormmates until much later that day. One of which was a very creepy and revolting guy that was the only one in the room when I came in alone. He instantly was talking to me from his top bunk that was next to mine, asking my name, telling me he noticed me in the common area, that I am beautiful... which then turned into him asking where I am traveling next, telling me he´ll buy a plane ticket to go along, that he just wants me to sleep in his bed - that I don´t have to have sex with him... It was utterly disgusting and all I could think is "drawback number 1 of travelling alone.." In that case all I had to do was let one of the other four guys I was sharing the dorm with know that I was uncomfortable and they made sure I never had to be alone in the dorm with Kabir the Creep again. This is when I learned... or was reminded that it really is often in my best interest to lie about my itinerary, the length of my trip, the number of people I am traveling with or meeting up with, and mostly that I do not need to be nice when someone is making me uncomfortable. And usually I'm not, I mean I'm Emma, in my mother's own words "we didn't raise Emma to be nice", this is the situation where I become outspoken and tough, but I didn't and I think my embarrassment of the entire ordeal led me to write absolutely nothing about it.
When I went to Tena it was completely unplanned. I had been waiting for the bus back to Quito and thought "hey, I would like to see the Amazon." So I got on a bus to Tena instead. I looked high and low for a jungle tour, and went to a strange island zoo/park with a guy I met from Hungary where we received some unwanted attention from a Tapir that roams free on the island. And by roams I mean he lays around like your typical lethargic looking zoo tapir until suddenly he is running around tearing up plants and trying to bite your legs. I ended up doing a jungle tour alone with a guide that at several points made me pretty uncomfortable as well, which resulted in my tour being cut short of a few activities. No need for details, but another aspect of this Jungle tour that was hard for me that I keep thinking back to was the family that I stayed with outside of Tena and the poverty. The recognizable health ailments of the children, things that I have seen slides of in public health classes and in my text books. What really got me though, is after helping with some homework for an hour or so I went and used the outhouse and saw the same brightly colored workbook papers in wads in the garbage bin. The thick workbook paper and school projects were also used as toilet paper. I tell myself this really is no big deal, that it is actually good that the paper is being reused... that I shouldn't think about how much my parents and grandparents treasured some of my school work.
Tena left me with a colorful assortment of bug bites and rashes and after going on a night jungle walk I have a renewed fear of gigantic spiders. I know that on my next jungle tour I will be patient and find another traveler to go along with me, and I will wear twice the bug repellent.
I crossed the border to Bolivia and am currently in Copacabana. I was honestly going to skip going to Bolivia as of just 4 days ago or so, but my friend Ida and I took the night bus together and for the first time on my trip I am traveling WITH someone. I have moments where I need to go do my own exploring or journaling (although my blog has been neglected, my journal has received double the attention) and Ida is wonderfully understanding of these needs. We just rented a ridiculous paddle boat shaped like a swan to get out on Lake Titicaca, and are going to spend tomorrow night on the Isla del Sol. I am not sure how I have managed to be present for so many celebrations everywhere I have gone, but tomorrow is a big day here in Bolivia where people have miniture figurines of things they want blessed to bring these things their way this year. Ida and I have been discussing what sort of figurines we should be looking for in the market, and which ones we may just have to make ourselves.
Come to think of it, I have been recently reflecting on several parts of my journey that I have not yet written about in my blog and might go back to:
1. My time in Monte Verde, Costa Rica
2. My jungle trip to Tena, Ecuador
3. I know there was one more, I can´t think of it just now
But my theory on why I didn´t write about these times is that I was uncomfortable for one reason or another (very opposite reasons for 1 and 2). Monte Verde was a strange experience because I was suddenly surrounded by English and a side of travel where the majority of your interaction is with other travellers. There were supermarkets with brands of food and types of food sold in the US that I didn´t see anywhere in Mexico or Nicaragua. The entire place revolved around tourists, and everything came with a price. Everything, but my precious time in the tree. Maybe I said all this before, I don´t really read back in my blog very much. A very uncomfortable experience happened in Monte Verde as well. I stayed in a private room the first two nights in the really fun hostel I was staying at, and then switched to the dorm rooms. I moved my stuff in and didn´t meet my dormmates until much later that day. One of which was a very creepy and revolting guy that was the only one in the room when I came in alone. He instantly was talking to me from his top bunk that was next to mine, asking my name, telling me he noticed me in the common area, that I am beautiful... which then turned into him asking where I am traveling next, telling me he´ll buy a plane ticket to go along, that he just wants me to sleep in his bed - that I don´t have to have sex with him... It was utterly disgusting and all I could think is "drawback number 1 of travelling alone.." In that case all I had to do was let one of the other four guys I was sharing the dorm with know that I was uncomfortable and they made sure I never had to be alone in the dorm with Kabir the Creep again. This is when I learned... or was reminded that it really is often in my best interest to lie about my itinerary, the length of my trip, the number of people I am traveling with or meeting up with, and mostly that I do not need to be nice when someone is making me uncomfortable. And usually I'm not, I mean I'm Emma, in my mother's own words "we didn't raise Emma to be nice", this is the situation where I become outspoken and tough, but I didn't and I think my embarrassment of the entire ordeal led me to write absolutely nothing about it.
When I went to Tena it was completely unplanned. I had been waiting for the bus back to Quito and thought "hey, I would like to see the Amazon." So I got on a bus to Tena instead. I looked high and low for a jungle tour, and went to a strange island zoo/park with a guy I met from Hungary where we received some unwanted attention from a Tapir that roams free on the island. And by roams I mean he lays around like your typical lethargic looking zoo tapir until suddenly he is running around tearing up plants and trying to bite your legs. I ended up doing a jungle tour alone with a guide that at several points made me pretty uncomfortable as well, which resulted in my tour being cut short of a few activities. No need for details, but another aspect of this Jungle tour that was hard for me that I keep thinking back to was the family that I stayed with outside of Tena and the poverty. The recognizable health ailments of the children, things that I have seen slides of in public health classes and in my text books. What really got me though, is after helping with some homework for an hour or so I went and used the outhouse and saw the same brightly colored workbook papers in wads in the garbage bin. The thick workbook paper and school projects were also used as toilet paper. I tell myself this really is no big deal, that it is actually good that the paper is being reused... that I shouldn't think about how much my parents and grandparents treasured some of my school work.
Tena left me with a colorful assortment of bug bites and rashes and after going on a night jungle walk I have a renewed fear of gigantic spiders. I know that on my next jungle tour I will be patient and find another traveler to go along with me, and I will wear twice the bug repellent.
I crossed the border to Bolivia and am currently in Copacabana. I was honestly going to skip going to Bolivia as of just 4 days ago or so, but my friend Ida and I took the night bus together and for the first time on my trip I am traveling WITH someone. I have moments where I need to go do my own exploring or journaling (although my blog has been neglected, my journal has received double the attention) and Ida is wonderfully understanding of these needs. We just rented a ridiculous paddle boat shaped like a swan to get out on Lake Titicaca, and are going to spend tomorrow night on the Isla del Sol. I am not sure how I have managed to be present for so many celebrations everywhere I have gone, but tomorrow is a big day here in Bolivia where people have miniture figurines of things they want blessed to bring these things their way this year. Ida and I have been discussing what sort of figurines we should be looking for in the market, and which ones we may just have to make ourselves.
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