Well so far things have gone pretty smoothly. I’ve had some truly lengthy layovers today. I am now nearing 12 hours of travel and not even halfway there! Oh well, I guess that’s what you get when you buy tickets based on price, not convenience or speed. This situation simply means that I have ample opportunity to sit by myself and think about what I am about to go do. That and sleep. Yesterday I went to go deposit a check and to my dismay the ATM took my credit card. It held my card ransom and refused to return it! The bank, exceedingly unhelpful as they are, did very little to help me out and it took called the 1-800 number about 5 times for me to actually get through to a real live person willing to help me out. Anyway, now I’ve ordered a new ATM card and my parents will mail it to me later. I was annoyed about this mostly because it seems so exceedingly unlucky. My best hope is that my bad luck has run out with this incident and that I will only have good luck from now on!
…
So I left Albuquerque at 9 AM on the 27th and I finally arrived in Cusco at 10 AM on the 28th. That’s one long days travel. I don’t think it took that long getting to South America when I went to Argentina and Chile in 2007. I suppose Cusco is a more esoteric destination than say Buenos Aires, but based on the makeup of the city as I’ve observed it so far, perhaps not. There are gringos everywhere! I left my hotel in San Blas earlier to buy some minutes for the cell phone that Celia graciously gave me and there was an Australian couple trying, with difficulty, to get some stomachache medication. They didn’t seem to know much Spanish so I helped them out a bit. I haven’t come across too many Americans yet, mostly Australians and Brits, but then again I’ve barely begun exploring the city so I’m probably wrong.
It’s nice being on the same time zone as Conn. When I first got to the hotel this morning I got on the wireless and to my surprise had a nice fb chat with Julie! All the way in Spain! It was a lovely surprise especially because I felt a little lonely and perplexed as to what to do with this free time. It’s strange to go from the highly structured time necessary when traveling and catching plane after plane to such unplanned time. I was also able to talk to Nate, Norah, and Celia. I don’t know how often I’ll get to talk to them once the program starts, but hearing from such good friends early on was very encouraging. Celia recommended this restaurant called El Encuentro that I will definitely check out once I have this place figured out a little better, although she gave me some instructions.
All the Peruvians I’ve talked to so far have been very kind and very helpful. Only one so far has addressed me in English and, oddly enough, it’s a relief to not have to reassert the fact that I can speak Spanish. In addition it’s a relief to know that although my higher level Spanish might be a tad rusty, my conversational and simple Spanish is just fine.
So what have I done today? Slept mostly. I set an alarm so I’d only sleep an hour, but I must have shut it off because I woke up four hours later. After that I got out, walked down a block or so on a steep hill with rather slippery cobblestones. The sidewalks have stairs, just like that one street in San Francisco, but these streets are old and narrow. This part of the city is old and colonial and San Blas has buildings with the Incan stonework on the bottom. So old! After helping the Australians and putting minutes on my phone I crossed the street and ate some delicious roasted pumpkin soup and coca tea. My kind and chatty taxi driver from the airport recommended that I eat light things and, in the end, even that soup was too much. I could only eat about half! He also said that cuy, guinea pig, was his favorite food and that I just had to try it. I might leave it for another day. As I walked back to my hotel to check if Maggie had emailed me back about dinner I felt more and more lightheaded, and a little nauseous. I think that perhaps the altitude is getting to me after all, even though I felt fine all the rest of the day…. Granted I spent most of that day sleeping.
A bit later I heard back from Maggie and I met her, her mom, and her aunt for dinner. They were all super nice and it’s wonderful to have found people to talk to already! They’d just returned from the Inca Trail, which was apparently very rainy, but they said it had been a fantastic experience nonetheless. The Plaza de Armas is great! It’s smaller that I thought it would be but it has a totally unique vibe. Very colonial and very beautiful. I wasn’t aware that Cusco had a San Salvador perched on a hillside like they have in Brazil, but when I went to the Plaza at night there it was, all lit up from below.
I think I made a good decision in coming to Peru. I had not idea what to expect coming in, and it didn’t help that SIT was a little sparse with the information giving, but I’m really excited about this semester.
Xo Claire
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