The primary purpose is to be an online journal for my family & friends to keep up with me while I am living (in Peru) & travelling in South America. I will aslo be including information that I may think is relevent for other people's adventures.
Thank you for Visiting.
Gregory
P.s. I will add photos soon.
Nov 26, 2012
Flight was rescheduled at the airport.
Nov 27, 2012
Finally on my way. The extra day was nice to have to just
decompress and have a day to relax as it has been go, go, go, trying to get
everything done before I left.
At Lima airport, immigration was very simple, similar
process to Mexico have to push a button to see if your luggage gets scanned or
not. I got the red light so I got scanned but it seemed like there were a lot of
red lights. As I suspected there was a mis-communication between air lines and
I have to get them to fix it. Good thing I have 6 hours to do it in. Not irritated
mostly just tired.
Nov 28, 2012
At the hotel in Cuzco, everything has worked out just fine,
all of my luggage has arrived so all is good. Everyone has been very helpful
and friendly along the whole trip. Very tired as I did not get much sleep in the
past 24 hrs, I had some coca leaf tea when I got to the hotel as it is supposed
to help adjusting to the high altitude and prevent altitude sickness. Going to
have a nap for a few hours.
Got up and had some more tea, as I have a slight headache
and I have some tingling sensations in the extremities. Going for a walk to get
to know my way around and to meet with the people managing the rooming house
where I will be living at for a next couple of months.
Good news is the people and the rooming house is great so I
can move out of the hotel and save myself some monies. The bad news is, at this
elevation I feel like I am completely out of shape! Walking up one flight of
stairs makes you feel like you just ran 10! Because your body is looking for
oxygen and you are breathing so much deeper/harder I defiantly notice the exhaust
of the passing vehicles. Oh, and as a pedestrian you have no rights so you get
to play frogger on the roads. I am exhausted so I am going to bed.
Nov 29, 2012
I am moving to the rooming house today, getting some
groceries from the nearby markets, walking to check out where the Spanish
language school is and just settling in.
Not as bad for feeling like I have a constant lack of oxygen
but I still wheeze on stairs and hills. Slowly my body is adjusting.
Nov 30, 2012
First day of classes today! It was fun and enjoyable. It is
also going to be intense as they really do not want to speak English to you
even though they are quite good. I understand the reasoning as they want you to
immerse yourself in the language. It just takes some getting used to. Learned
numbers, alphabet, adjectives and a few other things. The brain was ready to
explode by the end of the day!
The good news is, my body is becoming more accustomed to the
altitude as hills no longer bother me and I can walk at a quicker pace, however
stairs still make me feel like I have emphysema.
I have been invited to go out with my house mates so I shall
see how the evening goes.
Saturday there was a festival of some type in plaza de Arms
(the main square). Being only a 10 min walk from there I went down and watch
for a bit but left after being harassed by the street vendors. It is the slow
season so they are probably are a bit more aggressive trying to make a sale and
I do stand out a fair bit here.
Sunday was a nice, sunny, relaxing day. I took my book and
found a bench down at the plaza de arms and read for a few hours and ended up
getting a sun burn on my arms. Went for a late lunch to a pizzeria with my
housemates and their friends, then we just spent the afternoon at the plaza
hanging out.
Today, (Monday), I had my second class of Spanish lessons
and it was a lot of fun. I enjoy the instructors as they are quite funny. We
get a lot of laughs at my attempts at their language. I start out ok but by the
end of the day my brain is ready to explode. I am actually very fortunate
taking lessons right now as there are not a lot of students so even though I
signed up under the group rate I am getting individual training.
I changed rooms today as my new one while slightly smaller
is better set up for a long term stay. I am still trying to get used to that
all the girls and women wear very tight jeans and stretchy pants. And
frequently high heels, which I just marvel at as I do not know how they can
walk with the hills and the cobble stone streets without twisting their ankles.
Oh well, I am not complaining as it gives some nice eye candy to look at. (Hey!
I am healthy young guy, I am only enjoying all of the scenery that Peru has to
offer! LOL).
Dec 16, 2012
For the most part things have been uneventful. Mainly I am
just getting used to the altitude and doing my Spanish classes, (6hrs a day),
which keeps me quite busy and by the end of the day I am exhausted.
Yesterday I went out to the discothèque with some students
and instructors from the school. We went to a club where the locals go not
normally where the tourists go. As you can imagine the 3 of us that were obviously
foreigners received a fair bit of attention, especially because we wanted to
dance. And like many places the men don’t dance unless they have 3-4 bottles of
liquid courage. Since my Spanish is not really that good it was almost
impossible to have a conversation with anyone who did not speak some English.
Over all it was a lot of fun, however it will be a lot more interesting/fun
when my Spanish is better.
The clubs down here are a lot different than in North America.
For one thing they do not close until 7AM! I was not prepared for this so
therefore I went home early, (in relative terms). Also the clubs allow drinks
and cigarettes on the dance floor. So you defiantly have to be aware of the
people around you. There are other differences too but they are just that, differences,
and need to be experienced if you so choose.
I have been taking Salsa dance lessons for 1hr a week at the
language school. It is a lot of fun but it is a workout! Everyone is tired at
the end of it. Salsa is normally a very fast dance so it is hard to keep up
especially when you are gasping for air.
I thought I was doing better with the altitude however it
takes longer than one would think to fully acclimatize. There are some stairs
when I go to the market and typically I have to take a short break at the top.
I found that coca leaf tea helps not only with altitude sickness but also helps
with energy and is an appetite suppressant, as well as a digestive aid. Who
knew all of the benefits!?! If you are ever in Cusco I recommend going to the
Coca museum as it is very informative and interesting on the history and uses
of Coca leaves. (Interesting fact: Peru is one of the few countries where it is
legal to grow the Coca plant and their biggest customer is the US for producing
medicinal cocaine products). By the way drinking Coca tea or chewing Coca
leaves will not get you high as it takes an incredible amount of Coca leaves to
make cocaine, plus the process of making cocaine takes many chemicals not found
in the body.
Machu Picchu is a huge site! We spent 6 hrs walking the site
and we didn’t get to some of the areas that are at the edges of the main site.
I could have easily spent another day there but that is because I found it so fascinating
there. During the high season they sell out the 2500/day tickets that are
available for the site. There were just over 300 tickets sold for the 21st
so it was nice not to have so many people there.
In the end it was almost a perfect day as it was nice and
sunny in the AM until about 10:30 then it was cloudy with some sunny breaks for
most of the day and then after we decided to leave and were heading to the bus
to go down to the town it started to rain. We were able to take/have lunch
while on the site as well as we found a nice place to have a short siesta, (we
had to get up at 4am to catch the train). During the high season I do not know
what they will allow as there are a lot of rules that it seems that may not be
enforced during the slow season. (This is common in Peru and from what I am
told, in S.A. Fequently there are rules/laws but they are not enforced). It was
amazing to be there on the 21 as it did seem like there was a lot of energy in
the place and it was very memorable as there will be only a handful of people who
can say they were there on that date.
I highly recommend going to Machu Picchu
and if you can to go in late Nov early Dec while it is the slow season and
before the rainy season really kicks in.
Dec 26, 2012
This was my first Xmas in another country. It was very
interesting and overall was good. We did a secret Santa gift exchange at the
school. In the house I am staying it is like a makeshift family. I understand
most hostels are the same way. We all gave some money for the Xmas dinner which
we had at a friend’s place as he had a larger dining room. In total there were
11 of us. It was interesting as for one girl it was her first Xmas ever as she
was from a different religious background where they do not celebrate Xmas. For
quite a few of the people there it was their first time having turkey for Xmas
dinner. I think for all of us it was a first in one way or another. While it
was good and I enjoyed it, it doesn’t really feel much like Christmas for me as
I am I away and the language school was only closed for the 25.
Over all I am impressed at the hospitality of everyone here
and how they try to include the foreigners in things and make them feel at
home. New Year’s Eve should be interesting as apparently Cusco is the place to be
for New Years in Peru.
At the square our numbers dwindled to only 3 as some went
home because they drank too much and others went back or never left the party
at the hostel. Being we were 3 male foreigners, 5 local girls decided to become
our local guides, 1 was mainly doing it because she thought she could get us to
buy the alcohol and she was not very happy when we refused. But that was a
short lived issue as the rest of us ignored her temper tantrum. Eventually,
somewhere along the way the my 2 male companions went home, so me and my 5 new
friends went to a nearby discothèque and danced until 6:30am! I said goodbye to
my new friends and walked home in the morning sun. It has been many years since
I have stayed up all night partying. I was actually surprised that I was not
more tired when I got home.
For the most part things have been quiet and returned to
routines, going to school, homework, salsa lessons, going to the market and
getting to know the different people that rotate through the house and school.
On Wednesday night I went out for dinner with a couple from
the school to a restaurant called, “La Cusquenita”. The restaurant has a buffet
so you can try many different local dishes as well they have a live show with
music, singing and dancing. It was very good and the show went basically the
entire time we were there, (2.5hrs). It was a little more expensive than most restaurants
in this area, but in my opinion it was worth it.
Last night I went out with some of the instructors to a club
called Mythology, next to Plaza de Armas, (the main square). It was one of the
instructors birthday. It was fun as everyone likes to dance and since it is
next to the main square there is a good mix of locals and foreigners.
