I thought this would be a good place to put some of my thoughts, things that happened, and a few images that I like but just cannot figure out which blog post they should go in. I will add new entries at the top of the pages each time and date them, so if you visit here every once in a while, you may find something new. If you are subscribed to my posts by email, you won't receive notification when I add something here, so you'll just have to visit the page every once in a while.
March 10: Working while Traveling
My "office" in Chucuito! |
To make more
travel possible in the future, I must learn to balance my explorations with
time for income-producing work. Part of my work is to develop my knitting
patterns to sell via the internet. But for this venture, I have also been fortunate
to be working with US clients in my document design service. This week, although
there were a few hitches with internet access in the tiny village of Chucuito,
I did get to enjoy the use of the empty restaurant at the inn where I am
staying for an “office.”
March 7: Carnival!
As I am sitting writing blog entries in the
peaceful restaurant at Posada Santa Barbara I hear the
band in the nearby pueblo of Chinchera. The music and dancing there has been
going on for three days! This is one of
the many carnival seasons in the Altiplano. While
walking in the countryside two days ago, I came across this fiesta in a small gathering place. The women
were dancing the same dance I saw at Candelaria, swishing their full skirts and
petticoats back and forth. It seems they can dance like that for hours. I
watched from afar for a while and enjoyed listening to the music as I walked back to the posada. Indeed, I can hear it
from here day and night. They begin about 9:00 in the morning and are still
going strong until about 11:00 pm. There is a little dirt road that runs below
my windows. Two nights ago, at about 2:30 am,
two or three men walked by on the road singing their hearts out in an
Andean melody. They were apparently returning from the carnival that I had
passed earlier—probably a little tipsy—but they certainly were happy. Then,
last night, about 2:00 am, came the fuegos
artificiales (fireworks), again from the road outside my window. Kind of
fun, but I was glad it did not last
for hours!!
March 3: Altura!
I am
discouraged—though I know it will pass. I woke up this morning not wanting to go
out. I m tired and have very low energy. I’m not really dizzy, but any exertion
can make me a bit light-headed. I know it is the altitude but I guess I had
thought that since I had already been up here a couple weeks ago that I could
just hit the ground running. HA! Think again, Cathleen!
Patience...Patience...Patience...Patience...
Later: As it
turned out, I am glad that I laid low for the day. I felt much better the next
day. I spent some time knitting in the arched mirador
(overlook) right next door to my room and thinking about how
fortunate I am to be knitting in such an exotic seat overlooking Lake Titicaca!
March 1: Estoy en Chucuito! Otra vez!
As planned, I arrived at the Posada Santa Barbara in late
afternoon—this time planning to stay 2 weeks to a month. Juan was here to
welcome me. After settling in my room, I tried to rest a bit before dinner, but
really could not sleep. My mind was so
busy. It seems like right after I get to a new place, I get a feeling like,
“Now why did I come here? What am I doing?” I guess it is the feeling of being
outside my comfort zone again. At least from experience, I can deduce that I
will settle in and figure it all out.
February 25: No Right
on Red! Gracias a Dios!
I went for a long walk in the city today and during the walk
it was exciting to feel like I knew where I was going and what I was doing. I
have gotten more and more familiar with Arequipa and am confident in
finding my way and crossing the street like I have lived here a long time. I have come
quite a way since January 18! I AM glad,
I thought today, that they don’t allow right turns on red lights here! The cars
have enough (bastante!) right of way
here!
February 24: Back to
School!
Walking through the streets—they are particularly busy this
Monday. It is apparent that school is starting soon. There are lines in the
school supply shops and young people are seen leaving the Institutos
Technicos with matriculation papers in their hands. Fro Peruvians, this
marks the end of summer—fall begins soon, although the weather changes little
here, no matter what the altitude because we are so close to the equator.
February 10: Riding on a Cruz del Sur bus...
It is so surreal to ride in a bus with a panoramic view of
Peru’s Altiplano and the movie, Pearl
Harbor, is being shown with audio blaring from the speakers. The movie is in English
with Spanish subtitles, but sometimes there is some kind of glitch in the
editing and the characters suddenly start speaking Spanish!
Cruz del Sur has relatively luxurious buses for traveling
throughout Peru and South America; and despite what I am about to tell you, they have a good safety record.
I had a first class seat on the 16-hour
overnight trip from Lima to Cuzco three weeks ago. The first class seats are
downstairs and they are quiet and each person can choose to listen (or not) to
the movies being broadcast. But in first class, you don’t get the panoramic
views that are available in the cheaper seats upstairs. If you get an early
reservation, you may be lucky enough get the very best views in the front seat.
Of course, there are pros and cons to everything in life: being in the very
front affords you the opportunity to see all the close calls and tricky passes
that the driver makes. I think we actually bumped into a moto-rickshaw in
Juliaca. Not for the faint of heart!
February 9-10: Alternative
Energy in Peru
Almost every home and business uses solar water heaters.
Here’s what the rooftops look like in Arequipa:
And we passed this little “dint in the road” village on the
way to Puno. Look!
February 9:
Romantico!
Crossing the Rio Chili in Arequipa, I came across these
locks on the bridge. Think about it: are the keys in the river? How romantic!
Monday, February 2
I thought this walk-light was so funny, I just had to share a video of it. I think we need these in the US!
Friday, January 25
Oh my brain is tired! Blanca, Manuel's sister came up before
dinner and as I was sitting at the table knitting, she sat down next to me and
started talking "80 miles a minute" in Spanish like she assumed I
understood everything she said. (She knows how poor my Spanish is, but I think
she likes to talk, or maybe she is surreptitiously teaching me.) Occasionally I
would get the gist of what she was saying and would make some comment in
English about it, or I would stop her at some word and try to determine what
that one word meant--even though I could not understand about
95% of the other words. Sometimes I would tell her the English
word for what she was talking about. For example, after a long discussion, I
figured out that she was talking about springs. I said, "el lugar
donde agua sale de la tierra?" ("the place where water leaves the earth?")
She said "Si," so I told her that the English word was
"spring." She said, "Primavera?" (as in the season of
spring), which launched us into a completely different conversation about how
some words have many meanings.
Blanca stayed though dinner and the
lingering time afterwards sitting next to me the whole time. It was interesting
that she talked about so many different things, like she assumed I understood
it all: wetlands, the coastline and beach nearby, her sister's condo that she
had just visited in Mollendo, the political and economic situation in Argentina
(I got almost none of that part!), the German population of
Chile and Argentina, dams in Peru, Egypt, and the US (where did that come
from?!), the wealth of Dubai and the palm shaped islands they have constructed
in the Persian Gulf (I actually knew about that one!), and much more. When
Adela, Manuel, and Mechel joined us, they were able to "help" me
listen and understand. I had purchased some delicious organic dark
chocolate near the Plaza for dessert and that launched us into yet another
conversation about dark and milk chocolate and which types we prefer!
Later, Larry, another guest from, of all places, TACOMA!!, arrived and sat down for a cup of tea. Larry speaks very little Spanish and so I got the most rewarding opportunity to "translate" some of what Larry said into very broken Spanish. What fun that was! It was all excellent practice and I felt like I held my own fairly well, even though after about two hours, I could really feel my brain getting very tired!
22 January 2014
Today, Manuel and Adela invited me to accompany them on their
errands. They needed to get a battery for their cordless phone, so we went to
(guess where!) Radio Shack! It is located in what must be a very high rent
space--right on one of the corners in the busy Plaza del Armas. I got this shot
of them as they emerged from the store--unfortunately without a new
battery.
21 January 2014
On Monday, when Adela and I were in the central Plaza de Armas and it was sprinkling a little, there were people--sometimes 2 or more on each corner, and mostly women--selling paraguas (umbrellas). They called "Paraguas! Paraguas! Paraguas!" capitalizing on the weather. I had jokingly remarked to Adela that if the sun was shining the next day, they would be selling sun hats. Well, I ws not very far off. At dinner tonight, she and I laughed when I told her that since it was sunny today, they were selling lentes del sol (sunglasses)!