Where to begin? This week has been crazy. It turns out Cuzco has quite the night life... and apparently anything goes. I'll come back to that (maybe) but first I'm going to work through some of what's happened this week. Honestly, the time since my last post has been a blur. I was looking through some shots today and remembering entire days I'd completely forgotten about. Some of the things that have happened are completely insane while other's just make you stop and think for a moment. For example, on my way to class I came across this kid sitting quietly alone, washing a llama statue.
So, lets begin. I've met an absolutely great group of people through my spanish school and have been having a fantastic time out here. I'm not really sure what the policy is regarding talking to the internet about people you've met, but if you guys are reading this, you're awesome! I've been having a blast, and to those of you who are leaving soon or have already left, I'm gonna miss you! (Hey, you guys back home, I miss you too!).
Anyway, with my stomach still not fully recovered I've avoided typical Peruvian food for the last few days. The shot below is from one of the classier touristy restaurants (can you even say that?). They make a killer breakfast, though they're a bit pricy... almost $7 for the more expensive meals.
I've also been frequenting McDonalds.... I know.. I'm the worst. Who goes to a foreign country just to eat McDonalds? Well... someone who made an effort to only eat local food and suffered for it. Yeah, it makes me feel sick, but it's the comfortable McDonalds feeling I know and love. It's right outside the clubs and there are always adorable kids waiting to sell snacks and cigarettes to wasted tourists.. along with the cutest puppy. Mom, you're going to have to start building a new house in the backyard for all the kids and animals I'm bringing home with me.
There seems to be something happening in Cuzco all the time, though that may have something to do with the city center being a 10 minute walk from my hostal. Saturday was no exception, with a huge art festival taking place in the central plaza. There was a huge variety of art, ranging from some fantastic abstract photos to fairly loaded political cartoons.
There was also live music and quite a few street artists, my favorite of which were a pair of incredible chalk artists. We must have spent at least a good half hour watching them work.
One of the things you notice about Cuzco, and I imagine much of South America, is that the people really LOVE anything and everything colourful. At night the city lights up with neon, from the cabs to the water fountains. People on the streets sell glowing toys and half of the cars have some sort of florescent light or sign strapped, glued, stapled or tied onto them.
Now, I don't go clubbing at home so I really can't comment on whether or not it's better here... but the club scene is pretty insane. Of course, the fact that I travel with a pack (that really does seem like the most appropriate word choice to me) of gorgeous ladies (I know you're going to read this, ahah) gives me a pretty big advantage when it comes to having fun. First of all, we don't pay cover, nor do we pay for drinks. More importantly though, everyone seems to be totally fine with us dancing on the bar tables... all night long. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my stomach has refused any sort of alcohol but it hasn't really mattered. The key was just to acknowledge that I can't dance and do it anyway. There's nothing like having a bunch club goers taking pictures of you as you fall 5 feet off a bar (don't worry, I'm fine... It wasn't my fault, I swear) to remind you that it doesn't really matter what you do. Friday was my first day out, but things got a little more intense on Saturday. Somehow Kylee (below) and I ended up in a pissing contest (you don't know how long I've been waiting to use that... though I'm not sure why) of sorts.
Sorry Kylee.. it's the only picture of you I've got. Anyway, someone from the spanish school mentioned that they had stayed up all night to watch the sunrise, and of course, it became our goal for Saturday night to do the same. By 2 am everyone was too exhausted to keep dancing. By 3 am, the only people not begging to go home were Kylee and I... only because we were too stubborn to admit defeat. The group slowly began to trickle away to their respective homes and we made the (mostly insane) decision to go get our sleeping bags and hike to a vantage point to wait for the sun to rise. Now, you're all thinking that tropical Peru must have lovely, warm, humid evenings. WRONG! It drops to just above 0°C every night in Cuzco. So in theory, it was a great idea... in practice, it was incredibly cold. We couldn't sit in the grass because of all the frost. That being said, sitting on a ledge for 2 hours overlooking Cuzco as the sun began to crest the mountains was one of the more beautiful experiences I've had of late. Kylee, thanks for being such a champ and joining me for such an awesome night! Unfortunately we thought the sun was going to rise directly in front of us (photo below) but it actually came up far to the left behind a hill. By 6:20 it was getting bright out and the sun still wasn't visible... so, it turns out we completely missed the sunrise. Oh well, next time, right?
Since then I've just been taking spanish lessons, sleeping and hanging out. I also turned 20.. oh the horror! I was sitting in my room when someone knocked on the door. I opened it to find most of the employees of the hostel waiting outside with a cake! They had planned a mini surprise party for me and we sat around in the courtyard eating cake and laughing at my awful Spanish skills. Definitely one of the sweetest things anyone's ever done for me, so thank you hostal Qorichaska!
My next post will probably be from the rainforest... so stay tuned (and tell all your friends!).
* Because blogspot is hosted by google it keeps track of the stats of all my site visitors. Whoever is reading from Malasia, Hi!
* Because blogspot is hosted by google it keeps track of the stats of all my site visitors. Whoever is reading from Malasia, Hi!
No comments:
Post a Comment