Just a quick story that I think illustrates Argentine M.O.:
Last night I went to a birthday party at a bar. This bar, like every other, has a "happy hour." If you arrive at a certain time you can get drink deals, like 2 of the same beer for the price of 1. We all ordered our first beers, but when the waitress came back and handed me the wrong one. I said, "Oh, I actually ordered a Warsteiner, not a Budweiser." She actually looked apologetic and ready to take it away and bring back the correct one, but I noticed that the bottle was already opened and would be wasted. I said, "Oh, you know what, it's ok. I don't mind drinking that one since it's opened." She smiled and thanked me. When the time came to order the second round, I said, "Warsteiner please." And she replied, "Oh no, you can only get 2 of the same kind of beer."
"Well," I explained, "Remember I had order a Warsteiner to begin with and you brought me a Budweiser by mistake? Well now I'd like to switch to the one I wanted."
"No, I'm sorry I can't do that. You have to stick to the same kind or I can't give you one for free." And with that she trotted off and brought me back an opened Budweiser.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
PERU
It feels like a long time ago now that I got back from my 2 weeks in Peru! I will try to concisely summarize:
... let us begin with Miriam. I met Miriam (a fellow American) on my birthright trip to Israel in January. I invited to her to come visit me when I moved to Buenos Aires, and she actually did! For that Miriam wins lots of points. She came to BsAs for a few days, and then we spent 10 traveling in Peru (I stayed another 3 after she left).
Mimo n' Me in Israel
We took separate flights from Buenos Aires to Lima, planned to meet in the airport, stay over in Lima, and then fly to the city of Cusco early in the morning. In my last blog I mentioned the website CouchSurfing, which can be used to find free places to stay anywhere in the world. Thinking we needed to spend the night in Lima, I contacted "Ulises" on this site and asked if we could crash. Not only did he say yes, but he also told me to send him our flight info and he would pick us up at the airport. In my usual fashion, I didn't really think through the reality of the situation: 1) Miriam and I were on 2 different flights. Mine got in at 9pm and hers at 11. 2) Our flight to Cusco left at 6 am, meaning we had to be back at the airport at 4, so there was actually no point in leaving the airport at all. None of this crossed my mind when I sent Ulises a quick email saying we were arriving at 9, and a ride would be great! Also true to my usual form, I sent him the WRONG itinerary. The flight info he received didn't even correspond with the date or the destination cities I had cited to him. It wasn't until Miriam and I arrived at the airport in BsAs the it occurred to me just how poorly I had communicated with this poor man. But it was too late. I convinced myself that he would look at the non-sensical itinerary I sent and conclude that there was no way to find us, assume we would find a hotel, and go about his life as usual. So imagine my surprise when I'm waiting for Miriam (now it's almost 12) in Lima and I get a tap on the shoulder. "Danielle?" I look up to see a smiling Peruvian man and and young woman. Baffled, I asked how they found me. As it turned out, Ulises did not give up as easily as I had assumed (and hoped). They had initially come to the airport at 9, like I had said, looking for a girl resembling the photos of myself I had posted on the website. No luck. They then left and came back to greet the next flight coming from Buenos Aires, at which time they finally spotted me waiting with my giant hikers pack. Stunned at their tremendous effort we thanked them profusely and suggested we all hang out for a bit in the airport (since at this point it was midnight and there was no point at all in going back to his house to sleep before flight #2). Ulises and his friend, an Israeli girl, agreed, smiles still plastered on their kind faces. Never once did they seem the slightest bit perturbed by the evening's events.
My level of planning around our night in Lima was about par for the course for the rest of the trip. We pretty much arrived having no idea where we were going or what we were doing. As it turns out, when you only have 10 days to travel in a very large and fairly disorganized country, planning really makes a lot of sense. All we knew was that we were going to start out in Cusco and from there, make our way to Machu Picchu. We learned the hard way that just hopping over to Machu Picchu isn't as easy as it sounds. Because of this, we ended up spending 3 days in Cusco and many many hours in internet cafes trying to determine a way out. Cusco was a tough city for me. It's lovely, but very very, I mean very, touristy. There is this bizarre feeling of "us" and "them" between tourists and locals. Mostly I just felt like people were trying to take as much money from me as possible and nothing much more. At the same time, many of the tourists were rude and demanding to the locals, and I can understand why, over time, neither group would have much respect for the other. The whole thing just felt so ugly. It certainly felt like a whole different world after the warm welcome I received Buenos Aires.
Among the 1st on the top of Hyuana Picchu that morning. In the clouds!
Machu Picchu up close.
More MP.
A highlight of our time with Cusco was meeting up with T Brian Green and Lindsey!! (Two of my great friends from Atlanta). We coordinated our Peru trips to overlap a bit and we got to enjoy a dinner and a breakfast together. After 5 months away, it was AWESOME to see them.
With Mimo, Lindsey and Brian in Cusco.
Finally we did make it to Machu Picchu, which is of course spectacular, but also absolutely jam packed with people. It's a little tough to feel serene there for even one moment. Thankfully, we got a superb tip from one Jed Holtzman who recommended a hike which seems to be largely undiscovered. It's hard to imagine why; it's a gorgeous climb through Peruvian cloud forest, and at the end you get a perfect view of Machu Picchu. This was one of the best things we did for sure! (Pics below)
Climbing Putucusi. That's vertical.
Machu Picchu from the top of Putucusi. Not bad, eh?
Having only a few days left before Miriam's flight out of Lima, we decided to stop in the city of Ica for a few days on our way back to Lima. There's really nothing to do in Ica, but we read that there is a small lagoon-side "resort" nearby which acts as a hub for the region's 2 main tourist attractions--wineries and giant dunes. As it turns out, the lagoon is basically a pond, and the resort a conglomeration of a few hostels and touristy restaurants. I'm realizing as I write this that I'm doing an awful lot of complaining. The truth is that all along, Miriam and I were really have a lot of fun. I just want to make that clear. Anyway, in Huacachina (lagoonville), we booked a day of winery tours, and a day of "sandboarding." First the wine tour. We got a personal driver, Walter (pronounced Wal-tehrrr) to take us from one "bodega" to another. There we got little tours of the facilities and wine tastings. At our second bodega our guide Jesus gave our whole tour in English, using impressively technical terminology. He would end every section by robotically asking, "Any questions?" Luckily we didn't have too many, because as it turned out Jesus had a memorized script and outside of that you couldn't really call him an English speaker. If we said, "Yes, I have a question. How many days do the grapes have to ferment?", Sweet Jesus would look at us blankly like, "Do you really expect me to understand what you're saying? You're speaking to me in a foreign language!" After that second tour Jesus and Walter invited us out with them. Now off the clock, Walter drove the three of us all around town. They brought us to a 3rd winery, a restaurant, and the same bar 3 times (we kept trying to go somewhere else, but finally realized that elsewhere didn't exist).
Doing some hardcore paddle-boating on la laguna.
Walter, Mimo and Jesus at the after hours wine tasting.
The second day in Huacachina we went sandboarding in the "dunes." These dunes are literally mountains made of sand. They are HUGE. Sandboarding is basically snowboarding on sand. To get to up to the top you have 2 choices, climb the dunes yourself or take a dune buggy. (Below is a photo of the buggies). You get in these buggies with 8 or so people and the drivers do their very best to scare the shit out of you. It is sincerely terrifying. They go flying over the tops of these mountains and you really almost go flying out of your seat. I was scared beyond belief. Miriam was scared beyond her body's ability to function. When we got off after the first round, she could no longer move her hands or face. Her mouth was a permanent O shape and her hands looked like lobster claws for about 20 minutes. I wanted to be a good sympathetic friend, but instead I laughed so uncontrollably I could barely stand. I also dubbed her Leonardo. If you get that reference, great, if not, I'm not so un-PC as to spell it out :) Below is a photo for your enjoyment. After the day of duning our buggy driver, also named Jesus, invited us all to go out together. We went to the same bar we had been to 3 times the night before with Walter and Jesus 1. I had an interesting conversation with Jesus 2 about his perception of the tourism in Peru. He told me that he thinks the tourists come from more advanced societies and the locals ought to try to learn from them. That's why he invites his groups to go out--so that he can talk with folks and try to learn something. I wasn't sure what to think of that, but there you have it. In reality, it wasn't much of a cultural exchange at all since I was the only one who could speak to him. Nobody else spoke Spanish, so they sat at the other end of the table speaking English amongst themselves and basically ignoring him and his Peruvian friend completely.
Miriam Leonardo.
Deathbuggies.
The dunes.
At sunset. Pretty spectacular.
Post-boarding.
After spending a day together in Lima, Mimo and I parted ways-- she was to catch a flight to the states the next day, and I headed off to spend my last 3 days in the city of Huaraz. Huaraz is mas tranquilo. Surrounded on all sides by snow capped mountains, it's a haven for climbers and trekkers. The second day I went on a day hike. For the 1st half it seemed moderately challenging and I was enjoying myself, but about halfway up I realized that I was not acclimatized at all. I have never had so much trouble with a physical activity in my life. By the time we got to the absolutely stunning emerald green lake at the top, I really felt unable to take one more step. When I got back to the hostel that evening I literally couldn't move. The next day I felt more or less recovered and spent half a day doing some rock climbing (not nearly high enough to cause altitude problems). Cusco is actually at a higher altitude than Huaraz, and when Miriam and I arrived, we could barely climb the stairs in our hostel. One night we each had a glass and a half of wine at dinner and returned to our room falling over ourselves. We stayed up for a while running around giggling and taking pictures of ourselves. Altitude=cheap nights. (Photo included below)
Altitude + a glass of wine= this photo.
I was probably pretty miserable at the point when I snapped this photograph.
But the payoff was pretty good! (It was actually more green than this photo would suggest)
After Huaraz I made my way back to Lima, and back to BsAs. And there you have the condensed, abbreviated, Reader's Digest version of my 2 weeks in Peru.
... let us begin with Miriam. I met Miriam (a fellow American) on my birthright trip to Israel in January. I invited to her to come visit me when I moved to Buenos Aires, and she actually did! For that Miriam wins lots of points. She came to BsAs for a few days, and then we spent 10 traveling in Peru (I stayed another 3 after she left).
Mimo n' Me in IsraelWe took separate flights from Buenos Aires to Lima, planned to meet in the airport, stay over in Lima, and then fly to the city of Cusco early in the morning. In my last blog I mentioned the website CouchSurfing, which can be used to find free places to stay anywhere in the world. Thinking we needed to spend the night in Lima, I contacted "Ulises" on this site and asked if we could crash. Not only did he say yes, but he also told me to send him our flight info and he would pick us up at the airport. In my usual fashion, I didn't really think through the reality of the situation: 1) Miriam and I were on 2 different flights. Mine got in at 9pm and hers at 11. 2) Our flight to Cusco left at 6 am, meaning we had to be back at the airport at 4, so there was actually no point in leaving the airport at all. None of this crossed my mind when I sent Ulises a quick email saying we were arriving at 9, and a ride would be great! Also true to my usual form, I sent him the WRONG itinerary. The flight info he received didn't even correspond with the date or the destination cities I had cited to him. It wasn't until Miriam and I arrived at the airport in BsAs the it occurred to me just how poorly I had communicated with this poor man. But it was too late. I convinced myself that he would look at the non-sensical itinerary I sent and conclude that there was no way to find us, assume we would find a hotel, and go about his life as usual. So imagine my surprise when I'm waiting for Miriam (now it's almost 12) in Lima and I get a tap on the shoulder. "Danielle?" I look up to see a smiling Peruvian man and and young woman. Baffled, I asked how they found me. As it turned out, Ulises did not give up as easily as I had assumed (and hoped). They had initially come to the airport at 9, like I had said, looking for a girl resembling the photos of myself I had posted on the website. No luck. They then left and came back to greet the next flight coming from Buenos Aires, at which time they finally spotted me waiting with my giant hikers pack. Stunned at their tremendous effort we thanked them profusely and suggested we all hang out for a bit in the airport (since at this point it was midnight and there was no point at all in going back to his house to sleep before flight #2). Ulises and his friend, an Israeli girl, agreed, smiles still plastered on their kind faces. Never once did they seem the slightest bit perturbed by the evening's events.
My level of planning around our night in Lima was about par for the course for the rest of the trip. We pretty much arrived having no idea where we were going or what we were doing. As it turns out, when you only have 10 days to travel in a very large and fairly disorganized country, planning really makes a lot of sense. All we knew was that we were going to start out in Cusco and from there, make our way to Machu Picchu. We learned the hard way that just hopping over to Machu Picchu isn't as easy as it sounds. Because of this, we ended up spending 3 days in Cusco and many many hours in internet cafes trying to determine a way out. Cusco was a tough city for me. It's lovely, but very very, I mean very, touristy. There is this bizarre feeling of "us" and "them" between tourists and locals. Mostly I just felt like people were trying to take as much money from me as possible and nothing much more. At the same time, many of the tourists were rude and demanding to the locals, and I can understand why, over time, neither group would have much respect for the other. The whole thing just felt so ugly. It certainly felt like a whole different world after the warm welcome I received Buenos Aires.
Among the 1st on the top of Hyuana Picchu that morning. In the clouds!
Machu Picchu up close.
More MP.A highlight of our time with Cusco was meeting up with T Brian Green and Lindsey!! (Two of my great friends from Atlanta). We coordinated our Peru trips to overlap a bit and we got to enjoy a dinner and a breakfast together. After 5 months away, it was AWESOME to see them.
With Mimo, Lindsey and Brian in Cusco.Finally we did make it to Machu Picchu, which is of course spectacular, but also absolutely jam packed with people. It's a little tough to feel serene there for even one moment. Thankfully, we got a superb tip from one Jed Holtzman who recommended a hike which seems to be largely undiscovered. It's hard to imagine why; it's a gorgeous climb through Peruvian cloud forest, and at the end you get a perfect view of Machu Picchu. This was one of the best things we did for sure! (Pics below)
Climbing Putucusi. That's vertical.
Machu Picchu from the top of Putucusi. Not bad, eh?Having only a few days left before Miriam's flight out of Lima, we decided to stop in the city of Ica for a few days on our way back to Lima. There's really nothing to do in Ica, but we read that there is a small lagoon-side "resort" nearby which acts as a hub for the region's 2 main tourist attractions--wineries and giant dunes. As it turns out, the lagoon is basically a pond, and the resort a conglomeration of a few hostels and touristy restaurants. I'm realizing as I write this that I'm doing an awful lot of complaining. The truth is that all along, Miriam and I were really have a lot of fun. I just want to make that clear. Anyway, in Huacachina (lagoonville), we booked a day of winery tours, and a day of "sandboarding." First the wine tour. We got a personal driver, Walter (pronounced Wal-tehrrr) to take us from one "bodega" to another. There we got little tours of the facilities and wine tastings. At our second bodega our guide Jesus gave our whole tour in English, using impressively technical terminology. He would end every section by robotically asking, "Any questions?" Luckily we didn't have too many, because as it turned out Jesus had a memorized script and outside of that you couldn't really call him an English speaker. If we said, "Yes, I have a question. How many days do the grapes have to ferment?", Sweet Jesus would look at us blankly like, "Do you really expect me to understand what you're saying? You're speaking to me in a foreign language!" After that second tour Jesus and Walter invited us out with them. Now off the clock, Walter drove the three of us all around town. They brought us to a 3rd winery, a restaurant, and the same bar 3 times (we kept trying to go somewhere else, but finally realized that elsewhere didn't exist).
Doing some hardcore paddle-boating on la laguna.
Walter, Mimo and Jesus at the after hours wine tasting.The second day in Huacachina we went sandboarding in the "dunes." These dunes are literally mountains made of sand. They are HUGE. Sandboarding is basically snowboarding on sand. To get to up to the top you have 2 choices, climb the dunes yourself or take a dune buggy. (Below is a photo of the buggies). You get in these buggies with 8 or so people and the drivers do their very best to scare the shit out of you. It is sincerely terrifying. They go flying over the tops of these mountains and you really almost go flying out of your seat. I was scared beyond belief. Miriam was scared beyond her body's ability to function. When we got off after the first round, she could no longer move her hands or face. Her mouth was a permanent O shape and her hands looked like lobster claws for about 20 minutes. I wanted to be a good sympathetic friend, but instead I laughed so uncontrollably I could barely stand. I also dubbed her Leonardo. If you get that reference, great, if not, I'm not so un-PC as to spell it out :) Below is a photo for your enjoyment. After the day of duning our buggy driver, also named Jesus, invited us all to go out together. We went to the same bar we had been to 3 times the night before with Walter and Jesus 1. I had an interesting conversation with Jesus 2 about his perception of the tourism in Peru. He told me that he thinks the tourists come from more advanced societies and the locals ought to try to learn from them. That's why he invites his groups to go out--so that he can talk with folks and try to learn something. I wasn't sure what to think of that, but there you have it. In reality, it wasn't much of a cultural exchange at all since I was the only one who could speak to him. Nobody else spoke Spanish, so they sat at the other end of the table speaking English amongst themselves and basically ignoring him and his Peruvian friend completely.
Miriam Leonardo.
Deathbuggies.
The dunes.
At sunset. Pretty spectacular.
Post-boarding.After spending a day together in Lima, Mimo and I parted ways-- she was to catch a flight to the states the next day, and I headed off to spend my last 3 days in the city of Huaraz. Huaraz is mas tranquilo. Surrounded on all sides by snow capped mountains, it's a haven for climbers and trekkers. The second day I went on a day hike. For the 1st half it seemed moderately challenging and I was enjoying myself, but about halfway up I realized that I was not acclimatized at all. I have never had so much trouble with a physical activity in my life. By the time we got to the absolutely stunning emerald green lake at the top, I really felt unable to take one more step. When I got back to the hostel that evening I literally couldn't move. The next day I felt more or less recovered and spent half a day doing some rock climbing (not nearly high enough to cause altitude problems). Cusco is actually at a higher altitude than Huaraz, and when Miriam and I arrived, we could barely climb the stairs in our hostel. One night we each had a glass and a half of wine at dinner and returned to our room falling over ourselves. We stayed up for a while running around giggling and taking pictures of ourselves. Altitude=cheap nights. (Photo included below)
Altitude + a glass of wine= this photo.
I was probably pretty miserable at the point when I snapped this photograph.
But the payoff was pretty good! (It was actually more green than this photo would suggest)After Huaraz I made my way back to Lima, and back to BsAs. And there you have the condensed, abbreviated, Reader's Digest version of my 2 weeks in Peru.
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