Lifeinthekeyofme

I’m back in San Francisco, but need to recap my last night in Guayaquil; my hostel bud (Daniel) and I decided to take a crack at the local Mariscos restaurant. While we enjoyed our dinner I took the opportunity to ask him various questions about why take 6 months out of your life to come to South America, so far from home (Melbourne). I remember being 20 and having a hard time leaving my own neighborhood, let alone flying 3,000 miles away. Actually, I think I was 20 the first time I took a plane, and it was only to a destination 90 miles away

So ladies & gents, introducing Mr. Daniel Nicholson

I didn’t want to end my last night in Peru with a bitch blog post, so instead I loaded up 3 that were in the queue. But now that I’m in Ecuador, I’m going to happily tell:

So being in Machu Picchu was the most amazing thing in the world. It was an experience of a lifetime and I highly recommend you go. Though a few words of advice (based on real life/recent experience):

*If you are scared of heights, do not try to climb up to Machu Picchu. You will surely shit your pants and probably have a panic attack
*If you are scared of heights, and take my advice above, then make sure you sit on the aisle for the bus ride up to MP and DO NOT LOOK OUT THE WINDOW.
*If your driver of that said bus (bullet point 2) looks OLD, GET THE F@$#$ OFF THE BUS

I am/have always been scared of heights and you would think that flying on a plane would get you pass that fear (yeah, kinda). But nothing will prepare you for Machu Picchu, especially the bus ride. There were a few times where I looked out the window and couldn’t actually see the road that the wheels were supposedly on and there is absolutely no guard rail.

Oh, If it rains (which it usually does), you’re likely going to be even more scared of the trip up/down from the mountain and your train ride will likely be delayed by hours.

Oh shit, it's flooding!

On to the second part of the advice:

You need a tour guide and agency to do the Inca Trail or Machu Picchu. I suggest you hire an ex-pat rather than a local. I know that seems outrageous but a lot of the locals are shady. I was suppose to have a ride back (with one other passenger) from the train station to Cusco, I ended up on a ride back with 19 other people (on a 14 passenger van). Yes, 19 people. The asshole tour guide decided to sell off spots on the bus to pocket some extra change. Now I’m not going to give the guy shit for creating his own stimulus package on the spot, but there were only 11 seats available (if you mins the 2 plus himself).

He didn’t care, and it was the longest ride since Noah’s Ark. I did the “American thing” (and I usually don’t) and bitched his ass out in Spanish after we finally got back into town. I’m expecting a refund.

Ok, I’m done

So I went back on Saturday to Nick’s, and it was a blast like the previous night. The only difference was that I got there early to meet up with my friend Tara. Tara is a very smart girl and she has some good insight into the soul. We decided she’d give me a therapy session while we awaited the Atlanta vs Arizona game. Bruce Springsteen was also playing on the jukebox, and we had a couch…so what else is there to kill time?

Tara helped me realize that I’ve been holding on to some serious abandonment/control issues since I was 17. Without going into the boring details, I’ll do quick bullet points:
*boy falls for girl
*girl becomes girlfriend
*girlfriend breaks up with boy abruptly (at least he thought so)
*ex-girlfriend gets pregnant from boy’s former best friend
*boy cries like a little bitch for the better part of 1991

the end. thanks Tara, I need to get over that shit.

I probably yapped the whole way up there, but I was speechless when I arrived. So rather than writing up this blog post about emotions, I hope you can just figure out what I felt.

cheers

This post is “Part One” because in a few minutes I will be headed back to Nick’s Sports Bar to watch the NFL Playoffs. I went to Nick’s last night in hopes of watching the Utes beat the Tide, which they did, but the signal wasn’t coming in for the game. Since I had no other options, I decided to stay for one beer, which turned to a few more and a lot of laughs, conversations about Lebanon and singing Happy Birthday to Nick at midnight.

This is the story that most people probably tell when they go traveling to another country. Get drunk, meet new peeps, exchange numbers and live forever

woot woot

I forgot everyone’s name except for Nick’s (since his name is on the marquee), but hopefully I can catch names again this time.

cheers!

I spent the entire day recovering from the stolen phone and the hangover. I went to Norton’s for dinner, where I was elegantly wasted last night. They have a pretty good jukebox and some tasty hamburgers. I decided to end the night with a Cuba libre and “Goodnight Elizabeth” on the jukebox, which reminded me of this gorgeous version of the song:

I will start with the bad news, my blackberry got stolen last night. And though I’m still pissed about it because I have to ask everyone for their phone number(s) and I can’t update my Facebook status…at least I wasn’t robbed at gunpoint or knife or llama. It happened at the end of the night, probably around the time you west coasters were counting down. Me and my friend Tara were walking back to our respective hostels when it happened. I took my phone out of my pocket to check the time and then all of a sudden some guy runs behind us and grabs it from my hand. It was so unreal that it took me seconds to realize it. I could have run after the guy, but let’s be honest…i was drunk and I didn’t want to get stabbed.

Now New Year’s itself (the countdown, fireworks, dancing in the street), it was pretty impressive. Even Tara (who’s from NY) mentioned that this was wore more engaging than Times Square. It was raining all day and all through the night ,but it didn’t stop anyone. We met 2 nice girls from Amsterdam, but we lost them in the countdown somewhere. Enjoy the pics and the video

“The obligatory artisan shopping” commenced today. So after (quite possibly the best) a tasty vegetable soup, I made my way to the back alleys of downtown. Its honestly mind blowing to see people making things in front of you to purchase. There was even a cute kitten perfectly propped amongst the goods, not sure if that was a marketing tactic

The town is being prepped for tonight’s NYE festivities. Yellow balloons everywhere, not sure the symbolism behind that?

Or maybe they ran out of red ones…

I took the obligatory “picture with baby llama” and I realized that my hair is getting messy. It’s ok, its not like I have to go to work or anything. But I definitely am much cuter with short hair.

And for those of you who are friends with me on Facebook and made remarks regarding the Inca Massage, no, there were no happy endings involved. Though the girl was very pretty and she gave me all sorts of compliments, which I’m sure was included in the 40 soles I paid

Happy New Year everyone, from myself and our corporate sponsors

My life, not as interesting as I’d like it to be
http://lifeinthekeyofme.wordpress.com/

After spending 6 hours at the fabulous Lima airport, and enjoying some Starbucks and Mickey D’s, I finally made it to Cuzco. We sat on the plane for about an hour, and later I found out that LAN Airlines canceled ALL THEIR FLIGHTS to Cuzco today because of the shitty weather. So I guess I lucked out, though makes me wonder what will become of my flight out of Cuzco to Guayaquil. Well, for now…who cares.

I met up with my dear friend Erin and her sister Alyssa. They both had planned to be here a long time before I did, but in changing my itinerary a few weeks ago, I ended up going through Lima and decided to make Cuzco part of the trip. We decided to head up to visit Saqsaywaman and it was just amazing. It was raining like crazy when we left the Plaza but it cleared up by the time we got up to the park. Amongst the heavy breathing (I’m out of shape), I couldn’t help but be overcome with amazing emotions about being in such a beautiful place. Check out the vid and the pics and let me know what you think