A short stint thru peru
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2004
1
11
25
Trip End
Jul 27, 2004
Cusco,
Peru
Saturday, June 19, 2004
when we exited pachimamas(mother earth's) womb, to the outside world once again, we had a cold shower...refreshing to say the least...about an hour later, we were all partaking in shots of san pedro cactus juice, a mild hallucinogenic medicine, that helps you to connect with the spirit world...due to my last experience in the jungle with ayahuasca, i erred on the side of caution this time, and the effects were pretty subtle, almost to the point of being non existent (thats what i get for being cautious...lesson learned---more is always better!!!well maybe not always, but usually)...however, the night sky was clear, the moon almost full, and the clouds were forming magnificent kaleidoscope patterns around the moon for most of the night...so even without a solid connection to the other world, an excellent experience...
throughout the night, some of the locals underwent sppiritual cleansing ceremonies with the shaman and the medicine men...this consisted of sitting on the jaguar skin, while they took turns spitting alcohol on them, blowing fire on them, and also sucking out the evil spirits, which sounded quite alot like someone puking...speaking of which, listening to others puking was also an integral part of the evening...thankfully, this time it did not include myself...
sunrise finally came, and the girls of the group were all sent off with the local women to prepare fresh fruit for the men...ahhh, how sweet it is...after a feast of fruit, and other local dishes, ( all eaten savage styles with banana leaves and fingers), it was time for the much needed all day sleep...
after waking up, i decided it was finally time to depart from this lovely place, and get a move on once again...i boarded the night bus, on which i was befriended by a rather intoxicated local, who was trying to escape his friends and head to the city for some reason or another...after a few minutes of conversation, the bus was pulled over by a truck in front of it, and a couple guys jumped on(his friends) to get him off the bus...huddling up next to me trying to hide from them did not work, and soon they were trying to drag him off the bus...he did not want to leave however, as he had a new amigo(me), and wanted to stay...eventually, with the help of a few others on the bus, they got him off, and i was amigo-less once again...
in the city of loja, i met up with a fellow traveller, and we boarded the piss-smelling bus for peru...arriving at the border in the middle of the night, we were forced to bang on the immigration officers door for quite a few minutes before he staggered out half asleep and dazed to give us our forms to fill out for exiting the country...after filling out the forms, we had to wake him up again, as he was asleep at his desk..ahh the formalities of latin america...next, we walked across the border to the peruvian side, and finished with the paperwork before boarding the bus again for the rest of the trip...
i decided to take the night bus, thinking that like usual it would be late, which would mean a perfect arrival time of early morning in piura, peru...but for once, things were smmoth, and even early, therefore, we arrived at the rather inconvenient hour of 5:30 am...too early for anything to be open, but not worth checking into a hostel for a nap...therefore we attempted to sleep on upright and uncomfortable plastic chairs in the bus company office...
my travelling companion caught a bus to trujillo, while i opted for getting the bus guy to make many phone calls to the airline to find out if there were seats available on the early morning flight to lima...i felt as though i was running low on time for my trip, and also was not looking forward to the 28 hour ride to lima...as i write this a couple weeks later,in hindsight i wish i would have toured thru northern peru, but i guess that will hafta be done next time...and there will be a next time...i arrived in lima, and due to the fact that i fly out of that city at the end of my trip, i decided to splurge once again, and immediately booked another flight for cusco...
collecting my bags at the airport in cusco, i met up with some american dudes, and we shared a cab to the center..our cabbie, who turned out to be our new best friend, and just coincidentally enuff a travel agent(they all seem to be in one way or another), took us to his families hostel, after convincing us that the hostel we first looked at was full...(a well known and used scam, but the place was nice, and not unreasonably priced, so we agreed)...then he sat us down for an information session on the available tours, etc..the guys i met up with were short on time, so they signed up, and i hesitantly did as well...later that night as we were going out for dinner, i bumped into my friend andrew(jungle trip, and tena), and after talking to his friend about a different, cheaper tour, i bailed on the americans, and opted for a different adventure with andrew...(running into the americans a day later, would prove to confirm the excess expense of the first tour, so i felt justified in my decision)...
well this is probably long enuf for one entry, so i will send it out, and begin the next one with my machu pichu adventure...cheers...
