Today's TLA is UDM.
Un dia mas
Well it has been 5 days since I arrived from the lovely country of Peru. I am sick. I have been sick for almost a week now. I have a sore throat, can't talk, and cough every 5 minutes or so. So I ask myself was Peru worth it? HELL YEAH IT WAS! Why was it worth it? Because of the experience of traveling to a foreign land and having no expectations.
Traveling always makes learn new things about myself and about the world we live in. Traveling makes me open my eyes to a world which does not revolve itself in trivial American things like American Pop TV or even American Sports.
I went off in a spur of the moment thing. I mean when is the last time I am going to be 25 living on my own and have the freedom to go whenever and wherever I want. Its my "Bahala Na" attitude. In tagalog it means "No worries" or "Whatever will be, will be." I think it is a good philosophy to have. Work is not our lives. Our family is not our lives. Our lives is our lives. Life is a series of moments, and how you act on or not act on a particular moment determines whether your life has interesting moments or dull subdued boring momments. And my moment was now to be interesting. I am 25. I have resources. I have vacation time. I am single. I have no wife and kids. And I had my 2 traveling buddies from Brazil to go with again. Only good things can happen right?
The trip started off with a bang. On the plane to Lima, Lan Chile offered the best in flight game ever. They had "Who wants to be a Millionare?" And we had a blast playing it. Although it was the British edition we didn't get the common British questions for 100pts. I sat next to this Chilean Lady from Santiago, Chile. She was sweet. She warned us if we were to hook up with Peruanas to meet their parents. She said "Peruvian girls are nice and don't forget to meet their parents as well." I thought that was pretty funny. We arrived in Lima pretty late, but we managed to do some recon work on the main street in Miraflores, Lima. It was called Calle de las Pizzas (In English "Pizza Street"). We checked out one club called "Son de Cuba" (In English "They are from Cuba"). The next night our first real night in Lima, we went to Son de Cuba and danced a lot there. That was a really cool club in Miraflores. That was a pretty fun night ending up at like 6:30am. The next day was "engreado day."
We almost missed our plane to Cusco. Because I woke up 20 minutes late. At any rate we rush to the airport. But once we get to the airport we find that our flight is delayed for 5 hours. Our flight was suppose to take off at 8:15am but instead it leaves for 1:15pm. Lan Peru served sandwiches and cofee to enlighten the hungry tired passengers. We met this couple the older lady's name was Sandy. She was quite a character. She was a world traveler. We would mention some place in the world and she would be like oh I have been there before. Or would make a comment like but it wasn't as good as this other place... She was a remarkable lady. She was a very cool world traveller. So off we went to Cusco then to Arequipa and then to Puno, PE.
Puno, Peru was cold. The first night there was one of my coldest nights in my life. It was roughly 0 degrees celsius. That is freaking cold man. I had a beenie, my jacket and like 5 blankets and I was still cold as hell. During the day we went off to Islas de los Uros. Uros was a trip because it is a floating island on Lake Titicaca. Every 2 weeks the 20 or so families who lives on the island would gather up "tara" which is some sort of grass/bamboo-like substance and put it on top of the old grass. It is really interesting once you get off the boat. It feels like you are on a trampolene. The people there were hagglers for their quilts. They were like you have to buy, it is our only form of income. So I had to buy some quilts for my sister. Well after this we ate freshly fried fish and rice for like 2 soles. Which was about $0.60. Also I bought the cheapest 12 pieces of bread in the world in Puno. 1 sole for 12 pieces of bread. You can not beat that.
We were thinking of what to do next. Should we go to La Paz, Bolivia or go to Cusco and then eventually back to Lima. We decide to bus it back to Cusco. The funniest thing happened when were about to leave from Puno to Cusco. I accidentally forgot our key for our room in my pants pocket and the Lady from our hotel actually took a taxi from the hotel to the bus station and eventually to our bus. She found me and asked if I had the key. I gave her the key and felt super embarrassed. I gave her some money for her taxi to and from her hotel. I was like damn that's dedication to get that key back.
The bus ride was very long. It was about 6 hours long. The food on the bus was interesting a lady and her child got on the bus and the lady had a Chinese cleaver and some meat. She started cutting up meat right inside the bus. I was like this was the coolest thing ever. Everything was sold in the bus. From Coca-cola to Peruvian instruments to beenies and scarfs. It was a like a mini-market on the bus. We finally made it to Cusco.
Cusco, Peru was some pretty crazy classic times. It all started trying to haggle for our rooms at Balcon Cusquena. We managed to get our room with 3 beds for about 50 soles a night or roughly another $6.50 a day. I was so amazed at the plaza in Cusco. I loved it there. It is a beautiful plaza. There is a fountain right in the middle of it. It is clean. The shops and restaurants on 2 sides and 2 gigantic churches on 2 other sides. Anyways, our first night in Cusco we go this club. I forget what it was called but it had "Mami" on the title. This was the night where I realized what Ruiz (The Four Agreements) was talking about. In it he wrote "you always have the right to ask." So I asked the famous quotation in Spanish. "Perdoname, pero de donde ellas son?" (In english, "Excuse me, but where are you girls from?") And from then on Cusco was off the hook. We partied with these 3 girls. 2 are from Lima and 1 is from Cusco. They were on vacation or something, but they were all very nice and cordial. I don't care what Jennifer thinks about Peruvian girls being "monsters" I still think they are very nice. Anyways, we danced and partied with these girls for a while. We actually partied with them in Cusco for few days. I think I will just put it at that. ;)
After partying so much with these 3 girls. We decided to do some actual site seeing. We saw Machu Picchu. It is one of the world's greatest sites. It is truly remarkable. The mountain and the terrraces were unbelievable. It was such a beautiful site. I was speechless up top the mountain. It was kinda a little drama just to get there. We had to haggle again to get the ticket prices down to a $100 for a train 2 bus tickets and the park entrance fee. But after that it was all good.
What did I learn from partying this much? Well I learned the fact that you have to be pretty dramatic. You gotta say lines like, "Eres la chica la mas bonita de todo mundo!" (In English, "You are the most beautiful girl in the whole world") Believe me it might sound like a cheesy line but you gotta try it. It works in Latin/South America. On the second to the last days in Cusco, I meet the Bolivian girl. She was on vacation in Cusco, from La Paz, Bolivia. She was cool chica. Again we danced and partied. We stayed about 6 total days in Cusco. Aah Cusco.
We get back in Lima and I start to get sick on the plane from Cusco to Lima. What a shame! Que Lastima! The last 2 days in Lima was stuck in the nice hotel room. We finally didn't go ghetto. We also tried to get into the first game of Copa America in Estadio Nacional in Lima, but it was sold out. Instead we ate outside the arena. Anyways I am still sick, but I still want Un dia mas in Peru.
Enjoy,
Jonathan
Un dia mas
Well it has been 5 days since I arrived from the lovely country of Peru. I am sick. I have been sick for almost a week now. I have a sore throat, can't talk, and cough every 5 minutes or so. So I ask myself was Peru worth it? HELL YEAH IT WAS! Why was it worth it? Because of the experience of traveling to a foreign land and having no expectations.
Traveling always makes learn new things about myself and about the world we live in. Traveling makes me open my eyes to a world which does not revolve itself in trivial American things like American Pop TV or even American Sports.
I went off in a spur of the moment thing. I mean when is the last time I am going to be 25 living on my own and have the freedom to go whenever and wherever I want. Its my "Bahala Na" attitude. In tagalog it means "No worries" or "Whatever will be, will be." I think it is a good philosophy to have. Work is not our lives. Our family is not our lives. Our lives is our lives. Life is a series of moments, and how you act on or not act on a particular moment determines whether your life has interesting moments or dull subdued boring momments. And my moment was now to be interesting. I am 25. I have resources. I have vacation time. I am single. I have no wife and kids. And I had my 2 traveling buddies from Brazil to go with again. Only good things can happen right?
The trip started off with a bang. On the plane to Lima, Lan Chile offered the best in flight game ever. They had "Who wants to be a Millionare?" And we had a blast playing it. Although it was the British edition we didn't get the common British questions for 100pts. I sat next to this Chilean Lady from Santiago, Chile. She was sweet. She warned us if we were to hook up with Peruanas to meet their parents. She said "Peruvian girls are nice and don't forget to meet their parents as well." I thought that was pretty funny. We arrived in Lima pretty late, but we managed to do some recon work on the main street in Miraflores, Lima. It was called Calle de las Pizzas (In English "Pizza Street"). We checked out one club called "Son de Cuba" (In English "They are from Cuba"). The next night our first real night in Lima, we went to Son de Cuba and danced a lot there. That was a really cool club in Miraflores. That was a pretty fun night ending up at like 6:30am. The next day was "engreado day."
We almost missed our plane to Cusco. Because I woke up 20 minutes late. At any rate we rush to the airport. But once we get to the airport we find that our flight is delayed for 5 hours. Our flight was suppose to take off at 8:15am but instead it leaves for 1:15pm. Lan Peru served sandwiches and cofee to enlighten the hungry tired passengers. We met this couple the older lady's name was Sandy. She was quite a character. She was a world traveler. We would mention some place in the world and she would be like oh I have been there before. Or would make a comment like but it wasn't as good as this other place... She was a remarkable lady. She was a very cool world traveller. So off we went to Cusco then to Arequipa and then to Puno, PE.
Puno, Peru was cold. The first night there was one of my coldest nights in my life. It was roughly 0 degrees celsius. That is freaking cold man. I had a beenie, my jacket and like 5 blankets and I was still cold as hell. During the day we went off to Islas de los Uros. Uros was a trip because it is a floating island on Lake Titicaca. Every 2 weeks the 20 or so families who lives on the island would gather up "tara" which is some sort of grass/bamboo-like substance and put it on top of the old grass. It is really interesting once you get off the boat. It feels like you are on a trampolene. The people there were hagglers for their quilts. They were like you have to buy, it is our only form of income. So I had to buy some quilts for my sister. Well after this we ate freshly fried fish and rice for like 2 soles. Which was about $0.60. Also I bought the cheapest 12 pieces of bread in the world in Puno. 1 sole for 12 pieces of bread. You can not beat that.
We were thinking of what to do next. Should we go to La Paz, Bolivia or go to Cusco and then eventually back to Lima. We decide to bus it back to Cusco. The funniest thing happened when were about to leave from Puno to Cusco. I accidentally forgot our key for our room in my pants pocket and the Lady from our hotel actually took a taxi from the hotel to the bus station and eventually to our bus. She found me and asked if I had the key. I gave her the key and felt super embarrassed. I gave her some money for her taxi to and from her hotel. I was like damn that's dedication to get that key back.
The bus ride was very long. It was about 6 hours long. The food on the bus was interesting a lady and her child got on the bus and the lady had a Chinese cleaver and some meat. She started cutting up meat right inside the bus. I was like this was the coolest thing ever. Everything was sold in the bus. From Coca-cola to Peruvian instruments to beenies and scarfs. It was a like a mini-market on the bus. We finally made it to Cusco.
Cusco, Peru was some pretty crazy classic times. It all started trying to haggle for our rooms at Balcon Cusquena. We managed to get our room with 3 beds for about 50 soles a night or roughly another $6.50 a day. I was so amazed at the plaza in Cusco. I loved it there. It is a beautiful plaza. There is a fountain right in the middle of it. It is clean. The shops and restaurants on 2 sides and 2 gigantic churches on 2 other sides. Anyways, our first night in Cusco we go this club. I forget what it was called but it had "Mami" on the title. This was the night where I realized what Ruiz (The Four Agreements) was talking about. In it he wrote "you always have the right to ask." So I asked the famous quotation in Spanish. "Perdoname, pero de donde ellas son?" (In english, "Excuse me, but where are you girls from?") And from then on Cusco was off the hook. We partied with these 3 girls. 2 are from Lima and 1 is from Cusco. They were on vacation or something, but they were all very nice and cordial. I don't care what Jennifer thinks about Peruvian girls being "monsters" I still think they are very nice. Anyways, we danced and partied with these girls for a while. We actually partied with them in Cusco for few days. I think I will just put it at that. ;)
After partying so much with these 3 girls. We decided to do some actual site seeing. We saw Machu Picchu. It is one of the world's greatest sites. It is truly remarkable. The mountain and the terrraces were unbelievable. It was such a beautiful site. I was speechless up top the mountain. It was kinda a little drama just to get there. We had to haggle again to get the ticket prices down to a $100 for a train 2 bus tickets and the park entrance fee. But after that it was all good.
What did I learn from partying this much? Well I learned the fact that you have to be pretty dramatic. You gotta say lines like, "Eres la chica la mas bonita de todo mundo!" (In English, "You are the most beautiful girl in the whole world") Believe me it might sound like a cheesy line but you gotta try it. It works in Latin/South America. On the second to the last days in Cusco, I meet the Bolivian girl. She was on vacation in Cusco, from La Paz, Bolivia. She was cool chica. Again we danced and partied. We stayed about 6 total days in Cusco. Aah Cusco.
We get back in Lima and I start to get sick on the plane from Cusco to Lima. What a shame! Que Lastima! The last 2 days in Lima was stuck in the nice hotel room. We finally didn't go ghetto. We also tried to get into the first game of Copa America in Estadio Nacional in Lima, but it was sold out. Instead we ate outside the arena. Anyways I am still sick, but I still want Un dia mas in Peru.
Enjoy,
Jonathan
