things fall apart
we’re currently in cusco peru at the moment. peru and bolivia have really been wonderful to experience (although bolivia got short shrift because we couldn’t make it to copacabana with the blockade). we arrived here yesterday after an agonisingly long bus ride from puno on the shores of lake titicaca. i would just like to add to my previous observations on bus travel all over the world that an interesting phenomenon always seems to occur. the foreigners all buy their tickets in advance, select their preferred seats, and settle in with enough drink/snakcs/entertainment for the duration. inevitably, ten minutes after leaving the station, the assigned seating and prix fixe system breaks down into chaos, as locals hop on/hop off, sit in the aisles, drag on 8 metric tonnes worth of luggage, and the “direct non-stop” route has more detours than you can shake a stick at. how i am still surprised by this every time, i have no idea. but it irks me to no end.
other things which seem to be crumbling…
my poor ipod seems terminally ill ever since i foolishly tried to turn it on in sub-zero temperatures on the uyuni trip. bah humbug. makes a long bus journey even longer. surprisingly there aren’t any apple repair shops in peru.
the day after tomorrow, we embark upon the inca trail and i was ill last night for the first time in this entire trip. like blowing chunks, ill. considering that we’re still at altitide and i felt particularly weak today, this is not a good thing. more bah, more humbug.
also, my usb card reader seems to be broken. no idea how. which is a pain in the tuckus, because now i have to waste my camera batteries to upload my photos every time. blech.
my packing system seems to be breaking down… what with picking up odds and ends and just generally not caring anymore if things are neat. which is just laziness on my part, but makes for crazy mornings when i can’t find what i want/need and then accuse j of hiding them. not the best start to the day.
still – we soldier on. tomorrow i will feel better. the day after that will be amazing. so really, it’s not so bad. i’d be a miserable old bitch to complain really, so i’ll end here.
September 18th, 2006 12:07
Aw, g’wan — be a miserable bitch!
September 18th, 2006 16:19
My wife and I hiked the Incan trail from Cusco to Matchu Picchu back in 2000. We flew into Cusco from Peru, and we were both stricken with altitude sickness the moment the plane depressurized.
A few cups of coco te and a great night’s sleep in cusco really helped. We spent two full days in cusco before hitting the trail.
As amazing a hike as the trail was…I cannot say enough for taking the train back to Cusco. Our experience on the train was very much like your observations on the bus: stops everywhere, where the locals would board with all sorts of animals, produce, packages…and just sit/stand where ever.
At every single train stop, the locals would rush the windows selling snacks (goat cheese and flat bread, grilled alpaca, etc.) through the windows.
September 18th, 2006 16:20
The above should read: “We flew into Cusco from Lima, Peru”