Observations

• There is WAY more pizza in Peru than I expected. And hamburgers.
• There are much fewer americans. I've only seen one or two, and meeting people that speak english appears to be harder than I expected. Most are from the UK or speak English the way I speak French--as a second, very painful language. Yet, I don't feel so bad about my spanish as English seems to be the common denominator in hotels and restaurants around here more often than not (I hear a lot of ordering in english, and then conversation in German, French, Italian, Japaneese, and other unidentifiable langauges).
• The museum about the Ice Princess (the mummy they found in 1995 preserved frozen on top of one of the mountains) was one of the coolest museums I've visited.
• One can be visciously scolded out of a cathedral in a language that one doesn't know, and completely get the gist. (I think a mass was about to start, even though its TUESDAY and there were no signs.)
• Absolutely no one can understand my spanish, even when I use the correct words.
• An 8-person dorm room can end up being an extremely cheap private room, but that kinda sucks when the point is to meet people.
• A lack of english spell check is undoubtedly making this much more fun for you all to read.

**Tomorrow AM I leave for the Colcha Canyon treck, so don't freak out if there isn't a post until late on Thursday night. I suspect there won't be internet, although there may be... It seems to be everywhere around here.

Lima!

I´m alive! No thanks to the Doubletree that I had booked for last night though. They had contacted me and offered a hotel transfer, but no one was there. After a long day of flying, and a stomachache from all the rich food and plentiful booze on the last flight (filet mignon and key lime pie... and wine until the flight attendants have managed to make the entire cabin pass out), I was NOT a happy camper about having a million people yelling "¿Taxi senorita?" over and over. I couldn´t remember where the safe taxi stand was, and my spanish completely got washed over by french. Turns out I can say a lot more in french than I thought, and a lot less in spanish. So when I finally got to the hotel around midnight I burst into tears.

However, once my hungover butt got out of bed today, and I managed to find myself a place to sleep tonight, things turned around. Somehow when I actually rely on myself it comes out much more comfortable for me than when I´m trusting someone else. I managed to run a short list of errands, have a tasty lunch for S9 (about $3), and find an internet cafe. Lima is not my favorite place so far though. Although a whole bunch of stray cats running around the Miraflores parks did make my afternoon coffee at a streetside cafe much more entertaining, there is simply ugly architecture and a general dingyness. Plus there is this awful cloud cover that makes the city glaringly bright but completely gray. Maybe I just haven´t found the cool parts yet. When I return eventually, I´ll actually do some more of the Centro district, hit some museums and look at the central square. But today´s purpose in my schedule was just to ease into this whole thing, and I think I´m getting there. At some point my spanish will start to catch up, and I´ll stop blurring my french and spanish. "Quiero un cahier" does not get you a notebook here, even though it turns out it´s close... But a lot of pointing and gesturing and a blend of "oui", "yes", and "si" will get the job done.

Tomorrow is the bus to Paracas and the Bellestas Islands (however you spell them). Should be an exciting start to my journey, and much more photographable than this city.

p.s.

Spanish computers evidently spell-check everything I type as wrong. There is going to be a lack of proper spelling on all of my entries. Enjoy, and poke fun all you want!

p.p.s.

Turns out that I´m using an accent rather than an apostrophe... and I can´t find the latter on this keyboard. Oh well!

Trying to Stay Positive...

Snow driving is not so hard and it's beautiful

...except when the snow blows across the road and you can't see the road and your clenching the steering wheel so tightly your hands ache.

I'm flying home on a direct flight tomorrow

...from O'Hare with hundreds of canceled flights in the last two days and a huge cancellation backlog on the eastern seaboard.

I have a week off

...but two more days on the road, and I'm beyond exhausted.

I stayed in a hotel with this in the front lobby:

Yup. Nothing negative about that. :)

Circadian Rhythms

Life moves in cycles. A high energy week gives birth to lots of blog posts, creating new hobbies like "perfectionist packing," and coming up with exciting activities along the road. Those weeks usually give way to great weekends, then onwards to horrifically exhausted weeks. This is one of those weeks.

NOLA was a blast (and maybe I'll manage some real content on it in a day or so), but this week I'm crashing at 9:30pm and crawling out of bed at 6:45am. We have two crappy hotels this week too, which makes life just all the more depressing after the FABULOUS Westin in NOLA (yay hotwire!). My presenter has made it known that she likes finding fun things along the way, but there's just no way I want to "find" anything for her. Two reasons: 1. Pure exhaustion on my part and 2. She's about as interesting as a doorknob and has made some vaguely racist/classist comments. Basically, coming off of last week were I had a real connection with my presenter and had an amazing time, I'm just not interested in putting in any more time and effort with this lady than I have to. So it's time to get dinner alone, curl up with a good book, and recoup some of my introvert energies.

P.S. Yay for Tom Robbins and the ubiquity of book stores on the road. I'm only 10 pages into "Jitterbug Perfume" and I'm already amused.

Isolated Self-Portraits

It turns out, it's tricky learning how to take decent photos of yourself while you're completely alone. Asking strangers isn't going to give you any more than one shot and half the time, no one is around to help. So I've tried a few other things in the last two days:

#1--Framed mirror portrait.

The Outfit:

• Black Pants (Gap, ancient)
• Blue and white print blouse (Old Navy, thrifted)
• Oatmeal swing cardigan (Ann Taylor, thrifted)
• Belt (thrifted)
• Yellow headband (Fuego)
• White plastic earings (gift)

This was my attempt to show that I tried belting my new cardigan. I'm not sure it worked that well, since I looked a bit floppy around the midsection... potentially creating that "preggers" silhouette that I end up with so easily if anything has an empire waist. Since I didn't have any natural light, the photo ended up horribly colored, but I like the framing.

#2--Moving furniture to act as a tripod near natural light.

The Outfit:

• Black Pants (Again)
• Black and white print shell top (H&M, from a clothing swap)
• Ivory cardi (Nordstroms)
• Black headband (Fuego)
• Pearl drop earings (gift)
• Black buckle flats (Nine West, Thrifted)

One thing I've noticed: I didn't spend money on pretty much anything I'm wearing. The pants were hand-me-ups, the cardi was purchased with my nordstrom rebate coupons last fall, the headband and the shoes were each less than $4. This is ubsurd. Both of these outfits cost me under $10 (except the Report Wedges that you can't see in the first photo, those were real money). I've always gazed at fashion blogs and cringed at what it would cost to buy all those pieces, but now I can clearly see that this is not the case. It's all about your own wardrobe, and finding your style within that. Although, I'm nearing the one week mark of things living in my suitcase, and it's starting to show a bit.

In other news: Grand Rapids' downtown has stolen my heart. It is so freaking adorable and has so many restaurants that look spectacular! I had lunch from the Pita House, and it was mighty fine. I've been posting about my restaurant experiences at BERfoodblog.blogspot.com (the link is to the right as well), and I've had some doozies. Check out my post about southern food in Detroit, and if anyone thinks they can make sweet potato muffins, CALL ME.

Last night I ended up eating at my hotel after getting wine ($2 off wine on wednesday!) and enjoying the free wi-fi in the lobby, but it was the Amway Grand Hotel, and luckily the food was pretty grand as well. Anyone else notice that the nicer the hotel, the more you have to pay for every little thing? It stinks. Why would some random holiday inn in Fishkill give you free wireless and not the Amway Grand?! The Amway Grand does have amazing bathtubs though, one can immerse fully, and closets big enough to sleep in. I guess you win some you lose some.

P.S. Just because it's local wine doesn't mean it's good.