The people

When we decide to travel we always focus on the places that we want to go, the things that we want to see, and the activities we want to do. But these aren´t the important parts of traveling. These are rarely the things that make a trip worth it or are what you talk about when you get home. So today I am only going to give you a couple of sentences about where I have been since my last post and I will focus on the people that I have met.

From Huacachina I took the bus to Nasca. Nasca is, frankly, an ugly boring town that would not be visited if it were not for the Nasca lines, strange massive shapes etched into the ground by the pre-Incans that weren´t discovered until the 1930s when someone flying over then noticed. I sat next to a lawyer on the bus who lives in both Nasca and Lima. The guy would NOT stop talking to me. He offered to buy me cebiche in Nasca, found a cab for me, and accompanied me to where I was staying in Nasca. In Nasca I was staying with a couchsurfer named Javier. If you haven´t heard of couchsurfing its basically an exchange where people who love traveling open their homes up to travelers. Its pretty awesome. Javier is in his 30s and loves couchsurfers. In the past two years he has had over 50 of them. I wouldn´t really say that Javier lives in a house. You go through a door from the street into a concrete courtyard where there is laundry drying and chickens in coops. Through the courtyard you enter a long room of sorts. Where there is a roof it is just a roll of thatch, the weather is nice enough year round that no roof is necessary. In this room there are a few tables, a stove that doesn´t work, a sink with no running water (there is no running water anywhere in the house) and doors that go off to other rooms. Three families live in this space, all relatives of Javier. Javier opens up the one room that is his to travelers. One of the interesting things is that Javier´s family has no real concept of how this couchsurfing works. They just know, as I overheard one of them say when I arrived, "Una otra gringa."

Javier is studying to be a tour guide, which in a country that depends on tourism like Peru does is a 3 year long course. He practices by taking his couch surfers on tours of the area around Nasca. In the evening he and I took a bicycle ride to archeological sites around the city. It was a bit freaky riding on the roads of Nasca, but once we weren´t out in the country side it was wonderful being able to see parts of the city that I wouldn´t have otherwise. Later in the evening I sat on the street, dogs and kids playing and running around us, and had a long conversation with Javier´s mother about love and heartbreak. It was a moment where I truly appreciated having learned about couchsurfing. How else would I have been talking with a 60 something year old Peruvian woman about the man from Cuzco she had loved who hadn´t loved her back?

The next day I was taking a night but from Nasca to Arequipa, which meant that I had ALL day in Nasca with little to do. Javier had left for Lima the night before for work. So I was bored all day, no one to hang out with, nothing to do. Then in the evening Javier´s sister and sister-in-law took me to the central plaza, where there was a fiesta for the town´s anniversary. We happened upon some traditional dancing, which was great to watch and then sampled some pisco and pisco sours. It was really really great and extra great because I was there with people who could explain everything to me. Much more exciting than being there by myself or with another traveler.


Ah, other travelers. Sometimes you end up attached to them without even knowing how. A Colombian girl with a dog was waiting for the same bus to Arequipa. In the hour and a half that we waited for the late bus we somehow joined forces without ever realizing or agreeing to it. I didn´t even know her name until we tramping around Arequipa at 9am looking for a hostel. The bus people told her that she couldn´t bring her dog on the bus and they assumed that I was traveling with her so for a moment I was swept into the "You can´t get on the bus" drama. Both of us ended up on the bus and then, without ever saying "want to get a taxi together" she just pulled me into the bargaining for a taxi and then into the finding a hostel. We ended up spending the entire day wandering through Arequipa, looking for the mirador where you can see the volcanos that overlook the town (everyone we asked kept saying it was just 3 more blocks. When we finally found it it was cloudy, no mountains to see) looking for a place for her to fix her camera, and then for me to find inserts for my shoes, then for shampoo for the dog, then...there was a lot of walking. It was interesting traveling around with a dog. We brought him into every store we went into and no one cared. It was off of its leash over half of the day and no one cared. People would just ooh and ah over how cute he was. The Colombian left for Cusco last night. I slept for 11 hours. Now I have to figure out what I am going to do next. I really like Arequipa. It is a
quieter place than the other places I´ve been. Less horn honking. I will probably take a trip to Colca Canyon. Then....Then I am trying to figure it out.

PS. I know that everyone wants pictures but (1) I brilliantly left my chord to connect the camera to the computer in the USA and haven´t bought a replacement and (2) I haven´t used a computer I could connect to anyway. I´ll try to get some up though. I know they are more interesting than my ramblings.