 Dusty:Starlight:Culture
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I´m at a place called vertigo
2005-07-21 7:24 p.m. Hello, hello! And I wouldn´t quite call it vertigo. Just some mild dizziness. Props to whoever it was that compared physical changes at altitude to being drunk/hungover - the slight headache and dehydration, the spins while trying to get to sleep...it is all a bit familiar. I´m writing from beautiful Arequipa, which I can´t even put into words how much I love. The city is surrounded by three volcanos, the first of which you get introduced to landing at the airport. Frankly, it´s so interesting here that I feel as if I could spend a solid week. We´re a bit on edge because we arrived in the middle of a ¨riot week¨ (did you even know they HAD those?). There have been some problems with fuel shortages and labor cuts, and people are understandably angry, though not at us. There´s something beautiful (and a bit frightening, i´ll admit) about people so intensely political that though they might not be able to read, they certainly follow their country´s leaders carefully and vote. All the graffitti here is political - ALL of it. Can you imagine that in the states? We´re just back in Arequipa tonight-we spent the last few days hiking the Colca Canyon and El Misti, the highest volcano. I´m sort of feeling foolish now at having been so worried about altitude sickness; our highest pass yesterday was 14,500 feet, and we were HIKING in it. Ok, so we were moving slowly, felt a bit dizzy, and were drinking coca tea like it was going out of style (coca tea is what the locals use to help cope), but we made it. The funniest part of all of this is that we didn´t realize the hights we were going to yesterday. We just signed on, got on the bus, and began asking questions about the altitude when our heads felt too big for our skin and out the window there was nothing but moss and lichen (oh, and ice and snow). ¨Well whaddaya know,¨ Steve said to me, ¨here we are.¨ We had planned to acclimatize slowly, starting here in Arequipa (about 7,000 feet), then to Cusco (9,000), etc. But now? We feel like old pros. I don´t want to get all cocky about it though, so we´re still taking care to move slowly and eat light. We will once again return skinnies, but you won´t believe the photos we got! I´m so excited to be here that I´m pretending not to know ANYTHING about the supreme court nomination. It is nice to boo at W with a bunch of brits in a pub, though. more from puno, if that´s possible |
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