 Dusty:Starlight:Culture
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Cusco again
2005-08-12 11:28 a.m. Back in Cusco now, and even this has been a bit overwhelming and a bit of culture shock after the respite and serentity of Ollantaytambo, Pisac, and even Urubamba. True Cusco is more fast-paced than those slow Andean villages we were lingering in, but it´s nothing compared to what Lima will be like or even how rushed things will seem back in the states...I have to suck it up and just adjust. At least I can do things in stages and levels, the way they tell you to with altitude - move gradually into the chaos. Cusco, Lima, New York. My body is on strike, and is staging a revolt that I hope doesn´t turn into a coup. I wish I could say this is a hyped-up "Guinea Worm"-type silliness that is all in my imagination, but I´m afraid it isn´t. Both of us have some kind of rash that goes away and flares up in odd places, and mine has been accompanied by fevers that come and go, achey joints and a sore throat that I think will be gone and then will return. We´ve been doing everything here from hacking through the Amazon with machetes to hiking at altitude, so God only knows if we´re just travel weary or actually have some tropical and technical sounding illness. I broke down and started a course of Cipro, and I feel much, much better. Last night over a pizza and some live music, another traveler comforted me: "Even the toughest get pretty ill here", he said - and in the cutest little Scottish accent to boot. I suppose if we were really ill, we´d be bed-ridden, and we haven´t been. We have our moments, but seem to be steadily improving. As much as I do like it here, for the first time in my most recent travels I feel ready to go home. Machu Picchu was an amazing and intense, indescribable experience that I´m still throbbing from and dizzy over, so I can´t quite bring myself to write about it now. It was everything I thought it would be and more, and Steve and I spent over twelve hours at the site and hiking along various trails. Aguas Calientes, the Katmandu of Peru, which we had to stay in for two nights in order to reach Machu Picchu, was also an intense experience, but of the worst kind. The town is a tourist trap and represents everything that is wrong with Peru: poor management, horrible sanitation, misplaced priorities and a depressing class disparity that can best be described as a ticking time bomb - one that is likely to explode during next year´s elections. Say what you will about Fujimori and his connections to drug cartels and corrupt politicians; he stabilized the country´s economy and wasn´t in bed with American and other foreign leaders the way Toledo, the current president, is. So sad that Toledo has sold off so many resources that Peruvians need - particularly fossil fuels and natural resources. I´ll write more about that later, but will say this for now: deep in the heart of the Amazon, under what used to be virgin rainforest, our good old friend Haliburton and a few other Texas-based oil companies are hacking away, drilling for oil. And none of the proceeds go to actual Peruvians who need them so desperately. Bleh, I´m all saltly, and I shouldn´t be. I´m happy to be here, happy to be seeing this corner of the world, and happy I can afford the pills that are making me feel so much better. Lima´s next, and then we´ll be home soon. It´ll be nice to eat again. xoxox T |
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