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Main | Journal: Arequipa, PE | ||
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Arequipa, Peru Tuesday, May 11 There's only so much of this I can take! I mean, I arrive in yet
another country (Peru) and immediately wind up in another city
surrounded by another group of snow-capped Andean peaks, by another
bunch of friendly Spanish-speaking locals, and by elegant centuries-old
churches, packed park-like plazas (try saying that 10 times fast) and
thousands of street vendors selling exactly the same things. As I'm
sure you can tell, this gets old fast.
Before delving too deeply into the past ten days, I'd like to pass on a
bit of what I learned from spending six weeks in Chile. I took the
opportunity to take a small sample of how Chileans feel about their
government, their people, and their lives. In general, the
governmental issues that concern them range from planned, daily
electricity outages, excessive pollution (you would be disgusted at
Santiago's skyline), government corruption and a slowly-growing
economy. I was interested to find that Chilean women find Chilean men
to be too "machiste" or aggressive. Tip for our male subscribers:
Chilean women look to run away with gringos who treat them as equals.
Furthermore, fewer Chileans seem to go to universities and have the
opportunities that I took for granted. However, in relation to the U.S.,
Chileans seem to have stronger ties with their families. It's almost
unheard of for a child to move thousands of miles away from home to go
to school, to work, or to start a family. Sunday family dinners
include the entire family. While they generally may have larger issues
to deal with on a daily basis, Chileans seem to have their priorities
straight and live pretty good lives. Of course, my sample would not hold
up to any of the rigorous tests that I studied in Stats 401.
I have spent much of the past week sleeping on buses, making my way
north toward Cuzco. On Thursday, my pupil from a similarly-styled,
six-week travel course in Europe, an expert in Mapology, and my good
friend since the sixth grade, Elliot Sperber, will be joining me for a
special three-week mini-course in Peru and Bolivia. Yes, this is the
same, annoying guy who keeps hitting reply to all. During our
intensive course, Elliot and I will be visiting the ruins of Macchu
Picchu, Lake Titicaca--the highest navigable lake in the world (and the
one with the best name), and some BFE places in Bolivia, possibly
including the Amazon jungle or rainforest. As of this date, the course
outline has not been completed. If anyone is interested, I will be
offering similar mini-courses in Ecuador and Central America later this
semester...
On making my way to Peru, I stopped in the Atacama Desert, which is
quite spectacular in its own right. Picture those same Andean peaks
amidst mounds and mounds of chiseled and colored sand and rock. Just
driving through the narrow desert roads, surrounded by these impressive
sand-rock walls, was enough to keep a van full of tourists quiet for a
day. Brett and I went off the beaten track one day to visit a remote
desert valley where we found a rock on which Indian drawings dated to
over 1000 years old. We hired a local station wagon owner, Hernan, to
be our personal guide. He quickly drove us over roads meant for one
car where sharp corners caused a bit of uncertainty in the minds of the
young tourists. Fortunately, Old Hernan managed to get us back in one
piece.
Well, out with the old and back in with the older as I always say.
After ten weeks together, the Aussie and I have gone our separate ways.
He has a 28 year-old Dutch women to accompany him to Bolivia; I have
Elliot for Peru. In the desert, I also ran into the girls from London that we
travelled with in Patagonia, a 60 year-old, retired doctor that we see
almost everywhere, and the Columbian guy that joined us from Santiago.
Although I may be thousands of miles from home, I feel like a close
group of friends is no longer too far away.
As always, I'd love to hear from you. Internet usage is only $1 an
hour in Peru.
Dan
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