Peru, Colombia, and the road to healing...

Sad, abandoned blog. I can't believe a month has flown by since my last post, or that it is June and that I am in Colombia!!! Currently I am in Cartagena on the Carribean coast, absolutely loving the people, food, and vibe, but first gotta try to recap what I have been up to since last time, starting with Peru. Sit back and enjoy, this is gonna be a long one!

When I arrived in Cusco I was immediately impressed by the city. So clean, beautiful plazas, and well, a little like Disneyland. Cusco being the starting point for everyone in the world coming to do Machu Picchu, it is set up to be an international tourist playground of sorts. My friend from Buenos Aires, Suzie, had been living there for a month already so she took me under her wing and showed me the ins and outs of Cusco, which was great. It was really fun to catch up on where the past months have taken us after parting ways in March.




So, 4 days to chill and get to know the place and then Erin arrived for her week visit. It was so good to see her and wow, what an adventure was had. We had a rough idea of what we were getting ourselves into by doing the 5 day Salkantay Trail, an alternative to the heavily traveled Inca Trail, and looking back we both were pleased that the scenery and whole experience had an element of surprise. On the trek was Erin and myself, another Erin from Seattle, Sandra from New York, and Franziska from Germany. Then of course our knowledgeable and trusty guide, Jimmy, the cook Richard who prepared us some ridiculously impressive food at our campsites and lunch breaks everyday, and 2 amazing porters. This was my first real multiple day backpacking/camping/hiking experience, and I loved it. Intense, full days of hiking through some incredible and unexpected landscapes- we traversed a dramatic glacier peak, down through pastoral alpine meadows with roaming cows and sheep, and finally into subtropical forest and lush jungle rivers. THEN, arrived at Machu Picchu for sunrise on the fifth day and it was just as amazing as I have always imagined. Yes, there are a lot of other people there, but I felt so small and very much at peace. And then, the incident. As we set off with our guide down to the ruins for our day of exploring I was coming off the last stone down a flight of steps and misjudged how far down it really was, rolled onto my right ankle, felt a painful pop, and fell down to the ground. I have never sprained or broken a bone in my life, so the feeling was really unfamiliar and clearly not so fun. Guides rushed over and wrapped my ankle up immediately and then I think I was in shock for the rest of the day. I sat propped up on a rock while the rest of the group explored, but despite the obvious disappointment of being at Machu Picchu of all places in the world and not being able to walk, I felt surprisingly tranquilo. Soaking up the Pachamama energy. Just having finally reached MP was such an unforgettable feeling and the pilgrimage to get there was so spectacular that I was able to remain on the up and up about the whole spraining of the ankle business. And like I keep saying, I will be back to MP again someday! For the full photo reel, check out my Facebook album of this epic 5 days: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=178557&id=515581939

Upon return to Cusco, my whole right foot and ankle was looking heinously swollen and bruised, and I still couldn't feel if I even had a foot down there or not. Erin acted as my patient porter for the rest of her week in Peru, and by the time she was preparing for her departure back to life, back to reality, I was also becoming lucid to my own reality... backpacker down. A sprained ankle definitely doesn't fit into the equation of "A girl, a backpack, a one-way ticket", and as a result I finally hit my breaking point with with all of it. Luckily I had friends in Cusco that I had met on various points of my trip who were incredibly supportive. This support included helping me move to another hostel, getting me to a clinic, searching Cusco for a compress, serving as my human crutches, and most importantly putting me on lock-down... my stubborn self was having a hard time sticking to their orders, wanting to be up and about on my feet and not relegated to a bed with my leg in the air. Thank you, thank you, thank you again, my dear Erin, Suzie, Amy, Phil and Frankie:)

I had plans for onward travel with Suzie, both of us needing to be in Lima for flights - mine onward to Cartagena to meet Marcelle, but due to my ankle we had to adapt things a bit, cutting out a lot of what we wanted to see in Peru. We opted to take a flight directly to Lima and then do a 2 day trip to Paracas, a small fishing town on the Pacific coast about 3 hours outside of Lima. Here we took a tour of the National Reserve (beautiful desert landscape) and a boat tour around the Ballestas Islands - referred to as the "Poor Man's Gallapagos." Never have I ever seen so many birds in one place in my life, it was crazy! Humboldt penguins, sea lions, Cormorants and Peruvian seagulls galore! It was a nice last week with Suzie before she had to head home to Holland, and I managed to see sights without walking around too much. AND we got to eat the best seafood and vegetables I have had in a veeeeery long time. YUM. Lima itself was quite a bit nicer than I had anticipated. We stayed in an area by the water called Miraflores that could easily be a Miami or similar city, and the historic center of Lima is impressive. Like the Spanish left yesterday... so clean and preserved. As I wrote to my family, all the colonial architecture in SA is so beautiful and fascinating for me to see, but also always thinking about what would have happened with these indigenous cultures and what this continent would be/look like if the Spanish hadn't conquered and catholicized these lands and people that were so connected to nature, believing in "Pachamama" - mother earth, and the power of interconnectedness and energy...










And now, COLOMBIA! Marcelle just left on her flight back to SF after our fabulous week of Cartagena touring, beach/pool relaxing, crazy boat rides to Tayrona, sunset dinners by the water, consuming roughly 2000 mangos, papayas, watermelon, pineapples, avocados, and having a great time catching up. Cartagena is a beautiful city and the people here en el mar Caribe are so friendly and welcoming, as I had been told. The second we stepped onto the streets for exploration we were given some welcome to Colombia watermelon in a cup from a man selling on the street. Love it. Our pictures do not convey the beauty of bright colors, flowers, people, and beautifully preserved Spanish architecture, but just know that it is probably the most aesthetically pleasing city I have ever roamed. I feel like I am in Cuba a bit, or what I imagine Cuba to be like. The flavor, the heat, the people, and I'm diggin' it all. A lot.























Not exactly sure what my next onward move entails, but I will keep you posted. The ankle is slooooowly returning to its normal size, which I know takes time. It really liked being at the beach in the sun, covered in hot sand, not walking, so hopefully these current tropical storms will let up and let me return to the beautiful beaches we visited in Tayrona!

Off I go, lots of love to all of you:)