Thursday, June 30, 2011

You Went to South America and Became British?

Inti Raymi Ceremony
Hola Amigos. It´s been a very busy week so I haven´t had time to post. I left Arequipa last Tuesday and had to take a different bus company to reach Cusco because the main road was closed due to mining protests around Lake Titicaca. Which basically meant we were off-roading for most of the journey. Very bumpy. It was hard saying goodbye to my friends in Arequipa because it was basically goodbye forever. However, that the sad sentiment lifted when I arrived in Cusco just in time for Inti Raymi, the festival of the Incan sun god. The streets around downtown were alive with celebrations and parades and thousands of people. There were three main events being celebrated: the 100th anniversary of discovering Machu Picchu, Inti Raymi, and Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi was actually the most fun of the events... I became so enamored by the festivities that I joined the parade!


Plaze de Armas
Corpus Christi statue being carried by Peruvians. They used to carry the mummies of dead kings but the Spanish put a stop to that when they conquered the Incans.
I´m currently staying at a party hostel which reminds me of Australia. (I have a very negative association with Australia) This trip is a time to learn about myself and one thing I´ve learned is that I´m not 19 anymore and I shouldn´t party like I am. Yes, it was fun to get hit on by a bunch of European guys on their gap year, but much less fun to be stared at like an old lady when I conveyed my age. Thus, I started saying that I had JUST graduated college. Sometimes its easier to pretend the last 4 years didn´t happen. I thought that since I was traveling by myself that no one could hold me accountable for my actions (omg, do you know what YOU did last night?!), however South America is beginning to feel very small because I keep running into people I know. Therefore, henceforth I will act like a 24-year-old from now on and not fall off any more bunk beds. The other problem with this hostel is that everyone speaks english and I´m completely forgetting everything I learned in my spanish class.

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