I Made it Back to Cusco!

I made it to Cusco, Peru! But first, there might be some people who need some background to the story. Five years ago my friend Tammie and I came here to study Spanish. We fell in love with the city and the people and ended up staying 9 months. My cousin Nathan also joined us and we all shared an apartment and taught English. (Which eventually turned into my career - thanks to this experience.) We left a lot of friends behind and often talked about going back.

As those who read the blog know, about two years ago I got really tired of traveling so I bought a house in Salt Lake. I love the house and loved my jobs and being so close to family, but as an addict who can't just quit cold turkey, I started to think about travel again.

So I've rented out the house for a year and have three destinations planned: first back to Cusco, Peru (unfortunately without Tammie due to a growing family and also without Nate because he's on the other side of the world in India right now) and I plan to visit old friends, practice my Spanish, and try to do some teaching on the side.

My second destination will be back to Seward Alaska to work in the lodge where I worked in 2008 and earn the money to be able to cover my adventures this year. If I save enough there my last destination will be Africa - but I haven't fully planned that part, yet.

So for now I'm back here in the city of the Incas wandering the cobblestone streets and taking note of all the things that are the same, and all the things that are different. The first thing I noticed was the smell. I had forgotten that Cusco has a distinct smell of spices, almost like an incense, mixed with dirt and pollution, of course. The smell alone brought back tons of memories. It's the rainy season so there is a downpour every afternoon but it also means everything is greener. I noticed this when I walked through some of the big plazas.



My good friend Ruben was nice enough to pick me up at the airport. The next day We visited his sister, Charo and her son, Anderson who were also my good friends. When I was here last her son was only about 3 years old. Now he's turning 8 and I can't believe he still remembers me! He ran to me and gave me a big hug when I visited them which made me feel good. They helped me get a cell phone and later I went with Ruben to get his hair cut.
I've been doing a lot of wandering around reliving memories. One of the things I missed was the food. So each restaurant I get to eat another favorite dish. I can't forget to mention Porky's sandwiches. It's just a one dollar pork sandwich but after I got home in 2007 I actually had a dream about them and started having cravings but I didn't think I would ever get to eat one again.
Yum! I know, it's just a sandwich but there are a lot of things that I didn't think I would experience again.

I spent a lot of time each day looking for apartments in the classified ads, and realized that I can't speak Spanish on the phone. Well, I can speak, but I can't understand what people say back to me. It was a frustrating experience and then Ruben told me about his friend who worked for an agency that has a bunch of vacation rentals that are just sitting empty. The company gave me a good deal on a room since I'm staying three months. I chose the room on the top floor because it was the biggest and the nicest.
As you can see, there is enough space for people to visit and stay with me! My brother Clay and his wife Trista are coming in March and this will make things very easy.
I also have cable TV in my room so I can keep up to date with the BBC.
The internet and kitchen are on the bottom floor and so far I'm the only one here so it's been very quiet. I think that's all for now - I'm sorry I don't have more pictures. Sometimes I forget to take them because I've already seen most of the city before. Plus I don't want to look like a tourist. I'll do better next time.
As I say in Peru, Ciaocitos para todos! (little goodbyes for everyone)

Oh yeah, I have a blog . . .

I'm really bad at posting when life feels routine instead of adventurous. But I guess enough time has gone by that I have some things to post about. First, in February I bought my dream car - a Subaru Outback. I finally fit in with everyone else downtown!

My first road trip with the car was with my new Korean student, Yoon Jung and her two friends, TaeWan and Joe. We went to Las Vegas, Zion, and Bryce Canyon and had lots of fun even though it was still snowy.In March we celebrated the coming of spring by going to the Holi Festival at the Spanish Fork Krishna temple. I had never been before and enjoyed throwing colored powder at complete strangers (and at my friends, too.)Soon after Yoon Jung started showing interest in the church. We attended the baptism of her friend TaeWan, and Yoon Jung said she would like to hear the missionary discussions. I was excited and made an extra effort to get conference tickets. Her Korean headphones didn't work, but she listened in English and seemed to like it.When she completed the discussions she wasn't sure if she wanted to be baptized but after some careful thought and prayer she decided she wanted to do it. I was really happy to see and be a part of her spiritual growth and she felt really good about the decision. She flew home a few days after her baptism and I got a new student - Selenge from Mongolia. I took her, Keiko (a Japanese student), and Luis (a Venezuelan student) up to Silver Lake for a short hike. Even in June it was still snowy so we just went around the boardwalk. We had fun but Selenge was only here a few weeks before she went back to Mongolia. In order to more fully enjoy the mountains here I've started my own hiking club. The name of the club is the "Mosey Mountain Club." Of course I'm the President so I get to make all the rules. I've also appointed my sister-in-law, Trista as Vice-President, and Bangkok is an honorary member for staying and protecting me instead of running to Clay and Trista on a hike when it got dark faster than expected.

Clay is also a member, but he's been working off a yellow card that I gave him on the first official Mosey Mountain Club kick-off hike. You see, my club has rules.

Rule #1 All members and visitors must mosey up the mountain, and not run like it's a competition to the top.

Rule #2 All members and visitors must stop and smell the wildflowers (or if they don't smell, just enjoy them).

Rule #3 No member or visitor may encourage, in any way, another member or visitor to hike a different pace than they are already going. (That's how Clay got the yellow card.)

Rule #4 Any amount of time can be spent taking beautiful pictures (or silly pictures - see picture below).

Rule # 5 Dog Lake will not be included on the itinerary because it's the hike forever known in my mind as "the hike that never ends" and for not having a proper lake at the end, only a mosquito infested pond.

Rule # 6 Preserve and Protect the wilderness area by staying on the trail and packing out your dog poop (except under extraordinary circumstances like when Bangkok eats Flamin Hot Cheatos for breakfast)

Rule # 7 The President of the club can make up rules whenever she wants.

So even though my club only has two and a half members (Rule #7 might make some people hesitate to join) we celebrated by taking a trip to the Olympic Penninsula in Washington. I kept hearing things about the rainforest there so after getting work off Clay, Trista, and I drove up for a week. After a night in the Tri-Cities area with Trista's sister we made it up to Sol Duc where there are some hot springs, hikes, and a beautiful waterfall.

I think I was made to live in the forest because I had so much fun playing in the big trees (like, literally IN the trees).I also loved the mossy rocks. This place looked like what you find on somebody's screensaver.

Then Trista and I had fun (and embarassed Clay) by playing "Giggling Ferns." This is a fun game where you hide in the ferns and when other tourists walk by you shake the fern and giggle.It was so much fun wandering through the moss-covered everything and I really enjoyed not being in a desert climate. As I was planning the trip I looked for what would be the nearest town for when we would need to stock up on camping and food supplies. I was surprised to see that the nearest town was called "Forks" and sure enough, it's the same Forks in the Twilight books (I had only read them once so I didn't remember where it took place). Of course we had to stop in and gawk at the Twihards. The city sign is the only part of the town that is in the movie, since it was actually filmed in Vancouver. But the town still capitalizes on the vampire/werewolf frenzy. This was a corner of the supermarket and outdoor store where Bella supposedly works. The only campground in the area was just outside the Quilleute Reservation so of course we spent some time at First Beach. People had carved their undying love for various vampires and werewolves all over the driftwood on the beach. Is that a werewolf in the distance?

On the way out of town we stopped at Bella's truck. I'm pretty sure that in the book she didn't have her name on the license plate.After more of the rainforest we moved down the penninsula to a very cool but very busy campground that overlooked the ocean. We were lucky to get a spot since it wasn't the weekend. Even though it was freezing we went swimming because it's been so long since I've been in the ocean. The wind blows so much off the ocean that the trees just grow in that direction.Then we were planning to drive down to Mount St. Helen's but at the last minute decided to see Mount Rainier National Park instead. It was foggy when we arrived so we were trying to guess which peak was Mount Rainier but the next morning it was obvious because it just towered over everything. It was fun doing little hikes to various waterfalls and bridges and through the canyons.

We had to get one last fill of trees before heading back to the dry desert.

Did I tell you I liked the trees? It was a little bit hard coming back home and sometimes I felt like an alcoholic taking a small sip after 11 months of sobriety. This trip made me miss traveling again. We'll see if I can stay on the wagon. (Except if you were a travel-holic wouldn't you have to get OFF the wagon?)

Happy New Year and a Happy New House

Things have been going well since I made the decision to settle down. However, in November I found out my home insurance would be cancelled if I didn't get a new roof. So I hurried and called my uncle to see if he and his roofing business could help. There was a lot of destruction before the new roof could go on because the house had three layers of shingles (including the old wood shingles from when the house was built). The next project was painting the inside bedrooms. Originally I wasn't going to do this for another year or two, but as I looked around everyday I got so tired of the bland lack of color inside. Also, one of the reasons I wanted my own place was so I could decorate it the way I wanted. So I spent a few weeks deciding what colors to paint.

Sometimes I realize what a hippie I am when I think about the colors I want to surround myself with. I chose a dark purple that the guy at Lowes matched with my bedspread. Here's a shot just after I started. Then I had to add on the fern leaves, geckos, frogs, and butterflies. It was fun not having anyone tell me what I could and couldn't do with my walls - except my brother who said I'd have to paint over it if I ever want to sell the house. But that was the real estate agent in him speaking.

Then I painted the second bedroom blue and got it ready for a new student coming from Korea. She arrives today so I hope she likes it. I had Lin from China stay with me for a month in November, but she moved out and is continuing her studies at the community college.

My two English teaching jobs have been really rewarding. My night job is teaching immigrants and refugees who live here in Salt Lake and I hope I am helping in some small way to make their transition to living here a bit easier. At the end of every two month session we have a little party so I got some pictures with some of my students.

My morning job is teaching foreign exchange students who are mostly university age and come for some intensive English courses with some Utah fun thrown in. Sometimes I can't believe I get paid to just go have fun with the students. (Of course I put in a lot of hours with them in the classroom, as well.) On this day we took a drive up Provo canyon to see the fall colors.

Then in December we got to play in the snow. This was the first time cross-country skiing for all of us. Everybody fell down at least once (including me - but only once!)

So lately life has been very content for me. It was so nice to be home for the holidays especially when I think about my lonely Christmas last year alone in Southeast Asia. I still think about traveling from time to time, but I'm starting to favor shorter trips when I can come home to my own bed and not have to pack everything up. So that's about all for now!