Saturday, January 14, 2006
Hi Madison!
I'm back from Peru. Was supposed to be back early this morning, but y'know, that fucking Chicago screwed me up again. Both ways. On both occasions I had the airplane going up on the ground and delaying the flight by 2 hours odd. So I had a nice night at the airport.
Peru was good, dawg, we went to Cuzco, then I got my arse kicked on the Inca Trail, ended up in the ancient city of Macchu Picchu and wounded up in Lima. heres a breakdown of the shit I did:
Cusquena (local beer, made from water taken from an ancient source consecrated to the Incan water god-) x shitloads
Chica Morada (Ribenish local drink made from blue corn) x shitloads
Cerviche- national dish, raw fish marinated with lime juice x2
Guinea pig (yes bitches its a local delicacy) x 1
Alpaca steak, (South american cammelid related to the llama) 1 piece
Andean trout x shitloads (yum yum, bitches!)
Quinoa x shitloads
Andean potatos x shitloads (yum yum yum bitches!)
Andean maize, as big as an M and M chocolate with nuts x shitloads
It is informative to note that I did not get food poisoning from all this funky food. It is a wonder how a simple Peruvian dish prepared with self respect and pride surpasses the prepocessed shit you get in American restaurants nowadays- remember that piece of diseased Chicagoean beef at the cheesecake factory? (Speaking of which, I now have indigestion because of the lousy chain pizza I had soon after i touched down in Miami. - what the hell is with me and chain food?)
The Inca trail was tough and I turned belly-up on the first day carrying my 15 odd kgs of shit - and barely made it back to base camp. I had the services of a porter the next two days but they were equally hardcore - with 3 climbs of around 3600-4200m on the steep inca roads. Its still a wonder how the inca runners of old could complete the 4 day circuit in a few hours, fueled by quick feet and coca leaf. I was chewing coca leaves like a cow and it only sustained me for exactly ten steps- on the eleventh step later I don't feel so high anymore and instead want to flinging myself off that sheer cliff I was trying to climb up on. What is a waste though, is the waste laid to the inca homelands after the Spanish conquests. The evangelical scrouge of Christianity attempted to wipe out Incan culture by mass conversions of the incan pueblos. and so, the secrets of andean engineering- especially how the fucking hell the incas could build such lasting foundations in an seismic area without using mortar and cement, and how they managed to domesticate shitloads of corn and potatos and acclimitize these species to different heights. asspanolmuthafuckers! perhaps if the incans were still here today, we'd have maize the size of our heads, more potatoes we could ever want, and y'know, some really nifty building designs that could stand up to an earthquake or two.
and i was touched by the sincerity of the porters and guides. it was a shame we did not tip them enough; inevitably, group dynamics came into play but ah well:
as what victor, the head guide would say :
"cheeky monkeys!"
perhaps the point was not that i lost quite a few pounds and a futher few inches off my waist, or that the food was delicious. it was more the unbridled joy of the porters as they cheerfully skipped past us up the mountain passes lugging my luggage (and often more) at the same time and their greetings of "bienividos juan (wang!) aha!" - the joy of being in the Andes and being Andean- that embodied the hardy spirit of the Incans. Just like the Inca foundations that now remain and still support the colonial buildings in Cuzco, all is not lost. Inca culture might merged with Catholicism into mestivo culture, but elements still remain as strong as ever and I suspect will continue to persist as long as the Andeans worship their Pachimama and continue to take pride in themselves. yes i'm rambling like a bitch here, but theres too much i want to say and admire about the Andeans. I think it was the mountain air but heck. the point is, all power to them. yea baby and out.
*sleep*
I'm back from Peru. Was supposed to be back early this morning, but y'know, that fucking Chicago screwed me up again. Both ways. On both occasions I had the airplane going up on the ground and delaying the flight by 2 hours odd. So I had a nice night at the airport.
Peru was good, dawg, we went to Cuzco, then I got my arse kicked on the Inca Trail, ended up in the ancient city of Macchu Picchu and wounded up in Lima. heres a breakdown of the shit I did:
Cusquena (local beer, made from water taken from an ancient source consecrated to the Incan water god-) x shitloads
Chica Morada (Ribenish local drink made from blue corn) x shitloads
Cerviche- national dish, raw fish marinated with lime juice x2
Guinea pig (yes bitches its a local delicacy) x 1
Alpaca steak, (South american cammelid related to the llama) 1 piece
Andean trout x shitloads (yum yum, bitches!)
Quinoa x shitloads
Andean potatos x shitloads (yum yum yum bitches!)
Andean maize, as big as an M and M chocolate with nuts x shitloads
It is informative to note that I did not get food poisoning from all this funky food. It is a wonder how a simple Peruvian dish prepared with self respect and pride surpasses the prepocessed shit you get in American restaurants nowadays- remember that piece of diseased Chicagoean beef at the cheesecake factory? (Speaking of which, I now have indigestion because of the lousy chain pizza I had soon after i touched down in Miami. - what the hell is with me and chain food?)
The Inca trail was tough and I turned belly-up on the first day carrying my 15 odd kgs of shit - and barely made it back to base camp. I had the services of a porter the next two days but they were equally hardcore - with 3 climbs of around 3600-4200m on the steep inca roads. Its still a wonder how the inca runners of old could complete the 4 day circuit in a few hours, fueled by quick feet and coca leaf. I was chewing coca leaves like a cow and it only sustained me for exactly ten steps- on the eleventh step later I don't feel so high anymore and instead want to flinging myself off that sheer cliff I was trying to climb up on. What is a waste though, is the waste laid to the inca homelands after the Spanish conquests. The evangelical scrouge of Christianity attempted to wipe out Incan culture by mass conversions of the incan pueblos. and so, the secrets of andean engineering- especially how the fucking hell the incas could build such lasting foundations in an seismic area without using mortar and cement, and how they managed to domesticate shitloads of corn and potatos and acclimitize these species to different heights. asspanolmuthafuckers! perhaps if the incans were still here today, we'd have maize the size of our heads, more potatoes we could ever want, and y'know, some really nifty building designs that could stand up to an earthquake or two.
and i was touched by the sincerity of the porters and guides. it was a shame we did not tip them enough; inevitably, group dynamics came into play but ah well:
as what victor, the head guide would say :
"cheeky monkeys!"
perhaps the point was not that i lost quite a few pounds and a futher few inches off my waist, or that the food was delicious. it was more the unbridled joy of the porters as they cheerfully skipped past us up the mountain passes lugging my luggage (and often more) at the same time and their greetings of "bienividos juan (wang!) aha!" - the joy of being in the Andes and being Andean- that embodied the hardy spirit of the Incans. Just like the Inca foundations that now remain and still support the colonial buildings in Cuzco, all is not lost. Inca culture might merged with Catholicism into mestivo culture, but elements still remain as strong as ever and I suspect will continue to persist as long as the Andeans worship their Pachimama and continue to take pride in themselves. yes i'm rambling like a bitch here, but theres too much i want to say and admire about the Andeans. I think it was the mountain air but heck. the point is, all power to them. yea baby and out.
*sleep*
