arequipa!

not all is scary and bad.

BEST PARTS OF THE PAST 24 HOURS:

1. speaking spanish with anyone and everyone, making more local friends than ever before!

2. the man that i sat next to on the night bus is a police officer in cusco. we chatted in a very calming way, and i felt safe enough to sleep. in the middle of the night he put his big policeman jacket over me so i would be warmer.

3. arriving in a town that had roads swarming with cars SMALLER THAN SMART CARS. they looked like toys, but were actually motorcycles that had been modified into the smallest cars i have ever seen. some of them were made to look like insects. i KID YOU NOT. it was unbelievable. when they gathered places it got creepy like when squirrels start to congregate. i wondered, ¨with enough of them could they overtake the bus?¨

4. waking up in a land of sand dunes, which i had never seen in outside of pictures. they sparkle!

5. going to the mirador in arequipa and seeing the big volcanoes from high up.

6. meeting a boy whose father and grandfather are jungle shamans. we went to the inca museum and he described what everything was.

7. getting to be in high-gear planning mode for the last 24+ hours. i love it. i love being on the move.


some is.

WORST PARTS OF THE PAST 24 HOURS:

1. i made new irish friends in the lima train station. while we were sitting and chatting, someone took off with their handbag. it contained money, passports, credit cards, and yellow fever vaccination proof.

by the time we noticed and called the credit card company the theives had already tried to use the cards 7 times. in 15 minutes! my new friends had to stay in lima while i went onward onward onward. disconcerting. good thing i never put my bags down, not even for a second.

2. the fact that i might be plunging headfirst into a state of emergency in south america.