To the land of the Quechua

As many of you know, I decided to break tradition this year and spend the holidays away from my family and friends (except for Danny and Pam) and travel to Peru for 18 days for both Christmas and New Years. This being a life-long goal, or at least since I started discovering travel and knew what Peru had to offer and since opportunity knocked, I opened the door with arms wide open. Not to mention that I would be traveling with two of my closest friends, one of which was kind enough to open the comfort and sincerity of her family to us and introduce us to her family in Peru... THANK YOU PAM!

Initially I did not know what to think or expect, but once I arrived in Lima for the first 4 days of the trip, I started t resonate a lot with my living in Guadalajara. The city is very similar and the area that we were "living" in with our adoptive grandparents for the trip reminded me alot of walking around many parts of Mexico. The people, the food, the authenticity and the comfort that a different pace of life brings were all a few of the things that made me feel like it was a place I could remain at for ages from the get go. We spent Christmas eve enjoying a wonderful home-made Peruvian meal with an amazing rice dish that we had to get the recipe for. Although there were no pinatas, posadas nor tamales, welcoming Chirstmas in a different style was great, although I did miss my gramas tamales. The next couple of days in Lima were spent visisting the local market and seeing what we could find to see and/or eat; picarones (donut like fried dough with syrup), cebiche (peruvian style with sweet potato and seaweed), tortas (aka cake, not big mexican sandwiches and random fresh fruit and helado (always room for some ice cream)!



Next stop was Cusco for one night before starting the Inca Trail. The one thing that stuck for the first Cusco night was a headache. The slight change in altitude to 3800 meters from sea level caused a bit of a lingering pain in the temple area as well as slight drowsiness and blurry vision. Luckily, Coca Tea was readily available- we were welcomed by one cup of tea when checking in, of course I had about 6 and then had to pee every 5 minutes.. and I was able to bring some back home with me.


The 4 day hike on the Inca Trail was nothing short of amazing. Not only do I generally enjoy the outdoors, history and meeting people, but I was also very pleased with the opportunity to reflect on life in the comfort of nature. With the guidance of the Pacha Mama ( Mother Earth in Quechua) I made it up to 4200 meters in altitude after 2 days of rain with a fatigued knee and a 20lb back pack to the enlightening city of Machu Picchu. It was surreal. Even before arriving to Machu Picchu being in between massive peaks that make up the Andes and standing ABOVE the clouds (this doesn't happen unless I'm on a plane) was a beauty, but standing at the Puerta del Sol overlooking the Incan City of Machu Picchu was a revelation. You take it in and look at it and it still seems unreal, especially after hiking 44km.



After Machu Pichu we take a train back to Cusco and its time to celebrate New Years. We take a shower (after 5 days of not doing so, it felt damn good- although my own scent, and the scent of others, was starting to grow on me, LITERALLY) I also didn't shave for 1 week prior to departing for Peru and I didnt take a razor with me on the trip... Dinner was so memorable. We were thinking a nice sit down dinner, something to bring in the new year, but after turning left out of our hotel and onto the rainy streets, we were greeted by an abundance of street vendors selling "sanguiches" and "anticuchos" (cow heart skewers) we ate a lot of them and were pleasantly plump!


The night proceeded to celebrate new years with some of the friends we made during our hike. Meeting point: The golden Arches- McD's (yuck), but a landmark nonetheless. After polishing off a Camelback full of Vodka Redbull, a few beers and 2L bottle full of rum and coke (this was amongst a few of us), we were definitely welcoming the new year staying up until 4am. there is a tradition in Cusco in celebrating the new year where you RUN around the town square 12 times with empty luggage for good luck in travels in the coming year, sounded appealing and we tried. Except for the 1000's of people trying to do the same so the run was more of a wander and so we did one lap and counted that as 12. hope its not only January that I am given good luck for, otherwise I gotta get traveling....


2 days later we were off to Lake Titicaca. This was amazing. seeing a different way of life in modern society that wants nothing more than to continue living life like they do. On floating islands made of reed. eating mainly fish and only solar powered electricity operating the bare minimum. while on the island we got a break down of their day to day lives and got to tour in their "Mercedes" of transportation, a large reed boat with 2 levels. In this region of Peru we were meant to try Guinea Pig, but we failed.. it was raining and wandering around the streets of Puno wasnt the most recommended thing to do according to Lonely Planet.



After the islands we head back to Lima for the last leg of our trip. It was a lot of winding down, but also trying to eat all of the Peruvian eats that were on the list that we created. I am proud to say that we ate nearly all of the typical Peruvian dishes and eats that there are... a lot of thanks to Pam's Grama, a great cook she is. While back in Peru we did a bit of shopping and spent some time on the roads of the city. If you think the 405 is bad or driving in Tijuana or Manhattan is bad, go drive in Lima. This is definitely the place for a driver with a big, stubborn ego... "I own the road" is the mentality that the 8 million people in the city have. Interesting experience.

Upon return to the states, it had not set in that I had just traveled to a revered place of the world. One of the 7 new wonders of the world. a place that many people will never see. a country rich in culture, food and topographical beauty. I had visited Peru and was excited that I would be able to share my experience with others. Equally as much as I enjoy hearing stories of friends and family who travel to new and unknown places, I wanted to share and will continue to do so as long as the memories are fresh. If any of you are considering a trip to south america, do not leave Peru out of your plans. You will not regret visiting a beautiful country with great things to offer. Now, where to next?

the good in fatigue.

The state of being tired and overwhelmed also inhibits an essence of soul searching. Where one goes into the depths of the inners and discovers a whole new world of being.. and that it is all within ourselves.

Lately, amidst my clock ticking too fast and and days molding into things that just happen to all end in the letter Y, I have strangely found time to be profound. In my head that is. The recent conversations with friends, with family, with society and with myself have brought me gratitude of who I am, what I do and everything in history that makes that possible.

I have made impactful decisions that, as an individual and being the purveyor of my own future and how that shapes out, I will take the bull by the horns and let it take me whichever way the bull decides. I am seeking to develop the self. I am selfish. No I do not want kids now. And hopefully my aspiration to become a single father with a surrogate mother (hopefully someone I am fond of already) will come about, but not now. I aim to travel. To see the world and to experience every which angle the world provides and to taste the nectar of every which fruit that crosses my path. I have no boundaries and I am invincible.

...or I am dreaming and going crazy?

Ready, Set, SPLIT...

Being back in the office at Gemin-i.org feels like never having left. Although new faces surround and whelm the space in the office, the feel and culture that I was very fond of has not changed. One day before re-embarking on the ferry boat across the chunnel to Calais and I can think of nothing more than the Cold Play, Viva la Vida song that was on repeat the last time I took the daunting trip... the first 20 seconds of the song can only sound enticing the first 12 times.

Since being in London I have felt like I am at home. Few things here and there that I have forgotten but only required a slight reminder to reacknowledge... for example that cars come on the opposite direction, that many consonants are forgotten when speaking in British English and that its bloody expensive!!! Otherwise I am fending well and feeling closer to the Queen than ever.

In the meantime I trick myself into thinking that I am still in Santa Barbara by wearing shorts, Toms and a t-shirt... all the while the rain is shooting down from the sky like sharp arrows in a Native American battle.

Here's to Cali and bringing a little bit of it to the UK and Europe.

London in clear sight...

Well if it is anything like I am used to when I lived there... The forecast states rain. If there is anything that I am more excited about and that I really miss is the frequency of conversations that I had on the topic of weather and how you can rally beat a dead horse on one sole topic... The rain!

I anticipate that as usual I will regain a bit of an accent and will start saying things like cheers and mate on a regular basis.

It feels like only yesterday I was still living there and after 8 months of being back in the US I often find myself thinking that its only a small time frame that disconnects me from my previous stamps on my passport. Well... Here they go again.


PS evesdropping makes for some interesting conversation starters... Especially at the airport when people think no one is listening.

the Scrooge in all of us...

"It's Christmas time, the season of perpetual hope!"... yes Mrs. MacAllister it is, but you also left your son at home while you vacationed in Paris!

It happens to the best of us, the holiday season arrives and normally people instantaneously become nicer, or most do anyway. I am one of those. I'm a giver. If I have a dollar, I spend it and share... it's great, but also a wrath since I tend to be the one who buys rounds after rounds when at the bar, but some people don't seem to reciprocate.

I tried to force the spirit unto me by putting up the Christmas lights on the roof, dressing up the house in holiday decor and putting on some holiday colored sweaters. I even went to a friends house who incidentally use up about 1/2 the states electricity resources for the winter and helped them decorate their house... it looks pretty darn good, especially the elves playing baseball in the yard. That trick of imposing the spririt on me worked for about 3 days..

Then I tried to go shopping with a friend to get her presents... it just got me depressed, but also I have realized that I am becoming more and more in hate with large crowds of people with no direction, and my legs hurt (I'm getting old-er ... soon approaching 30)

This year was the first year, since I can remember, that my family didn't get gifts from me for Christmas. It's the times... but aside from the material I have lost a bit of the sense of one of my favorite holidays ever. Is it because gift giving is the meaning of the holiday to me..? I don't know really, but I didn't care to be much a part of the festivities besides wanting to get inebriated and that couldnt really happen either because I was ill. All this together wanted to create a Scrooge in me... or bring out the Scrooge in me.

Alas, the holiday has passed and I survived... the Christmas tree remains in my parent's home and it won't come down until after January 6th, 3 Kings Day. Normally we would get presents on that day, but not Gold, Frankincense or Myrrh... this year I hope its a salary.

So this season of hope was more a season of dope... It went by with a meagerness, not too eventful and a bit depressing. At least the sun came out today and well, tomorrow is another day but hopefully in a years time Santa will be back around with more surprises.

Tick, tock, tick, tock....

Those things that you encounter day in and day out that remind you of something so vividly: an event... or person.... or experience.
Its like a bomb has gone off and the vividness of the memory gradually depletes, creating the down slope of a bell curve.
Although sometimes, as is the situation at hand, the encounter providing the memory is stagnant, causing what would be seen as a traffic jam at the top of the bell curve on the way down. The memory replays over and over again, and although the memory is beautiful, it causes for a bit of discomfort and anger due to the steadfast effort to disassociate, in hopes that the light would turn green or that the vehicle would grow wings.
Nevertheless, uninvited memories, beautiful or not, are a forced way of reflecting, which in turn is good for the soul. For that matter, I will continue to sit at the top of the bell curve, and nurture my soul.


Free Write @ Chapman University Library.

the middle of the holiday season.

It's here- the long awaited day of eating so much great food to the point of discomfort that you need to rest 5 minutes before you do it 7 more times... an hour.

I am briefly reminded of a time that I decided I would host Thanksgiving dinner for what ended up being 2.5 people, I sure wasn't the half. For some reason I was over zealous and prepared food for a family of 10: a 19-pound turkey, rosemary-garlic mashed potatoes, carrot ginger soup, cranberry sauce, stuffing, 4-cheese macaroni, 3 pies and then some... Needless to say I had nothing to do but eat for the following 3 days with good company... and to top it off about 7 large bags of discounted Halloween peanut M&M's were consumed during the breaks of the feasting. I want the entirety of 2006 Thanksgiving recreated this year!

Sadly, I think it will be different... and not just for me but for a multitude of people around the world- even those that don't know they are celebrating Thanksgiving. As "American" of a "holiday" that it is, the idea is present- be thankful, as we should be all the time. But this time around, the tables and bellies of the majority of people eating dinner on November 27, 2008 will be less full. I say majority because i can't help but notice the amount of people that flaunt the fact that they have not really been affected by the recession/ depression. While some of us have liquidated their IRA at 25 so that we can eat and pump gas (gladly gas has gone down now!), others have not even remotely noticed, besides whats over played on the news, that the economy and a lot of people are suffering. Yeah there is 16% unemployment rate... what's it to them, they've got money in the bank, or daddy's credit card.

Recently at a panel discussion in Santa Barbara, California on the Future of Non-Profits in Santa Barbara it was reiterated that non-profits everywhere are in a difficult situation. Most already face hardship because of limited resources, especially financial, but this time around they are to act as the safety net for the previously mentioned sufferers. The fact that charities are to act as the safety net, event for government programs is huge. But it also goes to show the importance of the sector and the amount of support that should be given and how much more is needed.... Otherwise we may all go under... like is said to be in the UK.

I guess this episode of gibberish is just that. Now I am just waiting for traffic to die down on one of the busiest travel days of the year so that I can drive to the place that will host my gluttonous adventure tomorrow evening...

Until next time, I'll keep on pondering...