Another stop on the trip
Friday, September 5th, 2008Gina. Petaluma, California.
Steve and I are back in the states for a few days of seeing family and friends and doing some chores like applying to graduate school (for Gina), buying books for China, and repacking our bags. We’re making some changes on the packing front– we’ve gotten rid of almost all of our first aid stuff. We never used it, and if we would’ve needed it there were pharmacies everywhere and I’m sure it’ll be the same where ever we go. People get hurt and get sick no matter where they live. We’re also ditching our sleeping bags. We always sort of knew that they might not be necessary, but we camp a lot anyway, so buying them wasn’t a waste. We’re still taking our sleep sheets which were incredibly useful (thanks Nana!) and we’re going to take a couple of travel fleece blankets that are much smaller and lighter than the sleeping bags and we wouldn’t feel so bad about leaving them behind somewhere if we never use them. I’m taking more clothes. I didn’t really think through the whole two pants thing–the downside is that when you do laundry you still have to wear one pair of pants, so one pair would be clean and the other would be very, very dirty. I’m also taking more and different shirts. I tied to follow all of the packing rules I read about only taking two shirts, but I want to be comfortable and to not smell bad. These things are important to me. And while washing undies was quick and easy in sinks, washing pants and shirts was not so quick or so easy so we didn’t do it (socks were impossible to dry, so I’m taking some more of those, too).
Steve and I are both really excited about China. We’ve bought a lot of books. Whatever we’re losing in weight from getting rid of stuff I think we’re making up for in books! We ended up with the Rough Guide to China book. It was a hard decision between the Lonely Planet version and this one. The deciding factors were that we were familiar and happy with the Rough Guide’s style since we used them for Ecuador and we did a fake trial run with each book pretending that we’d just arrived in a city and trying to figure out how to get around, where to sleep, and where to eat and looking at the maps to see if we could navigate with them. The plus for the Lonely Planet guide was that they had some of the street names on the maps in Chinese characters, but oddly not all of them. The Rough Guides book has characters for restaurants, lodging, sites, and other important things but not the street names on the map. But the maps are much easier to read and where they do have characters they’re in a larger, clearer font than in the Lonely Planet guide, so they would be easier to point out to someone in order to communicate. We also bought: a Chinese Phrasebook and dictionary, “China Survival Guide: how to avoid travel troubles and mortifying mishaps,” “The Eater’s Guide to Chinese Characters,” and a basic Chinese characters for travelers book which will hopefully come in the mail today since the book store in Berkeley we had holding it for us didn’t actually hold it for us! Already we’ve learned the symbols for rice, noodles, chicken, pork, stir-fry and a few others from the food book. I’m glad we got this one since we love food and being able to order confidently and not be afraid of getting served dog will be fantastic. We also bought two non-fiction books about Chinese history. One is actually banned in China, so we’re going to have to cover it somehow (it’s called “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang). And the other book is by an American who lived in China and it’s called “Oracle Bones” and is by Peter Hessler. So we’re loaded up on reading material and helpful guides and hopefully it’ll all help make China a more enjoyable experience.
While I’m glad we went to South America, in the end it wasn’t my favorite place. I think if we would’ve spent less time over all and more time in Ecuador instead of Peru I would have enjoyed it more. I’ve been trying to figure out why I didn’t like Peru, and I think some of it was concrete reasons and some of it was just a gut feeling. Here are some things I didn’t like:
- There are taxis everywhere and they all beep at foreigners and yell “Taxi, taxi, taxi!” At first it was sort of funny, but after a while it just really got to me. It’s not very enjoyable to be walking around either to a tourist place or just to the grocery store and constantly being yelled and beeped at.
- The food was not that good. Every meal would consist of potatoes AND rice (and sometimes plantains, too!) and then some sort of fried or gravy-ed meat. Sometimes you’d get a fried egg thrown on top which would add a little variety, but I need veggies and flavor. There’s a reason you don’t see very many Peruvian restaurants around.
- Long distance buses, our mode of transportation, were a pain in the butt. Usually the different bus companies were spread around town so you had to take a taxi or walk around to compare prices. The prices were always vastly different and sometimes it reflected in the quality and swiftness of the bus and sometimes it didn’t, so you never knew what you were getting. It was very stressful.
- There were lots of people on the street trying to sell us stuff. Whether it was very whiney little kids with their chichlet gum “Senior, por favor!” or women with cell phones yelling “llamada, llamada, llamada!” Steve does a great impression of them both, which unfortunately can’t be reproduced in writing.
Some of these things were in Ecuador as well, but all combined together in Peru just made things worse. I would definitely recommend anyone and everyone to visit Ecuador as it’s easy to get around, cheap, and absolutely beautiful. Every bus ride (during the day) was filled with gorgeous scenery and it all changes so quickly from coast to mountains to rainforest. It was awesome seeing all the different ecosystems.
I was going to write more about just random things we saw and thought about while traveling in South America but never wrote about, but my mind is all filled with excitement for China and nerves about graduate school applications and I just can’t think about it right now. I’m still working on uploading photos and I should have those all up before we leave for China, which is in two days… crazy!
montarsig