so i'm now home finally, lying down on my futon upstairs, and my stomach is killing me. i got some anti-bacterial to take along with my sulfur tablets. i also got something to stop the actual diarrhea. it seems to be working but it's definitely doing a number on my stomach.
let's see. so after i posted last, we took off for lunch at punto azul. it came highly recommended by angelo and we saw tons of locals there. it was trendy but not too expensive. we ordered the standard ceviche which was awesome! fresh whitefish soaked in lime juice with a side of huge corn kernels and some kind of sweet potato. that seems to be the traditional way of doing it. man, peru has huge corn, seriously. this was the first real food i'd allowed myself to eat in some time and it tasted really good. but of course it came right out. we also ordered a hot dish made of fried fish in a tomato/seafood sauce. there was calamari, shrimp, and maybe octopus in the sauce. that was good too, but not as good as the ceviche. nick also got a cream pudding dessert, mostly to allow my stomach time to settle and take advantage of the restaurant's facilities. it was pretty good. i just had a tiny taste. i didn't want to press my luck too much by eating a ton of dairy.
after that, we took off shopping. i'm not sure if i've ever walked so damn slow. in the end, we had to duck into a casino to use their restroom. i thought it was a fancy hotel initially, but there is this whole strip in miraflores with huge casinos. apparently they're very popular with the locals. anyways, it had a really nice bathroom, but the cleaning lady was in there the whole time which made me uncomfortable. it was after that that i decided i needed stronger medication.
we then ended up at all the artisan marketplaces. i really did have trouble finding stuff we wanted. we got a few more scarves, some gourds carved in the shape of guinea pigs, and a highland ceremonial mask for nick. it's craziness. it barely fits over his head. and lastly, we got a stuffed baby alpaca doll with alpaca fur. it's sooo soft! we also had to beg a cop to find us a bathroom in the middle of this shopping expedition as well. oh yes, and we picked up a few more t-shirts too. that really was the extent of our shopping.
by now, it was 5 pm and i was exhausted. we decided to walk back to our hotel and wait for our dinner reservations at astrid y gaston for 7:30 pm. there, we bumped into the same american who previously kept saying "so you're from LA, huh?" anyways, first thing he says is something about trying to unload $6M worth of gold bullion. you heard that right. he started talking about all the different businesses he owned and how much money he had. i couldn't decide whether or not to believe him. turns out he's this guy. serious weirdness.
anyways, before we knew it, we had to excuse ourselves and run to dinner. astrid y gaston is a super famous restaurant run by astrid, who's german, and her husband, gaston, who is peruvian. they're both excellent chefs supposedly. honestly, i didn't feel like eating anything at this point. the evacuation of lunch was exhausting enough, but since it was our last night, i was determined to try to eat. nick got a pig suckling dish and i got short ribs. both were good but it was a serious struggle for me to eat mine. nick's appetite was also not back completely so he wasn't able to help me much. they had a bread bowl which included lard bread. even if i were well, i'm not sure i could've handled that!
for dessert, nick chose the sampler. he got some cake made with the purple corn sauce, a medley of fruit sorbet, and fried chocolate truffles. the latter items were the best. by then, it was already 9:30 pm and our taxi was coming at 10. we rushed out of there and got to the hotel and saw our taxi was already there. we walk in, and there was this other guy wanting to share our cab, but he didn't have the change to split with us and it was a mess. considering how i was feeling, i just wasn't in the mood. fortunately he found himself a cab and was off. his flight was before ours and he didn't even have a cab already scheduled? how do some people survive when they're so unorganized?
anyways, we got to the airport just before 11 pm for our 1:40 am flight. man, waiting around for the flight was awful. we were both just exhausted. also, since we had some peruvian soles left, we decided it was better we just spend it than exchange it back to dollars. nick got a peruvian cookbook and we got some more small souvenirs. now i only have some change which is perfect.
we got to sit in a pair of seats by ourselves which was nice. nick ended up watching the matrix and i tried to sleep. after that, he took ambien, and i continued to try to sleep. we skipped the first meal. fast forward to this morning, and i tried to eat the omelette breakfast. the flight was pretty uneventful. the entertainment stuff this plane had was really nice, but i was just too tired to use any of it. and again, the plane was like half full of japanese tourists. i don't think i'm really a fan. they neither speak nor read english or spanish which is pretty annoying. when it's time to board by seat rows, they have no clue and just block up everything. and everytime i was using the lavatory, even though i locked it to say "occupied," i'd feel people trying to push their way in. sucks.
anyways, we got in this morning just past 8 am and my stepmom picked us up. i'm downloading photos now onto picasa.
i do have some regrets for this trip. first off, i wanted to try cuy (guinea pig). it's a highland specialty, but whenever a restaurant had it, i wasn't in the mood. and when i wanted it, the restaurant wouldn't have it. and later, we were just too sick to eat anything that heavy. also, i had hoped to try many good restaurants in lima. instead i feel i tried very little actual peruvian food. and walking around lima just wasn't much fun. between all the honking and air pollution, it was pretty unpleasant. but i also have to admit that my sickness took a lot away from the enjoyment of it. i also don't feel like i saw much of cuzco. between the tours and the trek, i never even got to hang out in the main plaza de armas. it was a gorgeous square but i never even got to photograph it. we always found ourselves in it late at night when it was freezing. besides the walk from our hotel to peru treks, i hardly saw that city at all. we also slept horribly there. it seemed every night some bar or club had live music playing. it just seemed impossible to get peace and quiet. it was more of a party city than i had anticipated.
and regarding the trek itself. i was so excited about it. i had decided to lug my heavy camera so i could take good photos. this actually proved to be a major liability when i became too weak and sick to carry it, and nick was suffering from altitude sickness as well. but both nick and i were just so tired most of the time that we just didn't bother with photos at all. even nick, who usually loves taking weird photos, hardly took any. we spent so much time focusing on the steps on the ground in front of us, we rarely got to look up and see the beauty around us. generally i think challenges build character and i like our trips to be a little hard. but i feel we may have overdone it this time. we managed to suck all the fun out of it. it was too much work.
i did meet some genuinely great people on that tour, any of whom i'd love to see again. but on the whole, i'm not sure i will look back on this "honeymoon" with the fondest of memories. it's definitely going to leave some scars.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
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