On the road again....Only 3 weesk left!!

Buenos días desde Cusco, Peru!! I woke up this morning to realize it is Tuesday, June 9th. I have no sense of time any more. No sense of the day, the week, even the month. When people back home talk about warm summer weather and finishing up school, going on summer vacation, I find myself thinking " Wow, it´s June - JUNE! How is it possible that 7 months have passed since I began this journey?!?" And even scarier - sadder?! - "How is it possible that I only have three weeks left." - Ahhhh! At moments, I find myself ready to be done. Ready to no longer be living out of my backpack, ready to have more than two outfits (ok, but honestly,who am I kidding, I usually wear the same 2-3 things when I am in los estados...), ready to sleep in the same bed more than 3 nights in a row, ready to not worry about bus terminals, bus schedules, where I will lay my head from night to night, and, sadly enough, the one issue that leaves me the most estresada - WHERE to find a bathroom (I SWEAR Latina women do NOT have bladders. The men pee wherever they want, whenever they want; the women, well....I RARELY - I kid you not - see them use a restroom....HOW is that possible?!?). But I am not complaining. Just stating fact and my personal state of mind.

But I fully intend to revel in my last 3 weeks here. So much can be seen and experienced in 3 weeks, so only time will tell what adventures will unfold! After my long overnight stint in the Lima airport (which is a really delightful place to spend alot of time, by the way!), I was met by my friend José in the Cusco airport. We immediately caught a mini-bus for a 6 hour journey deep into the Peruvian jungle to the town of Quillabamba to spend a few days soaking up the sol. I feel like I have been freezing for so long, that it was such a pleasure to walk around during the day - and night! - in shorts and a t-shirt. Plus, the jungle is freaking awesome. We went to this public pool that cost approximately $0.17 to enter and is more like a tropical resort than a public pool. Three giant pools alongside the river with hulking mountains in all directions - including one covered in snow! - and an abundance of flowers and fruit trees of all kinds - cacao, papaya, mango, orange, coffee, banana. I even managed to meterme en el agua and swim a few laps in the cold COOOOOOOLD water - woohoo! I drank fresh-made fruit juices from the local market each morning for breakfast, ate a ton of fresh fruit, as well as fresh-caught trout from the river, and fried green beans. I was only sad to be unable to find any choclo - Peru´s fat, meaty corn - YUM!! We also took a few excursions through the coffee plantations, ate popcorn and watched the running of the bulls at a local festival, drank my favorite dark Cusqueño beer at an outdoor bar overlooking the river uner the full moon and danced the night away with the Quillabambinos at Don Diablo´s.

I am now back in Cusco after the death-defying 6 hour return trip. The roads here are crazy - so many twists and turns and steep steep drop-offs, and I am convinced that the drivers assume there is only one speed - as fast as possible without toppling over. So we sped around curves, dodged fallen rock and oncoming cars as I sat in the back with my eyes closed thinking - "It´s going to be okay. It´s all part of the adventure." And, in moments of extreme panic, " Please please please let me survive this jounrey!" And I made it late last night, found a woman on teh street selling the choclo Ive been craving for weeks now, and slept soundly dressed in 3 layers of clothes under 4 blankets back in the chilly town of Cusco!

In a few hours I will board a 22 hour bus for Lima. My thought for now is to go to Huaraz in the North to do some hiking and then bit by bit to towns along the Peruvian coast until I arrive sometime next week in Quito. This has two pros - no 30 hours bus rides AND I get to see more of Peru. However, part of me is ready to just bus it in one trip and spend my final weeks with my old friends in Quito. Who knows what I will do, but I have 22 hours on a bus to think about it. creo que es suficiente!

Hasta la proxima...VIVA!