I got a 2-course dinner with drink in a restaurant last night for 3 soles. That's in the region of 75p. That's fucking ridiculous! I fucking love this continent. Every time that you think it really can't get any cheaper, "BAM", it does.
Admittedly it wasn't the best food that I've ever eaten. But I'm yet to ever be given food that I won't eat. And for 3 soles, I really don't care what it is. And you know what was funny about this? I went for the expensive option. I could have got it for 2.50!
Man you've got to love the way that people live down here.
Never see another gringo in these places it has to be said. They're as much someones house as they are a restaurant, and white folk tend to steer clear.
This morning I was in need of wi-fi (embarrassingly before I realised that they had it at the hostel), so I wandered through town for a while. And I ended up at this obscenely expensive American-style cafe.
All I could afford on the menu was a cup of tea. For 4 soles. More expensive than my 2-course meal with drink yesterday night. And I got there early in the morning, because for some bizarre reason, my body didn't feel like sleeping this morning.
I'd had a couple of kind of trippy dreams in the night, which I'm currently attributing to the altitude because it was something that I noticed back in Bogota as well. But for whatever reason, I was up uncharacteristically early. So was the first person in the American cafe.
Turns out, this is where all the white people eat! By the time I'd left after making my one cup of tea last about 2 hours, the place was full of whiteys. I had always wondered where they all ate. And selling breakfasts ranging from 15 to 20 Soles, which was more than I even had in my pocket, it's no wonder that everyone thinks that white-folk are pretentious, rich, tofs if they eat at places like that everyday.
You'd kind of think that coming all the way down to a place like this, the last thing that you'd want to do is eat as you could back in your town at home. Especially when they charge the same prices. You'd think that for a start, you'd want to save money. And secondly, wouldn't you want to experience a little local culture?
Some of the white people in this world really do bemuse me.
I got lunch today for the same price. Again going for the expensive option. I really should stop lavishing myself with all these untold riches.
To be fair, this pescado frito (fried fish) did kind of look like one of those fish that would frequently get washed ashore on the beaches of Huanchaco. And by fried, I was kind of assuming maybe breaded and deep-fried. Not just thrown in a pan for a couple of minutes. But like I said. For 3 soles, I don't give a fuck what you give me.
Unless I get food-poisoning. That'd be shit. Though last time that happened I wrote the hottest joke of the day on Sickipedia, which was well, well, worth it. So we'll see how it goes.
3 fucking soles. For a 2-course meal! I fucking love it. That's not even half a bus fare back home.
As I wrote yesterday I wasn't being too complimentary about this hostel that I'm staying in. But as it turns out, this place is actually quite a find. For little reason other than I seem to be pretty much the only guest here right now.
Got my own 4-bed dorm to myself since my dorm-mate of yesterday left on a 12-day trek at 5:00 this morning. I never have to wait for the toilet or the shower. I can watch whatever I want in the TV room. The wi-fi (now that I've found it) is never clogged-up. At 15 soles it's a little pricey. But again translating that to English, I'm paying perhaps £3.50 per night for all of that. So it's not really killing my bank balance. And best of all, when you aren't waking them up at 7am banging on the door, the owners have been really, really helpful.
Well the one that I saw today was anyway. I haven't seen Ozzy since yesterday, but his wife was great today in giving me maps and explaining to me how to get to treks and all that kind of stuff. Particularly focusing on Laguna 69, which should take up the entirety of my day tomorrow. And little did I realise, it takes about 2-hours sitting on a couple of little collectivo buses, just to get to the start of the walk.
They stop running in the late afternoon. So to ensure that I can actually make it back to Huaraz tomorrow night, I'm going to have to be up fucking retardedly early in the morning. Like 5am or something to get on my way to this apparently spectacular lake.
I'll be the judge of that.
Then if I'm really loaded with energy, there's another potential day-hike that I could do on Tuesday. Although not as spectacular, it'll probably depend very much on how much Laguna 69 takes out of me hiking at this altitude.
As much as I'm looking forward to doing this tomorrow, despite the retard time that I have to be up, you remember how I was saying yeserday that they really didn't make things easy for you here? That, it's almost like they don't want you to see the scenery? To enjoy the landscape?
Well before they left the hostel last night, I met this couple whom I am more than likely to run into again sometime before Bolivia because again, we have near-identical itinerys. But they had just done Laguna 69. And they had done it as a 2-day hike. And although apparently easily avoidable, you know what the charges are for doing this?
A one-day pass for the park is 5 soles. So by that rationale, you would think that camping overnight, you'd have to pay 10 soles right?
Wrong.
Staying for 2 nights, you have to buy a months pass. At 65 soles.
How fucking retarded is that? They're going to try to squeeze out of you, every penny that they can. And this kind of shit isn't going to work on me. I'm the kind of person that will find a way to avoid paying it. Or leave. But when you take a natural wonder such as this, and you try to turn it into some kind of cash-cow. Milking people for more money than they're worth. I find it kind of disgusting in a way.
As beautiful as the area is, it leaves something of a sour taste in the mouth when people will just use it for unjustified profits.
I'd perhaps even consider camping out for the night otherwise. But however easy it actually is to avoid paying the extra fee, who need the hassle?
I'm not going to give you my money out of general principle.
It does leave you something of a sour taste though. Dampens whatever positives that you take.
Anyway, that's for tomorrow. Today was a day to get to see Huaraz a bit more. And it turned out to be an amazingly productive day considering the way that I've been for the recent past in Huanchaco.
And you know something that I realised today is that it's fucking easy to take great photos of landscapes. Or scenery.
You just set your camera to automatic, point it at something pretty and press the button.
What I was thinking today though, was that what I really struggle to capture on camera, is the urban culture for lack of a better term. Like, experiencing Peru is like nothing that I've ever done before. The way that the people dress, the make-up of the buildings, the atmosphere of the markets. Very little here is the same as it would be back home. But how the Hell do you capture that on camera? Because it's not like you can just walk up to people and ram a camera in their face.
Take this picture for example. What do you see when you look at that?
You see the fast-flowing river. You see the snow-capped mountains. You see the ominous looking sky. But you don't really register the little Peruvian man squatting at the side of the river. And you don't notice the make-up of the buildings. And you have no idea that right behind me as I took this picture, was this bustling market.
But how do you capture that? How do you photograph that without treating people like exhibitons. Obviously wanting to capture their way of doing things because you view it as different, or inferior to the way that you do things. Or at least that's the way that they'll see it.
Nearly all of my photographs are of landcapes. Or of churches or something scenic. But that sight-seeing crap, that makes up 1% of what I do with my time, where the other 99% is spent interacting with the Peruvian ways. Negotiating the bustling markets. Catching a little combi-bus like no kind of bus you'd ever catch back home.
How... how can you capture that on camera?
With the exception of walking the street, sticking your camera in peoples faces, how do you capture that?
I just downloaded this from Google.
How many people looking like that do you see in my photos? Because I've seen a hundred people dressed like that today. I don't see any pictures like that, that I've taken though.
It's just really hard to do. But to look at my photo gallery, you could easily make the mistake of thinking that this has been nothing more than a big sight-seeing tour for me. That I do nothing by look at mountains and waterfalls with my time, when the reality is that is something of a side-issue to getting immersed into the local way of doing things. But that just really, really is hard to capture on film. But with each photo worth a thousand words, it'd make it a lot easier to express the things that I experience if I could really catch that urban culture on camera. Because as much as I talk, as much as I write, it really is hard to detail all the little things that you experience just so differently to what you're used to when you come to a place like this.
Like for example, I was in a little restaurant earlier. And the women working there, she had a baby tied to her back as she went about serving customers their lunch. That's not something you'd see back home but it's not uncommon to see it here. But what the fuck would she think if I just pulled out my camera and started snapping away at her, making an exhibiton of the unfortunate reality that she has no alternative but to carry her baby on her back all day. Even as she's working.
It really would make it easier to express the differences I experience everyday if I could get those shots though. Because contrary to what it may appear by my photo galleries, I spend comparatively little of my time looking at mountains and marvelling at sunsets.
When you do something for as long as I've been doing it, it stopped being a holiday long, long ago. It's just a way of living. Everything that you do in your daily life, I have to do in mine. Although living out of a backpack and frequently changing locations, I don't benefit from geographical familiarities or infrastructures that you'll take for granted. Like being able to put food in the fridge for example.
How the Hell do you capture that on camera though?
Well I said that this had been a productive day. So much so that I have my ticket to Lima already bought for Tuesday night. Now that really is preparation seeing as it's only Sunday. And it was one of those very lucky things, that having bought my ticket, I go back to the ticket office 30 minutes later, just to confirm that this actually is where I catch the bus from.
Thank-fuck that I did. Because I would feel like a royal dickhead if at 10pm on Tuesday night I was standing around waiting for my bus in the wrong fucking place.
And this was also a day that I was finally... finally able to locate some Energizer lithium batteries in South America. The only batteries that I am willing to put into my camera. Because should I run out having got up a retard-O'clock in the morning, bussed for 2 hours hiked for 3 hours just to get to Laguna 69 and my camera went dead, I would kill someone.
They are not easy to find in this fucking continent. But finally I was able to locate some.
And... I got a bottle of shampoo for 5 soles. Women's shampoo admittedly, but toiletries in this continent are retard-expensive. People here really seem to care about looking good. So you can get a 2-course meal in a restaurant for 2.50. But you can expect to pay 15 soles on a bottle of shampoo. So to find a bottle for 5 soles, particularly after the tooth-paste that I picked up the other day for 2... score!
Whether I still have hair or teeth one week from now is still to be determined. I'll bring back the hair timeline at the end of this blog. Just in case it all goes wrong, I can remember how my hair once looked.
Oh and one funny thing that I saw in town earlier. I wish I'd had my camera on me for this actually. But in the more touristy areas such as this, where there's money to be made off the white people, often tour companies will advertise in English, with sometimes questionable grammar. So anytime you happen to be in Huaraz, perhaps you'll feel like going... horse ringding?
The tour guides speak English obviously.
Another thing that I realised today actually, is that today I was able to buy a bus ticket. I was able to ask where to get the bus from. I was able to buy lunch quite comfortably. I negotiated the various camera stores and was able to locate the specific batteries that I'm actually willing to put into my camera.
I'm actually starting to get quite good at Spanish.
Conversational Spanish? No. I could not hold-down a conversation right now. But the errands that I carry out in my days, I'm getting really comfortable at.
I don't really notice any improvement. But then I think back to when I got off the plane in Bogota. Or that first time that I went to the Bogota bus station. I had no clue what was going on and I could not communicate with anyone. I actually had to leave and come back the next day because I could not figure out what was going on.
8 or 9 weeks ago that was. And compare that to today, where I went into a couple of bus companies. Without needing anything written down or translated into English, I can find bus times and prices. How long the journey will be. Even where I need to catch the bus, because as it turns out it's a 15-minute walk from where I bought the ticket.
I compare that to how I was in Bogota, and as much as it might not feel like it, I have learnt one fuck of a lot since I've been here.
Say I do stay for another year. Say I do go to Chile. I could be fluent in Spanish by the time I leave. Add that onto my resume along with English teacher, maybe this whole travelling lark isn't as bad for a career as you might think. Not that I ever plan on getting one if I can help it.
Hair timeline
67 weeks since haircut. Beat that Jesus.
