Thursday, February 28, 2008

the final countdown

I'm in my last few days in South America. I don't really have much to do these days and have little ambition to go very far. This morning I was going to catch a bus to the beach about two hours away, but when I got up I realized that getting more sleep would be a better investment of my time, and may help with my neverending cold. So today I'm doing some laundry, taking care of some business.

Sometimes when I'm bored at the hostel I start clicking on old blog entries, remembering our good times and bad times, our fun trips, my bad facial hair. It's a good thing we did this blog or there might have been things forgotten, like when I used to keep a journal when I traveled solo. Although I think I'm just about ready to get back home, I can't help but feel reminiscent for the year already. So even though supposedly we kept up the blog for our readers, it'll be nice to look back on from time to time.

I've been sleeping in the same bunk for over a week now and it is a very nice change to be able to stay in one place for awhile and not have to carry around the big backpack. I was at the point where I was really excited to unload weight any time I could. I gave away some shoes that I hadn't worn in a month. I starting bathing more regularly because every time I use shampoo, the backpack gets lighter, right?

Yesterday Sergio and I had a nice day of tourism. We went to the main cemetery (the largest graveyard I've ever seen), had a gigantic lunch of Peruvian food at a market, and finally got to the Museo de Bellas Artes.

When one goes into a market that is filled with small restaurants and lunch counters, one is accosted by the proprietress of each business, imploring that you come to eat her homemade food. The menu at each place is pretty much the same and roughly the same price, so you have to choose based on other factors; availability of seats, popularity with locals, clean appearance, prices posted on the walls, personality of the person yanking on your shirt sleeve. Pictured in front of Sergio from top to bottom are Chilean ceviche, papas haucainas (potatoes with a spicy cream sauce) , Inka Cola and my amazing saltado or stir-fry, plus bread and hot sauce. We could barely roll out of that market we were so stuffed.

2 comments:

written by: Louann Terveer said...

boodududoop! I hope I don't have Europe in my head the whole time til you get back! Sergio siempre tiene un halo--esta' bendecito!

Mom Bruski said...

I'm going to miss clicking on Favorites and reading your blog! As my friend Sue says we have been living your year vicarioiusly. Sue looks forward to clicking onto the Dan&Lou Blog first thing every morning to see what is new. We've all scratched our psychosomatic bedbug bites, been awed by the amazing views, chuckled over the misunderstangs ("you need to love yourself and not eat spicey food", reveled in the thought of warm beaches while we endured 20 below wind chills, drooled or gasped over the foods, used Babelfish to translate phrases we didn't understand, rode with you on your bike, perused the markets at your side, enjoyed meeting your new friends, sympathized with your virus symptoms, and silently congratulated you both on being so adventurous and writing about it in such a colorful and entertaining way. Thanks for the year's worth of fun!