Latest / bit of a Rambler / 058 Ramble On

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058 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
0:02
Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
0:07
Speaker 1: And I am in Peru officially, been here a few days.
0:13
Speaker 1: A lot has happened in the four days or whatever
0:17
Speaker 1: that I've been here so far. When I was on
0:19
Speaker 1: the airplane and the airplane landed, it was a short flight,
0:25
Speaker 1: the pilot said something, Oh, that was really interesting. They
0:29
Speaker 1: speak Quechua here, so they did the informative messages in
0:35
Speaker 1: Cusco in Quechua first, and then in Spanish and then English.
0:40
Speaker 1: And I didn't realize how prevalent Qutchua was that people
0:43
Speaker 1: would be speaking it up here so regularly. But when
0:46
Speaker 1: he said something, everyone on the plane clapped. But my
0:49
Speaker 1: Spanish wasn't good enough, so I didn't understand what he
0:51
Speaker 1: was saying. But that was a cool little introduction to
0:54
Speaker 1: the country to realize that Quechua was spoken fairly regularly here.
1:00
Speaker 1: You know, I have this Peruvian hat that I bought
1:02
Speaker 1: from a world crafts store in Golden Colorado, just in
1:08
Speaker 1: the shopping mall, and it is from Peru. I don't
1:12
Speaker 1: know if you're familiar with those stores, but they just
1:15
Speaker 1: import crafts from all over and this one's heavy on
1:18
Speaker 1: Alpaco wool, and yeah, I had crafts from South America
1:23
Speaker 1: and Central American countries. And I've had this Peruvian hat
1:28
Speaker 1: now for a long time, probably like five years or something,
1:32
Speaker 1: and I always wore it in cold climates and it's
1:36
Speaker 1: so comfortable and I still have it, but I can't
1:40
Speaker 1: really wear it in Peru because the sun is so
1:44
Speaker 1: killer here that there's no brim on the Peruvian hat.
1:50
Speaker 1: It's just like to keep you warm. And I'm not
1:53
Speaker 1: usually going out at night too much, so I'm just
1:57
Speaker 1: out during the day. And if I wore that hat,
1:59
Speaker 1: my whole face would be cooked. I'd have to apply
2:02
Speaker 1: sunscreen like every twenty minutes or something. You can feel it.
2:06
Speaker 1: It definitely feels like I don't know HAWAIII sun or
2:12
Speaker 1: because of the elevation, Peru's UV index is just about
2:17
Speaker 1: the worst in the world. I'm and I am a
2:19
Speaker 1: pale person, and I'm in like the highest UV index
2:24
Speaker 1: in the world as far as populated towns go. Oh yeah,
2:28
Speaker 1: because I'm in Cousco, Peru. So I'm living here for
2:31
Speaker 1: probably a month, maybe two, I'm not sure yet. It's
2:36
Speaker 1: eleven two hundred feet here on average, and I've already
2:40
Speaker 1: climbed a couple mountains another one hundred feet up or
2:43
Speaker 1: two hundred but two hundred feet is almost exactly double. Actually,
2:49
Speaker 1: it's like exactly double the height of Denver, which I
2:53
Speaker 1: lived at for a while, and then the last town
2:55
Speaker 1: I was in, Median, is also at fifty six hundred feet.
2:58
Speaker 1: The only thing I like that it's cooler here. I've
3:02
Speaker 1: been getting too warm. I've been in too many tropical
3:05
Speaker 1: places lately, and I need to get my heat down,
3:11
Speaker 1: and I figured it's going to be colder at eleven
3:14
Speaker 1: thousand feet, which is crazy. It's just a crazy height.
3:17
Speaker 1: Like I don't know what percentage of the world lives
3:20
Speaker 1: over eleven thousand feet, but it's got to be less
3:23
Speaker 1: than one percent, like way way less. And I like it.
3:28
Speaker 1: I like Cusco in general, and it is a small
3:32
Speaker 1: town and it's in such a remote, high elevation location
3:36
Speaker 1: that there's not a ton of people here, and it
3:41
Speaker 1: just feels local. It feels like the northeastern parts of
3:46
Speaker 1: China that I was in, like Chiamusu, where people just
3:51
Speaker 1: lived in their town and there wasn't this huge connection
3:57
Speaker 1: to the rest of the world. Really, they're just in
3:59
Speaker 1: their own little pocket, and here they're so high elevation,
4:03
Speaker 1: it's their own little pocket of heaven. But it's it
4:07
Speaker 1: feels like Peru, is I guess, is what I'm trying
4:09
Speaker 1: to say. It feels so local and isolated that I
4:15
Speaker 1: kind of identified with it right away because I'm usually
4:17
Speaker 1: traveling by myself and I want to absorb the local
4:22
Speaker 1: culture wherever I go, and this one, this town, it's
4:27
Speaker 1: very easy to absorb the local culture because there isn't
4:30
Speaker 1: a lot of non local culture. It's all local. The
4:35
Speaker 1: food is very Peruvian, the clothes or Peruvian, all the
4:38
Speaker 1: snacks are Peruvian. So it is exactly the kind of
4:42
Speaker 1: place I like to visit. So I guess I should
4:47
Speaker 1: start out with altitude sickness, because that's the huge concern
4:52
Speaker 1: of everything, Like every single Airbnb listing, every tour guide,
4:58
Speaker 1: or every article I read about people who visit Peru
5:01
Speaker 1: talk about the altitude sickness and worn against it really
5:05
Speaker 1: stringently severely, and so I was kind of worried about it,
5:11
Speaker 1: and I did jog more than normal when I was
5:14
Speaker 1: in Mediian because I figured, well, heck, it is at
5:17
Speaker 1: fifty six hundred feet, so if I'm going to go
5:19
Speaker 1: to double that. At least if I jog every day
5:22
Speaker 1: while I'm in Median, that should help somewhat with the
5:25
Speaker 1: altitude sickness, or rather my altitude adjustment, because I figured
5:29
Speaker 1: I would be able to adjust. I go up and
5:31
Speaker 1: down an elevation so often traveling that I figured my
5:35
Speaker 1: body would get it pretty quickly. And so in Median
5:40
Speaker 1: I was jogging at least one hour a day, and
5:43
Speaker 1: very often closer to two hours a day. And if
5:45
Speaker 1: I wasn't jogging, I was walking for way more four
5:49
Speaker 1: more hours a day. I just like walking around getting food.
5:52
Speaker 1: So that's what I was doing all the time in Median.
5:56
Speaker 1: And oh, I should mention I ripped my pocket that
6:00
Speaker 1: I put my I have that one big back pocket
6:04
Speaker 1: that I've sewn onto my jacket so that I can
6:07
Speaker 1: put my luggage in there, so I don't have to
6:09
Speaker 1: buy carry on or check the luggage. I can just
6:13
Speaker 1: put the extra stuff into my jacket and then take
6:17
Speaker 1: it on. But I ripped the pocket, my back pocket
6:19
Speaker 1: that I sewed on there, so I'm gonna have to
6:21
Speaker 1: sew on a new one. And there was fabric I
6:24
Speaker 1: saw yesterday and I was staring at it. I was like, huh,
6:27
Speaker 1: why do I want that fabric? And I couldn't remember.
6:30
Speaker 1: And then I got home and I was like, ah,
6:32
Speaker 1: I was going to repair the pocket, but whatever, I'll
6:36
Speaker 1: figure it out. I just have to find like a
6:39
Speaker 1: discarded umbrella or which I think I actually saw yesterday. Also, geez,
6:44
Speaker 1: I got to pay attention anyway. I got to Peru
6:49
Speaker 1: without paying for luggage because of my jacket luggage. And yeah,
6:54
Speaker 1: I was worried about altitude sickness when I landed because
6:56
Speaker 1: I also had a seven hour layover in Lima. So
7:00
Speaker 1: I was flying for six hours. That's not right, is
7:05
Speaker 1: it three hours? I was flying for three and a
7:06
Speaker 1: half hours from Medie in Colombia, which is fifty six
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Speaker 1: hundred feet down to Lima, which is basically zero feet
7:13
Speaker 1: it's right at sea level, and then staying there for
7:17
Speaker 1: seven hours for my layover, and then one and a
7:19
Speaker 1: half hours, and then I was in Cusco, Peru, which
7:24
Speaker 1: is eleven two hundred feet, So fifty six hundred is
7:27
Speaker 1: already pretty high. Some people get altitude sickness there, but
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Speaker 1: eleven thousand's pretty much everybody apparently is at high risk
7:35
Speaker 1: for altitude sickness. So when I landed. I was like
7:40
Speaker 1: looking around, like, am I okay, this thing's okay? But
7:44
Speaker 1: I don't know. I felt fine, So my main concern
7:48
Speaker 1: became being getting data on my phone, and at least
7:52
Speaker 1: in Lima, the data scene is freaking crazy. They don't
7:56
Speaker 1: have any kiosks for the company's Clauo, Betel and Tel
8:01
Speaker 1: like the local companies. They only have I think a
8:05
Speaker 1: government sponsored or some centrally located business telecommunications business called Perusim,
8:15
Speaker 1: and they wanted I think it was ninety was the
8:19
Speaker 1: cheapest ninety soles, so like twenty five dollars for one
8:25
Speaker 1: gigabyte for seven days. It was like some ridiculous thing.
8:29
Speaker 1: And then if you wanted anything resembling normal for a month,
8:33
Speaker 1: it was one hundred and fifty solas, so almost fifty
8:36
Speaker 1: dollars for it's just like ten gigabytes for thirty days.
8:41
Speaker 1: It was just so much money. I couldn't believe it.
8:44
Speaker 1: The most expensive one was sixty five dollars. Us I
8:48
Speaker 1: was like, something's wrong. So I just didn't get the
8:50
Speaker 1: Perusim at the airport, even though in a lot of
8:52
Speaker 1: countries that's become just as easy and cheap to get
8:57
Speaker 1: as if you go into town, but something that seemed wrong,
9:01
Speaker 1: that seemed like too much. So I hung out in
9:05
Speaker 1: the airport for a little while because I was still
9:07
Speaker 1: really early six point thirty. I told my Airbnb that
9:11
Speaker 1: I was going to check in closer to eleven am.
9:16
Speaker 1: And so first I just looked like where do I go?
9:20
Speaker 1: And I have my offline maps and my Airbnb location
9:24
Speaker 1: tagged on that before I came over, and I was
9:27
Speaker 1: pretty close. I was like a ninety minute walk away
9:30
Speaker 1: if that, from the front exit of the airport, and
9:36
Speaker 1: it was so early, and it was still cool outside,
9:39
Speaker 1: like it was not too hot, and the sun wasn't
9:43
Speaker 1: the sun didn't even feel too bad, and of course
9:46
Speaker 1: I have my what do you call it a bucket hat.
9:49
Speaker 1: So I decided to just go out walking. But for
9:52
Speaker 1: some reason, I was really concerned about data, like I
9:55
Speaker 1: really wanted to get my phone card, and so I
9:59
Speaker 1: picked up a tourist map from the map kiosk like
10:04
Speaker 1: free maps at the airport, and she told me where
10:07
Speaker 1: I could get the Chloro information, like the main telecom
10:11
Speaker 1: companies their main centers that I could go to. But
10:15
Speaker 1: all of those telecom companies were in the opposite direction
10:19
Speaker 1: of where I was going, and there wasn't much on Google,
10:22
Speaker 1: and there wasn't much on my offline maps. There were
10:25
Speaker 1: a couple that were closer on my offline maps, so
10:27
Speaker 1: I decided to try and go to those. But as
10:29
Speaker 1: soon as I left the airport, literally across the street,
10:33
Speaker 1: there was an authorized reseller of simcards and they I
10:39
Speaker 1: was like, oh, great, because that was one of the
10:41
Speaker 1: actual companies. I could probably get a better deal there.
10:44
Speaker 1: And there was a lady selling breakfast pastries and whatever
10:47
Speaker 1: outside and she said they all showed up at seven am.
10:51
Speaker 1: So I waited around for twenty minutes because it was
10:53
Speaker 1: like six fifty six or something, and she says, they're
10:56
Speaker 1: usually open at seven, but I waited for twenty minutes
10:59
Speaker 1: and nobody showed up. And I was kind of antsy
11:01
Speaker 1: because the air was so clear and crisp, and you
11:07
Speaker 1: could breathe in the elevation. I could breathe in the
11:10
Speaker 1: elevation like I don't know. It was very interesting. It
11:16
Speaker 1: felt exotic, maybe because of the less oxygen in the air,
11:20
Speaker 1: but it just felt like a different new location, the
11:23
Speaker 1: same way that when I got to a new location
11:25
Speaker 1: when I first started traveling, I was like, oh, now,
11:28
Speaker 1: whereas a lot of these places like medi Ian or Panama,
11:33
Speaker 1: they feel like cities. This just feel Cousco, feels like
11:38
Speaker 1: a town rather than just another Western city. This feels
11:43
Speaker 1: like a Peruvian locale. But anyway, I talked to that
11:48
Speaker 1: lady a little bit. Oh, and that's been really cool.
11:50
Speaker 1: I can speak better Spanish now. I started studying using
11:54
Speaker 1: a new app called Tobo, which I'm not sure how
11:58
Speaker 1: AI supplemented it is, but it feels pretty practical and
12:03
Speaker 1: there are four very simple games to practice vocabulary and
12:07
Speaker 1: some phrases. So I'm enjoying using it more than like
12:13
Speaker 1: I liked du Lingo before and then it went completely
12:16
Speaker 1: AI and seemed totally useless for me. But Tobos looks
12:21
Speaker 1: to be filling in that niche and just practicing even
12:24
Speaker 1: if I'm not learning all the new words or whatever.
12:26
Speaker 1: Even if I just practice when I talk to people,
12:29
Speaker 1: it's better I can understand them better and they can
12:32
Speaker 1: understand me better. So it wasn't so cold outside. Oh.
12:36
Speaker 1: I didn't get the chlorosimcard because they didn't open after
12:38
Speaker 1: twenty minutes, and I just decided to start walking to
12:42
Speaker 1: the Airbnb, and then I used one of those spots
12:46
Speaker 1: on my offline maps. There looked like another Kloro store,
12:51
Speaker 1: and I started walking to there also, which wasn't in
12:53
Speaker 1: the same direction, but it was still only seven twenty
12:56
Speaker 1: am or something, and I wasn't checking in until eleven am,
13:01
Speaker 1: so I just started walking because again, it felt so new.
13:04
Speaker 1: It just felt like a fun town to walk around.
13:07
Speaker 1: And I didn't like the people do beep more here
13:12
Speaker 1: than in other countries, like in Media and nobody beeped.
13:16
Speaker 1: And then in Cousco it seems like a lot of
13:18
Speaker 1: people honk their horns and beat their car horns. But
13:21
Speaker 1: I have my earplugs and my podcasts, so I just
13:25
Speaker 1: listened to podcasts and walked around. And immediately there were
13:28
Speaker 1: like four more stores, and I asked them all for
13:32
Speaker 1: telecom stuff, and those ones didn't have SIM cards, and
13:36
Speaker 1: it was still too early, so most of them weren't open,
13:39
Speaker 1: but I just kept walking around. By eight am, a
13:41
Speaker 1: bunch of places were open that had SIM cards to
13:45
Speaker 1: sell for normal prices, for like a dollar for the
13:48
Speaker 1: SIM card and then ten bucks a month or whatever.
13:51
Speaker 1: And I kept walking around. It's like, well, okay, well
13:54
Speaker 1: this is great, and I still don't know why I
13:57
Speaker 1: was so worried about data, but for some reason, just
14:00
Speaker 1: this time, when I land in Cusco's like I need
14:03
Speaker 1: to make sure I'm connected. So I decided, even though
14:06
Speaker 1: there were smaller companies, the one I had used in
14:08
Speaker 1: Guatemala that was so good, and I think even in
14:10
Speaker 1: Panama or another country was Chloro. And so I figured,
14:15
Speaker 1: there's a mall that's an hour and a half away,
14:19
Speaker 1: but it's still really early. I'll just walk up there
14:22
Speaker 1: for an hour and a half, get it from the
14:24
Speaker 1: official Chloro center in a mall, and then by the
14:29
Speaker 1: time I get up there, they'll be open. I can
14:31
Speaker 1: get my card, and then I'll take me another hour
14:34
Speaker 1: and a half to get to my Airbnb and then yeah,
14:39
Speaker 1: and then I'll be checked in. I'll have my data
14:41
Speaker 1: and everything. And then I realized it had been like
14:45
Speaker 1: an hour plus already of walking around with my rucksack
14:48
Speaker 1: on all the weight, and I felt totally fine. There
14:53
Speaker 1: was no indication of altitude sickness at all. I felt okay.
14:58
Speaker 1: So I started ambling my way toward this mall, the
15:02
Speaker 1: rail plaza, and I went down a side street because
15:07
Speaker 1: it seemed nicer, less traffic, and it was. It was
15:10
Speaker 1: a good street, and there were a bunch of places
15:13
Speaker 1: advertising SIM cards, but it was still only eight thirty
15:17
Speaker 1: and they all opened at nine. But I found one
15:20
Speaker 1: old lady who had just opened her shop and I
15:23
Speaker 1: asked her if I could buy a SIM card. She's like, oh, yeah,
15:26
Speaker 1: of course, and she gave me betel and how much
15:31
Speaker 1: and she was like, ninety, which is a lot still
15:35
Speaker 1: for the relative wealth of the country, like most countries
15:41
Speaker 1: that don't have that much money, it's not going to
15:44
Speaker 1: be twenty five dollars for a month for a SIM card.
15:48
Speaker 1: But that was okay to me. And I liked this
15:51
Speaker 1: old lady and she was she gave me interesting information,
15:56
Speaker 1: was very helpful when I asked her when things opened,
15:59
Speaker 1: and she told me like, well, I don't have Klaro.
16:01
Speaker 1: Klaro's right down the street, though, if you just wait
16:03
Speaker 1: until nine, they'll be open. But I was already in
16:06
Speaker 1: my hiking mode and I just wanted to keep backpacking
16:08
Speaker 1: around the city. I was like, okay, okay, thank you
16:12
Speaker 1: very much, because ninety was still a little high, and
16:17
Speaker 1: I was already pretty close to like the main tourist street,
16:21
Speaker 1: and I had to exchange money. Also, because I had
16:24
Speaker 1: all my Colombian pesos and I need to transfer everything
16:28
Speaker 1: to Soles. So I thanked her very much and kept walking,
16:33
Speaker 1: and I was still like, wow, ninety and she told
16:35
Speaker 1: me too, like everywhere is ninety solace per month. Everything's
16:38
Speaker 1: going to be twenty five to thirty US dollars per
16:41
Speaker 1: month for like ten gigabytes of data, and that's much
16:45
Speaker 1: more expensive than most countries. But Peru, I noticed, like
16:50
Speaker 1: their tourist tickets, everything tourist related has a huge tax
16:56
Speaker 1: on it. So I just figured, I guess everything Peru
17:00
Speaker 1: is just more expensive that way. So I kept walking
17:03
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes and I came across the like I said,
17:08
Speaker 1: that main tourist drag of anid Al Soul sun Avenue,
17:12
Speaker 1: and it was really cool. They have a bunch of
17:15
Speaker 1: parks and they have that huge sun statue that the
17:21
Speaker 1: inc and calendars are known for. I looked it up
17:25
Speaker 1: the Indi Juatana. It was in my offline maps thingy.
17:29
Speaker 1: But they have one of those large sun reliefs on
17:33
Speaker 1: a waterfall, like an artificial waterfall, in the middle of
17:37
Speaker 1: this small park on that main street. And then there's
17:40
Speaker 1: even a little stone footbridge that goes behind the waterfall.
17:44
Speaker 1: So that was really cool. I didn't realize there would
17:47
Speaker 1: be so much water in this eleven two hundred elevation
17:53
Speaker 1: dry already country, but there were a lot of fountains
17:57
Speaker 1: and a lot of little ponds and stuff in the city.
18:01
Speaker 1: So maybe that's where all this extra tourist taxes are
18:05
Speaker 1: going to make the city nice. But I was pretty
18:08
Speaker 1: excited to get there because I could change my money,
18:14
Speaker 1: which I did. I went inside the first currency exchange
18:18
Speaker 1: place I saw, and the currency exchange rates also seemed crazy,
18:23
Speaker 1: like really bad in the airport, so I didn't get
18:27
Speaker 1: them there, and on this main street immediately it was
18:31
Speaker 1: thirty percent better rate. So I basically got thirty percent
18:34
Speaker 1: free money from this in town currency exchange. And later
18:40
Speaker 1: on I looked at other places and they were all
18:43
Speaker 1: just as good, or at least not as bad as
18:45
Speaker 1: the airport. I guess I should say, yeah, so I
18:48
Speaker 1: got a thirty percent better exchange rate just by not
18:51
Speaker 1: changing my money at the airport and going into town
18:53
Speaker 1: to change my money. And that's been on my mind
18:56
Speaker 1: ever since Laos, where I made the huge mistake of
18:58
Speaker 1: changing my money at the airport, even though my friend
19:02
Speaker 1: was like, no, no, trust me, just go to the supermarket.
19:04
Speaker 1: It's a way better rate. And then I went to
19:07
Speaker 1: the supermarket and it was I think it was also
19:10
Speaker 1: like maybe not thirty percent, but it was a lot
19:13
Speaker 1: more like I lost twenty percent of my exchange by
19:19
Speaker 1: doing it in the airport rather than exchanging in town,
19:22
Speaker 1: which I usually do. But I think I've just been
19:24
Speaker 1: trying to make things more convenient for myself, and I
19:28
Speaker 1: don't think I should make things that convenient because I
19:31
Speaker 1: like walking around towns. Anyway, I'm going to explore the
19:33
Speaker 1: first couple days. There's always currency exchange places. It just
19:38
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense to spend so much more money at
19:41
Speaker 1: the airport when all the in town places are offer
19:47
Speaker 1: a better rate and offer better goods and services, which
19:52
Speaker 1: brings me to Klaro and the data plan. So I
19:57
Speaker 1: stopped into a convenience store first after I exchanged my money,
20:02
Speaker 1: and because that convenience store accepted cards, and I got
20:06
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of stuff. I got outpack a jerky,
20:08
Speaker 1: and I got coca candy and drinks, and I tried
20:12
Speaker 1: a bunch of different chocolates, got a couple of potato chips,
20:16
Speaker 1: and a few beers. Because I was happy to be
20:19
Speaker 1: in Cusco, and now I had been backpacking for two
20:22
Speaker 1: hours and I had no indication of altitude sickness. I
20:24
Speaker 1: felt just the same as every other day where I
20:27
Speaker 1: backpacked around a new city. And there were a whole
20:30
Speaker 1: bunch of ink and beers to try. That's the other thing.
20:32
Speaker 1: There's three breweries here that I know of so far,
20:36
Speaker 1: justin Cusco, and I can go walk over and visit them,
20:40
Speaker 1: which I'm probably going to do at some point. But
20:42
Speaker 1: there are very local crafted beers here and I was
20:47
Speaker 1: interested in trying them. So I got a few in
20:49
Speaker 1: this convenience store with the alpaca jerky, and that was good.
20:52
Speaker 1: I asked the guy at the currency exchanged. Oh, no,
20:55
Speaker 1: it was at the convenience store where I could find
20:58
Speaker 1: a chloro store, and he said right down that it's
21:00
Speaker 1: right at the end of the street and they don't
21:03
Speaker 1: open until ten. So now it was past nine, but
21:06
Speaker 1: I don't want to wait until ten, so I just
21:08
Speaker 1: walked up the street and a different company, Betel, was open,
21:12
Speaker 1: and I walked into Betel and it was one of
21:14
Speaker 1: the official stores, because all their official stores are on
21:17
Speaker 1: that Avenidel Soul, and I just told the girl, hey,
21:21
Speaker 1: I want to get a SIM card and plan for
21:24
Speaker 1: a month, and she handed me the paper that had
21:26
Speaker 1: all the plans and right there, first option was forty sols.
21:32
Speaker 1: So like ten dollars, includes the new simcard, includes the setup,
21:37
Speaker 1: they'll do it there for you in the store, and
21:39
Speaker 1: includes thirty gigabytes for thirty days. So even that old
21:44
Speaker 1: lady had quoted me more than double that price, and
21:48
Speaker 1: the airport had quoted me four times that price. So
21:51
Speaker 1: if you go to Cusco, go to one of the
21:53
Speaker 1: local shops for your simcard and data. So I just
21:56
Speaker 1: made sure first of all, like that's what it is,
21:58
Speaker 1: forty sols to she was like yep, easy, And I
22:01
Speaker 1: told her how much the airport was charging these days
22:04
Speaker 1: in Lima and she was like what So I got
22:09
Speaker 1: it right there because yeah, ten bucks. And the charge
22:13
Speaker 1: on my no fee international credit card was exactly It
22:17
Speaker 1: was like ten oh two or something. And then I
22:20
Speaker 1: had my month long thirty gigabytes card. It took. It
22:25
Speaker 1: was so easy. They opened it, popped it in and
22:28
Speaker 1: then it worked. I think she did have to look
22:31
Speaker 1: at my ID to write down my name for registration, maybe,
22:35
Speaker 1: but it really took no time at all. And then
22:39
Speaker 1: after I had it, I was like, great, that was
22:42
Speaker 1: the only thing I was worried about for no reason
22:45
Speaker 1: that I could think of. Again, I don't know why
22:47
Speaker 1: I was so concerned about getting that data, but then
22:51
Speaker 1: I got it, so I was very happy. So Inkin
22:54
Speaker 1: warriors and mountain people chewed coca leaves traditionally because the
22:59
Speaker 1: uh cocaine inside the coca gave them energy and reduced
23:05
Speaker 1: altitude sickness. And in Peru and Cusco they have tons
23:09
Speaker 1: of like coca teas and Coca candies with a little
23:14
Speaker 1: bit of coca inside, and people say, I haven't looked
23:18
Speaker 1: into it too much, but people say that the it
23:21
Speaker 1: is real coca in there, that cocaine is derived from,
23:23
Speaker 1: So you'll fail drug tests if you take that tea
23:26
Speaker 1: in candy. Luckily, I don't have to worry about that.
23:30
Speaker 1: And I ate a bunch of that candy and drank
23:32
Speaker 1: a bunch of that tea, which the candy does remind
23:36
Speaker 1: me of cocaine a little bit. There's like a it's
23:40
Speaker 1: like an earthy cocaine taste. But I don't know. I
23:44
Speaker 1: don't know if I would place that if I didn't
23:47
Speaker 1: know it was coca, Like I don't know if I
23:49
Speaker 1: would have. It tastes more like tea to me than
23:53
Speaker 1: like cocaine, specifically that taste you in the back of
23:57
Speaker 1: your throat after doing cocaine, which I did a couple times,
24:00
Speaker 1: not a huge fan of by the way, but I
24:03
Speaker 1: had that little taste when I ate this coca candy.
24:09
Speaker 1: But again I'm not It tasted probably more just like
24:12
Speaker 1: regular tea leaves than like cocaine at all. And I
24:17
Speaker 1: didn't try either of the candy or the tea until
24:22
Speaker 1: the next day because I wanted to see if I
24:25
Speaker 1: got any symptoms of altitude sickness. But I never did,
24:28
Speaker 1: and I ended up backpacking through Cusco for a long time,
24:34
Speaker 1: for six hours in total, because by the time I
24:39
Speaker 1: got my new SIM card it was like ten maybe,
24:44
Speaker 1: And so I got my I had my alpackag jerky
24:46
Speaker 1: and my chips and my beer from that convenience store,
24:49
Speaker 1: and I had my card. So I was like, Okay,
24:51
Speaker 1: now I'm set up for the month because my apartment's
24:54
Speaker 1: just waiting for me. So I walked up the street
24:56
Speaker 1: and just looked around, and there are some great views
25:00
Speaker 1: from the center of town. I can see why that's
25:02
Speaker 1: the most popular street. The mountains around Cusco are very nice.
25:07
Speaker 1: They're not super lush, they're kind of scrubby, but they're
25:11
Speaker 1: very pretty. And they just have this again local they
25:16
Speaker 1: have a reel. They feel like real mountains. I don't
25:21
Speaker 1: know how to explain this well enough. They feel like
25:24
Speaker 1: they're scraping the top of the world, and so all
25:28
Speaker 1: the sheen of modern civilization it hasn't gotten into them yet.
25:34
Speaker 1: The mountains still feel relatively untouched, even though there are
25:39
Speaker 1: roads and paths and stuff that go up there. But
25:41
Speaker 1: they just feel so rustic and real, these Cusco mountains,
25:46
Speaker 1: and I like them. And I'll get to that soon enough,
25:49
Speaker 1: I'm sure. But anyway, I was walking up the road,
25:53
Speaker 1: marveling at the mountains and then also marveling at the
25:55
Speaker 1: green parks in the middle of what I assumed would
25:59
Speaker 1: be very desolate, dry, undeveloped town, but at least that
26:07
Speaker 1: popular touristy spot. There was tons of green parks and
26:10
Speaker 1: a lot of benches to sit on and trees and
26:12
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. And I just sat down
26:15
Speaker 1: on a brick wall or a stone wall under a
26:20
Speaker 1: tree and popped open a beer. And I don't even
26:24
Speaker 1: know if that's legal, but it seems like all these
26:26
Speaker 1: countries are just like, yeah, as long as you're cool
26:30
Speaker 1: about it, it's fine. So I opened the beer and
26:33
Speaker 1: I opened the alpacka jerky, and then I was like whoa,
26:36
Speaker 1: because the alpacka jerkey was so good and it was
26:41
Speaker 1: just very simple. I after it tasted so good, I
26:44
Speaker 1: looked at the back and it was like four ingredients.
26:47
Speaker 1: It was oltpack of meat, soy sauce. I don't even
26:54
Speaker 1: know if there was vinegar in it, and salt. It
26:56
Speaker 1: was like four things which I make my own jerky,
27:00
Speaker 1: and I make it very simply as well. I use
27:03
Speaker 1: the meat, soy sauce and brown sugar and that's it.
27:09
Speaker 1: And this alpaca jerky tasted like my jerky that I
27:13
Speaker 1: like to make. The soy sauce I feel like it
27:16
Speaker 1: was strong, so I didn't taste as much of the alpaca,
27:19
Speaker 1: but it wasn't too strong, so it was just like
27:22
Speaker 1: soy sauce. It just tasted like great jerky and it
27:26
Speaker 1: was absolutely delicious. And if there was a bigger bag,
27:29
Speaker 1: I would have bought a bigger bag of the alpaca jerky.
27:32
Speaker 1: And man, from that first bite, I was just kind
27:34
Speaker 1: of just kind of loving life, just chilling out Cusco Peru,
27:38
Speaker 1: high altitude, perfectly healthy, enjoying this beer. Actually, the first
27:43
Speaker 1: beer I had was the Dorada negra, which is like
27:46
Speaker 1: the black beer of a local company, Kuskenya, and it
27:50
Speaker 1: was Cuskenya Negra. The other ones are Dorara and Triga,
27:55
Speaker 1: which is a golden and then a wheat, and then
27:57
Speaker 1: the black one that I had, and that one was
28:00
Speaker 1: not that good, but I drank it. And I also
28:04
Speaker 1: got the Dorata, which just the regular logger, and that
28:06
Speaker 1: was pretty tasty. All the Cousco beers are pretty good.
28:10
Speaker 1: And I was just trying all my snacks, the potato
28:13
Speaker 1: chips and jerky and whatever else, and I looked over
28:16
Speaker 1: and there was this old grandma making something for this
28:22
Speaker 1: younger pretty girl, and it looked like one of those
28:26
Speaker 1: obvious breakfast foods, like there's someone on the side of
28:28
Speaker 1: the road, they make the breakfast. And I noticed that
28:31
Speaker 1: she was making avocado, and then there was onions and tomato,
28:35
Speaker 1: and I was like what, And I got up and
28:39
Speaker 1: walked over to look at him, and the girl looked
28:42
Speaker 1: up at me, and the grandma said hello, and I
28:45
Speaker 1: was like, hey, what is this? And I started talking
28:49
Speaker 1: in Spanish, and then the girl spoke really good English
28:52
Speaker 1: and just explained to me that this is poncon agocat.
28:55
Speaker 1: So it's just a little muffin bread cut in half,
29:01
Speaker 1: kind of English muffin consistency, maybe a little softer or fluffier,
29:06
Speaker 1: and then avocado. So the lady takes out and avocado
29:10
Speaker 1: cuts in half, takes out half the avocado, puts in
29:13
Speaker 1: diced onion, diced tomato, smashes it all up so you
29:16
Speaker 1: get a nice little paste guacamole basically. Then she puts
29:20
Speaker 1: on spices, a little bit of cheese, and any sauce
29:23
Speaker 1: you want, and pintconaguo kat and it's two and a
29:27
Speaker 1: half sola, so it's like seventy five cents or whatever.
29:30
Speaker 1: But man, it looked so good, the bread, the avocado,
29:33
Speaker 1: everything looked super fresh. And I was like, yep, give
29:36
Speaker 1: me one of those that looks way too good not
29:38
Speaker 1: to eat right now. And I'm just hanging out and
29:41
Speaker 1: the girl talked to me and asked me what I
29:44
Speaker 1: was doing, and I'm a tourist, and her name was Rue,
29:46
Speaker 1: and we talked and then she went on her way
29:49
Speaker 1: to her job or whatever, and I got that pancona
29:52
Speaker 1: aguo kata, and it was the best sandwich I've had
29:57
Speaker 1: in so long. It was absolutely delicious. It was it
30:02
Speaker 1: was as fresh as it looked like. It was as
30:04
Speaker 1: fresh as I imagine. Everything was incredibly fresh, Like the
30:08
Speaker 1: green of the avocado was crazy when she was mixing
30:11
Speaker 1: it up, and then after she and then she puts
30:13
Speaker 1: in the onions and tomatoes after and such a simple
30:19
Speaker 1: meal too, and of course very healthy, m delicious, delicious breakfast.
30:24
Speaker 1: I haven't gotten another one yet because I'm not usually out,
30:27
Speaker 1: you know, I'm usually sleeping really late. I don't get
30:30
Speaker 1: out in the morning a lot. But I got every
30:34
Speaker 1: street food that looked good while I walked. But that
30:37
Speaker 1: first one, I had the first bite of ponkwona ago kata,
30:41
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I'm gonna like it here,
30:44
Speaker 1: Like if this is is this is the traditional style
30:47
Speaker 1: of food that everybody's just like, yeah, that's what we hear.
30:50
Speaker 1: We delicious, super fresh food. And I will say I
30:54
Speaker 1: do like that about high elevation places. Also high elevation,
30:58
Speaker 1: low humidity food last a lot longer and it just
31:01
Speaker 1: tastes crisper, like even my potato chips when I get
31:04
Speaker 1: potato chips, those will stay fresh for days, even if
31:08
Speaker 1: they're not too securely closed up and air tight. Food
31:13
Speaker 1: just seems to stay fresh longer at these higher elevations.
31:17
Speaker 1: But that sandwich was so good, and I was like,
31:20
Speaker 1: this is what I'm doing. And I went back and
31:22
Speaker 1: sat down under my tree, and by halfway through the sandwich,
31:27
Speaker 1: which isn't huge, maybe the size of my hand, I
31:30
Speaker 1: was halfway done, and I was like, I should get
31:32
Speaker 1: another one, because also it was seventy cents, so why not.
31:35
Speaker 1: But I looked over and the lady had everything was
31:40
Speaker 1: in a shawl, and so the bucket with avocado and
31:45
Speaker 1: then onions and everything. So she just put a lid
31:47
Speaker 1: on top of everything, like a small bucket that held
31:50
Speaker 1: everything or two buckets, and then whipped that up in
31:54
Speaker 1: her shawl, tied it around her and started walking up
31:57
Speaker 1: the road. So just I guess she goes up and
31:59
Speaker 1: down the road and yeah, makes a sandwich here and there,
32:04
Speaker 1: And she was already a few feet away walking up
32:07
Speaker 1: the road, and I still had half a sandwich. I
32:09
Speaker 1: was like, oh, whatever, one's enough, and I'll probably see
32:12
Speaker 1: someone else. And I finished my sandwich and a couple
32:16
Speaker 1: of cops went by and I was drinking my beer
32:18
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is probably fun. They didn't
32:21
Speaker 1: say anything, well, they didn't say anything about the beer,
32:24
Speaker 1: but they were talking about the tree and the guy
32:27
Speaker 1: was saying something about a fruit or something, and he
32:29
Speaker 1: picked out a couple of these berries from the tree
32:32
Speaker 1: I was sitting under, and I was curious, so I
32:36
Speaker 1: asked him, sorry, what kind of fruit is that. He said,
32:39
Speaker 1: it's capuli, so it'll be ready in about two months.
32:41
Speaker 1: They're not quite there yet, but in two months, all
32:44
Speaker 1: of these kapuli you can eat them. I was like, oh, cool,
32:47
Speaker 1: thanks man. And he was like, you like cusco and
32:51
Speaker 1: you just saw the regular questions and I was like, yep,
32:54
Speaker 1: you like bunconaguacat. Oh, it's great, it's great, sandwich, good good. Oh.
32:59
Speaker 1: And there's this older lady sitting next to me. After
33:02
Speaker 1: I don't know, five or ten minutes, she sat down
33:05
Speaker 1: on the wall next to me, the retaining wall of
33:07
Speaker 1: the park, and she kept staring at this map and
33:12
Speaker 1: she looked kind of confused. But I don't know, there's
33:18
Speaker 1: something where someone needs help, and then I will offer
33:22
Speaker 1: to help them, but unless they sometimes they just it
33:25
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like they need help, so I won't because too,
33:30
Speaker 1: I don't like too much help. If someone's like, no, no,
33:32
Speaker 1: let me take you to that restaurant or take you
33:35
Speaker 1: to that supermar I can show you exactly what like no, no, no,
33:38
Speaker 1: I don't like that much as a traveler. Anyway, this
33:40
Speaker 1: lady didn't seem like she needed help. She just looked
33:43
Speaker 1: sort of confused. But she was in the main tourist center,
33:46
Speaker 1: so she certainly wasn't lost. And she was a white
33:49
Speaker 1: lady with curly hair, so I assumed, because she was
33:52
Speaker 1: also wearing like big hiking boots and like pant like
33:57
Speaker 1: convertible pants, and just all the touristy stuff from the States,
34:01
Speaker 1: so I assumed that she was American. She was just
34:04
Speaker 1: confused because all of these words are different, which is
34:07
Speaker 1: how most tourists feel when they get to a new place.
34:11
Speaker 1: And I was still like, oh, maybe you should just
34:13
Speaker 1: check if she's okay. And then that same police officer
34:17
Speaker 1: said something to her and she spoke back fluent Spanish,
34:21
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, okay, I'm glad I didn't
34:24
Speaker 1: try to help, because I would have sounded like an idiot.
34:26
Speaker 1: She's fine if she speaks fluent Spanish, and she just
34:29
Speaker 1: asked the guy, like, where where's this museum, and the
34:33
Speaker 1: cop was like right around the corner over there, So
34:35
Speaker 1: she was just trying to figure out when the museum
34:38
Speaker 1: was open. Things were fine, no one needed my help.
34:42
Speaker 1: So I finished my ale package jerky that I had
34:44
Speaker 1: taken to eat just a little bit every minute so
34:47
Speaker 1: I could really stretch it out, and I finished my
34:49
Speaker 1: pond con aguacate, which was also very delicious, and I
34:53
Speaker 1: could either go northeast toward a few spots I had
34:58
Speaker 1: marked on my offline maps. But most of the museums
35:01
Speaker 1: here are like history museums, and I read a bunch
35:05
Speaker 1: of I read a lot of the history on my
35:09
Speaker 1: Weaki voyage like travel article things, so I'm not crazy
35:15
Speaker 1: about going to a lot of museums. I'm trying to
35:23
Speaker 1: not feel guilty about saying that I don't want to
35:25
Speaker 1: go to a lot of the museums in Cousco. But
35:28
Speaker 1: I doubt they had recreations of a lot of ink
35:31
Speaker 1: and tools in a huge glass display case in the airport,
35:35
Speaker 1: and I was like, awesome, that's perfect. That's enough for
35:40
Speaker 1: me of prehistory, inc and artifacts, Like when I landed
35:44
Speaker 1: in Fairbanks, Alaska, and they have the huge polar bears,
35:47
Speaker 1: taxidermid polar bears. I'm like, great, I don't have to
35:50
Speaker 1: go to the museum showing me taxidrmaid polar bears. Now
35:54
Speaker 1: I'll go to modern art museums. I am really curious
35:56
Speaker 1: about how art is developing in a country because it
35:59
Speaker 1: is different everywhere. But a lot of these are this
36:03
Speaker 1: is what the ink and wall looks like. And then
36:06
Speaker 1: but if you walk to Plazta Armas, there's the ink
36:08
Speaker 1: and wall and these are ink and artifacts. But I
36:11
Speaker 1: saw those in the airport in that cool display. So
36:14
Speaker 1: rather than going to the museums, I decided to meander
36:20
Speaker 1: toward my airbnb and just walk slowly. And since I
36:24
Speaker 1: got the panconaguoct, I was like, I should get more
36:29
Speaker 1: local foods because I'm not usually up during the morning
36:33
Speaker 1: or lunchtime. There's going to be a bunch of interesting
36:36
Speaker 1: snacks that I don't usually get. I did stop at
36:38
Speaker 1: the convenience store and got a couple more beers. I
36:41
Speaker 1: think for my walk, it was going to take I
36:44
Speaker 1: don't know, ninety minutes or something to get to the airbnb.
36:48
Speaker 1: I again chose a place kind of outside of the
36:50
Speaker 1: center of the city, pretty far outside the center of
36:53
Speaker 1: the city. So I started my walk. Oh, right before
36:56
Speaker 1: I left that wall, there's like this huge group of
37:00
Speaker 1: of high school students all walking down the street. I
37:04
Speaker 1: think they were high school students, And I noticed that
37:08
Speaker 1: a lot of them were wearing bucket hats like mine,
37:12
Speaker 1: And that's a pretty good indication of how strong the
37:16
Speaker 1: actual sun is when the locals are wearing sunscreen, which
37:20
Speaker 1: is pretty uncommon in most countries, and it was specifically
37:25
Speaker 1: the lighter skinned locals. So this was they were all
37:28
Speaker 1: kids from one school. Obviously, they're all speaking to each
37:31
Speaker 1: other in Spanish, and I noticed that some of them
37:35
Speaker 1: were wearing bucket hats, maybe five to ten percent of
37:38
Speaker 1: the entire group. Most of them weren't wearing sun protection.
37:42
Speaker 1: But then I noticed that all of the kids wearing
37:44
Speaker 1: bucket hats were significantly lighter skinned than the other locals.
37:49
Speaker 1: So apparently, even even in Peru, even if you grow
37:52
Speaker 1: up here, people are like, yeah, you better have some
37:55
Speaker 1: kind of sun protection. It felt pretty okay in the morning,
38:00
Speaker 1: but as soon as it was hitting like ten thirty eleven,
38:03
Speaker 1: the sun also made itself felt it's no wonder the
38:06
Speaker 1: sun God is so big here, INTI because the glare
38:11
Speaker 1: of the sun is so apparent, it's so powerful here
38:17
Speaker 1: in Cusco. I would be worshiping the sun too if
38:21
Speaker 1: I grew up here. It's a fascinating place. It's a
38:26
Speaker 1: fascinating sunlight here. So I was already pretty interested that
38:30
Speaker 1: even the locals were wearing bucket hats, because, like I said,
38:34
Speaker 1: it is super rare for locals to have a lot
38:36
Speaker 1: of sun protection in most countries. I've been to even
38:39
Speaker 1: tropical places, but the sunlight in Cusco does feel different.
38:45
Speaker 1: And then the last thing I saw before I left,
38:47
Speaker 1: I was sitting finishing like my last beer in the
38:50
Speaker 1: last bite of jerky I had, or whatever it was,
38:52
Speaker 1: and my eyes locked on to this kid wearing a
38:57
Speaker 1: poncho because it was an ol paca themed pancho, so
39:01
Speaker 1: there was two giant ol paca on the front and
39:03
Speaker 1: two on the back, and then the rest of it
39:05
Speaker 1: was in these crazy psychedelic Peruvian colors, which is the
39:09
Speaker 1: color style they have here in Peru, and it was
39:13
Speaker 1: like the coolest poncho I've ever seen. My first thought
39:16
Speaker 1: was like, get up and talk to that kid about
39:17
Speaker 1: that poncho, but my Spanish isn't great, so it would
39:21
Speaker 1: have been a very awkward conversation. And the pancho was
39:26
Speaker 1: so amazing that all of my focus and attention was
39:31
Speaker 1: taken up just by staring at There was so much
39:34
Speaker 1: to see within the poncho that I was just like, whoa,
39:39
Speaker 1: And I was like, that's really cool. Oh, there's varying
39:41
Speaker 1: thickness in the borderline. Oh interesting, oh in the uppecket.
39:44
Speaker 1: Years Like. I was just noticing all this stuff as
39:47
Speaker 1: this kid was walking by, maybe a thirty year old,
39:50
Speaker 1: but the poncho was mesmerizing and I just stared at it.
39:56
Speaker 1: My head oscillated as he walked by, and I was like,
39:59
Speaker 1: I want that poncho so bad. And then he was
40:02
Speaker 1: gone and so I didn't get to talk to him.
40:04
Speaker 1: But that's that is the coolest poncho I've probably ever seen.
40:09
Speaker 1: I went to an alpaca show in Denver and got
40:12
Speaker 1: these great i'l pack of socks, and I do like
40:15
Speaker 1: alpaca socks a lot, and then I had that cool
40:18
Speaker 1: I'll pack a whole hat and I certainly don't have
40:22
Speaker 1: room for a poncho in my luggage at all, but
40:26
Speaker 1: if I was ever going to get a poncho, I
40:29
Speaker 1: would get that poncho exactly when I was staring at
40:35
Speaker 1: it and I was like locked on. My brain was like, yeah,
40:38
Speaker 1: that's that's your poncho. That's basically that's you. And it
40:43
Speaker 1: felt like me. So I started walking away. It was
40:47
Speaker 1: now past ten am, and I had told the people
40:49
Speaker 1: I was going to check in at eleven am, so
40:52
Speaker 1: I sent off a quick message that I would actually
40:54
Speaker 1: probably arrive by one pm because I figured i'd take
40:58
Speaker 1: a couple hours. It would be a long meandering walk eastward,
41:02
Speaker 1: and I was right. It turned out to be a
41:04
Speaker 1: long meandering walk eastward for fun. Because now that I
41:08
Speaker 1: had had the good food and the good beer, and
41:11
Speaker 1: it was such a nice day and the comfortable temperature. Oh.
41:15
Speaker 1: I did make sure I put on sunscreen, and I
41:17
Speaker 1: also put on my son sleeves so that I wouldn't
41:21
Speaker 1: get burned at all, but the temperature is still so
41:24
Speaker 1: low that it was not hot and I wasn't sweating.
41:27
Speaker 1: It was just so comfortable to walk around with my
41:29
Speaker 1: rucksack in this city, and I could keep my eye
41:32
Speaker 1: out for any good breakfast or lunch foods that were
41:35
Speaker 1: going on. So I got that other beer, and then
41:38
Speaker 1: I started heading my way east and I went down
41:42
Speaker 1: the first street, and that same old grandma who sold
41:46
Speaker 1: me the punconago kat who had walked off with her shawl,
41:49
Speaker 1: was down that street sitting next to another old grandma
41:52
Speaker 1: and the two of them were talking, and I was like, oh,
41:55
Speaker 1: odravise kio utra puncon ago Kata, I want another one
41:59
Speaker 1: of those. And I got another one, and she was happy.
42:04
Speaker 1: And I gave her back the two point five soles
42:07
Speaker 1: because I gave her a five, and she gave me
42:09
Speaker 1: two point five back, and I gave her that two
42:10
Speaker 1: point five back. So I get my second sandwich. That
42:14
Speaker 1: sandwich is so good. And I actually saved that second one.
42:18
Speaker 1: I didn't eat it. I figured if I saved it,
42:21
Speaker 1: then the avocado would like melt into the bread more
42:26
Speaker 1: and make the bread more mushy with avocado. And that worked.
42:32
Speaker 1: When I got home, I ate it like a few
42:34
Speaker 1: hours later, and the hole it was a little bit softer.
42:38
Speaker 1: Oh so good. That sandwich is fantastic fresh or after
42:41
Speaker 1: a few hours it's stays great. It's great, it's great.
42:46
Speaker 1: There was a Chinese looking family I saw walking down
42:50
Speaker 1: the street standing in front of a Chinese restaurant. Oh
42:54
Speaker 1: that was interesting. All the Chinese restaurants here are called Chifa,
42:57
Speaker 1: not China, but an F instead of an N. And
43:01
Speaker 1: they looked pretty lost and confused. So I spoke to
43:04
Speaker 1: them in Spanish first. And it was a young guy
43:08
Speaker 1: with his two parents, I think, and the younger guy
43:10
Speaker 1: was like, no, no, Spanish, English please, and so I
43:15
Speaker 1: was like, poudnoa. Can you speak Mandarin and he was
43:19
Speaker 1: like yeah, And so I spoke in Mandarin. But I've
43:23
Speaker 1: been studying Spanish so much lately that my Mandarin I
43:26
Speaker 1: kept breaking it up with Spanish and I was like, oh, geez, okay,
43:29
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just speak English. I've been studying so much
43:32
Speaker 1: Spanish lately that I'm mixing up the words right now.
43:36
Speaker 1: And he pointed down to my beer and he was
43:38
Speaker 1: like that's probably not helping either, and I was like, yeah,
43:41
Speaker 1: that's true, that's probably not helping it. And I just
43:44
Speaker 1: told him they were looking for a Chinese restaurant. They
43:46
Speaker 1: want to go to that one it wasn't open yet,
43:48
Speaker 1: and I told them a couple other ones that I
43:49
Speaker 1: had seen while walking up into the city. And he
43:53
Speaker 1: was actually American from New York, so it was fun.
43:56
Speaker 1: We talked for a little bit, but his parents were
43:59
Speaker 1: just standing by way for him to get back to
44:01
Speaker 1: them and take them to a restaurant, So we said
44:04
Speaker 1: goodbye and I went on my way. I ambled on
44:08
Speaker 1: some more. I tried one of the coca candies, and
44:12
Speaker 1: like I said, the taste was tea ish, with maybe
44:15
Speaker 1: a little Cocaina in there. And the farther away I
44:19
Speaker 1: got from the city center and the airport, the less
44:23
Speaker 1: beeping there was, so there might but just be some hotspots.
44:27
Speaker 1: People do honk here more than medi Ian, But once
44:31
Speaker 1: I was outside of the city center, it didn't seem
44:33
Speaker 1: like a crazy amount of beeping and honking. But you
44:38
Speaker 1: know what else was really nice that because of the
44:41
Speaker 1: high elevation and the cooler temperature, there was a lot
44:43
Speaker 1: more fashion going on than I expected to see. Like
44:48
Speaker 1: I liked seeing all the scars and the ponchos and
44:52
Speaker 1: the multiple layers of sweaters and long sleeve shirts. There
44:57
Speaker 1: was so many more things that I everybody could wear
45:00
Speaker 1: because it was a cooler temperature but not cold, so
45:03
Speaker 1: you didn't need to bundle up really or wear heavy overcoats.
45:07
Speaker 1: You could just wear multiple layers of interesting looking clothing.
45:11
Speaker 1: And in Peru, a lot of the Peruvian colors are psychedelic.
45:15
Speaker 1: They're like bright blue and pink and purple and orange.
45:19
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of really cool dresses and scarves
45:24
Speaker 1: here in shawls and ponchos and hats that's cool too.
45:27
Speaker 1: The traditional Peruvian hat looks like an Indiana Jonesy hat,
45:34
Speaker 1: kind of with a flat top. I don't know how
45:37
Speaker 1: to call it. Yeah, I'm not sure what they're called,
45:39
Speaker 1: and I can't find a good picture or reference right now,
45:43
Speaker 1: But all of the grandmas that are selling food on
45:45
Speaker 1: the street are selling alpaca wool goods on the street.
45:49
Speaker 1: I'll have the same brimmed It's like a short brimmed hat,
45:54
Speaker 1: kind of tall, with a flat top on it, and
45:56
Speaker 1: it looks cool, especially with all their shawls and long sleeves,
46:00
Speaker 1: psychedelic colors and everything just looks cool. And all the
46:04
Speaker 1: Peruvian grandmas have long pigtails, and some of them tied
46:09
Speaker 1: the pigtails together, so instead of two pigtails going down
46:13
Speaker 1: in the back, it's this one circular connected braid because
46:18
Speaker 1: they tie the ends of the braids together around their back.
46:22
Speaker 1: I really liked that. I thought that looked really cool.
46:25
Speaker 1: And then all the younger people are wearing slightly more hip, flowy,
46:29
Speaker 1: voluminous clothing and fashion accessories. So I kept walking down
46:34
Speaker 1: the street and just heading eastward, and I didn't see
46:39
Speaker 1: too many other things. I looked at a couple convenience
46:42
Speaker 1: stores and just looked at the local snacks, and I
46:45
Speaker 1: did come across this lady boiling quail eggs and she
46:50
Speaker 1: puts them in a bag and puts something in the
46:52
Speaker 1: bag and then gave it to someone, and I was like,
46:54
Speaker 1: that looks delicious. So I got a little pouch of
46:58
Speaker 1: the quail eggs, and it turns out what she put in.
47:01
Speaker 1: She asked if I wanted it, and I was like,
47:03
Speaker 1: what is it? And she says, oh, it's from Coco
47:05
Speaker 1: Pito or Coco Quito I think, And I was like, nope,
47:09
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is, so yes, I do
47:10
Speaker 1: want some, please, And she put in this like orange
47:15
Speaker 1: yellow mixed vegetable diced something. I can't I ever know
47:22
Speaker 1: idea what it was. And she put it in there
47:24
Speaker 1: and mix it up and then gave it to me
47:25
Speaker 1: with the toothpick, and it turns out it was a
47:28
Speaker 1: horse Radish sauce, and I love quail eggs already. I
47:33
Speaker 1: think qaile eggs are fantastic. But with this horse radish sauce,
47:38
Speaker 1: it was like the best snack breakfast food I could
47:43
Speaker 1: conceive of. It was delicious. I was sad I only
47:48
Speaker 1: got one pouch and I was gonna get more, but again,
47:51
Speaker 1: these grandmas, they only stay until they like make a
47:53
Speaker 1: sale and then they sling their shawl with everything in
47:56
Speaker 1: over their shoulder and walk away. So I was eating,
47:59
Speaker 1: I was like, man, this is so good. And a
48:01
Speaker 1: guy and his daughter came up to get a little
48:04
Speaker 1: bag of it also, and he spoke fluent English. He was, yeah,
48:09
Speaker 1: very good at English. But he was a local from Cusco,
48:11
Speaker 1: and he asked me what I was doing there, and
48:13
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit, and I told his daughter
48:17
Speaker 1: I liked her hat. It was very cool. She had
48:19
Speaker 1: one of those grandma style hats with the flat top
48:22
Speaker 1: and everything and the little band of psychedelic colors around it,
48:26
Speaker 1: and it was super cool and it was really cute.
48:27
Speaker 1: And she was wearing like a little too two dress
48:30
Speaker 1: and I complimented her fashion sense. And he was wearing
48:33
Speaker 1: like a cool New York cut like sick coat. Also
48:37
Speaker 1: he looked slick. But we talked for her a little bit.
48:40
Speaker 1: I had e and a couple of the eggs, and
48:41
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I gotta get another order of this.
48:44
Speaker 1: And I turned around and that lady had slung on
48:47
Speaker 1: her shawl and I was like whoa, and she was
48:50
Speaker 1: already like a block away. It was so fast, and
48:52
Speaker 1: I was like, I'll just get it next time. It's
48:55
Speaker 1: not I'm not going to run down the street screaming
48:57
Speaker 1: for the egg lady to come back place, although it
49:00
Speaker 1: is a fun mental image, but I said, it was
49:04
Speaker 1: nice to talk to the dad, and then I went
49:07
Speaker 1: on my way. Oh and that was funny though, because
49:10
Speaker 1: the dad gave me the first But what are you
49:12
Speaker 1: doing here? Because I always get my airbnbs or apartments
49:16
Speaker 1: outside of the city, never on the main roads. And
49:20
Speaker 1: I was close. I was like an hour into my
49:22
Speaker 1: walk at this point. I had just been going around.
49:25
Speaker 1: I stopped in one place and got some dried mango
49:28
Speaker 1: and hung out on the side of the road ing
49:30
Speaker 1: the dried mango and tried to gauge like how often
49:34
Speaker 1: I'd be able to use my credit card versus having
49:37
Speaker 1: to get cash because I did have a ton of
49:41
Speaker 1: cash left over from medi Ian, and if I was
49:43
Speaker 1: only going to be in Peru a month, I didn't
49:46
Speaker 1: want to pay ATM fees if I didn't have to,
49:50
Speaker 1: because I knew I would have to use the cash
49:53
Speaker 1: to buy the tourist ticket for all the sites, a
49:56
Speaker 1: lot of unique things about Peru and Cousco in general,
50:00
Speaker 1: or Cusco in Peru in general. But that first day
50:03
Speaker 1: I bought all the snacks with cash because whatever. So
50:07
Speaker 1: between eating all these snacks, I was an hour into
50:09
Speaker 1: my eastward journey. I was maybe half an hour away
50:12
Speaker 1: from the apartment. It was noon thirty at this point,
50:16
Speaker 1: and I let them know i'd be there in half
50:18
Speaker 1: an hour. But because I was so far out of
50:20
Speaker 1: the city center that Dad was like, oh, okay, and
50:24
Speaker 1: you're visiting Cusco, yeah for how long a month or so? Probably?
50:28
Speaker 1: Ah cool? What are you doing here? Though? In this neighborhood,
50:33
Speaker 1: I guess a lot of people are comfortable around other tourists,
50:38
Speaker 1: like it's that first time traveling thing. If you don't
50:42
Speaker 1: travel very often, it seems like well even me, right,
50:44
Speaker 1: I was so worried about getting data for some reason,
50:47
Speaker 1: even though it was absurd how many phone stores there were.
50:51
Speaker 1: They're probably more phone stores than anywhere anything else, any
50:55
Speaker 1: other type of store in the country. Every four stores
50:58
Speaker 1: was another Kloo or Detail or Intel like another phone store.
51:02
Speaker 1: So I had nothing to worry about. But even me
51:04
Speaker 1: having meant to whatever forty countries, I was still like, oh,
51:08
Speaker 1: I have to make sure to get my data, like
51:11
Speaker 1: I'll never be able to find it. For some reason,
51:14
Speaker 1: I just forget how easy it is to find everything
51:17
Speaker 1: in any country, even though I've done it forty times
51:20
Speaker 1: in a row. So yeah, there's that tendency to stick
51:24
Speaker 1: to the middle of the city where all the you know,
51:29
Speaker 1: all the services. Definitely they're even on Google and all
51:32
Speaker 1: these Like I said, I couldn't find anything on Google
51:34
Speaker 1: for the data for phone stores, but the whole east
51:39
Speaker 1: of the city basically has nothing on Google for phone stores.
51:43
Speaker 1: But if you're walking every four stores or another phone store.
51:46
Speaker 1: And when I finally got to my apartment that I
51:50
Speaker 1: was renting, literally across the street was a giant authorized distributor,
51:56
Speaker 1: and then there were two more authorized distributor sections stores
52:01
Speaker 1: on the way to a supermarket that I walked to
52:04
Speaker 1: like almost every day, And I just told the dad
52:07
Speaker 1: I was like, I just like to be outside of
52:09
Speaker 1: the city center, more local culture, and he was like, yeah,
52:13
Speaker 1: it's cool. This is a cool city and it is.
52:17
Speaker 1: I like Cusco, it is a cool city. So after
52:20
Speaker 1: that little interaction, I kept walking and just kept my
52:23
Speaker 1: eye out for any other snacks that I needed to get.
52:27
Speaker 1: But I don't think anything really caught me that first
52:31
Speaker 1: day after that, because I already got two avocado sandwiches,
52:35
Speaker 1: the dryed and mango, like a big bag of that,
52:39
Speaker 1: the alpaca jerkey, those eggs. I had like a whole
52:42
Speaker 1: bunch of snacks. So I kept going and I looked
52:45
Speaker 1: around and it was interesting and as I got further
52:48
Speaker 1: out from the city center, as a parent, like, oh,
52:50
Speaker 1: this is more local economic level, like it's a lot
52:53
Speaker 1: poorer out here, but it's still extremely functional, Like there
52:59
Speaker 1: is public transportation. They are buses everywhere. Oh the bus
53:04
Speaker 1: is right. Those are cool because some of their names
53:07
Speaker 1: are Batman one of instead of like on the F
53:11
Speaker 1: line or the B line. There's a bus company called Batman,
53:15
Speaker 1: so it's the Batman Line, And I don't know why exactly,
53:20
Speaker 1: but some of the buses are Batman. There's one other
53:23
Speaker 1: one that has a funny name, but I can't remember
53:25
Speaker 1: it off the top of my head. But the Batman
53:27
Speaker 1: one's cool because it has the Batman logo and then
53:29
Speaker 1: just as Batman in super bold letters, and then it
53:32
Speaker 1: takes all the tourist scrap. I actually haven't ridden a
53:35
Speaker 1: bus yet. They all look really packed and I've only
53:41
Speaker 1: been exploring my neighborhood so far. But I will have
53:44
Speaker 1: to take one tomorrow because or soon I'm going to
53:48
Speaker 1: go to the Plaza da Armas because it has the
53:50
Speaker 1: twelve sided Incan stone. So Incan's are known for their
53:55
Speaker 1: architecture because they're stone walls and their stone buildings. They
54:02
Speaker 1: use very large stones that fit together perfectly and are
54:06
Speaker 1: extremely stable, like they go through many earthquakes without any trouble.
54:11
Speaker 1: They're not going to fall apart. They're kind of like
54:13
Speaker 1: the Pyramids. They fit so well together. And there's one
54:16
Speaker 1: original stone that's particularly interesting in the Plaza da Armas,
54:21
Speaker 1: which is like the main tourist plaza in Cusco, the
54:25
Speaker 1: twelve sided stone, so it's not just cubes. They cut
54:30
Speaker 1: the stones so they fit exactly wherever they fit, and
54:35
Speaker 1: I'm very interested to go see that. But the Plazida
54:37
Speaker 1: Armas is on the west side of town. I'm on
54:39
Speaker 1: the east side of town, so I'll either have to
54:42
Speaker 1: walk for two and a half hours two hours or
54:45
Speaker 1: take a bus, and I'll probably take a bus. There
54:48
Speaker 1: are a lot of ruins supposedly right around or even
54:51
Speaker 1: in the city though, so I'm going to hike to
54:55
Speaker 1: a couple of those tomorrow first, the ones that are
54:56
Speaker 1: closer to me on foot, and just see what look
55:00
Speaker 1: like first, if they are ruins, if they are like
55:03
Speaker 1: original stonework, or I don't know what they are. There's
55:07
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of so called ruins or archaeological sites
55:11
Speaker 1: within city limits on my offline maps, and so I'll
55:15
Speaker 1: probably explore that tomorrow. Maybe I will walk all the
55:18
Speaker 1: way to Armas, who knows. So I didn't find any
55:22
Speaker 1: more kuailegs with horse radish sauce, but that's okay because
55:25
Speaker 1: five with horse radish that's a good snack. But I
55:28
Speaker 1: did see this lady with a glass cabinet like looked
55:33
Speaker 1: like the other ones were selling food on the side
55:35
Speaker 1: of the street. And you have the glass cabinet and
55:37
Speaker 1: she was just cleaning the cabinet and then lift up
55:39
Speaker 1: the rag and spit on it and then kept cleaning it,
55:42
Speaker 1: and I was like, Okay, now I'm going to remember
55:45
Speaker 1: that the rest of the time I'm here. That to
55:47
Speaker 1: clean their cabinet, some people spit on them. And then
55:52
Speaker 1: I got to my apartment and boy, howdy it looked big.
55:58
Speaker 1: When I rented it, I was like, that's probably a
56:01
Speaker 1: little too big, and it is. It's huge. It's three
56:08
Speaker 1: sixty per month. I should probably talk about it because
56:12
Speaker 1: Airbnb this is how you can live abroad for under
56:15
Speaker 1: five hundred a month. Very well. I wouldn't have got
56:19
Speaker 1: it if I knew this apartment was this big. But
56:22
Speaker 1: so there's a living room, and just the living room
56:26
Speaker 1: is three times as large as the tiny it was
56:31
Speaker 1: a tiny studio I had in Mediian before medi Ian
56:35
Speaker 1: was Panama. Actually that room was even tinier. I think
56:41
Speaker 1: the living room here is four times the size of
56:43
Speaker 1: my tiny meda Ian shared apartment or my tiny Panama
56:47
Speaker 1: shared apartment, three times as big as my Mediian apartment,
56:51
Speaker 1: twice as big as my Guatemala apartment. This apartment might
56:56
Speaker 1: be bigger than the house I rented in India. It's huge.
57:02
Speaker 1: So I have a giant, giant living room and then
57:05
Speaker 1: a huge kitchen that's bigger than all of those apartments
57:08
Speaker 1: I mentioned, a large washing area with a washing machine
57:12
Speaker 1: and all of that. I have three full bedrooms like
57:17
Speaker 1: each of those bedrooms is also larger than any of
57:19
Speaker 1: the past three apartments I have, and two bathrooms with showers,
57:25
Speaker 1: full chest of drawers, wardrobes in each bedroom, huge gate
57:30
Speaker 1: out front. There's a trash collection area so I can
57:32
Speaker 1: put my trash out there, floor to ceiling windows that
57:38
Speaker 1: I can look out over the southern part of the city.
57:42
Speaker 1: It's huge. It is a very large apartment. But that's
57:47
Speaker 1: the great thing about Airbnb. You can runt giant, giant places.
57:50
Speaker 1: I usually choose a little smaller, but this was that
57:53
Speaker 1: weird Airbnb thing where they my first host it's really weird,
58:02
Speaker 1: and then canceled my reservation, so Airbnb helped me find
58:07
Speaker 1: another one, and then that one was also no good,
58:10
Speaker 1: so they helped me find this one, and it costs
58:15
Speaker 1: the same three hundred and sixty a month. But it's
58:18
Speaker 1: just incredibly enormous and there's no rugs or tapestries on
58:24
Speaker 1: the walls or anything, so I have to use a
58:29
Speaker 1: comforter from one of the two extra beds that I
58:32
Speaker 1: have over a couple of chairs to make my little
58:34
Speaker 1: studio here for better sound. But yeah, it's great. It's
58:40
Speaker 1: nice to have a giant space just for fun, and
58:43
Speaker 1: I can, you know, text my friends and family just like, well,
58:46
Speaker 1: you're not going to believe this new place. This is crazy.
58:50
Speaker 1: And one of the bedrooms has a hardwood floor. That's
58:54
Speaker 1: the one I'm making my base in. And then there's
58:57
Speaker 1: hardwood floor looking tile around everything. It's either very nice
59:00
Speaker 1: tile or hardwood floor. In this apartment, everything's really nice.
59:04
Speaker 1: It's all the kitchen and bathrooms are all completely tile
59:09
Speaker 1: and new. It looks like new tile. Oh, huge, huge
59:14
Speaker 1: flat screen TVs. I was actually going to buy an
59:17
Speaker 1: Hdmi cable just so I could play Silk Song, a
59:20
Speaker 1: video game on the giant TV in the living room,
59:23
Speaker 1: but I'm too lazy to walk over there from my
59:28
Speaker 1: best That's the other problem of having a giant apartment.
59:31
Speaker 1: My bedroom's actually so far away from the living room.
59:35
Speaker 1: I don't want to carry my laptop out there to
59:38
Speaker 1: play it every time, So I'm probably not going to
59:41
Speaker 1: get the Hdmi cable to hook up to the giant TV.
59:44
Speaker 1: There is a smaller, still large flat screen in this bedroom.
59:49
Speaker 1: But whatever, the my laptop's fine anyway. So to settle
59:55
Speaker 1: me into the apartment, the host wasn't here, which is common.
59:59
Speaker 1: They usually have like a helper and Percy was the
1:00:03
Speaker 1: helper and he yeah. He showed me around the apartment,
1:00:07
Speaker 1: which was really just like this is a bedroom and
1:00:10
Speaker 1: I was like cool. And then he took me the
1:00:12
Speaker 1: second bedroom. He's like this another bedroom. Then the third bedroom.
1:00:17
Speaker 1: He's like, this is a bedroom too. Here's a bathroom. Ah,
1:00:22
Speaker 1: come with me, Come with me, this is a bathroom.
1:00:26
Speaker 1: And that's the kind of toy it was. But he
1:00:29
Speaker 1: seemed like a really nice guy. He really reminded me
1:00:31
Speaker 1: of those potato people in the New Dark Crystal movie,
1:00:36
Speaker 1: like hup. It was really funny talking to him. But
1:00:39
Speaker 1: when he found out that I was an English teacher,
1:00:43
Speaker 1: immediately he was like, oh, so you can teach me English.
1:00:47
Speaker 1: And I was like, ugh, I have to not tell
1:00:51
Speaker 1: people I'm an English teacher anymore because I'm not an
1:00:53
Speaker 1: English teacher. But it like freaks people out if they
1:00:58
Speaker 1: see me, and I'm like, no, I'm retired. I don't
1:01:01
Speaker 1: really work much anymore. So you work online? No, I
1:01:06
Speaker 1: just like don't work a lot. I saved my money China,
1:01:10
Speaker 1: I invest It's it's always awkward to explain that, so
1:01:13
Speaker 1: I have to find a better I'd find some job
1:01:17
Speaker 1: that makes sense that I can just say and then
1:01:20
Speaker 1: people will be like, oh okay, and they'll stop asking
1:01:22
Speaker 1: me after that. Because English teacher happened in Panama, happened
1:01:28
Speaker 1: in Guatemala. It happens very consistently that if I say
1:01:32
Speaker 1: I'm an English teacher, then the person is like, oh,
1:01:35
Speaker 1: then you should teach me English. It's like, oh, yeah,
1:01:38
Speaker 1: I'm a chef. Oh okay, you can come to my
1:01:40
Speaker 1: house and cook for me. Well no, but I just
1:01:44
Speaker 1: told him like, no, this is completely vacation time for me.
1:01:48
Speaker 1: I'm not doing any teaching anymore. Thank you though, And
1:01:51
Speaker 1: he was like, oh, that's the other thing. When I
1:01:55
Speaker 1: tell people I don't want to teach English, they're confused,
1:01:58
Speaker 1: as if because I'm an English team I would love
1:02:01
Speaker 1: to be teaching all of the time. But he was
1:02:04
Speaker 1: still he was super nice. It was that was on
1:02:07
Speaker 1: me because I could have said anything else. I could
1:02:10
Speaker 1: have said I'm a writer or anything, and they would
1:02:13
Speaker 1: have been like h okay and ignored it. But when
1:02:16
Speaker 1: you tell someone you're an English teacher. You know, when
1:02:19
Speaker 1: you're a fluent English speaker, people from non English speaking
1:02:22
Speaker 1: countries get really excited about that. And that was it.
1:02:27
Speaker 1: Now I was in Cusco in my giant mansion apartment,
1:02:34
Speaker 1: ready to explore the city. I guess which I'll get
1:02:37
Speaker 1: into the next episode. It started with me pulling the
1:02:45
Speaker 1: doorknob off of the door. Whoops. I hope you're having
1:02:50
Speaker 1: a great day. You can talk to me a bit
1:02:52
Speaker 1: of a Rambler at gmail dot com or bit of
1:02:55
Speaker 1: a Rambler on Lemy and a Blue Sky