Jealousy at the sea...

Jealousy.

Not a good thing, right? We see this green eyed demon who wants what his neighbor has. We have always been taught that jealousy is a bad feeling.

I went to Huanchaco this past holiday weekend (I believe because of APEC). My friend Roxanna, two Argentinean Med Students and I hopped a bus, and 9 hours later, were in Trujillo at a friends house eating bread and drinking tea. The first day we did some touristy type things like seeing the Plaza de Armas in Trujillo and visiting some archeological ruins called the Huaca del Sol and the Huaca de la Luna. They were pretty impressive. We went out that night and got our dance on. It has been a long time since the knee pendulum has hit the scene quite that hard, but it was fun and we didn’t actually get much sleep.

In the morning we headed to the mall for some coffee and breakfast. I had a McCafé latte and a cheeseburger. The Argentineans thought I was nuts. I thought it was fantastic. After breakfast, we quickly found ourselves in a cab to Huanchaco, a small beach/surf community about 15 minutes away. I gotta admit, I fell in love and seriously contemplated my bank account and how many days I could live off of S/27 soles a day. (I could probably make it about 2 years). I think I have also added a new item to my “Life to do List”, own a hostel in a beach community somewhere. I did not want to return to gloomy Lima last night.

We walked around the city, I bought some earrings from a Venezuelan vendor who asked me to marry him and insisted I was a princess (I guess someone agrees with you Dad). Around 5 o’clock, we took a seat for about 5 minutes before we were invited to play flubito (fulbito?, soccer with less people in a small area) by a surf instructor with his 5 Australian students. I did warn them that I couldn’t play to save my life, but I ran around a lot (finally!) and got very dirty and hurt my foot a tad (I just kind of kicked someone really hard at a close range) and had a blast. We decided to meet up with them for dinner and a bonfire later that night after a bit of a nap and a glorious shower.

One of the first questions I asked of the Aussie’s was the reason for their excursion. Immediate response was, “We hated our jobs so we quit them and left.” I had no idea what to say to that and a moment later another Aussie said, “Actually we’ve just finished Uni and are touring around for a bit.” I figured a month or so, but no. Turns out they are traveling for about 9 months to a year, a month in each country starting in Argentina, up through South America, Mexico and the States, UK and then to the Philippines. My jaw dropped and I reconsidered my bank account one more time.

I am absolutely enjoying my time in Peru. There are joys and challenges alike. I am learning how to communicate in an entirely new way. At one time, I questioned whether or not my time spent here would increase or diminish my desire to travel and experience the world and the life existing, I am slowly realizing I want more.

And Jealousy is definitely an inspirational thing right now. To be free of the agreement that I need to have a 40 hour a week job with health insurance to be successful is a trying venture. I consistently have to reconvince myself of this. Maybe my time here will help with that.

Anyway, there is more to my Huanchaco adventure, but this is plenty for one sit and read.
all for me, for now.
katie