Service Week Twenty-Five [Underground in Bed in Cusco]

I have a thumb-only device and the saddest speed internet yet. So none of the regular content, formatting, proofreading, editing and snark today. At this altitude, my thumbs and cognitive creativity aren’t fast enough for literary snark.

I really ought to just unplug (when did that become so hard to do?) but I am taking laps on the mental hamster wheel about two things: buying and then successfully utilizing a Móvil bus ticket back to site next Sunday night (before they sell out and I am offline all week) and keeping up this blog.

Let’s be honest: A thumb-driven blog post is not happening from the second-floor / front-seat pod of a Peruvian night bus over the (now second?) highest road in the world. That is also spent better in a drug-assisted nap medium.

Sarah, Justin and myself made an early strategic move to avoid derrumbes (landslides) in rainy season (remember, hay pase?) from a few days in Oxapampa to the low jungles of La Merced, followed by a travel day to Jauja on Thanksgiving (involving a semi-lackluster bread and cheese vegetarian holiday.)

Since our arrival in Cusco we have made up for that, due to prior restaurant discoveries when I was solo-touring here exactly two years ago. I even got three hugs from Norma from Indigo, my “Sirens South America.”

We have two nights in Cusco before heading out for a week-long adventure through a series of wildlife preserves on Amazon tributaries in Manu National Park. It’s the rainy season, so it looks like we may have the group trip to ourselves.

On a personal note, having Sarah and Justin here has been great. My family went all-out in hosting which made me feel even closer and more grateful for how lucky I landed in placement with them.

It has also been a surprise to straddle my PC volunteer identity with my regular Jess identity with friends who know me (and vacation Travel Jess me!) from home.

I realize I have been “on” 24-7 for over 8-months straight- and still am in many ways- but also love these two enough to say please may I not be a tourist today, answer anymore questions, and silently enjoy this bliss of a private room and hot water bath and large cozy bed and the Kindle you brought me and to meet up later for a meal?

And maybe cram in a online bus ticket purchase and a blog post, and ten emails to Peace Corps Security Team about my projected Whereabouts for the week in the jungle when I can’t drop them a pin.

Best for all if I get the happy good expedition behavior human batteries charged up before seven days in a dugout canoe in 90-degrees rain and who the hell knows what else. Best part? I’m not in charge.

This is going to be something.

Vamos a ver amigos.

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Parting Shot

“SARAH HAD LOOLL”

(Cusco welcome sign for “Sarah Hadlock”)