climbing 11,000 feet into the sky...

day 2 in peru...

Jan 4

-we lived at the Starbucks in Lima for several hours, gradually taking over the only soft, cushiony chairs in the airport, each rotating with a purchase. I found a wedding ring in the airport gift shop to wear while away on this journey. my beautiful diamond filled band is the only thing i’m attached to so I left it in Vancouver. I’m going to see Abel (the tattoo artist) while here & have him design H’s native spirit name, to have as a wedding band that won’t be visible unless my ring is off. but that finger felt so naked in the mean time. it’s some type of wood, similar to coconut shell & the grain naturally displays a heart in the middle-perfecto!!

-Rose found us right before we boarded from Lima to Cusco. she'd been in the airport for hours & was stoked, almost to tears, to see some familiar faces.

-leaving El Salvador left behind the humidity, heat & clear blue skies-solong...

Jan 5

-Lima was misty, so many variations of cloud coverage, so many layers. as we flew up over the amazing Andes around 6am, i wondered if people lived amongst them? some snow caped as we reached higher elevation, most of them hosted pools of clouds, the way the beaches become tidal pool keepers, caught in a spider web. the sun began to peek out from the clouds to greet the morning. always rising & setting somewhere. i've fantasized about being a sun chaser, flying a plane & capture 24 hrs of sun sets, across the earth.

-Cusco's clouds represent the waves of Jamaica that i relentlessly shot footage of.

-the airport was small, the bathrooms only had 2-3 stalls (stepping out of our YVR comforts) but at least there was toilet paper & i didn´t have to pay to do my business! our luggage was delivered from the truck onto a small conveyer belt in front of our eyes, while a small local band smilingly played some 7am tunes.

-Christina picked us up from the airport. she's from the states, but fell in love with land years ago and lives in Cusco & the Amazon most of the year. such warmth exuded from her smile, she spotted us gringos right away. a cheap cab ride to our home (4 soles = $1.86 CND, $1.33 US), we arrived... a tad out of the city, (hum, i wonder if it could be "google maped"?) a large wall with a main locked wooden door. across the street families wash cars that pass by, mostly taxis, until late at night. it's so casual to have a street-side car wash.

-we unloaded our gear, took a tour of the house, then took a taxi to the Plaza de Armes, where the markets are. so many stray dogs running around the streets, and here the cabs rule, not the pedestrians. all day, swerving in & out of lanes, honking their gentle horns, dodging people crossing the streets & dogs running about. such flow strangely eliminates accidents.

-we were all fairly hungry, most ate meat soups (full of intestine, no part is spared) while I located the fruit & smoothie aisle. Christina knew the family who ran this kiosk (so many kiosks are lined up side by side, each with chairs that colour coordinate to its shop owner). it was ran by a grandmother, mother & daughter (all kids are on summer holidays). the biggest papayas I’ve ever seen, resembling small pumpkins, lined the counter. fresh aloe, cucumber, fat carrots, passion fruit, etc. she blended it all up & filled my glass 3 times, all for $1.62 CND. insanely cheap & wonderfully nurturing to my body.

-we walked around a bit…the market is broken into sections, from ready to eat food (soup, beans, rice, fish-trout fishing is big here, pig heads, other meats) to fruit stands, vegetable, grains, herbal medicine, bread, cheese and cacti/hallucinogenics. we sampled & bought the most amazing & creamy fresh cheese. a giant circle of it which would easily be $40 CND was under 10 soles. Scout’s son Ukiah was crying at one point and an old woman approached him with a banana offering.

-the most liberating thing has been living without a fridge – they are not common in Cusco. most go to the market every day, it’s affordable and such a familial event. so we buy what we need but the eggs & cheese sit out over 1-2 nights, along with all our veg, with no problems, it just feels so natural! it´s unfortunate we don´t live this way back home...refrigerators are containing, suffocating & a large scale preservative.

-after, we walked to the artisan’s market to locate blankets as the house had a draft. I’ve been living in a sweater the past two days, legwarmers, alpaca/lamb’s wool slippers & a scarf. it’s definitely not hot here, there’s no humidity, but when the sun is out in the day a layer is discarded, yet it’s unpredictable. we got caught in the rain, which comes out of nowhere, pouring thick drops, then stops. the kiosks within this market, were mostly managed by children and teenagers. I picked up a beautifully woven deep red blanket, and a soft vibrant blue alpaca sweater.

-we traveled home, took a shower & laid down to rest. I’d not really slept properly in 2 days & thought showering would be a great transition into bed. imagine cold water with the edge taken off – that was my “hot” shower, lol. refreshing, but my vitals were already low, it didn’t assist much. the attic room I claimed along with Rose, was emitting floor wax fumes so we slept in another room. after a few hours I woke up, (apparently people had been shaking me awake to no avail, I was gone) with a slight headache encroaching. i ate some bread, cheese, drank coca tea, more water & had some exotic fruit/melon. I went back to sleep, probably around 7pm & slept straight through til 1:30am. I kept waiting for the city to slumber, but all I heard were the beeping horns of cabs driving throughout the night. Rose was also awake, we went downstairs to nibble on a couple passion fruit & more sips of coca tea. we went back upstairs, I went to the bathroom & immediately recognized the salivating coming on – I began throwing up. bye-bye exploding in my mouth passion fruit!

-as I laid in bed, I couldn’t stop asking what an aneurism felt like…this must be close. my entire head was pounding, despite feeling better after vomiting. my heart was racing fast & hard. this coca tea (where cocaine is derived from) wasn’t helping me. my body has become too sensitive to what it ingests, especially since I stopped drinking coffee months ago. but the way to deal w/ altitude sickness is through sipping coca tea, drinking coffee – basically taking lots of caffeine, and aspirin. I later found out altitude sickness is edema/swelling of the brain. because everything is dilated, a vaso-constrictor is necessary. the knowledge pieced together everything I’d been experiencing.

-this morning when I woke up things were no better. I’d slept til 8am & recalled my dream. I was asking Whapio & Christina for assistance with my flu like symptoms. they asked me where in Cusco did I not feel ill? whatever my answer was would represent where I needed to work with the energy to heal. the market´s fresh air & sleeping were my answers. I drank more water, but even that was nauseating. I crawled back into bed, then heard someone knocking at the outside door, then went down to let her in…it was Brook, someone I’d never met. we went inside, and I began throwing up again – what I don’t know, I was so dry inside, my stomach depleted every bit of intestine it could reach. brushing my teeth had become a regular interval. I munched on some dried apple & we spoke of getting some food at the Mega supermarket a couple blocks down. I felt weak but knew the air would be nurturing & I always felt great after purging, so I took advantage of the small opportunity. Brook suggested drinking some yoghurt to take in the cultures of the land. I munched on some almonds, a tomato & fresh green, black and brown olives, taking it easy. this has got to be the closest thing to Italy´s fresh veg i´ve ever had :)

I slept again all afternoon and when I awoke, I didn’t feel so crappy. Scout brought me emerg-C, (what was i thinking not packing any??), Whapio arrived & gave me a big hug, and thoughts of eating crossed my mind. I still walked slowly and held onto the walls, but a shift was occurring. we went to the market again, I picked up some aspirin & took a couple with a pasta dinner that Brook cooked up. Yes! I was eating, keeping it down & beginning to laugh again. (lack of appetite & laughter are my sure signs of something’s stirring within).

-all of it is my midwifery though… the lack of energy, nausea, vomiting, accepting intense levels of pain in parts of my body I’d not felt before, being with there’s nothing wrong & it’s not a negative experience…all ties into birth.

-the pace here is slow and it’s pulling me under it’s wing. so far I’ve nothing to do, except rest and walk into my 30th year, observing the blank walls to paint.