Did you know!?

Did you know that I’ve now completed my 7^th week as a Peruvian? Sure enough. Nearly halfway done with my program and absolutely no idea where the time has gone. Week after week I blog about how quickly this semester is going and how it’ll be gone before I know it, and yet every new week that comes it blows me away all over again how sneakily time passes me by. That being said, I’ll do my very best to come to terms with it this week so that you don’t have to hear about it all over again in my next blog. (Sneak peak: going to BOLIVIAAAA this week for “Spring” break so I have no doubt I’ll have some crazy stories to tell from that adventure!)

I added this picture because I'm trying to look intriguing
and I'm hoping it'll make you want to keep reading.

Were you aware that Cusco is home to the variety of spider commonly known as the tarantula? Well for a good 6 weeks living here I was blessedly unaware. But, of course, such heavenly ignorance can’t last forever and so last weekend I was ripped out of my fairytale. But I’ll start at the beginning.

So last weekend I made a friend (yes, hard to believe but true) from London named Simon. He had been in the Cusco for quite a while, but had somehow failed to visit some of the coolest spots in the city. Seeing as it was his last day in Peru and it would have been a true crime to let him go without fully experiencing the oldest city in South America, I decided to show him around to some of my favorite spots. First we went up to Cristo Blanco, a large statue of Christ that overlooks all of Cusco, where we ended up staying to watch the sun set over the city. Absolutely freaking gorgeous.

 The next of my favorite spots around the city is a huge set of ruins called Sacsayhuaman, which one usually is required to pay 70 soles (about $20) to see. Seeing as neither of us were about to pay that much, but we did both really want to check out the ruins, we decided to be a wee bit sneaky. Long story short, we ended up navigating our way past a guard and through a fence until we were able to enter the ruins and do some sneaky exploring. Eventually we made it to the very top of the ruins and were able to catch a glimpse of a spectacular view (check out da photo!).

Our incredible view of the city from the ruins.

And now the part I know you’ve all been waiting anxiously for… the arachnid. As we were making our way back into the city, we began hearing a little froggy chirping on the side of the trail near a big stone wall. Me, being Hannah and always feeling the need to see and touch things, decided to try to find it. At this point it was quite dark, so I used the dinky flashlight on my even dinkier Peruvian phone to investigate. So there I was, searching around with my head quite close to the ground due to the dimness of my flashlight, trying to discover the illusive amphibian, when I saw it. There, right in front of my face was a furry, eight-legged creature that couldn’t have been much smaller than the size of my palm. Ummmm… yikes!

Needless to say, that was the end of my hunt for the frog. I uttered some completely clean and appropriate phrase like “holy fudge!” or something along those lines, and Simon and I proceeded to book it down the hill and away from the spider as speedily as possible. Since, you know, spiders have been known to chase people and all that stuff.

After this incident, we decided to go back to the bar where I work to grab some drinks to calm our nerves (you know, soda and stuff like that) and witnessed an Irish couple’s honeymoon. Which involved them coming to Cusco, staying at the cheapest backpackers hostel possible, downing a few (several) drinks, and dancing on the bar! I mean I don’t want to stereotype or anything… but did I mention they were Irish?

And then this past week we took a trip to Puerto Maldonado, which is a town in Eastern Peru in the Amazon! We went for a class, so a large part of the journey was spent doing the whole educational thing (what the heck is that about?!) but lots was learned and we even got to do a tiny bit of adventuring.

One such adventure occurred in the indigenous town of Infierno, which directly translates to “hell.” And yes, it really was that hot. We arrived in the village early in the morning to find that typical to Peruvian fashion, everyone that we were supposed to meet with that day was gone on some holiday or something. Clasico. But we weren’t about to waste a whole day, so we asked if there was anything we could do to help out around the village.

Self-explanatory.

 Not minutes later (perhaps the fastest anything has ever happened in Peru ever) half of the group was outfitted with machetes, and the other was given instructions to pick up brush and throw it over the cliff into the river. Because of my massive muscles and neverending energy, I made sure that I was among those to be gifted a machete. The rest of the day consisted of us hacking away at the understory of the Amazon jungle so that the medicinal herbs that the town was growing could thrive. Best anger management therapy ever – honestly they should probably start prescribing that shit it worked so well.

Seeing as it’s the Amazon and all, occasionally you would cut into the ground and massive killer ants would start swarming everywhere, or you’d step on a leaf and a ginormous spider would peek out to say hello, but thankfully no tarantulas so we’re all good. We made it through the day a little less hydrated, with a few more blisters, but none the worse for wear.

After our day of practicing forest management like bosses, we returned to our hostel and played volleyball in the pool with a balloon. Not too shabby.

The next day we took our bus back home through the mountains to Cusco. Ten hours of daydreaming and staring out the window at the rainforest and the Andes surprising made for an incredibly relaxing day. Until I simply couldn’t bear it any longer and decided to attempt going to the bathroom. Okay, I want you to imagine two things for me. First, imagine a winding mountain pass complete with loads of switchbacks and hairpin turns. Second, I want you to imagine going to the bathroom in an airplane just as turbulence starts to get bad. Got those two things in mind? Okay, now combine those two situations and that is exactly what it’s like to go to the bathroom in a bus in Peru.

(Artsy) view from my seat on the bus!

However, after I had fallen my way down the stairs to the lower level and somehow managed to open the incredibly sticky door and finally relieved my bladder WITHOUT peeing on myself too much (just kidding), I looked out the window of the bathroom to see one of the most amazing sunsets of my entire life. But actually it’s a bummer I didn’t take my phone to the bathroom for a little pee music because I so wish I had a picture. It was spectacular. With reds and purples lowering itself behind the snowcapped Andes mountains… impossible to describe.

So the moral of the story is… going to the bathroom on buses isn’t always bad because sometimes you can see pretty things and stuff out the window. The end.

And that, somehow, brings me to the sentimental section of this whole deal. My friend Simon (the guy who I survived being attacked by a tarantula with) wears this little silver necklace that says something along the lines of “it all depends on where you look.” It brought me back to all of the times when my mom preached, “choose where you focus your camera lens!” or my dad told me to “defer judgment!” Despite the countless amount of times that I rolled my eyes and angstily said, “Okayyyyy mom I get it already,” with this little silver reminder of all of the times I had been routinely told these things growing up, I realized that there was actually something truly meaningful behind these phrases.

I love Cusco, but it’s ridiculous. Every single day is chaotic and unpredictable and completely beyond my control. At any given moment if I wanted to I could find a million things that would absolutely drive me crazy, but I just don’t let myself go there. And I don’t think that’s unique to me, or Cusco, or Peru. That’s the secret, I think, in being happy no matter what unreal situation you’re in. Of course, sometimes it’s harder than other times to seek out the positive things and truly focus on them, but the optimist in me would like to believe that it’s never impossible.

So I guess I’m not writing this down to remind you all that happiness is always possible, but more so that I can put it out there so that you all can hold me accountable. Yeah, sometimes life is hard or boring, and sometimes it decides to throw you a few more punches than you deserve, but if you can seek out the silver linings, the positive things, the beauty in your everyday life, happiness will come to you.

And here's a picture of a cute doggy loving life just to brighten your day!

So yeah, probably not quite as entertaining as most parts of my blog, but an epiphany worth sharing. Yeah, I miss my family and home and my friends at school more than anything, and sometimes living in this crazy unpredictable city is nothing short of terrifying, but at the same time every day is a new adventure here and every day there are new things to see and learn. And that’s freaking fantastic.