life and movement

have been in peru again since march 4th, 2013. Have been thinking of where to go next or what to do next. with a world of possiblities it seems daunting to select where to go next. i have seen a vision of a line from lima peru to europe. no place specificially so i will head that way july 16th. i have heard many great things of lovely places algorves, turkey, and such that i still will be finding a way to see what there is to do. it seems there is no wrong way to go and no wrong time either. pros or cons exist but really just following what is in your heart to do seems positive and i can{t wait to get started. sunshine seems a wonderful thing now that it{s getting cooler in lima also. here{s a pic of me and my 2 friends freddie(s) one from colombia and the other from england on a recent trip to the zoo in peru

Run your best Race

~If I wasn't myself, We could have such a great relationship

If I wasn't hardwired the way I am, I would go and live by my sister Salome and her family. I know that if I did that our lives would rarely intersect because we have such different lives, and we are in different stages of our lives and have different talents and strengths. We've arrived at where we are at such different paths. I feel the loss of her, of who we could be as sisters and friends and companions in adventures if I could just suppress who I am. I have this feeling in many relationships, when it comes to different points of view, and different wants from the relationships, that if I could just suppress this, who I am, what I want or lets say need, from what my course and direction is in life, I could have some really great relationships. It's what went wrong in my childhood and adulthood relationships. But if getting along with everyone means faking who I am to please you, then what would be the point either for you or me. There was a time in a close relationship, that the person asked me to just fake being happy and smile and be agreeable to anything they asked. They told me they didn't care if I felt it or not, just to act. so I did this for 3 hours and then they asked me to stop. See nothing was gained by me just going along with their plan. So in fairness to myself, I have to walk down roads that no foot has stepped on before. I have to just be who I am. This doesn't mean I don't see my flaws, I am most harsh towards myself for those. I just have to follow this trail and know that it means that I am trading living near loved ones. Living a ''semingly secure'' life instead of living hanging off of a cliff. So although I love you and wish I could just be a calm, collected version, I have to do this thing I am to do and not be too sad when I get to see my lovely sisters via email, phone calls and occassional too short visits. Do your best in your allotted lives, and I will attempt to do the same in mine. I love you!

Back in Lima

I have spent the last 3 months in Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica. I have been unable to access the blog due to poor internet connections in these countries. I got to spend Christmas and New Years with my new friends in Venezuela. It was awesome meeting so many wonderful people, eating delicious food and of course talking about then President Chavez. I met tons of people everywhere who were given a prophecy that in 2013 Chavez would die, which he now has, and that a president that was God-fearing would be put into power to lead their country. A bit of politics now-the Venezuelan constitution, calls for the head of the General Assembly to become president in case of the presidents death. This man{s name is Diosdado Caballo or God-given Covering or hair. President Chavez in November placed a vice-president and said that in the event of his death he wanted Nicolas Maduro to be president. Maduro-means mature-or ripe like fruit. The president of the Assembly allowed Mr. Maduro to be president in his stead upon the death of Chavez. The people of Venezuela are among the most kindest, joyful people on the planet. They are sharply divided either 100% for or 100% against Chavez and his politics. There is much violence there. In the neighborhood I was staying in in the city of Valencia-52 people were murdered in the first 2 weeks in January. The prison system is controlled by gangs who have weapons of every kind, drugs, women, tv, cable, whatever they want. The riots are allowed to run out of control-this video adult themed shows the normal prison life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXJQR3PR8Gk The people are very content but there are some who live in a state of panic and when the government rations food out to the various cities, some people go in and purchase all the sugar, for example, and then there is none for their friends and neighbors. The people are then sharing some of the food that has been horded. I got to stay with the man in charge of food distribution in Venezuela, a former Captain in the military, and he said that there is plenty of food but because of hording, there is a perpetual shortage in the supermarkets. The government has tried to provide good to people at a low cost but instead of stabalizing the market, the perpetual shortage has created a feeling of lack of supply. At one house I stayed at, there was no masa, the main ingredient for their arepa, a tortilla that is split open and filled, that is eaten daily as a staple. So no one in the whol neighborhood had any masa and therefore the whole neighborhood was not eating there main staple of arepas. At another house, a woman was having a party for 200 people and could not buy sugar in her town, and luckily someone gave her a 20 kg bag of it. The people all have nice blackberry cell phones, and roughly 45% have braces. The children in the school all have basic laptops to use. There is free medical care, but there are some costs not covered by the socialized medicine. Gas is super cheap. My friend filled his car with 40 liters and it costs about $.20! There are all the gas guzzeling cars there and people think nothing of filling their tank. They tip the gas attendants more than they pay for fueling their cars. The price of cars is $60,000 for a basic car. You go and put your name on a list and wait for months and whatever comes availble is what you get. The government has mainted a low rate for dollar exchange of $1 for 4 bolivares. The black market rate is $1 for 18 Bolivares, This was changed recently to $1 for 6.2 Bolivares and the black market rate is 24 Bolivares. This means if you go with dollars, you can quadruple your money with the exchange rate. The money has to be spent in Venezuela because the currency is basically worthless elsewhere. There are many houses built for the poor, a lot uncompleted unfortunately due to corruption and overcharging for government contracts. The country was beautiful, the people hospitiable and amazing and I see much good in their future and much stabiliazation in the upcoming 5 years. I got to spend a month with my mom, sister and family in Costa Rica. It was nice to walk up hills, swim, attend church with her, go to the beach and relax too. I was suppose to return thru Venezuela to continue traveling south. I kept feeling drawn back to Lima, Peru. I looked into going to Spain, Brasil and ultimatly was unable to enter Venezuela and ended up buying a ticket to Peru. I feel like for now to connect with locals, a hilighting of a 4 block area where the hostel is located. The street has 3 names, Arequipa, Wilson, Garcilaso de la Vega and actually turns into Tacnta. So I{m sure there{s a story there. It{s been a bit of a bumpy week coming back and working thru some stuff with people here. I have found a zumba class and swimming pool to keep up on my fitness and back staying strong. I think these are ways to connect to the locals also. This week I met a guy and his family and ended up having the most amazing 6 hours of conversation about God, Chavez, music and family a guy from Venezuela. So I;ll see how to be involved. M

what can i say

I´m in Bogota, Columbia after 3 months in Peru.  And I felt like it was time for a change.  I had exhausted all the things that I felt like doing in Peru for now and so today I climbed Monserrate in Bogota. I have basically been sleeping for 2 days since I got here. I was so tired.  but anyway I´m starting to feel refreshed and my laundry is clean and so that means where to next. . . maybe Cartejena or Medallin out towards the coast.  or maybe head east towards Venezuela or north towards Panama and Costa Rica too.

so for today i´m here

checking in

Whoa It's been over a month since I posted anything. . . what does that mean I have nothing to say I've been busy having fun I've been thinking Actually all of the above I have been thinking about moving to Peru. It's the only place in the world where I've felt at home when I arrived and the feeling hasn't left. On the first day in Lima, a gigantic city of 11 million people, me sentia en casa-at home. I traveled out of Peru to Ecuador and didn't have the same feeling and the closer I got to Lima, I felt like I was going home. So I've been here in Peru for 9 weeks and have enjoyed the way it is. Today there was a earthquake and tsunami drill for the city of Lima. Evidently there is a major earthquake every 4 years and there hasn't been one for 8 years, so they are preparing that at any time there will be the BIG one. In each business you see the exits clearly marked and also postings that say-safe area in case of earthquake on column walls. On the beach there are signs with tsunami evacuation exits. I think it's good to be prepared and ready but at the same time to not be fearful. . I've seen some riots in the streets, heard of people being robbed of their stuff in hostels, on buses, on the street, seen the lovliness of the people and how kind they are, and seen how angry and passionate they can get too. Just like people all over the world. In some ways I feel like my heart is coming alive in the atmosphere of emotions and love. Many people have asked me to stay in Peru and I'm thinking of staying here. Will I keep traveling? I don't know. Really, when you hit a peaceful spot, it's important to relish it and see what it will bring, right?

fun at the beach

for whatever reason updating my ipad has caused it to not want to access my blog. so it{s been days without posting. i{m at huanchaco and enjoying the beach. The pics are of fishing and someone mending their nets common with what we do in alaska and ChanChan a huge complex http://www.arqueologiadelperu.com.ar/chanchan.htm
and yes it{s sunny here. <i{m aiming at some solutitude but it seems to be interesting people everywhere so i have to carve out alone time to think about life, love, God, what this all means.

<I met this interesting girl from the peace corps and she said that she and all the people she{s here with seem like they are bipolar from being really high up and then really low down.  We had some good laughs about a good day in <peru is one with solid poo.  I told her i feel ok now and she said, get ready for the low and just know it{s coming and there will be highs after that.  It made me feel better since I have felt totally unstable on this adventure, missing people at home, missing relationships, knowing that i need and want to be here and that i would never consider going back to the old life. my friends i will always carry in my heart, but not the old burdens.}