June 11, 2016 – Last Days of Peru
I’ve scribbled out notes on slips of paper and in the iOS Notes App for the past few days but I haven’t finalized most of the blog posts. That’s on the agenda soon – the hardest part will be sorting through the photos and picking out the ones that tell the stories best. I overshot I’m sure… and at the same time undershot. There are A LOT of image files but hopefully more than a few great images. That’s the point of digital though – shoot and shoot some more in the hopes of capturing that one moment.
This has been a lazy last day in the city of Cusco. There’s a huge celebration – a festival honoring the founding of Cusco. And so various groups have been marching around the city with dance troupes, bands, floats, all sporting elaborate costumes. It’s like the Philly’s Mummers Parade meets Mardi Gras meets the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, minus any alcohol on the parade route proper. The participants don’t seem intoxicated but they are… enthusiastic. I think the last few days I’ve seen some on-street rehearsals in street clothes … or maybe would-be flash mobs are common here in Cusco.
I did rally last night and then this morning to go out for some short runs. Wound up doing SLOW 4 milers. This morning I had a running partner – a cute little black dog with a single white paw. At first he thought we were playing and kept trying to trip me up. But he quickly realized we were out for a run and he would race ahead, lie down and wait for me, then rejoin me. I want to say it’s the altitude and the overly indulgent foods (and that’s part of it) but I’m just no match for this natural born puppy runner.
But the altitude IS still affecting me. The first two miles were more or less downhill and so to get back to the hotel, well, it’s a climb. And the thin air had me huffing and puffing like a cigar smoking wolf in a tale of three little pigs. That’s a terrible simile but, shrug, it’s what you get.
After a leisurely breakfast, I packed up and checked out of the hotel, leaving my bags at reception so I could wander the streets. I snapped a few more shots of the Cusco Celebration, including this weird “Danger” sign on the crowd bleachers. I assume it means not to climb through the scaffolding but still – as I said in my Facebook post of the photo, “My Spanish ‘es muy mal’ but even I know what ‘peligro’ and a skull mean.”
I took a stroll back down to the Incan statue to get a better shot in the daylight… but sadly One Pawed Jack the dog was nowhere to be found.
Heading back up the street, I noticed a series of buses with route markings – there was one decorated with the Road Runner (Spanish Name: CorreCaminos). But the one I was most intrigued by was BATMAN RTA 23. One has to assume it requires exact change AND the proper amount of brooding:
I wasn’t in the mood for anything per se for lunch but it was going to be a while before I ate on the plane from Lima to Bogota (there MIGHT be a snack on the Cusco to Lima hour flight but who knows?). I ultimately went with an empanada. Once again I was disappointed in this traditional “hot pocket”-ian snack food. It’s rare that the empanada rocks my world – it’s really more of a “this’ll do, I guess…” food. I should’ve gone for something else.
But after purchasing one final Coke Zero from the local market, I’m down to 90 centimos of my Peruvian money. I briefly considered trying to lowball the women who wander the streets with goats in tow offering tourists the chance to snap a photo for 1 sol. But to be honest, I’m a little photo’d out. As a result, I’m currently sitting in my hotel’s lobby tapping away on a few blog posts. My ride to the aiport is due in about an hour and I thought an hour’s writing was in order given how lax I’ve been these past few days in keeping up with this project.
As a side note to the running aspect, I double checked the Rapa Nui Marathon results. It’s entirely possible that other people’s times are wrong (this wouldn’t surprise me in the least given how this race was run) but based on the finishers around me at the time and on my real finishing time, it looks like I came in 5th overall and 2nd in my age group … which means I should’ve gotten a medal and a bottle of water at the award ceremony. I really don’t run these races for accolades or acknowledgments, but I still would like the results to accurately reflect what I did. I haven’t heard anything back from the race director when I first raised the issue earlier this week; nor frankly so I expect to. He was the worst organized race director I’ve encountered in all my running.
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As a preview of tomorrow’s post, I have a long layover in Bogota’s airport. I fully intend to do the second in my series of Midnight Half-Marathon Walk-A-Thons.
