Hello! It’s been about two weeks since I came to Cusco. I spent the first couple days resting so that my body could adjust to the altitude and my mind could adjust to a new place. Time has been moving slowly, but I know that will not always be the case. I feel like I have been here much longer than the days I can count. My life in Bellingham is starting to feel distant, but there are a couple moments I can still almost reach out and touch. I long for the connections I had to say goodbye to, but I am grateful to be surrounded by new friends here. I feel less lonely than I expected since I am in an environment where there are always new people to meet. The transient nature of this place is a bit hard though. Just as I am getting used to being around new friends here, their time to leave approaches. At least I have some consistency being with the same host family for this month.
Traveling makes the world seem so big, yet also so small. The amount of people and places feel almost infinite, yet there are so many ways our paths become unexpectedly entangled with others. There is something special in the ways we happen to find the same people again and again in different places and times.
The first time I went out in the city on my own, I sat and painted the view in the main square. My attention was caught by the light shining up through the clouds, it felt hopeful. As I sat there, soaking in the moment, I was approached by a girl around my age who handed me a flyer and started talking to me in Spanish. Although my Spanish has since improved a lot from my classes, at this point I couldn’t understand a word of what she was saying. When I told her that I didn’t understand (no entiendo), she paused and said “Free Palestine. “ With a look of recognition I showed her the sticker on my water bottle and we smiled at each other.
Being in a new place surrounded by new people and a different language, this moment felt very meaningful to me. It reminded me of the power of solidarity to bring people across the world together, and the way a shared cause can surpass the boundaries of language and borders. I was able to use my phone to translate the flyer she gave me , and learned that they were protesting against Israeli soldiers visiting a nearby town. After a little while I got up to leave the plaza, and realized a group of protesters had gathered on the steps waving Palestinian flags and chanting together, lead by an elder wearing a red keffiyeh. I sat with them for a bit, trying to understand the spanish phrases they repeated. Although I was feeling too shy to start a conversation with the people around me, I was grateful to have crossed paths with them. Having this experience on my first day in the city felt like a sign that I was in the right place and assured me that no matter where I am I will find people that I feel aligned with.
It is helpful to be in this place with a purpose and a structure, or else I think I would find myself floating. Learning Spanish has been incredibly interesting, although tiring. It is cool seeing how my brain continues to recognize more of the language around me. Immersion really is such a helpful way to learn, and I am so grateful to have this opportunity.
I have also enjoyed the activities here, learning about this place and it’s culture. I went on a tour to Pallay Punchu on Sunday and was amazed by how different the mountains were from any I have ever been to. Climbing uphill at over 15,000ft altitude is not an easy task, but the view was certainly worth it. I met some really nice people on the tour, one of whom took these crazy cool drone videos of us at the peak. I have also been enjoying dancing here. I’ve had some very fun salsa dances and went to two very different nightclubs, but I do miss the many other styles that I dance at home. Thankfully, it looks like La Paz will have more variety in the dance opportunities, so I have that to look forward to. For now I will just soak up all of the opportunities to salsa.
It is fun how much there always is going on in the city, but I look forward to when I’ll be in smaller and more rural areas. Everyone I’ve talked to thinks I’m a bit crazy for wanting to spend so much time in the Amazon, and part of me feels inclined to agree with them, but I’ll just have to see how I feel when I get there. I found an opportunity that I am excited to pursue during my time in Bolivia. After a month or so of Spanish classes in La Paz, I will head into the rainforest to volunteer both as a researcher and a visiting artist. I will be working on a project mapping mushroom species in the forest, as well as creating art inspired by the nature around me. I am excited to have this opportunity to spend dedicated time getting to know this ecosystem as well as people who are working to care for the wellbeing of human and non-human communities in the Bolivian Amazon.
Right now I’m just taking it a day at a time, trying to be here in this moment.
