Vilcabamba, the 1st day

After such an extended stint in Peru, its refreshing to find myself in a new country and new terrain. Although, Vilcabamba is a major destination for westerners to visit as well as live, you can easily see why. After being here for just one day, I am completely content twith this surrounding area being the setting for my next extended volunteer location. Tucked into the mountains, but still at a relatively low elevation, the valleys here are lush and teeming with life. As I sit here and write this on the porch of my hostel, numerous multi-colored butterflies flutter past the dense forest that is a mere 10 feet away. If one just sits back and listens, you can see and hear the sounds of multiple birds´songs, huge bugs hitting themselves against walls doing their best to recreate the sound of a leaf blower, the large cobwebs of spiders I´ve never seen at the ready to ensnare the aforementioned bugs. This is a place where just sitting and being aware of the natural world around you can rival anything that television would attempt to entertain you with. Although, having abundant life can also cause abundant discomfort, having worn my sandals last night, I counted exactly 40 bites from various creatures all below my ankles. Its has made both of my feet feel like large fleshy paddles of sever irritation, I´m like a junkie whose devil on their shoulder incessantly persuades them to take just one more hit, reach down and inject the pleasurably scratch. The hostel we stayed at last night has small little bungalow type cabins tucked in the vegetation with hammocks on the front porch, complete with free bicycles to check out! That last point, if you don´t know me enough already to know this, is the most exciting part. Yesterday, we tore off down the hill the hostel sits on overlooking the valley the small city resides in, and it was amazing to feel the wind blowing through my close to unruly mane. The feeling of freedom that travel with a bicycle affords oneself is simply unrivaled. Granted, the town is small, but we only needed to agree on a destination to visit next and in a matter of minutes were there. I really think its the best way to explore new locales, and makes me look forward to experimenting with traveling with my bicycle in any future traveling. I can only imagine the joy of visiting Europe again, but seeing every place from the perspective of two wheels. (Brief interruption, a bird whose call closely resembles the sound I´d imagine a teddy bear makes just flew into our clearing)
We visited a small internet courtyard / hut that again overlooked that valley and green mountains, then rode toa nature reserve just outside of town, where I got my first taste of mountain biking since the trip in Huarez was beautiful but the route unfortunately only took us on paved roads. Then topped by Craig´s Book Exchange, whcih was run by an extremely friendly man named Lee, whose literary knowledge seems expansice and he is quick to share. Its really funny down here, how much a book becomes a coveted item between long term travellers. When you have a good one to trade, you make damn sure its for something worthwhile, and the negotiations begin to be like some haggle match of times of yore (did i just write that, shit, i´m too rushed to try and think up some other kind of illustrative imagery...) Lee has an extensive classics section full of writers I´ve been meaning to explore, like Steinbeck and Hemmingway, but being such valued possessions, he only loans them with a deposit, trusting the goodwill of humanity that he will ever see them again. Luckily, I´ll be in the area for a few weeks so I snatched up Hemmingway´s Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. From reading the back, I think it sounds like something that could really be beneficial for me to take something away from, the main character sounding like someone I could identify with. After a ride to the square at dusk, we enjoyed beers and dinner outside, dessert being a couple of Vilcabamba cigarettes. The box being an over 100 year old man enjoying a cigarette in feference to how long people live here. They are rolled kind of like a joint, very similar to hand rolled cigarettes, and are some of the smoothest cigarettes I´ve enjoyed, I´ll have to keep a look out on how many I smoke. After a tough ride (ahem, mostly walked) up the hill it was time to crash after one of the most contented days I´ve had so far. Today, we meet with a farm worker, and tomorrow we make the two to three hour journey through the national park to see what may be home for the next few weeks.

I have a couple of blogs to write about experiences with leaving Pisco, my dislike of Lima, and my love of Huarez, but jeez it takes so long, plus its weird to try and write so retroactively.

I´d love to include pictures but internet is so slow, I´m going to have to do that retroactively as well...

Talk later, devoted readers (if there are any, let me know, its always nice to know i didn´t completely waste my time with this...)

Mike