Advertisement
Published: December 25th 2007
Edit Blog Post
These last nine months travelling the Americas have been incredible; I feel it has changed me for the better in so many ways. I witnessed unbelievable sacred and absurd places of interest such as the newly crowned 7th wonder of the world Machu Picchu, the endearing Oaxacan Street Children’s project, I had my emotional insides pulled out at Lake Atitlan, walked on hot lava in Pacaya volcano, spooked out inside the Palenque ruins, fanned the flames at a sacred Shaman fire ceremony, swimming in dark cenote caves, seeing inside the wacky Pepsi church in San Cristobel, pruned down to wrinkled skin in temazcalli sweat lodges, held real sculls while being spat on in the bazaar voodoo doctors clinic. I learned to listen to my dreams at shaman school, being blown over by Uros straw people, blinded by tiredness in the vast Salt flats of Bolivia, crept around kooky witches market in La Paz, flew over the Nazca lines wearing Halloween masks. I felt very privileged to experience a rare glimpse of my own higher self during the Ayahuascan mind trip session that was something very mind blowing.
Extraordinary individuals guided me along my merry way with extra assistance from my
faithful entourage of guardian angels; I now humbly accept and appreciate myself much more. All those negatives that clung to me like colon plaque were tackled head on as if Id gate crashed all major Star-Gate fear zones. I allowed myself to dig that extra bit deeper as this time I had nothing to lose. I dissected every proton, neutron, electron and atom of self doubt, to examine, share and then disburse past debris back into the universe. This new me feels enriched, I do my best to live with a sense of humour and optimism for each day, no more living in the past, more being in the now.
LEAVING SOUTH AMAERICA
We flew in to Lima Peru the night before our flight back to London England, all was fine, until we realised we only had a jangle worth of small change left to our name. As we touched into Lima my cash card would not work for a whole 32 painful hours even though it had sufficient funds and it was not flagged as suspicious. Stu’s cash card stopped working weeks ago, one reason we had to go back to the UK as they refused to
send him a replacement, leaving him stranded. Unfortunately we had also cashed our final traveller’s cheque that night to pay for a convenient but cosy hotel room as I very sick and fighting with my immune system. The ticklish cough I cultivated while surviving Cusco and the Inka trail had developed into the baritone bark of a great dane being choked by a chain. All I needed was to get to a bed.
The cosy hotel check out was 12pm our flight 22pm. We asked anyone at the airport if Iberia airlines had a desk to confirm our tickets. It seemed they didn’t open any desks until the time of check in which was not until 19pm, nor could we get any reply from the phone number on our receipt. We had not eaten all day because we couldn't afford to, I lay on the airport floor very thirsty with a high temperature. It was getting dark outside so when we finally got to the desk they told us we were not on the flight at all. I burst into the biggest coughing fit ever, near to tears I thought we had royally been had by some bogus travel
agency. I felt drained, even though my bank account had plenty of cash left, we simply had no money available to feed ourselves let alone buy two new flights that were now quoted at over $1500 each. The lady at the desk was helpful, she rang the travel agents phone number and got through, and an agent suddenly appeared like an angelic vision.
We spoke directly to the manager, his apology was to tell us that they had fallen out of relations with Iberia airlines and they had forgotten to send me an email. They got us on the next flight to London but it was leaving seven hours after our original flight. I had a sudden flash of terror, AIRPORT TAX! This was not included in the flight price. This thought was followed by a genius brain wave, if I have learnt anything over the last few months it is that these delays, setbacks and obstructions are there for a good reason. So I struck a deal with the manager explaining the least they could do after this mess up was to pay our airport tax in full. Within 45 minutes the agent had our new flight tickets
confirmed and $60.00 in cash in our hands. My cough was so bad I had to sit forwards for the whole journey was a terrible return homeward, with more moaning and devastation to come.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.043s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0418s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Gunga
Carolyn Taylor
Going to Peru
I loved reading ALL your journal entries and your comments on the different cultures. I, too, love C and S. Am and have just decided to return to Peru and try Columbia ( a first). I hope you are thinking of writing a book about your trip. There are many of us who dearly love those cultures and the sweetness and kindness of the people who live there. Thank you and safe trip home. Carolyn ( blogger name 'gunga')