Fresh impressions from a journey

Because first impressions are like a drunk man's last words: the most honest and transparent.

As with moving this blog back to its old address, another one of those famous cycles of life and travelling has closed for me, because I'm now in Arequipa, exactly 4 years after I first came to Peru. No surprise that I'm thinking back to that time and reflecting on it, because flashbacks of all the different types of situations I've lived here, how they've taught me and what my life looked like before as a deskmonkey in London... Safe to say I wouldn't change anything that has happened!

Highs and lows have been as prominent here as they are in Peru's landscape, tremendous mountains to climb, plateaus to trudge along, precipices to fall into and fight my way out of... and after living through the different landscapes of situations, all of those have become part of my soul, and I've learnt to love them all for what they are. And people, loving them with all their droughts and floods, earthquakes and all, especially that one special person whose changes in season both bore and surprise you, but never cease to captivate..

As I'm sure I've said before, for me one of the best things about travelling is learning about the place you're usually in, because all the new impressions are automatically compared to your current situation, and if your machine's in tune, that means you'll make a mental note of how you feel about the differences. The last few times I've gone anywhere outside the area of Cusco (now: Arequipa, February: Lima, Last year: Europe) those emotions have been very similar: I'm just fine where I am, but this one thingy over here in this place is inspiring and will be absorbed into my daily life.

My biggest travel plans for the time being are focused on making that pilgrimage capoeira journey to Brasil, finally after some epic procrastination and random shuffling in the priorities deck. It's defo on the cards now, I'm thinking about 4-6 weeks, around October, November, December.. depending on how saving goes. Who know what I'll take back to Urubamba with me from the bouncy, smily Brazilian way of life apart from a bikini I'll only be able to use as floss in Peru?

And the drunk lady says, before she passes out with a serene smile: "syou know, this hish the besht I've felt in a looooong, long time..."

And then I moved back home...

no, no, no, not to Europe, I only digitally moved back to this blog!
After a long time idle at www.elisemundo.co.nr , this year is a year of facing truths for me, and this is the simplest of all of them: I'm not in the right place to design a new page each time I want to write something. And I want to share more often than 3 times a year, so here I am, back at my original address.

Seriously though, this year seems to be about recognising the strength of everything, from my own strength to the strength of Mother Earth, who has been shaking up our area of the world quite a bit, floods in Cusco and the Sacred Valley, also Urubamba where I live, and the big earthquake in Chile. How did we humans ever get so arrogant, lose touch so much with the earth, to get angry when our tiny building fall over when she sneezes...

On a more personal level, which is what I can more readily have an affect on... I visited my family and friends in Europe last year for 3 months, after having been in Peru for 3 years straight, and I can still feel the difference that visit has had on my life. Being there, was tough, because I didn't quite feel I was fitting in (apart from in my capoeira group in London, that was home), but I also wasn't a stranger to it. For the most part I felt like I was looking at everything from above and laughing at the differences with my current life in Peru.
But the lasting effects were a massive boost to my confidence, and it was like I was given a pair of glasses that made everything clear: I am so lucky to live where I live, love what I do, and (as a preparation for this year) I slowly started to realise "everything is possible". Seeing possibilities rather than difficulties.

So, coming back with that energy in August 2009, the English language and cultural centre (El Arte Sano http://www.languagecultureperu.com) has been doing excellent, great team of teachers and we actually got round to doing some more cultural activities, mostly in December last year.

This sums up the update from the last blog entry till now, next time I'll dish you up some more detailed and interesting ruminations about what goes on in my mind living in between these beautiful and wondrous mountains!