A brief interlude

想了想，这篇还是用中文写吧，也不写太直接了，免得惹事。

昨天也是我在新公司工作了6个月之际。在跟我们一起开始上班的人中辞了一个，另一个不是我们组的奥运铜牌实习生也因合同到期不会再来了。加上昨天的“XMAS”活动，还有最近小组的种种负面情绪，让我想把自己脑子里的东西写下来。也是通过下笔来给自己更多的时间考虑考虑，同时也练习一下中文吧 。。。

昨天是德国的几个partner来我们这里开个小会，报告一下我们的业绩，给我们洗洗脑，然后鼓励我们接下来继续努力，晚上吃个饭喝个酒。通过酒精，一些同事们的负面情绪也被放大了。跟我同级的同事心情不是很好我很清楚，但小老板情绪也不好就超过我的想象了。

咨询公司，在很多旁人眼里，就是会吹牛，给很多承诺，但是最后却交不出好成绩或者结果的那类人。当初老板拉我去安永，原因如下吧

• 老板很好。她对我（其他人也是）很信任，出事了也不会怪罪。她说得很好，不管出什么事，我们来解决就好。我这种会想太多的性格有这种后盾就可以轻松许多。当然了，工作上现在也不会多想了，因为就算负责，也没见谁出过什么大事。按照自己觉得正确的思维去做事，错了也算上了一课了。其实私下里我也知道她的很多事情，一年多前我状况很差的时候，她也跟我聊了很多她自己的事情。
• 同事也大多很好。因为跟随我老板拉过来的都是以前小组的精英。没有很多猪一样的队友也是很重要的。
• 我觉得自己需要看看不同的公司。咨询行业换项目换得快，这样可以看看形形色色的公司。

所以能跟很多信任的人一起做事，认认真真听客户需求，帮组客户，做一些好成果出来，对我来说还是挺有吸引力的。同事们也是这个态度，所以我觉得可以试试。而且各种程序也不用走，其实也有点图方便吧。

但是同事们的负面情绪也是来源于咨询的大环境了。苏黎世我们有两个小组。隔壁小组的头很typical，写proposal里面的很多东西已经吹的很大了。而且有很多东西给客户做了也没有很大用处。或者说，有些东西靠一个小时做出来根本没用，需要更加细节的去分析等等。这个现象好像现在也不是解释的很清楚，得需要举例吧。

对于我老板的老板来说，指标只有一个：sales revenue。项目卖出去就好，不管做什么，客户要什么就卖什么。我们小组自己还没能写很多自己的proposal，所以这方面我们根本还由不得自己。我老板要承上面的压力，但是自己没有很多项目。昨天吃完饭，大老板想继续去high，本来很多人都想回家了，但是做他下级，应该是要取悦他吧，毕竟业绩也没有很屌，我老板也就从了。我一直以来以为在欧洲不需要这么迎合老板，但是经过昨天之后发生的事情(在club里还有一些事情，这里就不写了)，让我想对我所在的社会状况反省反省了。（也许也是高层politics的关系吧）

再抽象点讲，我们大家都在玩游戏。社会是一个，经济是一个，政治是一个，工作是一个，爱情又是一个。很多游戏没有钉死的规则，但是有很多规律。可能因为人性贪婪也好，自私也好，很多规律形成的很复杂，这里也就不追究了。但是从事工作也好，做朋友也好，我有自己的道德观，该做什么，不该做什么，在这个阶段，形成的差不多了。我想按照自己觉得正确的方向去做，但是在一些跟你道德观并不平行的游戏规律面前，你会怎么做呢？

社会的格律很难去倒覆，大公司的制度你也很难逃出去，经济上就更难了。但是作为一个小团体，或者男女朋友，我觉得我们建立自己的规则，来提供一个可以做正确事情的小范围，是一件很美好的事情。去年有人跟我推荐了一个game theory的demo，key message说的真的很好。some cases, it’s the game who shape the players, but can’t we be the players who shape the game? （大意如此吧）

https://ncase.me/trust/

接下来会发生什么事情，我也不是很清楚。端正一下自己的情绪，态度继续去探索吧。

The trip is now over. I am back in Zurich, working, with my previous boss. I guess, I do appreciate her since she is genuine and does not make you feel like you are someone below her to get some stuff done. Even though I still do a lot of admin stuff for her, it is fine. I feel appreciated.

Again to the purpose of this travel. What did I write again in the very beginning? Ah a lot of questions. Did I meet a lot of people and observed a lot? I did and I tried. Towards the end, maybe less, but maybe it is because of the overload of the last 6 months. Have I tried to convey my feelings? Not quite to be honest. Especially looking at myself now, I am thinking a lot about some things whether I should say or not. I don’t want to scare people way. But for the negative feelings, I hold them back less. And I do not know whether this is a good thing or not … At work, in the house that my parents live .. I shouted at people where usually I would just let things slide through .. 

Maybe I found things that I really don’t like. But have I found out what I enjoyed during the whole travel? Which are the best days? Many people have asked me which place is the best where you have been to? I always replied: every place has its own charm, and every place had its own effect on me, also depending what I intended to do. Myanmar had a special place where I was able to discover the poor side and tried to volunteer and meditate. Playa Blanca’s planktons was amazing, Laos was a chill country. Peru is touristic and Bolivia was cold and a bit sad. 

I liked many people on the road, but rarely I felt like there is a connection. Maybe sometimes I was not too talkative, we never talked about real topics. We really stayed in my head? Mei, who lost her husband definitely did. She was also interesting in terms of what she did and that she believes in doing what is right. She digged into the things that she wanted to know about. Maybe a part of me is still feeling like to get those small confirmations that people wanted to have me as a part of something … Wout was a good travel companion .. and really anybody else? As for HD, I barely remember how I felt that day we met. And I can’t really follow how I end up in a situation like this. Is it because she always texted me and that made me feel more for her? maybe because she also read the same books I did when we were going through the break-up phase? Is it her smile that the moment we met? At this point, I can’t really understand fully how I feel today and may I am just unsure or anxious about the uncertainties in the future that I don’t have the ability to influence. 

So, what do I believe in? I want to build meaningful relationships, where I can trust others and others can rely on me as well. This takes time and time that you need to spend doing things together. Be it work, love, or friends. And other things? I am in general still curious, but looking long term, I am still not that sure where I wanna go to or accomplish. Job wise? not ambitious, financial wise? not ambitious either. Being in Switzerland does not give you the kick of wanting to cover your ass .. somehow you can always manage to do that here. Take a big corporate job if you want to retire easy … in the end, currently, there is one thing that I want, but it is taking too much space in my head that it has become a little bit out of balance. Balance, which was like the key to everything. And I need to re-find it. 

In the end, it feels like so many questions unanswered. It feels like I did not even accomplish that much with my travel. And maybe again, I am just in a moment where I am in a tunnel and don’t see the light just yet and I need to keep running … 

My last stop on this trip, salar the uyuni. I never thought I would come that far in South America. It feels kind of a bit rushed since I have skipped some places such as north of Peru. Nevertheless, here I am. 

I took the overnight bus from La Paz to Uyuni and would head back with an overnight bus again. Apparently, there is nothing to do there anyway and this is the suggestion people give us. Alternatively, some people arrive with the morning plane and then start the tour right away as well. 

There were mainly 3 well known agencies doing tours in the salt flat. I took the Quecha Connection since the comments were a little bit better than red planet and the other one whose name I can’t remember. 

I arrived around 5 in the morning, got picked up and delivered to a cafe where you can have a hot drink and it is just slightly warmer than the -10 degrees outside. In the cafe, there are some Israelis, I met some British girls, and 3 young Swiss guys, who were playing some board games. They just finished the military service and is travelling with the money they got from it. These 3 guys happen to be in the same group with me afterwards so we headed to the agency. 

At the agency, people start to come in. There was a French couple, Evie from England, Zoe from Australia, Steffi from Solothurn and studies in Basel (that makes 5 Swiss guys in the group), an Australian guy with a older peruvian woman dressed in tiger patterned pants. Also there was an Asian girl (forgot her name too but let’s call her Jane) who works in California, another guy (forgot his name, let’s call him Joe) from Australia who knew Zoe from previous group travelling. 

I ended up sitting with the Swiss guys in the same car. The tour guide we had is a short or maybe bolivian average height guy. He talks in a way that sounds like he is the best guide, the agency is the best and he has experience some shit and that’s why he is the best. (often when you claim to be the best is suspicious) During the 3 days, you talk to him a bit and find out more about his experience he had in America. He never told us much, but when you kept asking, he said his dad gave him a choice back then whether he wants to stay in Bolivia to join the army or to go to the US. Then he worked in a large hotel (5 star I assume). If that is what you think that makes up substantial experience gain in your life, yes it sort of is, but it is not everything. There is always so much more to see and to experience. And often deep down there, the more important things are not the surface that you can observe, it is the trust that you can build to get to understand how people behave, how people live their lives. 

Zoe is 26 and she seemed easy to talk to. Evie is cool, has nice legs but you figure out soon that she is one of the younger ones, just like the Swiss guys. They were trying to make fun of Steffi, but well, their “game” was pretty poor. They made some jokes that Steffi did not understood. And the conversation is then over. The other couples are rather quiet and we did not talk much. And even though I was in the truck with the Swiss guys, I can’t remember whether we talked about much important things .. 

The first part of the trip was a train graveyard where old trains were abandoned which delivered salt and other minerals (I think the silver mine down there is one of the biggest in the world). I saw some guys climbing the locomotive and one guy in the end slipped and fell to the ground. With his head down. I heard clearly how his neck cracked and some people hurried to check whether he is conscious. I felt like that guy just died since he collapsed when he hit the ground so I hurried to the hut to get the guides. As it turns out, the guys were just drunk and people chased them home … 

Drinking in Bolivia is actually a problem. It might be due to the high altitude and thus cold weather, according to the guide. But of course, there are parts of Bolivia which is not cold. Such as Santa Cruz. Economics is going well over there, but I did not have time to make it over there. 

Another story was actually the hot bath from the volcano heated underground water. People bought some wines in the town we were and being able to open a bottle became a challenge. One of the swiss guys managed to do that and became the “hero”. Then the conversation went on much smoother somehow and people started to get interested to ask questions about what they do and so on. Maybe it was the lack of alcohol, or it was lack of the warm water before, but I had the feeling, in general, people would only be nicer to you when they some benefit, or when they had some benefit from you … Is that the correct thing to do? Thinking selfishly, it is … but shouldn’t we just be nice to everyone upfront without prejudice? But often, when we see someone, in the first 5-10 seconds we already made a picture in our mind imagining whether this guy is weird or not … 

So that actually concluded my 168 days of travel. I made my way back home via La Paz, a flight stopping in Cuzco to Lima, from Lima to Bogota and from Bogota via Madrid back in Zurich. Billy and some other friends surprised me with an arrival welcome when I landed. So we gotta visit them in Helsinki over the NYE. 

That was it … Me, wanting to finish the trip to write more stuff about what have happened in the mean while. I remember someone said once, when you write diaries, if it is meant to be seen, then, you are not writing them for yourself, you are writing for those who you want them to read … In the beginning I really tried to write what I think, but I realized some things still do affect how you phrase words. Sometimes, even I would be a bit more angry about some things, I would not write it in that way … So just to be clear. The next posts are supposed to be read, by someone, but I just don’t know when it is the right time to say that … and it would also help me to sooth my nervous mind a little bit … 

Somehow I feel a bit of an urge to finish more. Because I want to write other things after the trip actually …

So I arrived in La Paz with a day bus which ran on pretty high altitude and the scenery was quite nice. The bus even went on a ferry to cross the lake.

In the end, I just walked around a bit in La Paz and did the death road. The downhill bike was quite fun. From 4600m down to 1600m. Even though some places might appear narrow, it is not that scary, only when you look down. During the trip, there was 2 American girls, Banjamin Alexander (a techno DJ who is fairly known, knows Anja Schneider personally), a Dutch couple and other 2 guys from Germany, and Italy I think. Of course, Ben appeared to be the most interesting since he has a life that not many people have. He would go to Burning Man and build a stage there, maybe tour a few places in South America and use the money to travel, maybe has a house in HK and tour in Asia for a few months. Yes, you can spark some interests from other people but in the end, will this last?

In the hostel, there were 2 girls from Norwegian who stayed in my room for the last 2 days. They did not even know where Switzerland was … But they are nice people. In the night, they actually ordered a shot for me, since I just had my 30th birthday. The conversations were pretty lame though, I feel like I am worse and worse in small talks and just in general to keep some conversations going. Maybe, I am just thinking about stuff that were too deeply related to what have happened in the past. About how I should live my life or how my attitude should be.

For the final game of the World Cup, there was a mixed Bolivian and UK guy beside me. I briefly remember that he did some finance studies but now is change his subject. To be honest, I can’t remember that much anymore. He seemed easy to talk to, and we briefly touched topics that may not appear too “oberflächlich”.

La Paz itself is an interesting city. Within the valley, cable cars are actually the mean of transportation here. It took you to another place pretty fast and provided you with a good view.

I also went to the more wealthy zone and had a good Japanese dinner and went to watch a movie in the cinema by myself, which was not that bad at all. Normally you don’t talk while watching the movie anyway, but it is just a good thing to provide a topic that you can talk about after the movie with the person you went. (this part actually happened after returning from Salar de Uyuni)

I think in the end, given the cold weather and me at my end of the trip, I was not feeling that social. I rather enjoyed wandering around in the city than talking to other people.

And this time, I am lazy again. No pictures.

Me, going somewhat a bit crazy the last few days. My brain is weird and is just thinking too much …

Yesterday I checked my old posts. Since I am back here in Zurich, I was pretty consistent in posting, once every month. So let us continue the tradition.

After Arequipa, I left for Puno with a day bus which arrived there during night time. Many people already commented that Puno itself is cold and not that stunning. So I decided to take a small hotel, do a half day tour and then leave for Copacabana.

I accidentally got the wrong address of the hotel. In the first street, nothing is really there and after 5 mins, I realized that I needed to go somewhere else. In that empty street, I was not really feeling comfortable, even the hotel would have been there …

There is not much food on the street, so I went into a chifa. The cook himself is actually Chinese and came here a dozen years ago. His wife works in this town, too, in another chifa (who would have thought). But really, if you check the prices here, I wonder how he makes money. Given that the weather here is so cold, what does it take to live and earn your money in Puno? Unfortunately, I did find out too much about the cook and left the restaurant.

The next day I took a short half day trip onto those floating islands. I remember talking to 2 Norwegian guys from Trondheim. One was a teacher teaching the teachers, and the other one was a doctor. We briefly chatted and then parted our ways since I took the bus to Bolivia.

At the bus station, it was actually a bit weird. The bus staff informed me that I need to do some stamps at the bus station since the machine at the border was broken. I need to pay a small fee of one dollar to do that. Even though it did not make really sense, I figured, well, whatever, and headed to the office. However, the queue there is quite long and we had to wait for a couple of minutes. The bus wanted to depart, so they send onto the bus and said that we can do that at the border too (wut?).

At the border, it was really not an issue to cross. We handed in the customs forms at the Peruvian side, queued at the Bolivian side, got the stamp, and left. Maybe also because the queue at the border suddenly got long (because a Bolivia hop bus just arrived to go to the Peru side), people at the border got stressed and sped up the process by not looking at my passport at all and gave me stamp.

At Copacabana, I thought I could treat myself and booked the “most expensive” hotel in town. It costed 44 dollar and was on a small hill where you could look over the bay area. The room or rather apartment was big enough for 3 people, which was a bit overkill for myself. But the facilities are good enough and had even small heaters in the room. The hotel itself even had their house alpacas where you can feed them in the morning. Without food, they don’t really bat an eye when you come close. I needed to give a lot of “puff breakfast thingys” so that they actually come close to me.

Many people suggested to go to the isla del sol. Supposedly very nice place. The hotel rooms there are a bit more expensive but I figured why not. Mine was located on the top of the hill and you actually had to hike quite a bit to get there. During the day, it was really hot under the sun, but in the night, you freeze your ass off. In the hotel, I saw the two Norwegians again after breakfast. I also met 2 Dutch guys which I met on the bus from Puno to Copacabana, but I don’t really remember anything we talked about, not even the dinner we had together back in the town in Copacabana (Actually when I saw my notes, I apparently met them in the monastery in Arequipa where we saw 5-10 minutes of a world cup game together).

All in all, I did not even talk to many people in these 3,4 days. I actually enjoyed it. Maybe it was also the cold weather or the town, that looked broken and a bit sad which did not motivate you to speak too much.

Now, I will put some photos again because isla del sol was actually really beautiful with the starry skies.

One of the floating places

The view from the hotel reception

The boat to the isla del sol

somewhere at the docking place on the island

view from the hotel on the island

starry night, the clearest sky i have seen so far.

Me, chewing through my current project at work, starting to get less lazy when I come home …

 

Last edited 2 months ago …

Allow me to continue for one more post.

So I took the night bus from Cuzco to Arequipa. I arrived early at the hostel and met Jose, who was super nice. We briefly chatted about some stuff, and after 3 months, I don’t really remember what exactly we talked about. But the memories remained was the nice impression he left on me.

That morning, some spanish girls were watch the football game, people randomly chatting on the sofa. Nothing too special. I met some Swiss or Austrian girls in my room, who did internships at BCG, where someone from our studies is working too. Such a small world.

In the evening, people were watching some netflix and discussing about some general stuff which i don’t remember either (what’s the point of this post then haha)

I think I met the 2 Swiss girls again, who broke her face by falling onto some glasses in Cuzco, and they were staying my room as well.

There was a old German guy living in Chile, doing some climbing agencies. Somehow he did not like to speak German. Maybe after so many years in Chile, it’s not the same anymore.

The most people I got to know, was actually on the colca canyon trip. And it was mostly Spanish speaking people. There were an Oracle database guy who married a Peruvian with law degree, some white people from costa rica. and a mom with her son from Lima. The mom talked sometimes to me and her son is actually doing some DJ and equipment lending in Lima. The canyon itself is beautiful with volcanoes and falcons, but I did the lazy version, which basically was just driving around. The 2 day organized trip was feeling too touristic to me. But I sort of was rushing a bit towards Salar de Uyuni.

Back at the hostel, some people are grouping up to  do some camping. The would just go down the canyon and camp somewhere. That sounded quite adventurous.

At the very end, I did a guided tour in the basilica. The guide was actually a beautiful woman, who dresses up like one of those fancy girls. But the conversation with her did not go very well since she would just tell me all the numbers and figures in English, and that’s it. When I asked about the life here in Arequipa, nothing interesting was coming out.

The monastery (a non one) was quite cool. The building itself may be typical but the red colored walls gave everything a nice touch. Recommended.

Now I am even too lazy to post pictures … I think for Arequipa, there was nothing too special.

Me, feeling obliged to complete a new post after someone else found out that this blog existed … and now I need to do some data analysis for work …

I have been slacking for a while now, where was I?

Oh yeah, I wanted to go to Cuzco more quickly since there is the Inti Raymi  there, which is the sun festival in the Inka’s language. Inkas worship the sun as one of the most important gods hence I thought this is something I should not miss.

I arrived on a Friday with the overnight bus and checked into a fairly big hostel, Pariwana. My friend Wout from Medellin recommended some local family to me where he stayed during his language exchange and apparently they do some travel agency stuff too. He said sometimes it is difficult to know what you receive when booking those tours and this is one that I can trust. So I chatted her up and we met the next day to go to the office later. (Actually I was supposed to get picked up from the bus station but my bus was slightly delayed and she went away again … )

Saturday the city was packed with people already. There were local groups or community formed groups going around in colorful traditional cloths. I can feel how important the sun is now. At an altitude of 3400m, the sun gives you the warmth that you need. I don’t really like the sun in summer when it is already 35 degrees, but the sun ray at 10, 15 degrees? Ah, must be heaven.

So I booked the Inti raymi tour with the agency and was supposed to be picked up at 5:30 in the morning. I went down at 5:32 and was afraid that I would be late. Turned out south american people are not punctual (so far nothing big happened, which is actually a surprise now that I think about it again) and I got picked up at 6:40. The car went then 2, 3 more rounds to pick up more people and we arrived at the temple of the sun around 7:10ish. The setup was basic with plastic stools but luckily I was in the front row. It was quite cold outside when the sun is not out (5 degrees). There, I found some people from Canada, a mixed couple with the man from the US and the woman from Peru (normal setup) and a russian daughter and father from Australia, with the daughter being a lawyer in London and father used to work in mining industries and now doing something interesting, but I forgot what exactly … something with a prison? So after the rather artificial show at the sun plaza, where 4 different groups from different regions showed up with different costumes, we went up the hill to watching the 2nd part of the ceremony where a llama is supposed to get sacrificed. We were sitting on a free hill and after the long wait, the llama got brought up the stage, but then got hidden under it to “sacrifice” it. Not that I desperately want to see it get killed, but it just feels not authentic.

OK OK, I am not going to bore you or even myself with the details of what I did, let’s switch to the people.

At the hostel, the first night, I remember meeting a half Chinese/Korean girl, and Alex from the US. Then Nick joined who is from Australia. The topic of the night was that Alex was trying to get some weed and the Asian girl failed to do so. And suddenly, Alex was appearing to the “hero” and of course they wanted to smoke it afterwards. I also met another guy called Mats from the Netherlands. He is just doing his usual holiday here and we hanged out for a night.

The second night suddenly, we got to meet the Asian’s friend from new Zealand as well (friends, which she met on the way). Along with her friends too. So we ended up in the other hostel called Kokopeli, which actually had the better atmosphere.

Through nick, I also met Lorin, who turned out, studies at ETH and does electrical engineering … Funny enough, he lives in Neu-affoltern, which is like 10 mins bus drive from my place …

Also one night, I went out for dinner with Lorin and Nick, met 2 more Swiss girls from Romandie. One got her face smashed (literally) because she fell into some glass at a festival.

Now actually, I have all the orders mixed up, but I think, this does not really matter here. I did something in the day and met some people in the night.

At a half day ATV (quad bike) tour, one particular Canadian Tamil guy was a bit different. He does some window decorating at H&M and seems very talkative and open. We talked to some other Israeli guys in the car as well, but when other Israelis join, they speak only in their language and to some extend, it is true that these are “slight” rude people. So in the end, it is interesting to see, that a lot of enthusiasm brings you far.

Another night, I went to Kokopeli with Mats. We ended up playing some pool with a Australian Vietnamese guy called Ly and a Chinese girl from La Reunion. Thanks to a friend of mine, who went there earlier and told me about it, I was able to say that I know where it is. Ly seems very sociable as well and actually knows a lot of people in the hostel. We played a card game called liars, too. That is actually quite fun. You would put down a number of cards and say what card you put down, if someone calls you out and catches you lying, you take them all. This is a good way to get to know people a bit as well to see when they are lying and when not.

I also went to the rainbow mountain, which is 5070m high, to test out how I feel on that altitude. Turned out it was pretty OK. If you walk in a very slow pace but steady, you can reach the top without big problems. There, I also met HD, a Chinese girl who is living in the States. It was breakfast time when I saw her, (we got picked up at 4:30 and I made sure I was picked up the last.) while still waking up. She wore glasses and broke out a smile when she saw me. On the table, everyone did some small talk and when I said I am originally from China, she said she thought that I was not, the classic. And one thing that I still remember is that when we were pouring coffee, she mentioned that she does not want to drink coffee now, “because, you know, afterwards I need to go to the toilet”. I was chuckling inside a bit since this is not something that someone would say the first few minutes you meet, especially not girls. But in some way, that was cute. In the minivan, there was also some Spanish students, one was a medical student who was between her studies. There was also one a bit older woman from Peru, but living in Italy. She left the countries many years back and somehow managed to stay there with no outstanding education. The rest of the hike, I was talking together with HD, talking a bit about just anything. Tbh, I don’t remember what we talked about in details, but in some way, I find Chinese girls more interesting, not sure why. Maybe it is just the way you communicate in Chinese, that makes everything better … When we finally returned, I asked her whether she wanted to come to dinner which I planned with Tao and his wife. Ah, Tao, whom I met 3 times in my whole trip, 2 times in China, once in Peru. In the end, it turned out, when HD mentioned she was going to do research, she is actually going to Havard …

At the trip to Machu Picchu, where I organized the lazy version, with the train back and forth, I met also a few that I got to know previously. I met the couple in Lima again, where the guy is going to work for Apple. We met on the way up to the watch tower/hut, and they kindly took a few pictures for me. I also met the Mexican couple on the way to Sun Gate (actually on the climb from the bridge to the peak of Machu Picchu as well), which I met in Cusco city. Mats also just came down from his Jungle trekking tour. In the tour group, there was a Swiss couple too travelling for quite a few time. Also, I met Alex from the hostel on the way down with the bus with his parents. Did I mention that he is actually only 18 and doing some gap months? Gosh, what did I do when I was 18 …

Also worth mentioning, was the receptionist, who picked me up at the Agua Calientes train station. She seemed nice and normal in the beginning, but I had to throw a big question mark when she knocked on my door 1 or 2 hours later, where I was half naked coming out from the shower, and asked me which nationality I was again (but she made a copy of my passport earlier). Then she added me on fb and also texted me on whatsapp …

Also a very random and funny encounter was when I boarded the bus to the sacred valley tour just prior to the train to Agua Calientes. I got shoved into a pick up taxi and talked to some Americans about what we do, and made already some jokes about things. Then we got off at the same place, but went on different tours. That was like a successful speed dating, but you get dragged apart disruptively.

Then, I also remember the bus pickup back in ollamyamtambo, where a woman has a list of a lot people who she needed to confirm with her voice shouting out the names. That was not efficient at all, especially given there were hundreds of people coming out of the train. It was sort of not nice, but I was kind of watching her hustling around out of entertainment …

Back at Pariwana, I met some other new people. There was a Belgian guy doing sabbatical before moving to London for his new position, a young English guy working for BBC with vendors. A chip designer guy whose job is exactly those things I learned at VLSI with voltage drop analysis, place and route and all this stuff. Then there was also a girl at breakfast table doing investment banking and quited after a week since her colleague who stayed there for 2 years is doing the same cheap excel shit (I sort of can imagine now after 1.5 months at EY). She is going to Deloitte afterwards doing data analysis. At lunch time once, I met an vienna guy studying economics, went to brazil for an exchange semester and is afterwards going to mckinsey. There were also 2 NY real estate guys (one law and one maybe sales) on the hill of cusco. They missed their flight and it took them almost 24 hours to come from NY to Cusco.

That was it, a very brief description of what happened in Cusco. After almost 3 months, I feel like I missed maybe many details. There was the World Cup going on at the same time, and even some more smaller encounters, which I kind of remember, but don’t want to write down anymore … Anywhere, I got the most important down and that is good enough for 2000 words.

Me, back at home for exactly 2 months …

Nasca is relatively close to Lima. I boarded on an early bus with Cruz del Sur, which is an amazing bus company. The seats are better than on the plane and there is even breakfast served.

I stayed at a small homestay which was basic, but had the things you needed. There was a young man with (probably) his two kids. His parents help to run the hostel as well.

The main attraction here is the Nasca lines. Some traces left by ancient people, apparently to conduct rituals to pray for water. The planetarium explains it pretty well. The German researcher dedicated her whole life (I believe somewhere around 50 years?) unveiling the lines and the planetarium is now named after her. At the end, there was a star gazing session where the guide showed us different star constellations for the southern hemisphere. Also we were able to look at the moon through the telescope.

After the tour, we went to eat chicken together. There were a couple, one French, one English and another LA guy originally from Taiwan. The couple were doing some farming (workaway) somewhere around Cuzco area and is now travelling on to there next work-away spot. Apparently they were able to see the local culture which was pretty neat. The LA guy was dressed in a poncho which is normal for the Cuzco area, but not here in Nasca. I first thought he is somewhat a hippie before he explained that. Actually, he is a photographer and does some marketing campaign back in LA. His clothing were quite atypical I would say and his camera not really confirming his photographer identity.

It was pretty cool to actually sit together after a such short tour. Even though we will probably forget about each other soon, but I was a nice chat nevertheless.

After the dizzy flight over the Nasca lines (actually Peru was playing a football match, and I was worrying whether this is the right moment to board the plane since no one will really pay attention, but in the end it went well, the poor Israeli girl felt sick after the first turn and was puking the whole flight. And the company is taking their job seriously and even was weighing people before assigning seats), I also went on a Buggy tour before going on the night bus to Cuzco. Some archaeological site looked pretty fake and the more interesting part were actually driving up and down the dunes and the sandboarding afterwards.

There was a Chinese guy, who was working in Brazil for some weeks and now taking some days off to see Peru. Usually, you don’t see many or any chinese tourist travelling alone, especially here in nasca, which is not that popular. On the buggy, there were also 2 brazil guys from my hostel. They were really not that social and never talked to anyone on this trip. I roughly remember some Germans where I was confirming the football score to them but now, after some months, I don’t remember much about them at all.

At the night bus station, some drunk Argentinian guy talked to me, who smelled really bad. I was somewhat nervous but in the end, he just wanted to have a conversation. Also, there were many Koreans taking the bus to Cuzco as well.

I guess this is a post after 2 months already, and being working for 3 weeks, I feel very neutral about things happened back then …

 

Many people on the road said that there were not many things to do in Lima. I stayed in Miraflores, a well developed part of Lima, which seemed safe, and modern.

In the end, all I did was walking around, a walking tour in the city center and enjoying some relatively good food for cheaper prices (compared to what you would get/cost in CH).

At the tour, I met a polish lady doing finance in London. She is now doing some months of holiday before moving to Barcelona to her boyfriend. I believe she was laid off and is now taking a break. I don’t know in which situation I would go to travel alone and leaving your other half at home. There was one Dutch guy as well, who did an internship in a hotel in NY and is now moving back to Holland to work in a luxury hotel which name I unfortunately forgot. There were also a Canadian couple I met from the hostel who were joining the tour. The guy studied at McGill (i know this one since one of my ex colleague studied there too) and will be working with product development at Apple.

I talked a bit to girl from the travel agency as well. She mentioned that Israel guys sometimes tend to be quite rude, and they never say thank you. I remember someone told me that they always be travelling in groups and sofar, I only met 3 in Laos, they seemed OK though.

In Miraflores, there are a lot of quite good restaurants for 30 bucks. I went to AmaZ the last night and ate at the bar. The bartender was very nice and gave me recommendations about the food over there. He also seemed to be very dedicated to his job and was doing his work very focused(we had small chats together too and he has been doing that since 3 years and enjoys it quite much). It was fun observing what they do. The would get orders from maybe waiters directly, but all orders come from the printer as well. After some drinks, you can see them sort out what they have done and what was still missing. I must say I wouldn’t be sure after talking to customers, recommending them what to eat, to drink and still keep track of what has been made and what is still missing. Then after a few drinks they would need to clean they shakers and filters, which is rather a boring job to do. But it is a part of the work so they also cleaned that carefully. I appreciated observing that and in every job, we will have small tasks to do which are not “rewarding” but choosing the right attitude when doing these is the essential part.

Some pictures of the food.

Cuy (Guinea pig)

Pisco sour + Churos piskpirones + Caueita pituca +  Empanadas de carde de monte

Favorite bartender so far

me, after a lazy Saturday ….

It was fairly easy to organise the entry into Peru. You can get the exit stamp at the port of Leticia, and then take a boat to Santa Rosa Island to get your entry stamp within 24 hours. The boat driver at the dock seemed to be running his boat with his son. He looked a bit overwhelmed operating the boat and was giving instructions to his son in a rather nervous voice. But everything went fine in the end. I also got my fast boat ticket to Iquitos with Golfinho. There were other boat companies too which are less expensive, but the timing were different (5am and arriving at 5pm I believe). So in order to avoid confusions, I got the Golfinho as intended. Martial was with me and went for the slow boat option. Again, this is not my thing anymore. Going with the boat for 3 days and sleep in hommocks can surely be avoided by paying double the price.

The morning (3am departure time, 2am at the Golfinho dock) was quite easy to manage. However, I was waiting in the hostel first until it is time to depart. It was somehow difficult to stay awake. Around 12ish I was almost falling asleep. I believe I was asleep for a short while and woke up. Luckily, I did not oversleep so I headed out even though it was a bit early. Near the dock, some dogs were frenzily barking at me to protect the watchman in the booth. That was the first time some dogs thought I was invading their space and got me a bit nervous … maybe it was also because of what happened to the young Dutch guy.

There were 2 guys sitting at the dock waiting for business. Then wanted triple the price compared to the daytime. In the end, I gave up bargaining since I was at the short handle because there were nobody else there. I started chatting with them. China seems to be a distant place to them. Only thing they mentioned was ah, chinese people are good with technology. The advance of chinese technology had changed a bit people’s thinking I guess. In the end, I was the only one taking the ferry boat from Leticia port, so we left when time was due.

The boat itself was not too modern. In the shallow moonlight, it seemed a bit rusty and not very well maintained. But there was service on boat, and the seats were comfortable. I was able to occupy 2 seats to stretch out as well.

The border crossing happened somewhere when the sun came out. We stopped at a small village and a few policemen hailed us onshore. There were watching France playing against some other team and were not fully committed in checking our documents. When they opened my bag and wallet, then went curiously went through everything. It was not that they were checking illegal stuff, but rather just want to see what I have with me. “Oh, what is this, oooh nice, oh what is this?” … There was also an Italian hippy guy, when they jokingly (I hope) asked him straight away, hey, where is the weed.

At Iquitos port, tuk tuk drivers fight for businesses. I read somewhere on the internet that a drive should cost no more than 5 soles and some people ask you for 15 when you get off the boat. First guy asked 20, so I walked off. At the front gate outside, the next guy said 10. I said 5, but nobody jumped in, and I only got down to 7. The hostel guy later told that it is actually just 4 soles.

Compare to other places, Iquitos was quiet and I didn’t really meet any people except a guy with gips on his arm going to Leticia, a australian (or english) medicine student doing a job/internship here for 4 months.

Here is the boat guy who brought us to Santa Rosa.

The boat at 3am in the morning.

The streets in Iquitos with to-be-fixed VW Käfers.

 

 

 

 

 

The busy Belen market. After doing business, people will tell you to be aware of your bags and wallet.

Me, have been now back home for 5 days now, trying to get things organized again.