So, we leave South America having experienced perhaps the best and worst of travel experiences. In fact, we see the Goldilocks phenomenon everywhere we went, where polar extremes coexist side by side.
Let me start with the best and worst of humankind, ie 1. Saints and Sinners.
Peru is home to 5 saints, two of which came from the same monastery (Santo Domingo) and two of them were born and raised in the same neighbourhood in Lima (though centuries apart). They were noted for healing, for helping the poor, for uniting mortal enemies.
Yet in the very same city, we personally experienced a hit-and-run. Our driver was slowing down at a traffic light and the car behind with two young men on board didn't and rammed us hard. We got down to survey the damage and they had the cheek to drive away. The feisty guide tried to follow them but to no avail as her car was damaged so badly it could. It continue.
2. Rich and poor
This situation is perhaps not surprising when one considers that sharing space in these overcrowded South American cities are people at extreme ends of the wealth scale. The poor have so much more to worry about, in some cases just surviving esp. if one lived in a gang-infested favela in Rio or a rough barrio in Lima. Civic responsibility is going to be way down the priority list and I am sure the perpetrators drove off seeing the extent of damage (and the associated costs of repair) they have cause (and would have to incur).
3. Hot and cold
Let me now turn to a more uplifting topic: the amazing forces of nature that Peru experiences. In this relatively small country, just south of the equator, Peruvians have to contend with 11 ecological weather conditions. There are two principal reasons for this. Firstly, the topography of Peru is that of a long 2000km coastline on one side and the Amazon forest on the other, separated by the tall Andes mountain range. The cold winds (courtesy of Humboldt currents) from the Pacific Ocean are prevented from blowing across the breadth of the country by the Andes, endowing the coasting strip with a unique weather condition of thick cloud cover and cool temperatures. Lima for instance has several microclimates in the course of the day depending on how the cool winds blow.
4. Passion and Pain (thereafter?)
Speaking of cold air, let me turn to a more steamy subject. The picture below is that of a statue in a Parc Guell - inspired garden at a beach at Miraflores, in front of the swanky Larcomur shopping complex. It's a powerful statue showing a couple embraced in a passionate kiss and on a Saturday evening we saw scores of teenagers openly displaying their affection for each other in similar manner. Throughout Peru, we saw many many young children, including a family who had two young kids alighting from a taxi and the woman was heavily pregnant with the third. I guess this is no surprise in a catholic country where the people start young! In fact the kids, especially in Cuzco and Aqueas Calientes were everywhere, running free (and doing homework) next to their mums even in the market stalls.
5. Rise and Fall, and Rise again
If there is one thing good thing to come out of all these passions and pregnancy, that would be population growth and this demographic dividend is likely to pay off. After years of poor, or even negative governance (which tragically included terrorism rearing it's ugly head), Peru is on it's way to recovery. This decade has seen good economic growth and this country, once the centre (or navel if you prefer to use the Incan description) of South America is on the rise again with the decaying urban areas now undergoing a reviving renewal.
6. Atlantic and Pacific
In our backyard we too have our own history of revival. Back in the first century AD, there were great civilizations of the Khmer and Majapahit empires that built the Angkor Wat and Borobudur respectively. Like many South American countries we got colonized for much of the 14th to 20th century and wour newly independent countries are now fast rising. Living as we are in South East Asia, flanked by the Indian Ocean to the west and South China Seas to the east, we don't often get to see the other great oceans: the Atlantic and Pacific. Our round-the-world journey would of course necessitate us flying over both these oceans, but from the sky it's just a big blue expanse. But from the ground, like the view below of Copacana beach and the aptly named Avenidas Atlantic, the ocean with its crashing waves look spectacular. Without meaning to, we had visited both the eastern and western seaboards of the beautiful continent.
7. Sunrise and Sunset
Continuing with the list of delightful dichotomous diversity, number seven is perhaps the most breathtaking. This seventh heaven is of sunrise in Macchu Pichu which we caught on the second day on our way to scale Waynna Pichu, the taller mountain just behind the site as you see here. In fact, throughout this trip, to catch moments like this, or to catch flights we have been rising early and going to sleep early, very much like the farmers here. We retire about 9pm, usually after dinner, and none better that the one last night at Tanto's where we watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.
8. Haute cuisine vs room service
On this note of dining, we tried many different types of foods, but for me especially many meats. In fact, too much so that I caught a cold and cough which D attributed to heatiness from ingesting too much "yang" foods and sampling of caipirinha, Brazilian beers, pisco sours, Argentine and Chilean wines. Still, it's all worth the while for the food and drinks here (except when we were too tired and D too queasy and ordered soup ans spaghetti from the hotel room service) have been consistently excellent and unique (alpaca, guinea pig to name but two).
9. Mountain top and sea level
So, my dear reader, we've indeed had the highs and lows over the past ten days and literally so! While we did spend much time at sea level, we shall never forget how life is harsher in the highlands and also how hardy yet friendly the people there are. D experienced altitude sickness getting up beyond 3000m so she is very clearly a grounded person while I would like to believe I enjoy having my head in the clouds :)
10. The journey countinues...
Strictly speaking, this concluding item is not about having experienced the extremes. It's about our continuing love of travel. We head now to the US (Miami, Los Angeles) and then Japan (Tokyo), the world's largest and second largest economies respectively. More civilized and maybe one day may other citizens in the rest of the world also enjoy such development, while staying connected to their cultures and histories.
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