Missing passion

Megan:
I have been trying to write about our time in Cusco for the past week and have encountered a lot of trouble making any kind of point. I feel like there were some real challenges as well as wonderful moments, but I think the reason for this block is that when I look back on our time there I don't feel any passion. We both felt relatively indifferent about our cumulative time in school, with our local family, and exploring the city - which is probably more closely tied to where we are in the process of this trip than our physical location.

Most of our past month was spent involved in a Spanish school - studying, living with a local family and getting to know some of the other students. We spent a good portion of our first week talking to the director of the school about things that didn't feel like a good fit for us. This began with the first 'family' we moved in with - we very quickly realized that this location was a 50 minute walk from school, it was really more of a small hotel complete with business cards, and all of the travelers ate at a separate (English speaking) table from the rest of the family. Obviously not our style.

Our second family resolved a number of the previous problems, but we still ended up feeling relatively indifferent about the experience. There were a few substantial conversations where we shared our thoughts on the upcoming presidential election or the conquering of the indigenous people in both of our countries centuries before, but we never really felt like part of the family as we had in previous home stays. We also found conversations around the table quickly turned to English since we shared the house with another couple traveling from the UK who had no prior experience with Spanish. We realized this was not an ideal situation when we found ourselves leaving the house so we could practice speaking a little Spanish on our own.

I found myself confronting the director of the school again regarding whether one of my teachers was really a good fit for me, and trying to get clear what my curriculum would be for the following two weeks since it was not yet apparent to me that there was in fact a plan in place. By the way, as proof that we are in fact learning, all of these conversations now take place in Spanish. After that meeting, things improved, but Jon and I had enough days of only half-understanding what we were being taught, that we were pretty ready when the last day of classes rolled around.

One of the most challenging events of our time in Cusco is that Jon's day bag was stolen. We were in a travel agency discussing the details of a possible upcoming high-altitude backpacking trip, and somehow a man off the street managed to swipe Jon's bag from beside his chair without us noticing. We both went through a range of emotions...disbelief (surely this didn't just happen to us - we're always so careful), anger, an awareness of our extreme vulnerability, complete acceptance (for whatever reason this is what was supposed to happen), and then sadness for all the 'things' that had been lost. We did manage to remain grateful throughout this roller coaster of emotions that we still had everything important - the two of us had not been placed in any danger - and the stuff (Jon's camera and even his travel journal of the past 8 months) could be replaced or at least absorbed into our memories.

Despite the above list of challenges, we were surrounded by some positive experiences too - like the social scene we found at our school. We quickly bonded with a great group of fellow travelers over a cup of tea at school or a pisco sour at night on the dance floor. It seems we had more nights out in Cusco than any other city on our trip. We also had the pleasure of meeting up with our good friends Mackenzie and Bradley from Boulder who were preparing to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu - how wonderful after eight months to see familiar faces who required no explanation of who we were or where we came from. We enjoyed a few trips outside of the city also, like our fantastic weekend excursion to several Inca ruins in the nearby Sacred Valley. After seeing Machu Picchu three years ago, we weren't sure how impressive these sites would be, but once again we were astounded by the incredible craft and level of detail the Incas used in their architecture.

Overall, after four weeks in Cusco, we were both very ready to bid farewell to the city that initially made us fall in love with South America. Hopefully this change of scenery will bring with it the renewal of energy we are both desperately craving.