The Overpacker

Location: Lima, Peru

Date: Friday, November 5, 2010

Today I should have left Lima for Bolivia. I should be on a bus. I should also be six foot two and . . . .wait. I did this already.

Scratch that. I did have a bus ticket to Arequipa that left today. I didn’t make it. Not to worry, this time it was on purpose. I was packed up, all set to go, when Doug said to me, “Man, it’s too bad you’re leaving today. Karem’s dad has tickets to tonight’s ‘U’ game.” Read more…

Location: Lima, Peru

Date: Thursday, November 4, 2010

Kids are like a winter home in Aspen–best if you borrow someone else’s instead of going through the trouble and expense of owning one of your own. Over the past week I have had the pleasure of occasionally borrowing Doug and Karem’s little one. It’s been fun. A few observations from a happily single and childfree man: Read more…

Location: Lima, Peru

Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Let’s talk about sex. Specifically, sex for kids. Today, shopping at a bookstore, we ran across a book entitled Sexualidad para Niños which is exactly what you’d expect it to be about. Except more. Way more. Read more…

Location: Bed, Lima, Peru

Date: Tuesday, November 2, 2010

I spent the day recovering from last night’s “activities” . I was able to rouse myself enough to join the family for a meal. I was still a little upside down, but I soldiered through half a salad. Read more…

Location: In bed, Lima, Peru

Date: Monday, November 1, 2010

For every yin there is a yang. For every dawn there is a dusk. For every purchase, there is a price. For every R2-D2 there is a Jar Jar. For every season, there is a turn turn turn.

The last two days have been about as perfect as I could hope. I have been neck deep in Peruvian food and culture. Unfortunately, today things evened out. After a spectacular run, the wheels came off the car and I careened into a gastric wall. I fell ill. Read more…

Location: Lima, Peru

Date: Sunday, October 31, 2010

Peru is a diverse country. During the colonial period, Lima, its capital, served as the center of all sanctioned Spanish trade (much to the chagrin of Buenos Aires and Argentina). People were drawn to it for its vast natural resources both mineral and agricultural. The country was also home to the largest, most sophisticated indigenous empire in the Americas. How diverse is Peru? It once had a Japanese president. An Asian isn’t getting near the White House any time soon; maybe for a long time considering how the currently tinted president is polling. All’s to say is that this is a rich culture.

Read more…

Location: Lima, Peru

Date: Saturday, October 30, 2010

Food is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Eating good food is nearly as sensually stimulating as sex and has a few advantages: inviting more participants is normal (even expected); people don’t look at you funny if you do it in public; you already know that everything goes in your mouth; you get to do it with pigs (I’ll leave off the qualifiers for any Jews, Muslims, or recreational deviants who take issue with the particulars of these assertions). (Feel free to use the comments to speculate what advantages were cut from the final draft.)

The point is, if you don’t enjoy good food, you’re missing out on half of what makes life worth living (the other half: good company). One in every three gods agrees. Seriously.

All’s to say is this is the mega-ultimate-super-wow food post. I’ve covered food in the past (e.g. in Vietnam here and here). None like today, though.

All I did today was eat. Oh I wrote too, but that was mostly because I needed a break from eating. When I look at the list of food I ate, I am both horrified and inspired. I am a fat man trapped in a skinny man’s body. Today that fat man wants to give that skinny man a big, lardy hug. He also wants to be adopted by Karem and Doug’s family. Read more…

Location: Ica and Lima, Peru

Date: Friday, October 29, 2010

Technically, I’ve returned to Lima to hang out with Doug and Karem, two friends from California. Technically, they’ve come to Peru to visit family. In reality, what we’ve all come to Lima for is to eat. Sure, we’ll being hanging out with family and friends and there’ll be some shopping and maybe some sightseeing, but all those will be preludes or accompaniments to food. Lots and lots of good Peruvian food. Far as I can tell, Lima has a richer culinary scene than any other South American city (probably in part because of the country’s rich farmland and a history of being the center of trade on the continent). Read more…

Location: Paracas Islands and hospital clinic in Ica, Peru

Date: Thursday, October 28,2010

“I  just don’t want to die without a few scars.”  ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

I should be writing about my visit to the Paracas Islands (the “poor man’s Galapagos”) today. You should be reading about the throngs of sea birds skimming the sea, pacing our boat as we skipped across the water. I should be bringing you onto that boat, describing the feeling of floating a few feet from sea lions lounging on sea bound rocks. The descriptions of the males of the species—young and old—jockeying for mating spots on the beach should make you feel that we are more like our animal cousins than we might admit. I should be making you soar with the wonders of nature and sit in awe of the simple, yet complex, and yet somehow still simple beauty of rocketing past flocks of birds, divebombing the water for fish. I mean, it’s totally, like, nature, man. Read more…

Location: Dunes surrounding Huacachina, Peru

Date: Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I came to Huacachina to sandboard. Last winter I didn’t go snowboarding. I won’t be snowboarding this season (in part because, down this side of the equator, it’s summer). This, then, is my warm weather desert fix. Read more…

Location: Ica, Huacachina and surrounding wineries, Peru

Date: Tuesday, October 26, 2010

If you can’t be happy on a day like today you will never, ever be happy. That, and The Eagles are bar none the world’s greatest ambassadors for traveling Californians. Also, everyone loves Michael. Err, and Willie is crazy (in a good way).

And to think, it all started with some after lunch pisco sours. Read more…

Location: Cusco, Peru and roads to Ica

Date: Monday, October 25, 2010

Traveling is two parts planning, three parts luck. For example, you can plan on going on a four-day liveaboard trip in Thailand’s Similan Islands, but you can’t control whether you see a manta ray. You can eat at more Western restaurants, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get food poisoning.  You can plan on being on time for a train, but that doesn’t mean you’ll actually make it. Sometimes fate has different plans. Read more…

Location: Tipon outside Cusco, Peru

Date: Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Mission: Tipon, a town 30 km outside of Cusco. Home to a terraced set of ruins containing a still working aqueduct system. Also famous to Peruanos for its many guinea pig restaurants. Read more…

Location: Classroom in Cusco, Peru

Date: Saturday, October 23, 2010

One more day of intense Spanish classes. My brain is mush. Despite my gooey state, I have the following lingual observations (I can’t help it, I’m a lawyer; words are my trade; the nuances of language fascinate me): Read more…

Location: Sacred Valley, Peru

Date: Friday, October 22, 2010

I avoid group tours. They rush you through beautiful sites just so you can say you’ve been there. They tell you when you’re finished with a place when, dammit, I’m not. They have a schedule. I hate schedules. Group tours are for tourists.

Me, I want to marinate in a place; give it a chance to seep into my soul. I want to “linger” and “meditate,” concepts unfamiliar to most guides. I want to hear the wind whip between walls and rustle the grass, impossibilities when surrounded by chattering guides and their guided. Forget tourism, I want to be a traveler. Read more…