Progressive Peru?

I spent most of the day walking around Cusco and booking my activities for the next week. One of the stranger things I noticed was that all the stores and government buildings were flying rainbow-colored flags. I thought to myself, "Damn, Cusco is way ahead of the curve. The city must be the most progressive city in South America, as they must have a very-well developed gay and lesbian tourism industry." It was only later that I learned that the rainbow-colored flag is actually Cusco's municipal flag. Apparently the flag's similarity to the gay/lesbian flag has caused much embarassement in Cusco, and the city is considering changing its flag. So much for being a progressive city...But it still doesn't explain why I was being offered "massages" by people on the street all day...

Also, the altitude is killing me. Cusco sits at 11,000 feet up in the Andes. It was a little embarassing to get passed reapeatedly by 80-year old women carrying groceries as I was doubled-over trying to catch my breath. Cusco's streets do the newly-arrived visitor no favors. I can only compare it to a 5-pack-a-day smoker trying to navigate the hills of San Francisco. If you don't mind, I think I am going to go throw up.

South "America"

I have arrived in Peru and will shortly nest on an airport bench overnight before heading onto Cusco, Peru´s jumping off point for Machu Picchu, tomorrow morning.

I hate al Qadea more than ever. Bin Laden, wherever he is, owes me $26.70. I forgot that toothpaste, suntan lotion, shaving cream, deoderant, and soap are considered deadly weapons by U.S. airport personnel (TSA). I trust all of these things are available in Peru; otherwise I am in for a very smelly few weeks. Does anybody know what happens to the millions of hygeine weapons that TSA seizes every year?

One of the things that Peru does have is Papa John´s pizza. American culture (even the really bad stuff) has spread to every corner of the globe. I wonder if Peru´s Papa John´s pizza also takes 2 hours to get to you, arrives soggy, and is more like an overcooked Hot Pocket than a real pizza. I speculate that all these hold true here, because American companies pride themselves on product uniformity....

Thats it for now. I´ll post something before I leave for a planned 4/5-day hike up to Machu Picchu.

Itinerary Set

I begin my six-month trip on Monday. My itinerary for the next 6 months is roughly set. Send me an email if any of you are interested in joining me along the way. Also, send me an email if any of you have been to the following places and have recommendations on what to see/do/eat (especially in SE Asia). I'll post an update from Peru next week. Hope all is well with all of you.

Late March: PERU (Machu Pichu)
Early April: PERU (Cordillera Blanco, Amazon rainforest)
Mid-April: ARGENTINA (Mendoza)
Late April/Mid-May: BRAZIL (Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador de Bahia, Recife, northern Brazil)
Late May: USA (Washington DC for law school graduation)
Early June: NEPAL (Everest base camp?)
Mid-June: THAILAND (Phuket and southern Thailand; Chang Mai and northern Thailand)
Late June: LAOS (Mekong River Delta, Luang Prabang)
Early July: VIETNAM (Halong Bay?)
Late July: CAMBODIA (Angkor Wat)
Early Aug.: AUSTRALIA (Sydney and Cairns/Great Barrier Reef)
Late Aug: NEW ZEALAND (South Island)
Early Sept: FIJI (fun/sun)

Western Road Trip (August 2006)

Roadtrip out West (Aug. 2006)

Almost all of you have seen these pictures already. Ignore them. I am just testing out how to best post my photos to this blog.

Bar None!

Well...its over (hopefully). After an intense two months of studying, I took the NY bar exam in Manhattan at the end of February. The two-day experience was anything but pleasent, and one certainly I do not want to repeat. I took the test at NY's Javitz Center, a convetion center that crammed in thousands of over-caffeinated and sleep deprived, would-be Johnny Cochrans.

One short, but amusing story. The guy sitting next to me turned to me at the end of the first day (8hours) and started muttering a string of expletives and yelling at his computer. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was yelling because the "e" had fallen off his keyboard. Everytime he had to type an "e" he had to reach his finger down into the keyboard and push hard on the missing key. And its not like he was missing a "z" or a "q"; he was missing the most frequently used letter in the English language (I looked it up. The letter "e" is found in just over 11% of all the words in the Oxford Dictionary.) I was pretty excited and amused by the thought of him trying to pound out "even keeled" or "eleven" or "bee keeper"...