I'm writing this in candle light. I decided to no longer use electrical lights past midnight. Yep, no TV, no lamp, nothing within the vicinity of where I am. It's beginning to help me write more or recall memories and my God, the ambiance! Of course this decision is not really thought out. This candle better not emit a lot of smoke, else I will get booted out of this dig.
Three discoveries:
Journalism will never go away. The medium of journalism may change - whether that's found on paper or on the web but we need credible source of information, verified, fact-checked, and written well. That totally eliminates practically all bloggers. So this means I'm not yet sold on full-on citizen journalism. Watch Page One: Inside the New York Times documentary. Really good movie, it made me think.
Based on reading travel blogs, those people who love to travel are foodies at heart. Or is it the other way around? I love both and while I continue to write about my travels, I decided to share a little bit of my attention to making food. Here's my must-dos to make for 2012:
Learn how to make an ice cream from scratch (from scratch my foot, I need to buy an ice cream maker, eye-ing this).
Make a mean lasagna. [Done this, just this weekend! Will post about it soon!]
Bake a cake I can call my specialty. I need a mixer machine! The last time I baked muffins using a manual whipper, I could not lift my arm for days.
Bake a loaf of bread from scratch.
Make a salad with grains on it. I'm not particularly fond of salad but I want to make one but it has to incorporate a little bit of my rice or grain-loving self.
Learn to cook brussel sprouts. Brussel sprouts are amazing and typically it's steamed and being relegated to a side dish. I, however believe that they deserve a spot in the main dish kingdom!
Raw leather bracelets are awesome, especially if they come customized.
Discovery comes in many forms, be it from the world around you or from within yourself.
I'm so currently obsessed with kale chips - thank you Gwyneth for introducing me to a healthier snacking choice. The recipe is for dummies like me: buy fresh kale, wash, pat dry using your paper towel, remove the leaves from the stems, mix with some olive oil (not too much, just sprinkle), some salt (i prefer my chips salty, so I add lots of salt), bake in 425 degree oven for 10 minutes. And tada, kale chips!
Our meeting point was in Lima, Peru. I'm coming from Atlanta via Miami and Nikki from Manila via Los Angeles with stop over in Honduras (I think). Few days before the trip, we had some adrenalin-rush panic over VISAs and flights - typical of us who always breeze through every trip planning adventures after adventures, cherry picking best places over a huge continent but forgetting the essential stuff like double checking passports.
While in Miami waiting for my flight, I got a text from Nikki that her flight is delayed for an hour and I almost panicked (again) because her connecting flight has just about that window. I started calling TACA (our airline) - I actually don't know why I did that, I thought with my call I could stop the plane from flying and wait for my friend.
Usually when I'm worrying over something, my mental abilities are way over the clouds. When I heard my flight, I rushed to the plane still texting, and while looking for my seat, the stewardess called me and announced (it felt like that, with the volume of her voice) that I'm in the wrong plane.
Um, what airline does that? Schedule 2 flights to the same location with 15 minute difference ? My flight was actually in neighboring terminal. How embarassingly novice of me.
Nikki is planned to arrive 30 minutes earlier in Lima, if she makes it. Upon touchdown, I got a text that she's waiting for me (she literally ran to make it on time) at the Lima airport, oh my god worries gone. And then followed by a text: "by the way, they lost my luggage.." And that my friends is how we roll.
<< Here's Nikki on the left with the only luggage in the coming days: green bag. But let me tread on already on our first day in Lima. We saw each other at the airport, hugged as do long lost friends, laughed over the lost luggage and muttered we will just get it the following morning and she can borrow my clothes. We had our currencies exchanged and as usual ill-prepared about the vital stats about the country we fumbled and said, "Sorry, are these Reals...what do you call these bills?"
We hurried towards a man who will bring us to our hostel. I feel bad saying hostel because we always prefer staying at local's houses - we're couchsurfers and in this age of global connected-ness, I think that nobody is a stranger.
In a speeding taxi, I look over the city and I thought, it's not as different as Manila. Rounding off a corner, we exclaimed, looks like Cubao!
We met up with David and Cesar at Cafe La Maquina, a cute and cozy bohemian coffee place. Nikki warned me she read that it's famous for pick-pocketing. Oh well, what's new, it's not like we did not come from Manila har har har. I'm kidding!
We've never met David and Cesar and they also don't know each other. And no we're not scared of meeting up with locals we don't know. I truly believe that's what's traveling is about - to let go of fears and comfort zones and when you're in a foreign place, you have every excuse to make a fool of yourself. Good thing Nikki has the same mindset, I think she is the one who influenced me to have that mindset.
David is a musician and as he say, "a drummer but the African kind". He loves the Beatles because of course we have to have some common thing. We noticed that Peruvians are very nationalistic, when they tell us about their culture, it is with a hint of pride and lots of passion. They're proud of their Incan heritage. He's very well read on spirituality and so I asked him what does he think about end of the world in 2012 - does he believe....he laughed and said, are you guys taking it literally? And he told us what they think of it and you have to invite me for a cup of coffee before I'll squeal it to you, dear reader. His answer is interesting and affirming.
Cesar arrived late and he's the total opposite of David. He came in a suit and he's a lawyer and brought in lots of tips for us. He comes prepared to say the least. At some point, I wonder now how we were able to maneuver those conversations because we were with people of two different worlds: an artist and a corporate lawyer.
Afterwards, they brought us to watch live music - it was so awesome. The club is very intimate, has the acoustic coffeehouse feel. Favorite moment: Performer singing an allegedly famous song and everyone in the bar sang along! And it has a nice ditty so we sang along too! Woohoo! It was in Spanish (albeit the only Spanish words we know are those that are common with Tagalog).
We ordered pisco sour for a drink, their tatak drink, like lambanog to ours.
We wanted to dance so David brought us to a disco place (disco talaga, with those disco lights, and there's a huge LCD showing music videos!) with the music of...hold your breath, maroon 5 and nicki minaj, super bass! Old guy (a.k.a. drunk DOM) wanted to dance with us and so we did, stealing kisses (harassment na yun) and off we go!
We were at the plaza and it's almost 2AM. The weather is perfect. I have never experienced such perfect nighttime weather, chilly but not cold and the stars! Not one cloud hides them! There's a guy kissing his girl at the plaza, and the bohemian David started humming the Beatles' 'all you need is love..'
This is the kind of city Lima is, making its best impression on our first day and rightfully so. We bade goodbye and we made promises to see each other again soon, although everyone knows it's a slim chance that it will happen.
It's strange, I could remember and feel all of it distinctly as I write this. My heart swells.
To read more about the Oh Lala Latin America Backpacking Adventure:
