Ohhhhhh how I miss the simple life already. I spent two weeks on the farm. I had incredible conversations about religion and spirituality with different Hare Krishnas and got to truly sit and eplore myself in a new light. The idea that the body and the mind and soul are all holy and we need to take care of ourselves is a concept that, although is well received, is often ignored. I didn´t drink caffeine or any alcoholic beverages, I did yoga everyday. I woke up at 7 a.m., did yoga, ate breakfast, helped in teh kitchen typically after breakfast, had lunch, then was free to read my books and have a run. I could really get to know the people I was around and everyone was walking around high on life! Ahhh yes, I can remember it so well those five days ago! Leaving was difficult because I knew that my stress was only bound to return with traveling. Immediately as we got into Lima we met new people though. We met one man who we will call Gary. Gary has leeched himself onto us. He´s a lonely Canadian traveler who has followed us from Lima where we still thought he was OK, to Ica., where he has steadily digressed into very annoying and hard to shake off. Ica is a beautiful Oasis in the middle of the desert (Huacachina) and we are staying right on the little lagoon surrounded by sand dunes and blue skies. It is a dream image. Then Gary usually comes in, says something about how me and Katrina should put our bikinis on, adds some odd Star Wars reference, has an opinion and thinks he´s right about everything, dontcha know, eh? Well he sealed the deal last night by thinking a ten year old boy was a sixteen year old girl and still almost hit on him/her. What a guy.
Well, I suppose this is Krishna testing me. See, before I left there were three days of holiday where we made wishes to Krishna by lighting candles made of ghee butter and cotton and waved it around a picture of him and then bowed to the ground before his feet in hopes that they would come true. I don´t think this is the same as a birthday wish, so I will tell you what I wished for: patience, tolerance, and focus, one on each night. So, I think my tolerance level is already disintegrating dramatically. My focus on being zen is going along with it, and my patience is dithering. I have to build myself back up! I think it was all the wine from the wine tasting yesterday that´s put me on edge. After not having a drink for over a month and a half, I sure did overdo it yesterday. Ica is wine region and also Pisco region. Pisco is the local liquor. First off, I don´t often drink liquor. I´m a beer and wine girl if I have a drink and I usually stop myself at 2 or 3. But let me tell you, when you put wine and pisco in tiny little vasitos (little cups) at only an ounce at a time and you drink over 20 of those, you still get drunk! Tiny cups are very misleading. We started off at a beautiful winery called Tacana. This was your typical nice winery with the grape leaves and the tour of the facility and then a sit at a counter where you went through the different types. How nice. Next tour was at a rather less nice facility, same sort of deal though, a bit rough around the edges, but good stuff. Next place was a shit hole, but at this point we´re a bit gone so we are more interested in the look of the taxidermied animals hanging about than questioning why they are there and we drink the wine straight out of the barrel served to us by our crazy taxi driver, William, himself. We finish off the tour by singing, very loudly, Eye of the Tiger, where William pulls a fake microphone out from under his seat and hands it to each of us. Something tells me this scene happens often.
Today when we had to visit some rare bird island, I was a bit Weekend at Bernie´s about the whole debacle. Put my sunglasses on and spin me about with a camera in my hands. There were sealions. Those were nice.
I think I will go meditate now and try to regain that balance that I had just days ago with people that smiled and focused on my soul. I highly recommend an ashram to anyone. Go. I made great friends there and had a little cry when I left because that´s how much I realized I love peace. We made tons of pastries the last day as well. I miss those too.
I am now going off to Arequipa tomorrow where we are going to see the most well preserved mummy, Juanita. In Lima, we also saw the catacombs, and there were bones on the beach by the farm. Along with the taxidermied animals in the winery, I am set on bodies. I will continue to fill you in! Miss you much. Ciao!
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