Go East...

I know I know... Long time no blog. And so much did happen in that time. Travels to South Africa, Pesach, Yom Haatzmaut... So much to write about and so little time. I should really pick up my story where I left off, but as I sit here in some dark room in a hostel in Huaraz, Peru, all I can think of is the time I am spending in South America and how, if I don´t record it right now, my rapidly disappearing brain cells won´t allow me to do it later. So, with your permission, I will skip over South Africa for the time being-however difficult that will be for me (and certain South Africans among you)-and come back to it at a later date.

Before we set on the road though-I should say a few words about the above picture. This was a really yummy cake that was made for me before I left, by my sister, ever the thoughtful. She wanted to make sure I knew where home is, you see. And so I made sure to eat the¨"E" of the cake... Along with the yummy raspberry and pastry cream filling of course...

On to the trip... At the airport in Israel was a display of a whole series of posters commissioned by the state for the Independence Days of yesteryear. It´s really a cute little exhibit, showing what was on people´s minds at different ages of our nation. I wish I had had more time to look at it. Here´s to hoping they display these somewhere more easily accessible for everyone to see.

I got to Peru after a series of gruelling flights. The first leg, to New York, was at midnight and having slept about 3 hours the previous night, I was thoroughly convinced that I could fall asleep. But the flight gods had different plans... Not one minute of sleep on said flight. I happened to sit next to an Israeli girl who was also flying out to Peru, which in itself isn´t very shocking as far as coincidences go. What was a little eery was that we had the exact same pair of trekking boots on and she also couldn´t sleep a minute of the flight. Anyway. Got off the plane at 4:30 am. Zombie mode. I had 10 hours until my connecting flight so I decided to make it to downtown Manhattan.

It was about 6 am when I got into the city and there were people out and about everywhere. People IN SUITS, WALKING TO WORK, AT 6 AM!!! Do they have nothing better to do with their lives, one would like to know. Apparently some people believe in being a productive member of society. Huh.

After spending some time in the city with a friend, I made it back to Newark and met my travel partner Rikki to fly out to Lima, Peru. By this point I had been awake consecutively for 41 hours. That flight took 7 hours. I actually managed to sleep some of it, but it still took me 2 more days until I adjusted to a normal sleeping pattern. And once I did, we missed no time to mess it up again! We travelled 8 hours this morning on a bus from Lima to come to an amazing part of Peru where the Andes can be seen in all their glory. It is very high here (a whopping 3,090 m.) and we are having a little bit of a problem adjusting. Some dizziness, some nausea and a lot of exhaustion. So as much as I´d love to write about Lima and our trip to Huaraz, I really must go and see about that sleeping pattern... So I leave you now with a teaser picture of the Cordilleras Blanca ("white mountain range") and hope to blog again real soon.