San Blass, Cusco, Peru

Crossing t he border... from Bolivia to Peru

Crossing the border from Bolivia to Peru deserves a mention… as it was very busy and chaotic. This border at the foot of Lake Titicaca is used by some tourists and mainly local merchants, who buy big and heavy merchandise of whatever and cross the border to trade. The timing was unlucky, I guess, as it was just MADNESS. Our bus took over an hour to cross probably about 150 meters bridge. I took about 30 minutes to cross that bridge, there were merchants, bulky containers, motor bikes, taxis, and foot traffic… there was literally no room to breathe… I’ve never seen anything like that! I guess it was meant to be that I experienced my last Bolivian chaos!!! And somehow, I also messed up again at the border. Not knowing that the there was such a foot traffic ahead and the lines at the border to receive the exit stamp were so huge, I decided to first drink the juice on the Bolivian side so I could get rid of my last Bolivian coins. This way I was the last (from my bus) to cross that bridge and the last one on line at the Peruvian border to receive my stamp. Luckily, before, I half jokingly told my story of being forgotten on the Peruvian-Bolivian border to my neighbor on the bus. And he was seriously looking out for me and had to literally stop the bus from leaving me again on the border. Thanks, dude!!!

Initially, the plan was to go to Cusco, Peru for a weekend, hang out and enjoy the night life, hopefully dance some salsa and hit the live music scene.

Cusco!!!!! It could not have been any better!! I had spent 17 nights here... and had to literally force myself to leave to continue with my trip. Cusco is obviously a bit touristy. Cusco is the starting point for visiting Machu Pichu. Besides being touristy, it’s also an incredibly beautiful city. Probably one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to. Every day, walking around Cusco, I felt its beauty so vividly and felt really lucky to be walking such ancient streets and enjoy its beauty every day. I realized that those Incas knew what they were doing when they made Cusco their capital. Cusco was the heart of the Inca Empire. They called Cusco the navel of the Earth.

Besides being overwhelmed with tourists, there is also an area in Cusco that is artistic and so-called bohemian, called San Blass, which is only 10 minutes away from the main plaza. San Blass is in the steep hill, and taxis will only drop you at the San Blass Church, and then you have to continue up the hill to your hostel with all of your staff. Well, to say the least, not many tourists stay there. Luckily, that’s where I stayed last time I was here in June, and I would not change a thing. So after 14 hours on the bus from Bolivia to Peru, Immediately I took the taxi to San Blass hoping to find my old hostel.

I found my old hostel Artezana San Blass easily, took a quick shower, got some food, and not yet knowing anybody here, went alone to Siete Angelitos, the place that was advertised everywhere for its live music. Unfortunately, I found out that the Cuban salsa night was last night, and today was a reggae party. Disappointed and tired, but I decided to stick around and have a drink. The next thing I know, the music is amazing, and I am surrounded by the real cool group of locals, who kept introducing me to everybody. I met all the musicians, the bar owners and the owners of other businesses in the area and was even invited to go to somebody’s family BBQ the next morning.

Saturday morning, when I woke up and took my first walk in San Blass, I was so comfortable and happy and already seemed that knew half of the neighborhood. People from last night would approach, greet, hug and kiss and accept me like I had been there for months or years. Then, randomly, I went in to some cool vegetarian restaurant for lunch. And here again, 2 guys that I’ve never met, right away offered me to sit next to them and chat. One of the guys turned out to be the Yoga teacher and the other one is his apprentice. Right away, I knew I would need to stay in Cusco for several weeks, but, being, a bit on a serious side; I had to find the justification for my stay here. That was easy: I signed up for Yoga classes, private Spanish classes and I also found the new macramé teacher, Alex, who is really talented and I thought he had one of the most beautiful displays around. On top of that, I also met up with my peeps that I met in Bolivia and one of them was a salsera, who invited me to check out her salsa club where she danced salsa everyday from 9 to 11 pm.

My first week was ssoo full! I went out every night 9 to 11 to dance salsa, then back to my lovely San Blass to hear some unbelievable life music, 2-3 gigs every night, sleep a bit, Yoga class at 9 am, then work with Alex on my jewelry on the street, lunch, private Spanish classes in the afternoon, more work with Alex, nap, and here it goes again, Salsa, San Blass, etc…. Wow!!! It was a bit too many of activities that I got myself into. The next week, I dropped Yoga and substituted private Spanish class with self study at the breakfast so that I could hang out more with Alex and work on my jewelry.

All the night life was on the same block where I was staying, and same block where I was working with Alex… So I was always in the know of what is up. The oldest joint on the block was KM 0, and there were 3 more bars on the same corner, where life music was happening every night. It was basically same musicians rotating from place to place and mixing the variety of music and improvising on the spot, singing lots of covers of Manu Chau, Bobbie Marley, and much more. Basically, a real close circle of friends who were making music with a lot of enthusiasm and a big smile. Most musicians knew me by my name and where I was from, and addressed some songs to me (such as “Me gusta Ukrainana, me gusta tu”, etc…) … Damn… that felt soo good… I was in heaven… again… J (I think I was in heaven several times during my trip so far). My favorite musicians were Phuru and his band without the name, Carlito for his cajon Peruano, Caesar, the Argentinean reggae boy, Argentinean saxophone player, the incredibly good looking and talented reggae boys from RevoluZion and Colombian locos without shirts Pachanga!!!

My last week, during the day, I spent with Alex, sitting on the sidewalk, working on my jewelry, and meeting all kinds of interesting artesanas peoples, that I am sure I will run into again along the way, in Peru, Brazil and Colombia. Also, during my last week, Claire, the New Zealander that I met in Bolivia finally had moved to my hostel and I had a partner in crime. She loved it as well and we continued the nonstop marathon of night life in San Blass.

In the end, like everything else, when you get too much of a good thing, it gets a bit old and it’s time to do something else. I was getting tired a bit of the same scene and same music, nonstop nights out, and even salsa. So, it was time to move on. It was time to move on, but it was very difficult to make that move. To make sure that I don’t change my mind, I went to buy my bus ticket the day before, so that I would not have any temptations to stay longer and had to pack my bags and go. Nevertheless, when I was getting into a taxi in San Blass to go to the bus terminal I was leaving with lots of sadness and knew that I would have to be back one day in San Blass, Cusco, Peru!!!