i have tried this before.

ok. i cannot tell you guys how many times i have started a blog, a tumblr, a something - or - thought of starting a blog, a tumblr, a something - specialized and well thought out, only to fail at posting, or fail at creating.

emily is my witness, my partner in crime and we are going to do this. we want to keep anyone who is interested updated and that is just the bottom line.

so i´m blaming you,  hypothetical readers, for making us follow through and be accountable for something.

sadly enough, i had even started a post the night before we left and did not finish. classic. it was all about how nervous my belly was, and how i was not so super stoked on the three layovers in my near future, but now i have lived all that. weird how that works.

the flying was rough though. i love being on planes and being in the air. there is something so In Limbo about it that really suits my fancy, but this did not feel like normal flying. it felt a bit like a permanent free fall down down down until we finally touched pavement in Arequipa, Peru. that sinking dropping gut feeling just never left. i am usually glued to the window and ooing with all my might, but 18 hours of idontevenknowwhatisgoingon and i did not even jolt awake for the landing. reeaally freaking sad because the mountains here are Insane and i am sure the birds eye view would have rocked my world. they look a little like the tetons, just jutting up behind us with subtle snow caps and lightly forested foothills. huge and so close.

the plane was small, as was the airport we arrived at. morning here is beyond bright. super true sky blue against this place that is nicknamed the White City for the color of the rocks and mountains. even the spanish colonial style cathedrals and shops mirror this surreal sheen. such a contrast to the evergreen i had been inhabiting the last few weeks before departure.

we were both totally wigged out in the taxi. just staring out our respective windows. half asleep, me feeling half alive but also soo stimulated by the small cars honking, ads, people, the city tucked in the midst of these mountains. gosh, i´m telling you. these mountains. i am not a huuge mountian girl, i kinda dig bodies of water a little more, but there is something about these ones. tomorrow we plan on crossing the town for a better view in the morning.

i think we are both still completely freaked out, and i guess i did not think it would be scary, but it is. wandering the old cobble stone streets tonight though, i remembered something my grandma robert told me of her one time abroad in France with my grandfather. whenever she looked at the moon, she remembered it was just the same moon she knew in Washington and that eased her nerves a little. i saw that tiny thumbnail moon tonight and that sameness was the first thing i thought. so i suppose i will keep my eyes up at night, and hope the experience outruns any of that silly fear.

¡mira la luna!

-leslie