Bucket lists and ruins of the world.

Dip Girl (who is still a diplomat, but now married so maybe "girl" is unfair, but I am still Law Girl on her blog so I will leave it) and I have seen a lot of ruins together; we joke that it has kinda become our thing and have discussed where else we have to get to. (Easter Island, Nepal, Italy, Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Greece, India and Myanmar are all currently on the list- whether we will wait to make them happen together is another question.) I just got back from visiting her and a joint trip to Machu Picchu, which we added to our locations that already included Mexican and Cambodian temples.

Machu Picchu is on a lot of people's so called "bucket lists" and it is amazing. However- and I fully realize that this is coming from an extremely privileged and nit-picky place- Machu Picchu is amazing, but I would recommend other ruins first. There are tons of things Machu Picchu has going for it: the mystery surrounding its purpose and the "lost" city mythology (granted this is a very western view, people who lived in the area knew it was there,) the fact that it is in a cloud forest, the hiking around the site. However, like many tourist sights, it is very expansive; and it is difficult to get to, even if you don't do the hiking, llamas (I loved the llamas). My favorite part of ancient sights is the way details can remain. I loved the carvings in Cambodia and Mexico, the way mosaics in Rome remain. Unfortunately there aren't as many of those details at Machu Picchu, and I (mistakenly) went in with that as an expectation. Additionally, for all the work it takes to get to the site (you fly to Lima and connect to Cusco, then you take a train from Cusco, or as we did because it was the low season, take a car to a city further up the sacred valley to catch a train, then you take a train to Aguas Calientes (an incredibly unattractive place)  where you catch a bus to the site. In the dry season you can hike, but to prevent wear on the Incan Trail the Peruvian government has significantly reduced the number of people allowed to do that, and you are required to hire a porter. You can also walk parts of it along unattractive roads with busloads of tourists going past you) there is really only a day worth things to see, (that is with hiking up the mountain behind the site) and you spend a good portion of the middle of the day pushing through crowds. (And we were there in low season, I can't even imagine what peak is like.) Granted the whole of the sacred valley has more, but many people miss that taking the train quickly through and not spending any time in Cusco.

None of this is to discourage people from going. Peru is amazing, the people are wonderful the food is INSANE it is so good. (Although, unfortunately the food around Macchu Picchu is homogeneous back packer fare, over priced, un-inventive imaginings of dorm food: that  people would leave with that impression of Peruvian food is a tragedy, and another way the site disappoints.) My point is that it doesn't deserve the premier place on people's bucket lists it gets. Macchu Picchu is served by being an amazingly photogenic place, but I think that it has elbowed its way higher in some people's estimations than it deserves because of the gorgeous photos people bring home. The Mayan and Aztec ruins in Mexico are amazing: closer to the states, better food and accommodations in close proximity, some sites are basically devoid of other tourists, it is inexpensive and you can add it on to a beach vacation. Cambodia has dozens of temples that you can explore, and while the town around them is rough around the edges, it has some of the worlds best spas and makes for a relaxing home base. There are options beyond Macchu Picchu that if you don't have the luxury of traveling you might want to examine before you buy your ticket, and if you do Macchu Picchu don't be in such a rush to check it off your list that you don't have the opportunity to appreciate it in context.

My point in all of this is the Peru should be the destination, not just Macchu Picchu. It is fascinating and beautiful and will make you fat in the best possible way. However, without the context of the world around it Macchu Picchu is poised to disappoint people who have been waiting their whole lives to see it.

I promise to post more about my trip, they will be happier I promise. It was an amazing trip.

How can you not love that face?

Spring Break...so much better than last year!

Spring Break as it should be...mimosas in a mason jar!

At my law school your spring break 1L year is set up to drain the life out of you. Mine did, in part because I was so miserable about the things I would supposed to get done and which made break miserable that I didn't actually get them done. So not only was I stressed out I was unproductive. At very least I got to visit my family which was a bonus.

Central Market- Charelston

This year that was not the case, sure there was work that I would have ideally gotten done, but it didn't need to happen (and therefore did not get done.) I decided to rationalize that spending time relaxing was probably good for my mind. A group of my friends and I rented a beach house in South Carolina. We were a little before college spring break, which made the island we were staying on a bit more laid back than it might be otherwise.

I love getting to spend time near the ocean and I haven't been able to spend as much time in the south I would like, so when one of my girlfriends- who, because of our mutually busy schedules, I never get to spend enough time with- invited me to come along I jumped at the chance, even though it meant missing my dad while he was here for briefly for work. I was really looking forward to a break from school, and DC and the pace of real life. Of course, as is the case with much of life it wasn't as stars and ferries as I had hoped.

First of all, it was early March, so we knew going in that the weather might be iffy, and we didn't get too many great beach days. (You will not the lack of beach photos-I didn't take many.) Also as the population of our vacationers changed and it quickly became evident that I was going on a "boy's trip." Now not entirely boys,  it was two couples three boys and me; but I realized that this was the first time I had been on a "boys boys," (probably because I am not cut out for them.) In college I could always find better modes of transportation to football games than the frat buses, and I have always had more girlfriends than guy friends. So all my trips have been family vacations, trips with my girlfriends and vacations on my own, and I have no problem saying that they are what I prefer. My experiance with this group of fine young gentalmen was that they thought I was their mother, something that I am sure would have displeased their actual mothers.

You notice that I call my travel companions "boys," this is because they behaved as such, not because I think of all males my age as boys, but rather because the behaved as boys. We had an amazing house right on the ocean, I would wake up in the morning to go for a run on the beach and when I got back all the blinds facing the ocean would be closed so that the guys could play video games. Which is fine, it is their vacation my problem is that we were not allowed to open our blinds the whole time we were there, because of the glare. As soon as I would get in the house one of them would ask "hey, when is breakfast going to be ready?" I wanted to answer I don't know asshole maybe when you get off your ass and make it? But I had decided to be "fun" and "kind" which in my twisted brain translated to cooking and cleaning and becoming their mother; which of course then resulted in anger and passive aggression- making me not fun at all. All and all I was left utterly without hope for the men of my generation.

That's not to say the trip didn't have highlights, I read all of the hunger games trilogy in under something like 36 hours. They were addicting, and twisted and while they left much to be desired it was nice to read a heroine that actually stood up for herself. The other highlight was spending the day in Charleston with my friend and her boyfriend. While I did feel like a third wheel the day kept me from killing any of the guys back at the house who were still playing video games. (I get that they relax people but the boys never: went to the beach, to Charleston, to Savannah or really into town- I don't understand why they needed to drive 500 miles and pay to rent a beachfront property if you are only going to do exactly what you do at home.)

 

I really enjoyed Charleston and Folly beach even if it was a week of week of cooking and cleaning for spoiled man children (who couldn't operate a diswaher and spilled beer exrywhere for me to clean up), it was still better than last year. I would love to go back and spend some time there for a bachelorette, or girls vacation; but after this spring break  I think there will need to be a "NO BOYS ALLOWED" sign on the front door.