5-31-11

As I sit in my office with my coat on (yes it gets cold here!), I am longing for the beautiful summer days of Minnesota.  You may also be wondering why I am sitting in my office writing this; shouldn't I be working?  Yes - I wish with everything in me that I could be working on something of importance.  My work here has continued to be pretty slow.  This month of May was definitely better than April; however, the last two weeks have become pretty void of interested travelers.  Since the majority of our travelers come from the United States, I guess there are a lot of reasons that justify the lag in tourists.  Due to the continually rising gas prices (flights increasing!), an uncertainty about the economy, and continuous natural disasters - there isn't much hope to see a big rise in the interest to spend thousands of dollars on a family vacation to South America.  I am lucky that it was very busy here when I did first arrive and have continued to have some success in booking trips in advance.  My pay is a very small monthly sum as a salary and the rest comes from commission.  I don't get paid my commissions for a client that books until close to the time before the client arrives.  This is good becasue I have a lot of clientes arriving in the next 3 months, so at least I will still continue to have an ok income through August.  However, I am beginning to get a little worried about what will happen after the summer tourist season ends.  I guess I can only hope that the economic situation improves and people become motivated to try to book their holiday travel to Peru!  (I keep repeating this in my head to try to keep myself positive; but I am finding myself growing more anxious every day)  If anyone has a great home business idea they want to share, I may be interested! =)  I've been playing with a few ideas, but to make it happen here - where I am not even a legal resident - may be quite challenging.

The following week will probably bring about some changes in Peru as elections are on Sunday.  As I have written before, the final two candidates for president are not popular and very extreme on each side of the spectrum.  I am honestly a little worried to see what will happen - especially in the smaller cities outside of Lima.  As the North of Peru is strongly in favor of Keiko and the South of Peru is strongly in favor of Humala.  There have already been some problems with riots and protestors, and I can only imagine that after the election results are confirmed there may be some conflict.  It is an interesting situation and as an outsider I am not trying to judge, but I am a little scared for the people of this country. A lot of the hope that was there for a turn around for the people of this country has been diminished as they are forced to choose between these candidates.  I hear a lot of people saying well I am going to vote for "this candidate" because they will do less damage to the country than the other candidate.  What a way to choose... Pick the candidate seen as doing the "lesser damage" to your country.

I guess the reason I haven't wrote in quite a while is that I haven't really done anything very exciting lately.  My life has pretty much consisted of work during the week plus now I have Spanish classes two nights a week.  Then on the weekends, we have pretty much just stayed in Lima.  Julio's schedule is pretty hectic between work and school, so it is hard to really get away and go do anything right now.  I know that I could plan something on my own or go somewhere with friends here, but it isn't as simple as it sounds.  I could arrange to rent a car I guess (I would never be the driver in this city!) or get on any number of buses that may be going to and from my weekend destination, but it takes quite a bit of time.  Also, I honestly wouldn't be comfortable traveling alone on a bus - and I don't think Julio would ever let me attempt it anyway.  So..... hopefully soon we can plan a a 3 day weekend so we can actually go somewhere and get out of the city.

This entire blog sounds a little bit boring and negative, and that is not the tone I am going for.  It is not that anything is persay "bad" here, it kind of just "is".  Since it "is what it is", it really is up to me to accept it and make the most of it.  For the most part I am very happy here and with the way that everything has turned out, but like anywhere you are or anything you do - you have to set the mood yourself.  Right now I guess I am just choosing to be content with "what it is" and really have no complaints.  I do feel myself getting a little anxious though.  Being anxious is not always a negative thing - I honestly think it will probably inspire some motivation.  What that motivation will be for is yet to be determined.  Maybe I will head out on a new life journey, maybe become inspired on the business side, maybe some faith and soul searching, or any number of scenarios I haven't yet fathomed.  As many of you know, I don't just sit with "content" for very long.  I really believe that I excel and thrive off of change and new challenges.  So even though right now I may be at a bit of a stand still, I know there is some excitement over the horizon - I just haven't looked hard enough yet.  =)

My apologies for the lack of pictures - as I usually really enjoy documenting my experiences with first hand photos to share with you all.  My camera has been under repair for almost 2 months now.  Apparently here in Peru, it is impossible to get a new part for a camera.  Or so it seems.... I think I will just go pick up my camera and us it as is - it still functions - the zoom just does not work due to an incident involving sand. (Julio is in no way to blame for this - haha)  Hopefully soon I will have it back!

Also, to all my friends and family - I would love to hear from you!  Look me up on skype or send me an email - I feel a little out of the loop down here.  Take Care Everyone!