Cusco Closure

It´s been an eventful, stressful and sad week of packing, goodbyes and trying to squeeze in all the last minute things I managed to not get done while I was in Cusco. It seems there is never enough time and when you live in a place you get accustomed to what it has to offer and forget to take advantage of it all or assume there will always be time. And then, suddenly time runs out, bags are packed and a life you have come to love and embrace every single day is gone. I always knew leaving Cusco would be hard but this week has proved more than hard, and every day I have had to fight back tears for one reason or another. I suppose that my photos will only be reminders and can never accurately relate the memories and images in my mind and emotions in my heart. I truly love this city, its people, my friends and life here; going home and returning to another (and in its own ways, new) life seems unimaginably hard.

But, life goes on and I at least had the time to say goodbye to those people closest to me here. The last few days were spent packing and moving but also relishing the last moments of life as I knew it in Cusco. Walking to San Blas along Tanda Pata, taking my time to walk accross the plaza, meeting friends for a drink in our favorite bars (where I am pleased to say photos have been added to the walls of friends and family pictures) and eating in my favorite restaurants one last time. Thursday was a night out but not too big at an 80´s party at a bar I had never gone to before. The bar was small, the music mediocre but what made the night was that nearly everyone I knew was there. Friday was similar but with a huge spaghetti dinner at my little house with tons of friends, pisco and laughter. Last night was a last supper with David and then off to Los Perros for a final drink and last goodbyes. The refreshing part of all this is that no one was really ready to say goodbye so instead it was, ¨we´ll see you soon, this is just a vacation from Cusco¨and I so badly want to believe that is true but for now life holds several question marks, some of which I hope to resolve quickly upon my return home and into my new life of school (again, lol)

So, now I am at the Cusco airport after a stressful morning of final packing, talks with the landlord and of course the damn Peruvian dog (hairlless dog aka barking rat) peeing on my computer bag while we waited for the cab. Our LAN flight to Arequipa is a brief 40 minutes compared to the 11 hour bus ride but its already been three hours of waiting at the airport staring at the sliver of Cusco I can see through the windows. But thats ok, because I´ve decided that airports can actually be a very theraputic transitional zone. To sound like a dorky anthro student they are a ¨liminal zone¨ neither here nor there and every airport is pretty much the same and it takes you away from where you just were (physically and emotionally) and gets you into the mindset of where you will next arrive. For me, thats a nice couple days in Arequipa (yea movie theaters and McDonald´s!!) before going to Lima where I will get to see some more friends before the eventual departure and next series of airports.

So that´s it, life goes on and I know Cusco will always be here and maybe I´ll get another opportunity to have a life here again someday- and not just be one of those ¨ghosts¨that pass through never to be seen or heard from again...only time will tell.