One Monday night (June 14th?), Amy and I got invited to go to a yoga class by another FairPlay student, Will. We went to the class and afterwards we all went out for drinks at Paddy´s, an Irish bar in the Plaza...it´s very touristy and a really nice place to escape to if you are feeling overwhelmed by culture shock. Anyway, a group of us all hung out and this bar until about 12:30, at which point Amy and I decided it was time to go home because we had school the next morning. Upon arriving back at our house, we found the door to be locked. This was kind of a shock to us because we had never stayed out late before and whenever we came home in the early evening, the door was always unlocked. As a result, we felt no need to bring our keys with us and instead of being tucked away in our backpacks, they were inconveniently in our bedroom on the other side of the locked door. Ooops. I knocked on the door a couple times, but we heard no movement from inside the house (although about 3 dogs from various locations in the neighborhood started barking). I was really uncomfortable--we where making so much noise, and even though I wanted one of the family members to wake up, I also didn´t want to be the one waking them, so I stopped knocking. At this point, Amy sat down on the sidewalk and I came up with a not-so-brilliant idea.

"I´m going to go around the back, " I told her. She looked at me like I had told her the door had just opened on its own. "I´ll be right back!" I exclaimed, ignoring the obvious doubt all over her face, and disappeared behind the block of houses.

The first obstacle I encountered was a large adobe wall separating me from the backyards of the houses I needed to crawl through before finding my own backyard. With a mighty "hurrrugh" I pulled myself on top of the wall and jumped down onto the other side, landing on a cushion of soft dirt that squished disconcertingly beneath my feet and sloped toward a small creek that ran through the middle of the backyards. It was only at this point when I was away from all the streetlights that I realized I would be slinking through the backyards in the dark.

Cautiously I set forth, poking my toe at the ground with every new step before planting my foot firmly down. I knew there was a creek somewhere and I could feel the earth sloping towards it underneath me, but I couldn´t see exactly where it was/if at some point the slope just turned into a drop. Perhaps this is why I almost fell down into the ditch when the slope actually did turn into a drop. Fortunately, I was able to grab a tree to prevent myself from falling in.

As I clung to said tree, I decided that it would probably be best for me to cross the creek at not-so-scary point so that I wouldn´t have to worry about it anymore. Carefully, I let go of the tree and crawled to a point where the creek felt crossable. I flung myself across and grabbed onto the post of a fence on the other side--it wasn´t until I ran my hand along the wire attached to the post that I realized the fence was made of barbed wire. I was very grateful that I had grabbed the post of the fence and not the pokey in between.

Steadily, I kept walking, balancing myself on the small mound of dirt between the barbed wire and the creek. More dogs in the neighborhood were barking...I was not doing a good job of keeping quiet. Still, I kept going, climbing over a pile of tires until I came to the base of what felt like a hill made of old bags of cement. Looking up, I could see the top of my house and I knew I was almost there...all I had to do was climb this hill of cement bags and Í would be in the courtyard. I reached out and began scaling the wall. All was well until I was almost to the top...at this point things became rather slippery. To keep myself from falling, I grabbed the branch of a tree at the top of the wall. As I did, a pile of roofing tile next to me slid off the hill of cement bags and crashed to the ground below. Whichever dogs in the neighborhood that weren´t already awake and barking were definitely making a shit ton of noise now. But it was okay, because I was almost there.

And then I heard a sickening cracking noise and suddenly things weren´t okay anymore...the branch I was holding onto was about the break off the tree. With a high-pitched "eeee!" I grabbed onto another branch and hoisted myself up and over the wall in one swift but incredibly clumsy movement. I landed in a pile of junk on the other side, but I didn´t care...I was in the backyard! And I hadn´t woken anyone up but every dog within a mile of me! Quite proud of myself, I slunk around the corner into the courtyard...and the first thing I saw was Manchi looking down at me from the balcony with a terrified expression on her face. Oooops.

"Hola Manchi," I said sheepishly, coming out of the shadows. Her mouth dropped open. Before she could say anything, I said,"No llaves, lo siento," meaning, "No keys, I´m sorry." She just kept looking at me like I was a loony, so I walked to the front door and opened it for Amy. We fell asleep to a chorus of dogs barking for another 10 minutes and ate breakfast the next morning to the sound of Manchi laughing and telling us that next time, we should knock louder.

written by  kfox on July 2, 2010 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: Peru Adventure!
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I can't believe I'm actually laughing really loudly... my neighbors have turned up the volume to the Vietnamese version of American idol (Vietnamese Idol?) in response... I can totally see all of that happening... Your problem solving was so adventurous and creative and risky, so glad that you are alive. Please stay alive! I'm proud of you LOL..... Mel

written by  Mel on July 2, 2010

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