u/LetsdigupRobReiner

Why should I have to pay for a burger that costs the same even though I ask for no salad, no tomato, no lettuce, onion, pickle, beetroot, etc etc. I don't want all that fancy stuff dammit. And I don't want to order it and then take it all off because then I can still taste when the salad has been, like it's contaminated. I end up having to remove all the parts of the bread where the salad has soaked in and thats like 50 percent of it and then my friends laugh.

And then sometimes I want a burger but it's too hard to find anything I can reasonably order without removing 90 percent of it. If more places just had a meat burger but no, that's usually on the kids menu and is the size of a slider.

Sigh. That's all I want, simplicity. Meat, cheese, sauce, bread.

What sort of weird and wonderful books do you all collect? I love hearing about the niche or interesting things people are into. Tell us all about it and give us some recommendations?

Mine would be Australian Prime Ministers, or books on Spanish conquerers/explorers - in particular ones who explored the Amazon. But I especially love books about birds of different countries.

I'm slowly reading all of Christie's books in chronological order. This was...somewhat of a mess.

This just felt like a bit of a retread of The Man In The Brown Suit - but a lesser one. Starting in Africa, a mysterious figure, a romantic subplot, political intrigue - it just felt like the same story, just less interesting and with weaker characters.

I disliked Anthony Cade. Virgina Revel just feels like a less fleshed out version of Anne Beddingfield, who felt like a lesser version of Tuppence - lacking her spirit or personality. Battle was just...there?

Its not that I don't like her Thriller/mystery books - I loved The Secret Adversary - but this was just...not good. I finished because I wanted to see what happened, and I just felt exhausted when I did. I gave up trying to keep track of what was happening - too many characters, too many twists. I don't know what was happening in Christie's life at the time but this just felt muddled - like she was maybe a bit checked out when she wrote it.

Read and really enjoyed some of his short stories. Finally got around to reading this and so glad I did.

I won't spoil anything for anyone yet to read it - but my god, what a fucking masterpiece of a book. Sad and frustrating and so vivid and surreal.

On the surface it's about three Americans travelling through French north Africa in the years after world war 2, the people they meet and the things they see. It's kind of deceptively simple - the prose, the travelogue aspect to it - but it goes so much deeper than all that, getting into existentialism, mortality, alienation, dependence in a way that just melted my brain and made me contemplate life.

The end - the last quarter or so of this book just...sticks in my mind, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

Cannot recommend this enough.

Late August-Early october.

This is the hardest trip I've ever planned, with a lot of uncertainty in the second half which I've tried to account for. I've been before, about 10 years ago, did Cusco and Machu Picchu and been dying to go back all these years.

I know 49 days is a hell of a lot of time so I've learned from past trips and tried to pace myself. I will absolutely be traveling light until the last few days. This will be a semi-budget trip, hostels and hotels pretty evenly. Tried to make it as low stress, low rush as possible.

Even with 49 days though there wasn't enough time to do everything. I really wanted to see the northern coast, but alas.

LIMA TO CUSCO/SOUTHERN PERU:

Day 1-2: Lima. Not a lot of time here as I'd rather see it at the end.
Day 3-5: Paracas. Ballestas islands (haven't booked yet), see the nature reserve. Mostly relax.
Day 6: Huacachina. Day 7 - Ica, afternoon/night bus to Arequipa.
Day 8:free day in Arequipa.
Day 9-10: colca canyon tour (haven't booked yet).
Day 11-12: Free days in Arequipa. Night bus to Puno.
Day 13-14: Puno. See the floating islands. Would love to hire a kayak and do my own thing.
Day 15: day bus to Cusco.
Day 16: Ollantaytambo, stay overnight.
Day 17: Cusco.
Day 18-19: Hidroelectrica, aguas calientes. Machu Picchu the next day - Circuit 2B and 3A (was sick last time and missed Huayna Picchu - won't let that happen again). Late train back to San Pedro.
Day 20-21: two free days in Cusco.
Day 22: Valle Rojo (haven't booked yet).
Day 23-24: a couple more days in Cusco. Evening flight to Lima.

THE AMAZON/NORTHERN PERU:.

Day 25: Morning flight to Chachapoyas.
Day 26: free day.
Day 27: nothing organised - Kuelap, Gocta falls. Seems like a lot of interesting things to do.
Day 28: free day.
Day 29: Travel to Tarapoto, either by bus or colectivo.
Day 30: free day.
Day 31: Bus or Colectivo to Yurimaguas.
Day 32-33: a couple of free days here, to allow for any delays etc. in catching the slow boat to Iquitos.
Day 34-37: On the boat. Added an extra day - Ideally it hould take 3 but it's the Amazon so who knows. If it gets to Iquitos a day earlier that's fine.
Day 38-39: free day in Iquitos, in case I have trouble organising a tour into the Amazon, or any delays with the boat, etc.
Day 40-43: four day Amazon tour. This i haven't booked yet - hoping to do it locally. Return to Iquitos. Haven't booked this yet.
Day 44: another day in Iquitos. Figure I will have already seen it, but added a day here in case of any problems - tour delays, getting back late. Otherwise just an easy day.

LIMA:

Day 45: morning flight from Iquitos to Lima.
Day 46-48: No real plans in Lima. Shop, stay in a nice hotel (figure I will never want to see another hostel after this lol), decompress, eat some good food. 6pm flight on day 48.
Day 49: N/A - red-eye flight home at 01:30.

.

I've been to Peru before, in 2015, but only for a week. I stayed in Cusco, went to Machu Picchu and loved the whole experience - the people are beautiful and Cusco is still my favorite place I've been. Flying in over the mountains and then realizing you're staying in a town surrounded by even higher peaks is just something else. I had no problems with the altitude sickness - although I was 10 years younger then.

My plan is to backpack around Peru for 6-7 weeks. It seems like a long time and a lot of moving around but I have the vacation days so figure I may as well use them. I've tried to have longer stops to break up the trip, and plenty of rest/nothing days.

LIMA (1 day):

Day 1: Arrive Lima in the afternoon, stay 1 night. Not a lot of time here as will be coming back later.

PARACAS (2 days):

Day 2/3: bus to PARACAS - short trip. Ballestas islands.

ICA/HUACACHINA (1 day):

Day 4: Catch a bus to ICA - short trip. Spend time in Ica, and head to Huachachina. Seems like 1 night would be enough.

NAZCA (1 day):

Day 5: Catch a bus to Nazca. Don't plan on spending a lot of time here - enough to see the lines and the town itself. Overnight bus to Arequipa.

AREQUIPA (5 days):

Day 6-10: 2 days doing a Colca canyon tour, the rest seeing Arequipa and taking it easy. Overnight bus to Puno.

PUNO (2 days):

Day 11-12: Uros islands, Lake Titicaca. Figured 2 days would be enough. Overnight bus to Cusco.

CUSCO (12 days):

Day 13-24: Seems like a lot of days but there's a lot I want to see, plus I figure it will be nice to slow down. Valle Rojo (1 day), Machu Picchu (2 days), Ollantaytambo (2 days), Pisac, Cusco itself.

IQUITOS (10 days):

Day 25-34: Again seems like a lot of days, but I plan on using Iquitos as a base to do other things and travel further into the Amazon. I'm planning on doing a 4/5 day tour, and then time to see Iquitos and relax for a few days.

SLOW BOAT (4 days):

Day 35-38: Plan on catching the boat from Iquitos to Yurimaguas. Assuming 4 days to be on the safe side. I originally planned on doing it the other way around, but it seems like the boat is unpredictable in when it leaves.

YURIMAGUAS (1 day):

Day 39: Only have a day here. No real reason, just other places seem more interesting.

TARAPOTO (2 days):

Day 40-41: No real plans, just take it easy, see Tarapoto. Catch the overnight bus to Chachapoyas.

CHACHAPOYAS (3 days):

Day 42-44 Relax here. See Kuelap, waterfalls.

LIMA (4 days):

Day 45-48: Fly to Lima. So many things I want to see, and the food sounds amazing. Fly home from here.

I wanted to see the coast, but even with this amount of time I couldn't make it work - just too many other things I wanted to see more. Also looked at Huaraz, but it seems like you need to be big into hiking and trekking to make getting there worth it.

I've spoiler marked as best I can here - hope it's OK.

I finished this a couple of weeks back. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and how much it's stuck with me. Ive been thinking about it ever since.

It was dense and a slog at times - particularly the middle - but it was so, so worth it in the end.

The moment when >!Marlow says goodbye to Jim as he leaves for Patusan!< will always stick with me, I think. The prose and the weight of it, just everything - I think that was when I first realised what a master Joseph Conrad is.

I love the way Conrad writes it too - we never really get Jim's thoughts, all we get is this fragmented tale told by Marlow after the fact. It makes Jim seem like this enigmatic figure, and god I just loved it. I wanted to be in that room listening to Marlow tell me the whole tale.

I think what I took away most though is that the world doesn't end when we make a mistake - it doesn't have to define us, we can move on and reinvent and start over. Jim >!never lets the world break him down and never becomes bitter or angry - not like Brown who seems to be what Jim could have been if he'd gone down a different road.!<

I just found that really fucking inspiring. I'm rambling now but this was such a deeply human book underneath it all and I just loved it.