Puno and Beyond

I´m amazed at how much time we ended up spending in Cusco.  Looking back, most of our time was spent in or around that one town.  It was my favorite place we´ve been so far in terms of the people, the city itself, and the surrounding countryside.  Easy to hike up into the hills for a day as well as walk and walk and walk deep into the heart of the city.  As a local said to me, there is the Cusco that the tourists know and then there is the REAL Cusco.  Except for the one night spent near the Plaza de Armas, we mostly stayed outside of the overly touristy areas...with the exception of the days where we craved greasy British food.

We did eventually leave, though.  Three Kiwis recommended a tour bus service for Cusco to Puno that offered guided tours in English and a buffet lunch along the way.  However, they got their tickets at a steal and Peter and I agreed that paying full cost didn´t quite make the ride worth it.  I did enjoy the arch sites though!  I´ve been doing self-guided tours through all the places we´ve visited, and it was nice to hear about the history of some of the ancient Inca sites.  It´s amazing to see just how much tourism supports many Peruvians.  EVERYWHERE you go, people are trying to hawk their wares or sell you water or are just begging for change.  I´ve never felt like more of a walking money bag.  My skin color is a dead giveaway that I´m a tourist and I can see people beeline for me, although I think Peter sometimes gets it worse with his blonde hair and blue eyes.

Puno was really interesting!  Coming down into the city, I wasn´t sure what to expect.  From the bus depot, two women offered to grab us a cab and it turns out that they work for the hostel we were trying to get to.  A large group of about 15 kids had snagged all the rooms though, so they recommended us to another hotel close to the central plaza.  The room itself was one of the nicer and cheaper places we´ve stayed, although we came to realize at about 9 PM that it´s adjacent to a karaoke bar and the walls were a tad thinner than one would hope.  Earplugs were on my essentials list while packing, so I was set.  Poor Peter was woken up a couple times, but luckily they shut down relatively early.

The next morning, we boarded a boat tour for the floating islands of Uros and a large island out in the main part of Lake Titicaca (Tierces?  I´ll have to double-check).  Out of at least 30 people, Peter and I were the only English speakers and Peter was the only one who didn´t understand any Spanish.  Thankfully, two Italians who had lived in Ireland for awhile also asked to hear the tour in English so Peter was able to understand the guide.  Such an awesome experience!  They went over the construction on the floating islands, the reasoning for the culture to move out onto the lake itself, and social aspects of the culture.  Forester nerd moment: they used a crosscut saw to shape pieces of sod which support the base of the islands.  Definitely a new way to use a crosscut that I hadn´t seen before.

The big island was gorgeous. Imagine California wine country paired with Italian countryside on an island in a sapphire blue lake.  We walked the length of the island and it was amazing to see one side of the lake that belonged to Bolivia and the other side which was Peru.  White peaked mountains teased us from the Bolivian side; everyone who has traveled around the lake told us that the Bolivian area is much more impressive.

Something that´s bothered me a lot this trip has been authenticity.  I am constantly wondering how much of what I´m shown is true Peruvian culture and what is blown out of proportion for tourists.  This is the main reason why I haven´t done many guided tours.  Walking on the outskirts of town and looking out of the windows on long bus rides has given me a good idea though.  The day Peter and I sat on the wall overlooking the fields of Pisac has still been considered one of my favorite afternoons, mainly because nobody treated us like foreigners or acted differently.  More recently, when we were driving by some fields in a tour bus, I noticed some farmers standing around grouped up out in the field.  As we got closer, they started frenzily working.  As we passed, our guide pointed them out.  I don´t know the connection between the tour companies and locals, but this was just too weird to me...

But yes!  Puno was awesome.  Met some Germans, Aussies, and another American after our tour and had a fun night of drinking Pisco and playing Jenga and card games.  I guess the Germans had just been taught the game President (or King in their case) and Asshole and insisted on playing for hours; brought back a lot of good camping memories for me!  Peter and I boarded another (non-tourist, thank god!) bus for Arequipa yesterday and rode for 6 very long, sweltering hours.  We´re staying at the sister hostel to the place we loved in Cusco, and so far, it´s living up to expectations.  Cheap, clean, and includes breakfast!  Probably only staying for today and leave for Nazca tomorrow.  We only really stopped here so that Peter can visit his bank; he lost his ATM card the day we left for the Sacred Valley.  Between cash his parents forwarded him at a Western Union and me spotting him, he´s been good up until we could make it to a city where his bank is...which was either Arequipa or back to Lima.

We´re so close to the end.  I happened to glance at my flight info the other morning, which was good, because I guess I´m flying out really late Tuesday night rather than early Wednesday morning...  This doesn´t change our plans very much with the exception that we might get a bus to Lima on Tuesday and then I´ll go straight to the airport that evening rather than getting a hotel.  Should be landing around 9:45 AM in SFO; it´ll be nice to not lose a day.  Have packing and moving to look forward to upon my return.

Until next time!