PERU (and a tiny bit of Bolivia)

 

January 26-Jan 30

After determining that it might be easier to get off the plane mid-journey, in Lima (flight was Quito to Guayaquil, then to Lima, and finally to La Paz), I found out that this would not be permitted.  So freaking silly, but isn’t that always the case with airlines?  Fortunately, the airport in Lima was fairly modern, with a high-speed internet connection, phones conveniently available, and a place to buy phone cards.  I made use of all of its amenities and emailed Mark and Lynne, leaving them explicit instructions for reserving spots on the Inca Trail by faxing passport and credit card info to the agency in Cuzco.  I couldn’t do it because I wasn’t sure they wanted to do it, but I told them that if they reserved spots, they could definitely count me in.  I met two Englishmen on the plane and they thought I could stay at their hotel.  But, although they did give me a ride, the hotel was just a wee bit expensive for me, so I took a taxi to another place, which was ok but not nice enough that I wanted to stay a second night.

 

I switched hostels early the next morning and loved the new place.  Next door, there was a café with internet access.  For some reason, Hotmail was a nightmare and I really needed to write some emails to Mark and Lynne.  That’s when the life-altering switch to using Yahoo occurred.  Perhaps the decision was spontaneous, but I think it has turned out to be a good one.  I walked around La Paz for hours.  It was tiring because of the altitude, but I really enjoyed it.  On the streets, wonderful and cheap fresh squeezed OJ was sold, as well as saltenas (a pastry filled with yummy stuff – similar to empanadas).  After relaxing back at the hostel, I walked to my friends’ hotel and we went out to search for a place to eat.  The initial place that we had chosen was closed - after all, it was Monday night - but fortunately the restaurant we subsequently found was wonderful.  It was an Italian restaurant and I treated myself like a king!  It might have cost me 10 dollars, but I did get to eat chocolate mousse for dessert with a shot of espresso on the side.

 

With Mark and Lynne giving the thumbs up to the Inca trail, I had to make my way to Cuzco and not feel stressed for time any more than I already was.  The bus ride would be long and there were none that were overnight.  The bus broke down after about an hour.  The passengers were not informed of what was going on until a local started yelling at the driver to tell us what the hell was going on.  Finally, after another 2 hours, another much nicer bus came to take us the rest of the way.  The border was an annoying experience.  I was very hungry, and there was a kid selling saltenas.  It was my first experience in Peru and I did not know the price of anything.  The boy charged me two soles for the pastry.  Some other kid told me it should have cost only one and that I should go and get my sole back.  I didn’t care about the money, but I went back and the kid returned the sole without much of a problem.  The kid who had informed me then asked me for a tip.  I knew he hadn’t told me just to be nice.  The bus arrived in Cuzco and I took a taxi to the HI International Hostel where I had a 10-person room all to myself.  The bus ride was actually very pretty, passing by Lake Titicaca and regular countryside.

During the first day in Cuzco, I really just chilled out and caught up on email.  I had some delicious breakfast of fresh granola with fresh chopped up fruit and yogurt.  I should eat that every day.  Mark and Lynne arrived the next day.  Mark actually met me at my hostel at 10 AM.  He showed up with a shaved head!  We walked down the hill to SAS, the agency that was running our trek.  Lynne was already there sorting stuff out.  I was really happy to see both of them.  We had planned on relaxing but we walked around the gorgeous city all day.  The masonry on many of the old buildings was amazing.  A nine-year old boy attached himself to us and followed us around all day, at which point we invited him to join us for dinner.  The most annoying thing about Cuzco was all the harassment.  A few people at a time simultaneously accosted us, each asking us to come to his restaurant.  In addition, I was constantly asked if I wanted my shoes shined, if I wanted to change money, buy a postcard, etc.  It really was over the top and turned me off of Cuzco a bit.  It was impossible to sit in the central plaza and read without constant harassment.

 

January 31-Feb 5

Early the next day, the last day of January and the last possible day to do the real Inca Trail, I awoke at 5 AM and met in front of the SAS office from where the minibus would be departing.  The journey to the start of the trail took a couple of hours.  We passed through a town where about 100 women accosted us immediately after we descended the bus.  They were selling walking sticks, bottle holders, ponchos, coca leaves, and a strange mixture of ash and lemon, which tastes disgusting but is supposed to work as a catalyst for the coca leaves.  Coca leaves have been a part of Andean life for centuries and are used to treat a variety of ailments including altitude sickness, fatigue, hunger and digestive problems.  It really was ridiculous how many times they asked us to buy the same things.  When we finally arrived at the head of the trail, we had breakfast and I then paid $100 that I owed to one of the SAS workers.  My eyes began to hurt unbearably.  Shit, I’m not high maintenance am I?  After various proposals to solve my inability to open my eye, I figured it out; it was the freaking sun lotion.  Now, in hindsight, that was easy to figure out.

 

The starting point was Km 82.  The first day of trekking was easy and relaxing.  In the early afternoon, we arrived at our campsite.  All the guides and porters (people carrying equipment, food, etc) then played soccer on a gravel field in the village.  We were invited to play as well but didn’t take them up on their offer.  The game was intense and our guide, Hilbert, got a bloody, or scratched up, hand.  The following morning we were awakened at 5:15 with a cup of mate de coca (coca leaf tea), followed by a quick breakfast and then more hiking.  This would be the hardest day of hiking.  We climbed thousands of steps, eventually reaching a height of 4200 meters at a point called Dead Woman's Pass.

At the top of Dead Woman's Pass

It is called that because of the rock formations resembling a woman lying down, and not because someone died.  I walked very slowly, taking as much time as I needed, because taking an extra hour is preferable to feeling sick because of the altitude. 

The beautiful couple, Lynne and Mark, and then me

 

The walk was incredible, as it passed through high altitude rain forests as well as very exposed rugged areas with clear views of the surrounding Apu, or sacred mountains (with glaciers).  The way our guide Hilbert described the Apu was priceless.  He said, “Some Argentineans tried to climb one of the mountains a few years ago, but they fell off and died.  Some say it was because of the icy and generally tough conditions, but the locals say it was the anger of the gods.”  Hilbert was actually a little bit sick and his knee hurt from carrying a woman a significant distance a few weeks before.  I helped him by carrying the oxygen tank he had with him for emergencies.  As a result, he later called me his best friend, which was nice of him.  I have a great picture of the two of us. 

My guide Hilbert and me

I think the mountains are sacred because the glaciers at the top supply water to lower points on the mountain.  After the Pass, there is a steep descent down stone steps to Pacamayo Valley (still very high), where we camped.  Day three of the hike was probably the most beautiful.  The Runkuracay ruins are halfway up the second pass, 4000 meters, providing a great view of the valley. 

The valley

It is from this point that the real Inca Trail begins, 80% of it being original and un-restored.  Up until this point, the trail was quite modern, designed to take in amazing scenery.

Nice view

We passed some lakes and saw some deer.  Further on, we came to Sayacmarca, more ruins known as "Inaccessible Town."  Here Hilbert told us a lot of Inca history.  The trail continued, mainly through clouds and a little bit of rain.  We were extremely lucky with the weather though; this was the rainy season and we had very little rain.  A tour given the week before had constant rain.  The trail passed through several more forests and a couple of Inca Tunnels.

Mark, Lynne and myself

That afternoon, after 16 kms, mostly down steps, we arrived at our last campsite, at Huiñay Huayna.  The last 1 to 2 hours of the trail, there were 2 routes to take.  One of them went through ruins and the other to a museum.  I of course took the one with the ruins, even though it was twice as long, but I was the only one choosing this route.  The walk was beautiful, as were the ruins, and I felt the extra time hiking was easily worth it.  When I arrived at the campsite, Mark and Lynne told me that the museum was great and that it was actually quite close to the campsite, a 10-minute hike, so I decided to go back and see it.  Unfortunately, they were just taking a piss on me (an Aussie or English expression).  The museum completely sucked, as did the additional 20 to 30 minutes of hiking at the end of an extremely long day.  At the final campsite, we were able to have showers, albeit cold ones, and even buy beer.

Our hiking group

On the morning of the last day, we were awakened at 3:45 am and had a quick breakfast. We then set off on the last part of the trail, in the dark, to make it to the Sun Gate, above Machu Picchu, in time for the sunrise.  Unfortunately, there were so many clouds that there was no sunrise as such.  However, our luck didn’t disappear.  Clouds obscured Machu Picchu, so we waited at the sun gate for the entire group and just rested for a little while.  The clouds parted slowly.  A little way down the mountain below us, someone saw a deer move.  Mark joked about it being a puma, as this would be so incredibly rare.  Then Lynne realized that it actually was.  It stood there observing us for about five minutes, before turning and disappearing into the bushes.  Hilbert was incredibly excited.  Nobody ever sees pumas.  This was his first sighting in 15 years.  Lynne prepped to take a photo, but of course, being the perfectionist that she is, she took too long and the puma disappeared before she clicked the button on her camera.  From here, we hiked down into Machu Picchu. 

Mysterious

 

We arrived at Machu Picchu at 7 AM and Hilbert gave us a guided tour for 2 and a half hours.  Machu Picchu is a huge complex of buildings, untouched by the Spaniards, and is perched on top of a high mountain and surrounded by others. 

Just a nice section of the ruins

Some of the craftsmanship of the stonework is unbelievable with huge multi-sided stones perfectly slotted together.  The city itself is surrounded by more agricultural terraces.  For the remainder of our time, we were given the options of exploring the ruins more, walking to the Inca Bridge or climbing Huayna Picchu, the mountain just to the west.  Mark, Lynne and I chose to hike Huayna Picchu.  Others in the group, being exhausted,  did not, but I figured that either way I’d be exhausted so why not hike a gorgeous little peak with some nice ruins on top.  It took us about two hours.  The narrow path was incredibly steep, much of it with ropes to help pull you up, and quite slippery from the sporadic rain.  We were warned not to go if we suffered from vertigo. 

Somewhere on Huayca Pichu, I think

The path near the very top was very steep.  The steps leading up were also extremely narrow and one could only fit the front part of one's foot on each of the steps.  Lynne hurt her knees in a small tunnel when we came down a slightly different way.  Some other people we subsequently spoke to had it much worse - they descended a completely different way, on the wrong side of the mountain, at times on wooden ladders on steep drops, and ended up at the Temple of the Moon, another hour away.  After arriving back at Machu Picchu, I chose to hike down to Aguas Calientes, which is the town where we would spend the last night.  The hike down was quite nice, through some beautiful rainforest.  Although I hiked alone, it was well worth it.  The late afternoon was spent in the thermal springs from which the town takes its name; Aguas Calientes means hot or warm water.  The springs are hot, in a series of swimming pools, and perfect for soothing sore muscles.  One of the pools was really cold and I jumped in numerous times, which turned out to be really fun.  At my encouragement, others tried it as well, although I could not get Lynne to jump in.  Overall, the tour was an A+ - the people were cool, our guide was excellent (he even taught us a lot of Peruvian slang) and the food was delicious.

Leaving Aguas Calientes, we needed to get the 5:30 AM Backpackers Train (the cheap one) to Ollantaytambo.  Mark, Lynne and I were the only ones who did not go directly to Cuzco.  The ruins here were huge.  Fortunately, a local 13-year old, named Julius Caesar, offered to be our guide.  The streets of this town were still in their original Inca grid pattern.  The ruins themselves were supposedly in the shape of a Llama, and the opposite cliff contained a distinct face and body.  A taxi driver offered to take us from this town to Pisac for the same price as the bus.  He stopped on the way to pick up an old couple. Despite a spare seat in the back, they were both made to sit in the very back of the station wagon.  It was extremely strange.  We made a couple of little detours on the way.  The first was to Moray, a circular depression in the hills, with concentric agricultural terracing, which might have been used to experiment with crops, or maybe it was just a better way to save water.  Then we went to Las Salineras.  This is another Inca construction, still in use today.  A saltwater creek has been directed into salt pans covering a huge area.  From here, we continued to Pisac, another town with more ruins and a great market where I purchased some nice artwork to hang on walls and use for gifts.  We had a little look around the markets in the rain before sharing a taxi with two French girls up to the ruins at the top of the hill.  These ruins were quite spread out.  We randomly chose a direction, and then met up with some local university students who were filming a TV documentary - they showed us where to go for the best views.  Then we followed another trail, leading down to the river valley, through more beautiful agricultural terracing, to the town of Pisac.  From here, we caught the local bus back to Cuzco.  I sat in the front, next to the driver, with two local women to my right.  I think we had a far better time doing the sacred valley by ourselves, rather than with a tour.  That night, we met up with everyone from our Inca Trail group.  After much drinking at one bar, we headed to another and it ended up being an extremely long day.  Although I went to bed before 3, Mark and Lynne were actually out till 8 am.  If one wants to party all day every day, Cuzco is not a bad place at all.  Included in our Inca Trail was a free city tour of Cuzco.  We did this the next day despite all of us being exhausted.  The tour was a drag, with our guide seemingly reciting from memory.  The highlights were the painting of the Last Supper in the Cathedral (where the main dish is the local specialty of cuy, or guinea-pig) and the ruins of Sacsayhuaman above Cuzco.  We also visited Qenko, Puca Pucara and Tambomachay.  Mark and Lynne convinced me to continue traveling with them for the foreseeable future.

January 6-10

The next morning, we flew to Lima and arrived at Hotel Espana.;

 

 

I stayed in a dorm with about 10 other people. Mark and Lynne had their own room. Upon arriving in my hotel room, I saw a girl - Alexandra, or Ali, was her name--sitting on her bed. She said hello. I said my thing and asked her where she was from. She told me London and, when she asked me where I was from, I said, “the second best city in the world.” I invited Ali to join us in the afternoon to see the Museo de la Nacion, and she decided to do so. The English translations in the museum were so poorly done that they were painful to read, and I much preferred to read the Spanish. The museum contained a huge collection of pottery with animal and erotic motifs. Ironically, a tour was being given to a group of nuns, and the guide coolly walked them by this part of the exhibit without even an embarrassing glance at the pottery or us as we were commenting and motioning regarding this pottery. 

 

 

Many of the objects in the museum were actually reproductions, which I did not initially know. I asked Ali if she wanted to join us on Saturday to Huacachina, and she agreed. She then went to meet someone while we went to see the catacombs at the Monasterio de San Francisco.  The next day, we went to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) and de Armas (Arms). This museum had many pre-Colombian gold pieces (jewelry, ornaments, ornate plated capes, etc) that the Spanish had not managed to destroy. It also had a lot of pottery, masks and even mummies. We then went to Miraflores, the ritzy part of Lima, where we walked around before going to the movie theater, which was located right by the ocean. Mark and Lynne saw Frita, while I spent some solo time watching the movie 8 mile. I stayed up late that night, staying at the Hotel and hanging out on the roof drinking wine and chatting with people. The next morning, the four of us were off to Huacachina, which is near the bigger town of Ica.

 

In the Galapagos, a Dutch couple had recommended a specific place to stay in Huacachina. All of the homes in this town surround a little surreal-looking oasis, which is surrounded by sand dunes. Upon arriving at the hostel, Hospedaje del Barco, we found out that there were no vacancies. I asked the owner, Gino, if we could just stay in the living room and he said sure. He then told us that they would clean out and set up the garage for us. It turned out that they proceeded to set up a medium sized tent for four people in the center of the courtyard. We all had sleeping bags, and Mark and Lynne had mats, so we set it up that way. Mark and Lynne’s camera was stolen on the bus ride from Lima, so they had to take care of some paperwork during the afternoon. Ali and I just relaxed, sitting outside on the balcony overlooking the lagoon. We also attempted to play a game of chess, but conversation precluded the culmination of the match. Later that evening, we played some horrible card game resembling the game “war,” but then moved on to the bigger and better “shithead,” which I promptly, sort of, won, completely by luck, as many card games entail. Eventually, we decided to grab a bite to eat and, soon after we were seated, Mark and Lynne appeared. Apparently, they had filled out the necessary paperwork and also had a chance to meet up and chat with Roberto, the so-called desert man. They organized a trip into the desert with him for two days hence. They described Roberto as a middle-aged eccentric archaeologist who lives for the desert. He has a giant pre-historic shark tooth the size of your hand (this desert used to be under water). During the course of our meal, we took advantage of Ali’s gullibility, and Mark and Lynne convinced her that they were neurosurgeons. This included answering some technical questions, but they pulled it off. We left it that Mark was a neurosurgeon and Lynne a brain surgeon. I eventually told her the truth because I felt bad, although I waited until the next day. I also apparently said something to the waiter like por supuesto or claro que si. Ali construed this as rude and she let me know about it, although she certainly didn’t convince me. Since it was Saturday night, there seemed to be a party going on, so it was way too noisy for me to fall asleep. Ali could not fall asleep either, despite trying out my eye mask and earplugs. Ali and I ended up staying up all night while Mark and Lynne somehow slept peacefully! Ali and I left the tent (we didn’t wake up, since sleep did not occur) at 6 AM for a nice walk around the lagoon, which was surrounded by giant sand dunes. At this hour, nobody else was up and the water was calm and lovely. We then made our way to breakfast at the tourist restaurant, which had some silly name like that.

 

After breakie, as the Aussies call it, rooms were available at the hospedaje, and we immediately took a nap, por supuesto, as we were quite tired from a night of no sleep at all. However, even this morning, sleeping would be difficult, as the hospedaje was incredibly noisy. The owners had a couple of little kids who were yelling and riding around over concrete on little bikes with hard plastic tires. The funniest, though, was the repeated yelling, by the woman who ran the place to a guy who worked there: "Pepe!," she screamed, over and over again. You had to feel sorry for the guy. She was a large woman with a loud hoarse voice -"PEPEEEE!" We woke up and had sandwiches of lettuce, tomato, onion and cucumber, along with what I thought were terrible leftovers from the night before, which I barely touched. After lunch, we just chilled out for the entire afternoon. We then took a taxi to Ica to check the internet and eat dinner - some terrible Chinese food. We also bought food for our desert trip planned for the next day with the desert man. I bought a couple of bottles of wine that we downed on the roof before heading off to bed.   We woke up and were ready to leave by 6, since the desert man said to be ready by 6 sharp. At 6 though, the desert man was nowhere to be found. I gave it a 50-50 chance that he would eventually show up, but he didn’t. It later transpired that he had mechanical trouble the day before so the 4WD was in the shop. It also turns out that in the off-season, when he does not have many clients, he drinks a lot. He almost sliced his thumb off a few days ago. We eventually went back to bed. We later asked Gino to arrange a sand boarding trip. We then swam in a lagoon with a very mushy bottom. Since we didn’t feel like spending $10 for the sand-boarding, Ali and I went to the place where we had initially arranged the sand board trip and Ali said we no longer wanted to go because... well, ES MUY COMPLICADO... hmmm, “What?” the man said... and Ali repeated the famous expression, es muy complicado, which Mark subsequently heard in a movie on the bus ride back from the Colca Canyon. Hey, maybe it’s just me, but I found this hysterical. Not only that she said it, but also that she repeated it. The reason was really that everyone didn’t want to spend the $10, or whatever it was, to do something exhausting. We then decided to walk up to the top of the sand dune. It was tough hiking in sand, but we eventually got to the top. By the time the hike was over, my socks each had about 2 pounds of sand in them. After cleaning ourselves, we headed to Ica to catch the next bus to Nazca. Ali was off to another place, and we split up with her. We arrived in Nazca shortly before midnight.

 

February 11-18

The hotel in Nazca was nice and quiet and I slept like a baby. I was muy feliz (very happy). However, we did have to wake up to see the Nazca lines and we were instructed not to eat breakfast beforehand because of possible sickness in the tiny aircraft, a small 4-seat plane. The lines cannot really be appreciated from ground level. The lines are huge if you are standing right next to them, so that is why one has to take a plane. Mark and Lynne were very kind to let me sit in the front seat. The lines were cool, but perhaps not quite up to my expectations. Some lines stretch for many kilometers. The pictographs we saw included the condor, monkey, hummingbird, astronaut (actually a shaman), parrot, lizard, tree, hands and many geometrical shapes. They were created between 1500 and 2500 years ago, by moving the sun-darkened rocks to reveal the paler stones underneath. Nobody knows exactly why this happened, but they probably had some sort of astrological or religious significance.

 

 

Afterwards, we drove out to the cemetery at Chauchilla, which dates back about 1000 years, but is a relatively recent discovery. It was found by grave robbers who left the mummies (now little more that sun bleached bones) lying in the sun after they looted the pottery and precious stones. In the last few years, a number of tombs have been semi-reconstructed with the bodies sitting in a fetal position and facing east, towards the rising sun. Because of the Carnaval de Yunza (a yearly event), there were costume parades as well as water throwing, which we experienced while walking down a back street. The three of us got wet. Apparently, it is quite an honor. The kids ran away, screaming, when I retaliated with a water bottle. There was very little else to do in this town and I wouldn’t return there, ever. At 11 PM, we took an all night bus to Arequipa.  When we arrived in the morning, we found a recommended hostel near the bus station. After dropping our stuff off, the van service provided by the hotel took us to the center of town. They probably provide this service because of the dangerous surrounding neighborhoods. The woman who ran the hostel also marked huge areas on our city map of where not to go. She told us there had been numerous "strangler muggings" recently. The muggers are apparently very adept at finding a certain pressure point on the neck, and the victim wakes up shortly afterwards, unharmed but minus everything of value. It was funny the way she described it… saying, “NOTHING OF VALUE.” Fortunately, we did not witness any of this firsthand. We went to Museo Santuarios Andinos to see the mummy Juanita. She was a 13- or 14-year old girl who was sacrificed at the top of Volcan Ampato over 500 years ago. She was preserved in the glacial ice until being discovered in 1995. They think that she was made to walk the 200 miles from Cuzco and then climb the 6000-meter peak wearing only sandals. The museum had all the artifacts found with her, including gold and silver statues, spondylus shells from Ecuador, bags of food and even coca leaves. Juanita herself is supposed to be there, in a frozen display case, but she spends half the year in the USA undergoing tests. She will be back in May. But there were two other frozen mummies. In town, we ate some good veggie food and then went to sleep early.  We woke up at 4 for the early bus to Yanque. We arrived at 8 and found the place at which we were meant to stay. It was a little hospedaje, and the owner gave us a walking tour of the town and surrounding area for several hours. There were pre-Inca agricultural terracing, an old ruined town, an Inca bridge, and some "colcas" (grain stores made out of rock in the sides of the canyon walls). The sun was out, but somehow the clouds appeared and rain looked imminent. We spent some time at the hot springs before returning to town for lunch. As luck had been with us, we didn’t get soaked, instead making it to a restaurant in town by 3 for lunch. I had a soup, which contained a chicken’s foot. I fed it to the dog, along with everything else I didn’t want to even taste. I felt bad, but I just didn’t like the look of much of the stuff. We were all pretty tired and went to bed at 4 PM. We didn’t know it at the time, but we would not really wake up until the next day!   The next morning, we took a 5 AM bus to Cruz del Condor.

Here we had breakfast and waited for the condors to appear in the morning air.

 

 

  

They eventually did, but were so far down the canyon, they looked like little more than specks.  At 9:30, a bus picked us up and took us to Cabanaconde, from where we would begin our hike down the Colca Canyon.  Nobody in town gave us proper directions to find the head of the trail that leads down into the canyon, but  we eventually found a place to hike down, though we weren’t sure if it was the proper place to begin.

Mark and Lynne

The dusty rocky path zigzagged to a river at the bottom.  It took about two and a half hours. 

A little bit wet

After swimming in one of the pools, we crossed the river and hiked up the other side of the canyon.  Most people do this hike in the opposite direction and take an extra day (with a guide).  The direction we hiked was a little tricky, as there were several paths and we got lost a couple of times.  We asked directions in the couple of little towns we passed.  If we didn't speak any Spanish, we could have been in trouble.  After many hours, and I think luck, we descended into the valley from the pueblo (town) of Cusnirhua. 

There we followed a small canal to the main river and the town of San Juan de Chuccho, where we spent the night.  Our room was a freestanding dwelling of mud brick with a dirt floor.  We read for a little while by candlelight before having dinner.  Any supplies to the towns within the canyon have to be brought in my donkey or mule.  The beds were made from tree branches.  We awoke at 4 to begin the 4-hour hike up the canyon wall to catch the bus.  We were a little delayed because the three of us had to share one torch (that’s Australian for flashlight--and boot is used in place of trunk, as in a car, which is a completely irrelevant tangent - well, not completely).  Then we couldn't find the bridge to cross the river.  Mark hiked 15 minutes back up the hill to the village and, after being convinced there was no other possible correct direction, decided that we would keep hiking straight.  A mere 2 or 3 minutes later, we found the bridge we were looking for, after a 30-40 minute overall delay.  The hike up was tough, and we couldn’t even see the top, since there was a cloud covering.  This was actually lucky for us, since it made us less hot.  Mark and Lynne were sort of having an argument.  Since Lynne was tired, as well as having stomach problems, Mark decided to carry her bag for her.  She got angry with Mark for pushing her too hard and she also claimed that her bag actually helped her back hurt less.  This became a joke to me the rest of the time, but Lynne still is unable to laugh at this and insists the pack does make the hike easier.  Loco, these Aussies, very mucho muy locisisimo!  We still did make it to the bus in time, but I took a separate one from them, just telling them I would meet them at our place in Arequipa.  It was too much tension for me to handle and I didn’t want to stop to see some giant condor anyway.  It turns out it was just a big bird, and not even a condor.  My bus did stop though, for a couple of hours, and when I came back to the bus after lunch, Mark and Lynne had already caught up with me.  On this bus, I met Roel, a Belgian guy about my age, fluent in many languages and with an appreciation for Cote d’Or chocolate.  I decided to invite him to come along with us to Bolivia and the Lake Titicaca region.  I felt a little weird not asking Mark and Lynne first, but that’s the way it works.  He was a very smart guy with intelligent opinions.  Somehow, after hanging out with us more, he became really sarcastic and I couldn’t tell if he was just using sarcasm as a shield for his real feelings (I don't think he was).  It was funny as this evolution took place, but very difficult to describe.  We arrived back in Arequipa at 4 and went into town to buy some food to cook ourselves dinner.  We drank a beer or two and then went to bed.

We awoke at 5:30 to catch the bus out of Arequipa to Puno, at the edge of Peru, from where we could catch another bus to Copacabana in Bolivia. However, instead of going straight to Bolivia, we stopped in Puno. Lynne was feeling sick, so we decided to spend the night in Puno before continuing on to Bolivia. Lynne went straight to bed for about 36 hours or so, while Mark, Roel and I walked around town and checked the internet. Turns out, crazy shit - riots and killings - were taking place in Bolivia and we were questioning our future plans. Travel warnings, border problems. While Lynne lay in bed, we walked around town for a long time and saw the lake, which was pretty, despite immense pollution. Puno was surprisingly nice. While checking the internet, I decided to email Ali, since I knew she was somewhere in Peru and on the oft chance that I could meet up with her again. I had emailed her from Arequipa as well. It turns out that as soon as we left Arequipa she arrived in Arequipa and checked her email and called where I had said we were. The hotel told her we had just left. Very unlucky. Fortunately, she left the number of the hotel in Arequipa where she was and I promptly called and was necessarily aggressive in telling her to just come and meet us in Puno. It was so random that we hadn’t already reached Bolivia. Ali agreed that after seeing the monastery in the morning in Arequipa, she would come and meet us in Puno. We didn’t even discuss what we would do after that. I didn’t know her well enough to know if she might just not show up, but she did, and didn’t leave us for the rest of my trip. The next day we just walked around Puno and relaxed. Ali arrived at night at around 8.  From Puno, we were collected at 7 AM and then transported to a boat at the docks.  It was a pretty miserable day, gray and raining.

Enthusiasm is evident on the ride out to the floating islands 

Uros Islands

 

After an hour, we reached the first floating Island of the Uros people, who apparently originally came to Lake Titicaca to avoid the Incas.  Anyway, these islands are quite new, and unique.  Made of reeds, they float and are held stationary by ropes and anchors.  They forget to mention that some of them are actually built on huge slabs of concrete!  The first one was definitely on concrete and purely there for the tourists.  The floating island still looked nice enough.  We then took a handmade raft (also made totally out of reeds and in the shape of a giant Llama) to a neighboring floating island.  This one was definitely floating, as the reeds rocked gently underfoot with every step.  It felt as though I were walking on a giant (and quite unstable) raft.  The only thing that anyone seemed to be doing on these islands was selling handicrafts.  After this, our boat continued on to Isla Taquille. 

The clouds had cleared, and we arrived at Isla Taquille 2 hours later.  We walked from the dock into the main village, and had 15 minutes of "free time" to look around the main plaza before being ushered off to a "really good restaurant."  In this plaza, Ali took a nice photo of me, chilling out with a local boy.

 

After being warned by the owners of our hotel in Puno that the food wasn’t good and very overpriced, we brought our own food and just had a picnic nearby.  After lunch, we had to head to another dock to depart.  The boat trip back to Puno was 3 hours long.  I swear I could have swum faster than the boat moved.  The island of Taquille seemed pretty but we really weren’t given the chance to explore it properly.  Also, it was obviously a huge tourist route.  Along the paths leading from the docks to the town center there were little girls, looking cute, asking us if we wanted them in our photos (for money, of course).  After the tour of these islands, we returned to Puno.  Ali and I had arranged to meet up with our friends later on, but when we went to where they said they’d be, we were unable to find them.  It turns out that there were actually two places with the same name.  So Ali and I decided to have dinner alone.  We found a nice little place and had a really nice and unexpected romantic dinner.