Wednesday, March 20
Puno to Cusco
Well, our first bad experience. When we left the hotel this morning the clerk said we owed for one night. Mike had paid all the nights when we arrived, although at two different times. He paid the initial night when we checked in and then when we decided that we would stay, he went and paid the other three nights. After a few minutes when the clerk kept asking, I said “come on Mike, let’s go. He’s just trying to get more money from us”, and we walked out. Since he didn’t come running after us, I’m going to assume nothing will come of it. But if you get a note from us asking for money for bail so we can leave Lima, it will be the truth.
The bus ride from Puno to Cusco was really quite beautiful. The Andes in Peru are green and there are farms and pastures all along the way. I saw llamas, sheep, cows, children playing in the river, colorful wild flowers, thousands of coca bushes, even more corn, forests and, snow capped mountains.
We arrived in Cusco in the afternoon and came to what will be our home for the next week Hostal Qorichaska. A lovely place with two sunny courtyards and friendly, helpful staff. We found a terrific vegetarian restaurant for dinner, nice change after all the chicken & pasta.
Tuesday, March 19
Puno, Peru
Took a long day trip on Lake Titicaca. Rather than taking one of the commercial tourist boats, we decided to take the community boat. The proceeds of these are split among the communities that live not only on the floating island, but the other Peruvian islands on the lake. The lake is about 250 meters deep and borders both Peru and Bolivia.
The engine wouldn’t start on the first boat, so we needed to transfer to another. Everyone picked up their parcels, and there were a lot of packages including bags of what appeared to be grains, fruits and potatoes. Many of the items were wrapped in colorful blankets which the women carried on their backs. Mike and I were the only English speaking people on the boat so there was lots of chatter in Spanish. It seems the islands are a place where the local families go for a days outing/picnic.
Our first stop was at one of the Uro Islands, or floating islands. Here we listened while a native explained how the islands are created. He had props, so it was easy to understand. Big blocks of reeds, maybe 18 x 18 inches, are cut and then moved to where ever the group wants to live, they are staked and roped together, and then reeds are laid down a few inches deep in one direction, then another, until finally there is enough stability to build a small village. Once this is done, the entire island is secured with anchors.
After this, back on the boat for 2.5 hours to Taquile, what we would all consider a typical island. Once there we were informed that the boat would meet us on the other side of the island and we had a 2 km hike up a very high hill. Oh, I didn’t tell you, we’re at about 3800 meters and the altitude is really giving Mike a bit of trouble already, so all he needs is another 300m of altitude. Anyway, we did the walk, saw some beautiful scenery, stopped at the top for a soda and made it back down to the boat.
All in all it was an interesting day and we couldn’t have asked for better weather, bright sunshine, blue sky with puffs of clouds.
Tomorrow we head out again, this time for Cusco. That bus ride should only be about 6.5 hours.
Sunday, March 17
Puno, Peru
Explored the city, took walk to Lake Titicaca which isn’t too far from our hotel, and then to the main square where a cathedral is located. We witnessed a funeral procession where the people walked carrying the casket down the street. We then returned to the hotel, rested a bit, and took our first showers in about four days. The socks are walking around the room, but it could be a result of the high altitude (3800 meters).
Thursday, March 14 - Saturday, March 16
Argentina/Chile/Peru
Our bus left Mendoza at 7:00 AM on Thursday and arrived about 1:00 AM Saturday in Tacna, Peru. After the departure, a man came on describing what I thought was a description of the trip and if you had a dinner choice between a hamburger or chicken. Ten minutes later, Mike pointed out that the man was not offering food, but rather colon cleanses! He sold quite a few. About 5 hours later, another guy came on selling another brand of colon cleanse. These guys are right, though, people in Argentina eat way too much meat. That should make the new age community just giggle in self-aggrandizing confirmation.
The trip took us on an amazing transverse of the Andes into Chile. We then turned north and headed through Chile with the Pacific Ocean on the left and the Andes on the right. The next morning we awoke to the vast emptiness of the Atacama desert. The road then wove through several mountain passes were we encountered at least three instances where the road had been partially blocked by landslides which added several hours to the trip.
We finally arrived in Tacna Peru at around 1:00 AM on Saturday. We intended to stay overnight in the bus terminal, but were informed by several people, including the bus driver and restaurant owner that this would be a foolish move since we would most definitely be robbed. Fortunately during the ride, I made conversation with an Argentine women who now lives in Ecuador who spoke very good English. She was very helpful in translating between us and the driver. They arranged for a taxi and off we went to our seedy hotel next to the bus station and slept until 7:00 AM. We then found out the Tacna has three bus terminals. The one we needed was a ten minute drive away, not across the street. Once again a major error in the guidebooks. We made our way there, purchased a ticket for Puno departing at 1:00 PM. During our few hours wait we explored a tiny bit of Tacna and found it to be quite charming, beautiful, and friendly.
The bus departed promptly at 1:00 PM and we drove through some amazing mountain scenery climbing to over 4200 meters, which was both exhilarating and exhausting as initial signs of altitude sickness started to set in. The winding road didn’t help.
We arrived in Puno in the rain around 9:30 PM, retrieved our bags, and got a taxi to our hotel. Checked in, grabbed some dinner, went to sleep.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 11 -13
Mendoza was our base for three days. One reason for this is because you can’t trust the guide books. When we went to the station to make reservations to leave for Peru we were told we could go on either Thursday or Saturday, the buses only run Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday and Sunday, despite guide book claims of daily departures.
We wondered around town a bit, nothing very exciting but after a very large city like BA it was pleasant to be in a mid-sized place that wasn’t so busy. It’s a relatively easy city to walk around in and it has some lovely plazas with lots of trees, so it’s very green. One night we went to the center and found a pedestrian walkway with loads of restaurants and shops. Finely something other than pasta. We did take a wine tour and visited two wineries (they distribute to the states, yea!) and one olive oil factory. Tastings at all three. One thing I can say about Mendoza, the wine is very good and it’s very affordable, unlike when we were in SE Asia last fall. The countryside was gorgeous and since it’s grape harvest time, the fields were lush and full of grapes. Tomorrow we’re off for Peru, via Chili.
