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Published: September 13th 2012
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For the past couple of weeks we have been traveling with Oasis Overland and our tour leader Ricardo. We have seen so many sights and have had an amazing journey, but our tour and time in Peru is coming to an end.
We had two days in Cuzco to rest the body and chill out with a bit of market shopping after completing the Inca Trail and 24 hour challenge. Cuzco is a great place to bargain because there are so many stalls selling similar or exactly the same items. Our mission was to bargain as much as we could and in most places it worked. Don’t feel bad for bargaining, in most places they expect it. Whilst in Cuzco, a local food on the menu to try is Guinea Pig. A very salty meat that has to be tried while in the area.
After Cuzco, Puno was our base for a couple of days while we visited Lake Titicaca, the floating islands and stayed with a local family on one of the Islands. The floating islands were very interesting, although at times a little too touristy. But I guess that’s how they make money, allowing tourists onto their
islands to have a look around, buy some of their handicrafts and pay to see how they live.
Staying with the local family was not what we were expecting. It was more like a hostel and not the ‘traditional’ family experience we were after. After a very long boat ride to the Island we were promptly shown to our room then left alone till dinner. Meals were very basic consisting of rice and four different types of potatoes.
We had been advised to purchase gifts of necessities for the families as a thank you for letting us stay with them. Rice, Pasta, children’s books and pencils were purchased and given to the family. It wasn’t till later when we saw our host family swapping gifts with their neighbour that we realized our family had no young children. At least the neighbours kids would make use of our gifts.
It was however very interesting talking to one of the older family members we were staying with. He had picked up very basic English just from having people like us stay with him and his family. In basic English he explained how grateful and thankful he was for tourists
coming onto his Island and providing that little bit more income. Before tourisim his life was a struggle and food was scarce. They don’t eat meat, they live off what the land produces which is already scarce with potatoes as their staple diet.
We spent the night, dressed in traditional clothing, dancing with the locals. Their style of dance was standing with a partner moving each others arms back and forth, feet firmly placed on the ground. It was a very entertaining night and the locals seemed to enjoy our company and watching us try to dance like them.
The trip back from the Island is one I would rather forget. A few hours into the boat ride back to Puno I was feeling pretty queasy and was sure it wasn‘t from the motion of the boat. Cum Cum was also pretty sick, feeding the fish on the side of the boat and not managing to keep anything down. Fortunately I made it to the hostel just in time for the vomiting to start. I spent the rest of the night simultaneously hugging the sink and toilet bowl. It was the worst stomach bug I have ever experienced. I managed to keep down antibiotics that our tour leader purchased from the pharmacy but Cum Cum was taken to hospital for a few hours and put on an IV line for fluids and medication. We were pretty thankful our tour leader forced antibiotics and a doctor on us when were both too stubborn to realize we needed it.
After a night spent in the bathroom, or in Cum Cums case the hospital, we were only just well enough to continue our journey and cross the border into Bolivia. We still weren’t 100% but the vomiting had stopped and luckily for us there were toilets on some of the buses. The border crossing was pretty simple, apart from the wrong date stamp being used in our passports. This was promptly corrected and were able to cross the border into Bolivia quickly and smoothly. The border control guy did say to Reagan that he needed to shave his beard off because he didn’t look like his passport photo. For a minute we thought he was serious, but he quickly laughed it off and we were on our way to La Paz, Bolivia.
Our 21 day tour from Lima to La Paz with Oasis Overland has come to an end. We are now down to four, traveling with the Lonely Planet, South America On A Shoestring as our only guide, back to basic hostels, cooking our own meals and planning our own itinerary.
We had an amazing time on our tour and wouldn’t hesitate to use Oasis Overland again. The tour was well planned, but we were still given time to do our thing and explore the cities by ourselves, which is what well-travelled people like ourselves enjoy.
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