On eating ceviche.

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Today I arrived in Puno after a twenty-three hour bus ride from Lima. That was pretty tough...especially considering the particularly hard fall (probably fracturing my tail bone for the 14th time) I had while visiting some nice jungle waterfalls in Puerto Ocopa. I left the jungle on uh, Sunday night? with the hopes of reaching Arequipa (via Lima) by Tuesday morning. I never did get to Arequipa, and its now Thursday.

All of Peru is on vacation right now for Fiestas Patrias, the independence celebrations. Mass transit. So when I tried to get to Lima that Sunday night I found them full till the next afternoon. Not wanting to be eaten by any more mosquitos, I ended up on a night bus back to Huancayo. On arrival in Huancayo, I was met with Santiago (I have a slightly better idea of what it is now). I found myself drinking beer at 9am with a bunch of men and women wearing fancy hats and clothes dancing around in a courtyard then continuing to parade around the neighborhood. Soon enough, my sore coxus and dodgy stomach (beer at 9am after an eight hour bus ride will do that) sent me to bed and it was decided that we'd leave for Lima the next morning and hop on a bus to Arequipa from there. However, the next morning I awoke to a closed bus terminal. Apparently the bus companies had decided that raising the bus fares to seven times the normal was a good idea. The people didn't have it and there was a bit of a riot, breaking windows and that sort of thing. Once again turning to the alternative plan we boarded a bus to La Oroya on the route to Lima with hopes of catching another bus from there to Lima. In La Oroya after some dificulty we (literally) jumped onto a bus headed towards Lima on which sat in the aisle for four hours. Jeez, this is getting tedious to write out. Anyways, we arrived in Lima at around 7:30 in the evening and sought out a bus to Arequipa or Puno leaving that night. They were all full. We bought tickets to Puno the next afternoon and spent the night in a hotel with alledgedly, cockroaches. The extra time in Lima, however did allow me to eat some really delicious ceviche. So I guess taking five days get somewhere that should take two wasn't so bad.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit some Lake Titicaca islands and before I know it, I SHOULD be in Bolivia.

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