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Published: June 11th 2010
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The Brown City
Puno is not much to look at! Last night I fell asleep around 8pm. I was trying to stay awake and read the last 2 pages of my chapter but my eyes kept closing and I kept reading the same sentence over and over... off to bed it was. I woke up almost 11 hours later and we took a 7am taxi to the bus station. From there we caught an 8:30 bus to Puno on the busline 'Julsa' for only S20 (about $7) compared to Cruz del Sur company for S54 (about $35).
A woman came onto our bus right before we left and showed us a hotel in Puno that was only S40 (about $14) for twin beds, private bathroom with "hot" water (which we have yet to discover), cable TV, free internet, and free breakfast. She also said someone would pick us up at the station and take us to the hotel. We agreed and were told to meet Sonya at the station and that she'd be holding a sign with our names.
We later found out why the bus has been so cheap; the bathrooms were disgusting (but me and my small bladder of course had to go!), the driver was a bit hard on his break and loved to whip around the corners, plus there was no air circulation and despite it being cold outside, it got very hot in the bus.
The landscape was beautiful. We saw TONS of vicuñas, alpacas, cows, and sheep along the way and the mountainous view was amazing. It's not as dry at the higher altitudes and this strange dry-looking grass grows to keep the mountains covered. I forget what they call the grass but it's what the alpacas eat.
Towards the end of the bus ride, Sarah was feeling sick again. She had stomach pains and was having trouble breathing. Luckily we met Sonya right away and she put us all in a taxi and we were on our way to the hostel. She was great. She called a doctor to see how much a visit to the hotel would cost, as Sarah was having a lot of trouble breathing and had stomach pains. It was going to be about $50 for a visit, so Sarah chose Coca tea with mint instead, and I headed out to find some new meds that we hadn't tried yet. By the time I returned Sarah was already feeling better and she tried the new meds and continued with the coca tea.
Coca tea is made with the leaves of the coca plant. It's supposed to help with altitude sickness. We'd been drinking in on our tour of the canyon lots, and Sarah's been chewing on the leaves as well as eating the coca candies. Apparently this is the same plant that is used to make cocaine. Our new friend Robb (the nurse) also told us that in some cases you may even test positive for cocaine for 2 weeks after or something. lol. Good thing I have no testing to do!
This city itself is nothing to be desired. When we first drove in, it reminded us lots of the outskirts of Tegus with it's ugly brown buildings built into the mountain-side. Most of Puno is like this. Not many people paint their buildings. It's just an ugly brown city. Good thing we're here for the floating islands and not for the city-scape.
I left Sarah resting in our room to go in search of some alpacagoods at the market. I was very disappointed to find cheap stuff that's useless in the market instead. It was mostly junky stuff like the plasticy things they sell at the markets in Honduras too. I did manage to find alpaca wool though, which is exciting. I think I'll buy one ball of white and one of brown - enough to knit a doubled-up pair of mittens.
I also found super cheap food. I was able to buy half a kilo of pasta (apparently enough to last me for the next 2 weeks!), a red onion, a red pepper, a carrot, a tomato, chicken stock, tomato paste, 1/8 of a chicken (that apparently also came with french fries!) all for about $3!!!
I came back to the hostel and used the shared kitchen to make some pasta. Sarah was able to eat a bit and is feeling better so we're hoping she'll be able to make it to the floating islands tomorrow. I'm hoping I can somehow magically make the water hot tonight so that I can take a hot shower and snuggle under the warm blankets for another early night to bed. I forgot how cold winter is - and although it goes below freezing, this isn't enough close to a cold Canadian winter. BRRRRR!
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kari
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calefont
Sarah- I think I may know your problem with the hot water. In Chile nearly every shower has a calefort that you have to light to get the gas hot water flowing. Sometimes this is cotrolled by the hostel owners so you may want to ask if there is such a thing as a calefont (spanish) not sure if these are used in Peru, but worth a try. Buen suerte