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Published: June 29th 2010
We began our journey back from Chile with a collectivo to Tacna, Peru. The driver was so funny, once he found out we spoke English he asked us to translate a lot of useful sayings (ie. going to Arica? Have a safe trip!) and then he had me write them all on a piece of paper for future reference. Some people here go crazy when they get to meet Americans first hand. The ride back to Arequipa though was much less enjoyable. The bus company that we had taken to Tacna wasn´t going back to Arequipa for 2 weeks (I have no idea why!) so we booked tickets with Flores, a bus company we had found online. Bigggggg mistake! They promised us that it was an express bus with no stops but we stopped constantly. Turns out it was a local bus! We picked up people at random places and food vendors were constantly getting on the bus trying to sell food. The ride was supposed to take 5 hours and it took closer to 7 hours. At the end a guy even got on and sang really loudy for 15 minutes and then expected us to give him money. We pretended we didn´t speak any Spanish. Fortunately everything turned out okay and we arrived safely and with all of our belongings but we´ll never take a Flores bus again! Oh, and on top of everything the bathroom was broken so we had to hold it for 7 hours!
We got into Arequipa at like 7pm and just wanted to eat. We passed out pretty early because we had to get up the next day to take a bus to Puno. The bus to Puno was from the good company, Cruz del Sur and it was sooo nice compared to the day before. We got a small lunch on board and they showed three movies, including Hannah Montana. I know way too much about Miley Cyrus now... But it was quite a pleasant ride. Puno has so many hills, when our bus arrived there we weren´t sure if we were going to be able to make it down these tiny streets with huge hills! But we did. A representative from our hostel picked us up from the station. That night we just walked around the city center. It´s a really cute area and there are a shocking amount of people that still dress traditionally and not for pictures, for real. The women wore multiple thick skirts of different colors that made them look much hippier than they really were. All of the women dressed traditionally used cloth made into a bag for the things they had to carry. They wrapped this cloth around their shoulders and carried the load on their back. When I have an internet connection that´s fast enough I will upload pictures of them.
The next day we went to an old steam ship that was used during the Peruvian-Chilean-Bolivian war. The parts of the ship were constructed in England and then sent down to Arica, Chile which used to be a part of Peru before the war. The pieces were then sent by train to Tacna and then they were sent on mules over the Andes to arrive in Puno. It took 6 years to transport all of the pieces. There were passes that exceeded 15,000 feet that the mules had to take the pieces over. Once the pieces arrived in Puno it took them 2 years to assemble the ship. At this point the ship is always docked, they are trying to raise money to restore it. We only saw the officers´ cabins which are very small so it´s crazy to imagine the crew cabins.
After that we went to a market that is an artisan´s cooperative. It´s this quite large market where various women (and a few men) sell the goods that they make themselves. I love going to places like that and just looked at the handicrafts but they attacked me. They would see me coming and just start yelling ¨senorita¨ and then naming what they wanted me to buy. It made it difficult to even look at some of the goods because they were trying to show me 15 different things at the same time. And when we walked away they were not very happy! There were some placemats that I was looking at and we told the woman we´d come back later if we wanted to buy them. An hour later we were walking on the main street and the woman saw me and started calling me to come and buy the placemats. I didn´t remember her but she sure remembered me! We found a woman there whose husband makes these amazing paintings. There was one I fell in love with but it was about 40 USD and I didn´t want to pay that much so she said that if we give her husband the weekend she will have him back a smaller version for about 16 USD. We agreed and said we´d be back on Monday. I was pretty nervous as to how it was going to turn out and anticipated it all weekend.
The next day we visited the Condor Viewpoint. We had a cab driver drive us up there and thought we could just get out, take some pictures of the city and head back down but it was a bit more difficult than that. First, one of the streets up there was so steep that his car couldn´t make it at first. We got almost towards the time and you heard the car struggling but then it began to fall back down. So he asked us to get out and meet him at the corner. He let the car go back towards the bottom and then he gunned it up to the top and barely made it. When we got up to what we thought was the top we realized that we still had wayyy far to go with stairs. The condor is above 12,000 feet so we were a bit concerned. We only made it about half way and then decided to head back down. The altitude really takes a lot out of you! Jose suffers worse than I do with headaches and feeling legitimately sick but I get very short of breath and have difficulty exerting myself. So much for the condor!
The next day we left for our island tour in Lake Titicaca. One of the first things we learned is that we should spell it Titaqaqa because caca means poop in spanish but it´s way more fun to spell it with the Cs! Lake Titicaca is the highest navigatable lake in the world. We went to some of the floating islands which are made of reeds. The native people were pushed out of the mainland by the Incans into the lake and they built islands out of reeds to live on. They begin with a material from under the lake that is similar to a cork and from there they add wooden sticks to stabilize it and then starts stacking reeds on top which also grow under the water. This results in an island that feels like a water bed. The islands are not very thick, so if you cut a whole in one the water is right there. They eat part of the reeds, we tried some and it tastes similar to celery. They also build their houses out of reeds and the men make handicrafts out of reeds. They make these incredible boats out of the reeds too. Again, I´ll post pictures when I have a better connection but they´re quite large and really ornate. After we had a talk on the island as to how it is made we got to see the inside of some of the houses. The women ran forward to split us into groups and were very insistent than Jose and I be in different groups. We tried to get back together because it seemed strange to us but they absolutely insisted. The people on the islands speak mostly Aymara which is a pre-Incan language but I was lucky enough that my family spoke Spanish. But they took my translator away from me (Jose) and I was with some guy from the mid-west who didn´t know a word of Spanish so it was pretty difficult! Turns out the reason they split us up is because you can only buy handicrafts from the family you were with and they figure if they split couples up they´ll buy something from 2 families, double the goods. And guess what, it worked! We felt bad and bought a necklace from each family.
After that we went to another floating island that is a bit more touristy and walked around there. They actually have a small hostel on that island as well as little restaurants. They practice fish farming and have holes in the islands where they keep a fish farm. Next we went in the boat for 3 hours to the island of Amantani where we were going to sleep. There we were assigned mamas for the time we were there. Jose and I were assigned to a mama named Valentina. On Amantani they speak Quechua which is the language of the Incans but fortunately she spoke Spanish too. When we first got to her house she made us lunch which was a soup and roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and cheese. I hate the type of cheese we had, they have it in the Dominican Republic as well. It squeaks when you chew it like a rusty wagon. I can´t eat it because it annoys me to chew it!
Then we were told to rest for an hour. Our room was better than expected, the door was very tiny but the beds weren´t bad, they were pretty comfortable. And there were lots of blankets since it gets cold there. After an hour we went to the main square to do an hour long hike to the top of the island to see the sun set. Well...that was a bit of a problem because of the altitude. Jose and I ended up being the last ones in the group and didn´t even make it to the top. It was freezing, the wind was very strong up there since we were in the middle of a huge lake. My knees started to bother me from the constant slamming down of my feet on the stone ground. The way down was much nicer though it grew dark quickly and though there appeared to be street lamps none worked. It was absolutely pitch black. We hadn´t realized this and had left our flashlights at our mama´s house. She came to pick us up at the square and we followed her back using her little wind-up flashlight. We had dinner after that which was quinua soup again with rice and vegetables with eggs. The people on that island don´t have meat so they´re essentially vegetarians. They eat very little fish. So it was perfect for me!
Then it was time to get dressed up for the dance! The daughter of our mama came into our room with lots of clothes and began to dress me. I got one of those big colorful skirts that they wear that ties right below your chest. Then an embroidered white, long sleeve shirt. Then a thick belt is tied tightly underneath your chest to hold everything together. Lastly is a black embroidered veil that you´re supposed to keep on your head around your hairline, but it was very difficult to get it to stay on! Jose got a thick, wool poncho and a hat. The dance was a lot of fun. There was a local band playing local music. As soon as the music started the daughter of our mama ran over and had me dance with her. It´s pretty easy to do their dances. Then they all end up grabbing hands and dancing similar to the hora except way more violent! They swing the circle around at times with gusto! The kids are the worst, they swing whoever is with them around and yank your arm off. It was a lot of fun though. Though it was freezing outside it got very hot in there. A lot of people started drinking so the party got even crazier. After every song everyone sat down and then about 5 minutes later the daughter of our mama would come get me to dance with her. She was really intrigued by me I guess, she was cute. I figured she was about 8 from her size but turns out she´s 11! Her cousin who looked about 5-6 was actually 8. The kids are just so tiny for their size that you don´t know how old they are. We went back to our mama´s house about 2 hours into the party when it started to break up and went to bed. There aren´t many roosters on the island but there are a lot of donkeys and they´re loud! Wow!
The next morning our mama made us pancakes that were about as thin as crepes with jam. Apparently, this isn´t what they normally eat for breakfast. Normally they eat roasted barley but for the tourists they ask them to make the pancakes instead. They were really good though! We had to say goodbye to our families then and go on the boat to the next island. We took down our mama´s address so we can send her pictures and a thank you letter. She was so sad to see us go. But the mail actually doesn´t arrive there. They have mailboxes on the mainland of Puno and once a week they go there to check them. So we´ll actually mail the letter to our mama´s dad so he can bring it to her.
The boat ride over was horrible! It had been a full moon the night before so there were legit waves in the lake and our boat was getting tipped from side to side. I held it together though and didn´t puke, so props to me! haha. We landed on the island of Taquile and had to do another hike. Jose and I weren´t looking forward to it because the hike the day before had been bad but it wasn´t quite as bad. There were uphill parts but there was also flat trails! The island is beautiful and on the way our guide told us about the rules on the island. If a couple is interested in marrying each other they need to live together for 4-5 years to make sure they like each other. There are no divorces so if after 4-5 years if they decide to marry they are together for an eternity. It sounds like a pretty good idea to me! A whole island with no divorces. I asked the guide what happens if a woman gets pregnant during the living together period and he seemed shocked and was like then the wedding will happen very very quickly. The men and women there wear certain things to denote their marital status. Unmarried men wear red and white caps that face towards the back (the point of the hat that holds down, like santa´s hat but smaller). If a man lives with a woman then he wears the same hat but sideways. When the man is married he wears a blue and red hat backwards. The women have pompoms on their black veils. 4 big pompoms mean unmarried, 3 mean living with someone, 4 small pompoms mean married. We had a hard time counting all the pompoms though! The men´s hats are much easier to see!
We went to the town square and these two little girls kept running into our pictures and it turns out it´s because they wanted us to buy their friendship bracelets. They were 1 sol each (about 40 cents) so we each bought them. They would get so disappointed when they went to repeat customers though and they wouldn´t buy them. I guess they don´t understand that once you make a sale that´s it, you have to stop! They were very cute though, but persistent!
Next we went to lunch and had the most amazing view. We were at the top of the island overlooking the ocean and the mountains of Peru. It was beautiful. We learned more about the hats and customary clothes at the restaurant. The men actually wear a strong belt similar to the hernia belts that body builders in America wear because they carry huge amounts of water up the island (which is very steep) almost every day. After lunch we went down to the boat and it was the steepest climb down I´ve ever had. We had to go pretty slowly to avoid stumbling. Fortunately the water had calmed down so the 3 hour boat ride back to Puno wasn´t too bad.
Once we arrived in Puno we went to pick up my painting and Jose and I were both so nervous as to how it turned out. I was afraid since I had bargained for it that it was going to be a poorer quality since the man already knew how much it was going to sell for but it was beautiful and freshly painted, the paint had just finished drying. After that we walked around Puno for our last night and said goodbye to the city. A lot of people say there´s nothing to do in Puno and you should only go for the island tour but we really enjoyed the city and were glad we gave it a chance. You just have to look for the local handicrafts and the things that the local people do. It´s not as much meant for tourists as other towns. We would love to come back to Puno one day. Though we were glad to be getting out of the altitude of 11,400 feet! Though we got used to it, it was still much more difficult to breathe than normal.
This morning we left for Cusco from Puno at 8am. We had a nice bus, they showed a movie and we arrived here at 2:30pm. We´ve been walking around the city and it´s beautiful. Much more airy and green than any other city we´ve been in. And the altitude is 10,400 feet so it´s easier to breathe! The town is a lot of ups and downs though! It´s almost like climbing through the mountains to walk around the town. And I have to say that they have the pushiest people here to get you to buy something! Wow! We get attacked worse than anywhere else! Tomorrow morning we leave to Machu Picchu so there will be another update after that!
Leave some comments! We miss you all!!
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Rosemary Redding
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We miss you!
I love these blogs--I always look forward to them. Your descriptions are wonderful and I picture in my mind what it's like--without the smells, of course! ;-) You will both be so learned regarding the culture of each place you visit. I like that you are going into smaller, non-touristy towns. That is where you get the true "flavor" of a place--not just the food--the customs--the day-to-day living of the people. I would have loved to be with you at the artisan's market. Oh, and the party-dance. I hope you both took pictures of what you looked like in the traditional dress! With all that climbing, you guys must have lost weight and gotten into really good shape--not that you needed all that exercise--you're both perfect! Please know that I think of and pray for you often and I look forward to being in your company very soon. Happy 4th of July weekend! I love you! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX r