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We have arrived in Puno.
somehow....
Alright. It all started in Cusco. After coming back down from Aguas Calientes and the Machu Pichu, we wanted to leave as soon as possible to go stay tranquila in the islands of Taquile and Sol on the Titicaca Lake, before heading off to La Paz in Bolivia. However, we learnt that there was a strong strike blocking the roads and that no car, bus or train could come through. The strike is by miners next to Puno, complaining to the governement about a water source that is being contaminated. There are MANY strikes all over the country since a few weeks ago, mainly in the education sector. You can feel that the country is politically very sensitive these days...and that civil movements are getting stronger and stronger.
Anyways. We waited a day in Cusco, trying to change our itinirary by all means possible, plane, train, northern jungle...but nothing was really working, either too far, too late or too expensive. We kept going to the bus station waiting to hear that the roads were unblocked. Some buses were leaving, but no way to check if they were really arriving. And since the
governement does not really let newspapers talk about strikes and general anti-government matter, impossible to get an official statement concerning the status of the strike...So as usual, we asked tons of people and got different answers each time...
Our third time to the train station, (this is with 15kg of luggage on our backs each time -well especially on marion s back) we decided that the time had come to go. We saw people we d either met or seen throughout our travels head off to Puno buses (including the strange polish man that we see everywhere, we call him " the mysterious polish man" either spy or journalist we dunno...Ayacucho, Andawaylas, even on top of the machu pichu we saw him). Many assured us the path was safe (one learns quickly that peruvian people always acquiese to the question asked...but that did not worry us then...)
So there we were, in a random cheap bus called Power (you ll see later why this is funny). THe fact that we were the only gringas there was a tad worrying, but there were many many women, singing too, and no locals in the trunk this time, so we left
with high spirits. We even managed to sleep, reassured to be on the bottom and not on the top of mountains...
Around 1am, as we approached high altitude of at least 4000m --seeing how crappy marion felt--, the bus suddenly stopped. Lights out, men talking outside, and we discover many fires lit in the fields making a huge road block. Yeay, thought marion, we re in the middle of a civil movement! Great, thought sarcastically em, we re stuck here all freezing night with 40 peruvians in a cold bus and our ratatouille... (always make a ratatouille when leaving on an adventure, you never know)
While we thought we were just gonna be stuck, as the chauffeur had said that the movement was getting really strong and stubborn, another idea flew in the bus. (it was REALLY hard to undertand what the hell was going on, by this point it all gets really confusing). People started saying "we want to collaborate!" and we thought that could only be a good thing.... Collaboration in this case meant letting a man guide us through an alternative route through the pampa (the mountains) and pay 1 NS each to go through
-which is nothing, the price of our morning orange juice-. We figured out that this guy must be a corrupt mine striker getting buses further away from the block to get some cash. Ironic to ask for cash from the people when you re doing a movement against the governement....
So imagine this. A huge bus called Power, going through the mountain fields by night, with no moon, no light... People had to come down a couple times so we would be lighter to pass holes in the earth. We drove like this for at least half an hour!! We had the extremely bad idea of asking what would happen if the strikers saw or heard us (as in, how the hell do you not see or hear a huge freakin bus going through the fields 20 m from your camp!!)
The terrible answer was... : well, they would come and break the windows with stones, before stealing everything there is in the bus, and make us walk. ---we looked at each other in silence.... I didnt get it a first, it took emilie a while before agreeing to translate it completely for me.... So we put our pasports
around our waist, hid our credit cards and a few travelor checks in our knee pockets, made sure we had a ventoline, sugar and a bit of water with us. We put all our sweaters, scarves and hats on, and waited, with everybody else in a rather tensed silence. Well, meanwhile the stars were gorgeous, the scorpio constellation followed us with all its glory, which somewhat appeased us. We did what anybody else would have done in our situation: we took out our nutella and finished it all!!
After a looong time of darkness and listening to the discreet driving in the fields (if a huge bus can ever be discreet), and stalling many times --oh man, the apprehention that rises when you think you cant start again and you re somewhere stuck in the middle of the coldcold pampa is uncomparable-- we finally reached a path, with a loooooong line of buses and trucks coming from Puno. we d made it to the other side!! Our driver told us that if we were stopped we d hav to pretend we were coming from Puno going to Cusco, and that we couldnt go through so we were just returning.
SUUUURE! We ll say anything, we thought, just get us there! And we did at 5am... 4 hours late on our original schedule because of our pampa excusion...but we made it. We learnt afterwards that we were REALLY lucky, as we were the only bus that had passed since the strike started some 4 days ago....
SO whatever guardian angel we have out there, we d like to say how much we love him. He can share our nutella anytime.
Today to compensate, we made the day extremely zen walking through the fields and talking to farmers, joined by a dog all day we called Copain. For the next few days, we ve decided not to take any more buses -we re trying boats now!! The lake is beautiful, and the Taquile island sounds amazing, that s where we re off tomorrow before Bolivia.
To be continued...
Mille bisous a tous
-The survivor chickas
ps pour les francais. Emilie s est prise la tete a traduire tout ce texte en francais, et son ordi, a la derniere phrase, a decide de s eteindre et de lui faire tout perdre. Elle est tres triste. elle ne
veut plus rien dire. Je vais aller lui acheter de la soupe pour la refaire sourire. En gros, ben on s est retrouve coince dans une greve en plein milieu de la nuit, on a roule en bus dans la pampa hors piste sans lumiere... si on nous avait vu on nous aurait case le bus et tout voler... MAIS tout s est bien fini et on est arrive a Puno enfin avec 4 heures de retard. On a eu de la chance, et un bon ange gardien! On a decide, plus de bus, a partir de demain on circule en bateau!
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lilou la prout
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je ne savais pas que c etais a puno le lac titicaca
hola chicas, devine qui c'est? non ca va c est pas dur tooujours la meme chieuse... nous aussi on a faillit se faire casser la gueule mais on a preferer dormir a 7 dans une voiture a attendre que ce cauchemar se finisse...mais il ne s est jamis finit alors vers 6 heures du mat je crois on a decider de passer le barrage a pied,avec nos enorme sac y en avais a peu pres pour 5 h de marche je crois...du coup julie s est tirer en moto...je l ai jamais revue(mais le pb c est que j ai sn passeport) alors j ai continuer avec des peruvien le long pelerinage¡¡ c etais marrant a l arrierre du 4*4le beau paysage l air pur(mais tres froid)... du coup j ai finit dans une famille a puno simpa...je vais a copacabana tt a l heure a++ au fait j ai ecrit mon 1er mail en espanol ..devinez a qui?