I arrived in Peru! First off, I am very proud as my big backpack, all said and done, weighed in at only 27.5lbs and those of you that have traveled with me know that is a feat in itself!) Got into Lima airport about midnight and waited around for my flight to Cusco at 5am. I got to sleep all of two hours across some chairs with all my two backpacks strapped to my arm (and a big bump under my back!). I boarded my plan at 5:30 and evidently it was delayed on the runway for several hours but I was so tired and slept through it and didn´t even realize until we got to Cuzco.
CUZCO
Upon arrival in Cusco, there was traditional live music being played at baggage claim and I was given a bunch of Coca leaves. They were bitter and I didn´t like them much but I must say that they are a BIG part of the culture here and they are growing on me. They are used to alleviate altitude sickness, sea sickness, headaches, as well as made into a social tea, given as offerings to the gods and what I learned today is that on one of the islands on Lake Titicaca, they do not kiss like most Latin American countries, but rather, shake hands and exchange coca leaves with one another. :)
Once I got to Cusco, I went to the place I organized the trip to Machu Picchu with and was able to leave my bags with them while I walked around the city. They recommended a restaurant that was really great! I had a twice baked yucca (like a potato), chicken Milenesa with fried rice, and fried banana with mate (coca tea). There was so much food for 25 sols (like 8 dollars) that I took it to go and ate it for dinner later. With a full belly, I then trekked around Cuzco.
Cusco is at 3326m (10, 912 feet) and I definitely was feeling the thinner air. I did take some altitude sickness pills which I think are really helping only they give me pins and needles in my feet every so often which is annoying. However, this is only when I am sitting and you all know I am up and about most of the time anyway. Cusco is beautiful. It has many colonial buildings nestled in the mountains and has a few big plazas where there are magnificent churches. I walked all around downtown and saw so many locals as well as travelers too. I have a really great picture of these 4 little girls in native clothes walking with baby sheep. I walked through the arts district (uphill, gasping for air) through all these cobblestone streets which was really cool. There are sweaters and hats and gloved from Alpaca everywhere. The funniest part of the day was when I was in this plaza and an alpaca was free roaming and eating grass. This puppy kept going up to it and wanting to sniff and play and the alpaca kicked him with his hind legs, not hard, but enough that the puppy was stunned and left him alone. The scene was really funny to watch. Later that night, I took an overnight bus (night number two without a bed) to Puno, which is the city on Lake Titicaca. I did not get much sleep again but more than the previous night.
LAKE TITICACA
Lake Titicaca is half in Peru and half in Bolivia, is the highest lake in the world at 3830m (12,565 feet) and is also S. America´s largest lake. It is absolutely beautiful. On the way to the port, there was a huge market, maybe a mile long, of people selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables and others driving bicycles with huge baskets on wheels in front of them.
UROS: The first stop we made was on one of the Islands of Uros. These are floating Islands made at the bottom from roots of the reed grass that grows all over the lake. The roots are then covered with the reeds themselves, crisscrossed up to a meter thick. These are then tied up to other islands like this to anchor them, so there are many islands far apart, all anchored together. There were maybe 8 houses plus a kitchen on the island and each house was made from the reeds also. We also ate some of the bottoms of the reeds, which were white and can be described like an airy, sugary plantain. The people here are very primitive and some of the poorest in Peru. However, they were all very happy. A couple kids were playing soccer. One house had a solar panel which I was amazed to see. We then boarded a big boat made of reeds and visited a sister island. While we were leaving, they sang to us in their native language, then Spanish, then English. It was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. One of the people in our group took a picture of the young kids and you should have seen their amazed faces when they looked at it on his camera. The things we take for granted.
AMANTANI: This island had tons of terraces all over where they grow vegetables and raise sheep. On the next island, we split up into smaller groups, there were maybe 20 people split into groups of 3, and were given to a family where we had lunch, dinner, dressed in native clothes and went to a dance, and then slept in their homes for the night. On this Island, the women are the bosses of the house, and the women who took my group in was Reina. She had 4 kids and also lived with her sister. The people I was with were a couple from Argentine, who I really liked a lot and spent most of my time with! I was also with 3 people from N. Korea and bunked with two girls from Norway. We all became good friends by the end of the night. The house was really rustic with mud walls and corrugated tin roofs and no electricity. There was an outhouse about 100m away. They say that when a couple marries, the entire village pitches in and helps build the couple a house. First, we had lunch which was soup with Quinoa and potatoes and then rice and an omelet which was amazing. We then went with Reina up the mountain to PachaTata, the spiritual place dedicated to Father Earth. We climbed up to 4550m, nearly 15,000 feet! ! ! This was about 40 minutes up about 2500 feet. I still have my chest cold, much to my dismay, and with the thin air, I REALLY did not think I would make it. I had to stop to catch my breath every 5 minutes, but I finally did it. Mind over matter, which I was told I need for the Inca Trail, and this was just practice. I walked up with the Argentinean couple who were also pretty winded. At the top, the tour guide gave offerings of coca leaves to the gods and told us to cleanse ourselves, as this was a place of healing. I tried really hard to leave behind my cold but I am not so sure I did. :) The view was spectacular. I saw snow capped Andes Mountains in Bolivia and could also see across to Chile. We stayed up for sunset and then began the walk down. Halfway down we stopped at a plaza where they were playing soccer and later, the women were dancing. There was a small shop and I had a Baileys and hot chocolate. It was REALLY cold up there when the sun went down. We thought we were going to have to walk back alone and hopefully find our house in the dark but Raina´s sister waited for us and took us down. Once home, we had dinner and then we were given native clothed. This was a full skirt and an embroidered shirt with a colorful sash. Then men got ponchos and hats. We walked to the fiesta where there was live Peruvian music of drums, guitar which sounded like ukulele, shaker, clarinet, and fluted. They jammed and everyone was dancing. We would dance in twos then threes and then by the end of the song the whole group, about 30, joined hands and were dancing in a circle. It was really great to be a part of it all. On the way home, I stargazed and there were trillions of stars and the island was so quiet. Then, I went to bed and slept well for the first time in days, under 4 alpaca blankets. The next day we ate breakfast and on the last island.
TAQUILLE :This island was very similar to the last, although the handicrafts and native clothes were much different. They are known as the best weavers in Peru. We walked about 30 minutes, a lot uphill, along a stone trail. There were terraces here as well where they grow their food. There was snow along the tail as well. We spent some time in the big plaza here and looked at all the handicrafts and then went along another trail where we had lunch. The restaurant was high up overlooking the Lake and the food was delicious. We had quinoa and potato soup and then fresh lake trout with rice and beets. And of course coca tea. We then walked down 500 stairs back to the boat where we ended up back in Puno. And here I am, waiting to catch my overnight bus back to Cuzco.
Caio .......................................PS...pictures to come soon
CUZCO
Upon arrival in Cusco, there was traditional live music being played at baggage claim and I was given a bunch of Coca leaves. They were bitter and I didn´t like them much but I must say that they are a BIG part of the culture here and they are growing on me. They are used to alleviate altitude sickness, sea sickness, headaches, as well as made into a social tea, given as offerings to the gods and what I learned today is that on one of the islands on Lake Titicaca, they do not kiss like most Latin American countries, but rather, shake hands and exchange coca leaves with one another. :)
Once I got to Cusco, I went to the place I organized the trip to Machu Picchu with and was able to leave my bags with them while I walked around the city. They recommended a restaurant that was really great! I had a twice baked yucca (like a potato), chicken Milenesa with fried rice, and fried banana with mate (coca tea). There was so much food for 25 sols (like 8 dollars) that I took it to go and ate it for dinner later. With a full belly, I then trekked around Cuzco.
Cusco is at 3326m (10, 912 feet) and I definitely was feeling the thinner air. I did take some altitude sickness pills which I think are really helping only they give me pins and needles in my feet every so often which is annoying. However, this is only when I am sitting and you all know I am up and about most of the time anyway. Cusco is beautiful. It has many colonial buildings nestled in the mountains and has a few big plazas where there are magnificent churches. I walked all around downtown and saw so many locals as well as travelers too. I have a really great picture of these 4 little girls in native clothes walking with baby sheep. I walked through the arts district (uphill, gasping for air) through all these cobblestone streets which was really cool. There are sweaters and hats and gloved from Alpaca everywhere. The funniest part of the day was when I was in this plaza and an alpaca was free roaming and eating grass. This puppy kept going up to it and wanting to sniff and play and the alpaca kicked him with his hind legs, not hard, but enough that the puppy was stunned and left him alone. The scene was really funny to watch. Later that night, I took an overnight bus (night number two without a bed) to Puno, which is the city on Lake Titicaca. I did not get much sleep again but more than the previous night.
LAKE TITICACA
Lake Titicaca is half in Peru and half in Bolivia, is the highest lake in the world at 3830m (12,565 feet) and is also S. America´s largest lake. It is absolutely beautiful. On the way to the port, there was a huge market, maybe a mile long, of people selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables and others driving bicycles with huge baskets on wheels in front of them.
UROS: The first stop we made was on one of the Islands of Uros. These are floating Islands made at the bottom from roots of the reed grass that grows all over the lake. The roots are then covered with the reeds themselves, crisscrossed up to a meter thick. These are then tied up to other islands like this to anchor them, so there are many islands far apart, all anchored together. There were maybe 8 houses plus a kitchen on the island and each house was made from the reeds also. We also ate some of the bottoms of the reeds, which were white and can be described like an airy, sugary plantain. The people here are very primitive and some of the poorest in Peru. However, they were all very happy. A couple kids were playing soccer. One house had a solar panel which I was amazed to see. We then boarded a big boat made of reeds and visited a sister island. While we were leaving, they sang to us in their native language, then Spanish, then English. It was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. One of the people in our group took a picture of the young kids and you should have seen their amazed faces when they looked at it on his camera. The things we take for granted.
AMANTANI: This island had tons of terraces all over where they grow vegetables and raise sheep. On the next island, we split up into smaller groups, there were maybe 20 people split into groups of 3, and were given to a family where we had lunch, dinner, dressed in native clothes and went to a dance, and then slept in their homes for the night. On this Island, the women are the bosses of the house, and the women who took my group in was Reina. She had 4 kids and also lived with her sister. The people I was with were a couple from Argentine, who I really liked a lot and spent most of my time with! I was also with 3 people from N. Korea and bunked with two girls from Norway. We all became good friends by the end of the night. The house was really rustic with mud walls and corrugated tin roofs and no electricity. There was an outhouse about 100m away. They say that when a couple marries, the entire village pitches in and helps build the couple a house. First, we had lunch which was soup with Quinoa and potatoes and then rice and an omelet which was amazing. We then went with Reina up the mountain to PachaTata, the spiritual place dedicated to Father Earth. We climbed up to 4550m, nearly 15,000 feet! ! ! This was about 40 minutes up about 2500 feet. I still have my chest cold, much to my dismay, and with the thin air, I REALLY did not think I would make it. I had to stop to catch my breath every 5 minutes, but I finally did it. Mind over matter, which I was told I need for the Inca Trail, and this was just practice. I walked up with the Argentinean couple who were also pretty winded. At the top, the tour guide gave offerings of coca leaves to the gods and told us to cleanse ourselves, as this was a place of healing. I tried really hard to leave behind my cold but I am not so sure I did. :) The view was spectacular. I saw snow capped Andes Mountains in Bolivia and could also see across to Chile. We stayed up for sunset and then began the walk down. Halfway down we stopped at a plaza where they were playing soccer and later, the women were dancing. There was a small shop and I had a Baileys and hot chocolate. It was REALLY cold up there when the sun went down. We thought we were going to have to walk back alone and hopefully find our house in the dark but Raina´s sister waited for us and took us down. Once home, we had dinner and then we were given native clothed. This was a full skirt and an embroidered shirt with a colorful sash. Then men got ponchos and hats. We walked to the fiesta where there was live Peruvian music of drums, guitar which sounded like ukulele, shaker, clarinet, and fluted. They jammed and everyone was dancing. We would dance in twos then threes and then by the end of the song the whole group, about 30, joined hands and were dancing in a circle. It was really great to be a part of it all. On the way home, I stargazed and there were trillions of stars and the island was so quiet. Then, I went to bed and slept well for the first time in days, under 4 alpaca blankets. The next day we ate breakfast and on the last island.
TAQUILLE :This island was very similar to the last, although the handicrafts and native clothes were much different. They are known as the best weavers in Peru. We walked about 30 minutes, a lot uphill, along a stone trail. There were terraces here as well where they grow their food. There was snow along the tail as well. We spent some time in the big plaza here and looked at all the handicrafts and then went along another trail where we had lunch. The restaurant was high up overlooking the Lake and the food was delicious. We had quinoa and potato soup and then fresh lake trout with rice and beets. And of course coca tea. We then walked down 500 stairs back to the boat where we ended up back in Puno. And here I am, waiting to catch my overnight bus back to Cuzco.
Caio .......................................PS...pictures to come soon
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