Puno

On Monday, after spending 10 days in the big city of Arequipa, I finally boarded the bus with John and P. Two irish guys i worked with at Pisco Sin Fronteras, the volunteer place in Pisco. I needed to get out and start traveling again. We boaded the bus at 2:30, and left around 3. Its usually a 5 hour bus ride, but im sure it was longer. We arrived to Puno late Monday and walked around the bus terminal until a woman came up to us asking if we needed a hostel. She showed us a few brochures, and we took the hostel for 10 soles. She got in the taxi with us and took us to the hostel. She then tried selling us on a tour to see the islands, but we just said thank you, and went to see our rooms.

On Tuesday, we spent most the day walking around the town of Puno. We found a little carnival area with a huge slide, ferris wheel, and a pirate ship. Across the street was a long street fair that had stands with all sort of treats, games, and anything you really wanted to find. After it got dark and cold, we made it back to our hostel which is at the top of 2 big hills. Our friends, Laura and Reha, also from PSF, got to Puno in the evening. We went out for dinner, very cheap menus for 2soles. Less than $1. Doesnt mean it was good! haha.

On Wednesday, John, P, and I went down to the dock to see when we could go to the islands. Laura and Reha, needed a day to adjust to the altitude. We started talking to one guy and he told us we could get the last boat at 4, tour around Uros, the floating islands, spend the night and then get another boat to Amantani, another island further out. That sounded good, so we waited around in the plaza for a while. It was a nice sunny day. John set up his hammock on the railing around the sitting area. It was so funny to watch the locals walk by and look into the hammock, wondering what it was there for. When John would say Hola, and they would start laughing and walk away.

We went back at 330 and didnt see our man, but got swarmed by a bunch of other men all trying to sell us the same tickets. One guy said he was our mans friend and told us we only had to pay 5soles and that his boat was leaving now, so go with him. We went with him, and ended up getting hasseled to pay more. He got catch on the boat and ended up coming with us. So we just ignored him as much as we could. We ended up making friends with a Peruvian couple that was on the boat, and they also told up how much they paid and that we were being overcharged.

The Uros islands were interesting. They are made out of the reeds that grow in the lake. After a few days, they have to lay another layer down. They made everyting out of those reeds, their houses, boats, and their beds. We got to go inside a womans house where there were 2 beds. She said 6 people sleep in there. 2kids in each bed, then at night when they shut the door, the parents put a bed down where we were standing and sleep there. I sat on it, and it seemed pretty comfortable. Then they told us to get into the canoe shapped boat and gave us a ride across the lake to the other side where another floating island was. And we saw how another family lives. It was nice, but extremely touristy which i didnt like. All the woman sat with their pots and other trinkets and tried to sell them to you. I felt bad that i didnt want any of it, but we at least paid for the canoe ride across the water.

We had planned on spending the night, but the guy that conned us into going with him, was trying to charge us more for the bed and food, that we finally got fed up with him and decided to go back and sleep in our hostel. It was also freezing, and we knew our hostel was a bit warmer. So we got back on the boat and chatted more with the Peruano couple. We ended up going to dinner with them. They were so interested that we found food for 2 soles and they wanted to try it. We tried the dinner, and it also wasnt that good. Then they wanted to have a cerveza and asked a local on the street where a discotec was. So we went and had a few cervezas and they kept asking us questions about what music we like, what our jobs were, about our family, how much things like clothes and phones cost. They were so interested. Its a great way to work on the spanish and interact with the culture. The girl was from Bolivia but was working in Arequipa. The guy is from Lima and they are dating. They went to a small town that was on the boarder of Bolivia for him to get eye surgery for cheaper than anywhere else. He had a patch of tape over one eye and wore sunglasses. Finally, it was late, and we headed back to our hostel. We told the man at our hostel what happened with they guy at the boats, and he wasnt too happy.

On Thursday, John was feeling well, so P and I left to attempt finding a boat to go to the other islands. When we got down in the lobby, the front desk man told us about two little villages that we can take a collectivo bus to and see a few different touristy things there. So we decided to do that, and hope that the next day everyone else was feeling better.

First we took the bus filled with people to a small village about 30 min away. When we got there, we saw only 2 other tourists, and that was it for the day. We walked around town and found a ruin that the hostel man told us about. We had no idea what it was for, so we made up our own story. There was a stone wall built in a square with no roof. and inside were many little statues, with one large statue in the center. We decided that one time a year when the sun was just right, it shown through the doorway of the building to shine down the center of this stone and shine onto another stone that had a cross carved into it. We made up more of an elaborate story about what all the other stones were for, when later we looked at the ticket, and it was named something of the sun...so we must have been close. There was also a little girl, 3 years, that came and followed us. She had chapped checks from being in the sun. P shared his water with her and she drank a good amount. She was so cute, I took a picture of her and showed her the picture. She was so interested in the camera that i showed her how to take a picture and she kept pushing the button. She probably took 20 photos of P sitting on the rock. I had to delete them after.

We continued on our walk around town and heard about a fish place up the hill. So we walked up there and saw many different pools they had for all sizes of trout. I guess the university is doing something with them. Not really sure, just walked around a bit. Finally after looking at all the fish, we decided to go get a fish to eat and walked to find a woman calling us into her stand. So we sat outside, as she fried up some trucha frita and queso frita. fish and cheese fried! It was quite interested. The fish was nice though. We walked around the town a bit more before getting onto another collectivo bus back to Puno.

When we got back, we found where the bus goes to the other town and got on that bus. That was another 30-40 minutes in the other direction. The bus finally stopped on the side of the road and there were maybe 10 houses spread out in an area. It wasnt even a village and they told us this is where we wanted. I just laughed and asked P if this is really what we were looking for. He didnt know either, and laughed. In the distance was a huge mountain and ontop were some tower structures that were back from the inca time. This is what we were coming here to see.

On the side of the road we saw 2 woman picking something off the ground and a man stomping on somthing with his bare feet. We went to see what they were doing, and it turned out the woman were picking out the rotten potatoes, and the man was smashing them in a round half circle rubber thing probably made out of an old tire. It was so funny as he was happily stomping away. He told us they were going to through them into the river, why we didnt know. He then put all the mushed ones into a mesh bag and filled his rubber thing with more.

We left and walked up the road to where the path to go up the mountain was. A guy came out of the house and told us it was 4soles to go up. First, we really didnt want to climb the hill, and we werent gonig to pay 4 soles. So we told him, no thank you and he lowered the price. We got him down to 1sole, so we decided to go up anyway. When we got to the top, there were 3 huge stone tower structures. One of them had a rock out of the bottom so we climbed inside. The roof was all rocks piled ontop of eachother and it was crazy it didnt fall ontop of us. We spent a good while up there walking around before deciding to go back and to try to catch another collectivo bus going back to Puno.

The family was still stomping on the rotten potatoes and more people had come to help. We stood on the side of the road for a good 30 min before the first bus sped past us. They were full. This highway was straight and long and you could see cars coming from a long way away. Finally a bus stopped, and the locals that came after us, jumped on. So we waited another 20some mins. Finally, a bus stopped, but it was full. It was only one local woman, P and I waiting. When the doors opened, some woman said, ´the gringos first´...that was nice. P got in and pretty much sat on the step, The woman took the last seat and I stood on the step with the door at my back. I rested my backpack on the laps of the two people infront of me. I later counted and their were 24 people in this little bus which is made for maybe 14...P asked the woman next to him about the potatoes and she happened to have some all ready cooked in her bag. So she gave him one. He asked if it was to eat and so he popped it into his mouth. All the woman said ´no´and started laughing. We thought they were making a joke out of us and all we couuld do was laugh. She then gave me one, but tole me to peel it. Oh ok. She kept feeding us potatoes and other wierd looking things. Then one guy sitting behind P gave us some cheese. This cheese was actually good, and not as salty as other cheese here. P asked how many days to make the cheese and she said 1. Impressive. It was such a fun bus ride back and we couldnt believe how nice they were. I stood for most the way hunched over until the first stop where the two woman who feed us the potatoes got off. We wanted to give them a sole or something, but ran around the bus, before it took off.

Such an interesting day interacting with the locals.

Today, the 5 of us were walking through the streets of the market when we heard loud music coming from one of the buildings. We could see people dancing around in a huge circle. After watching for a while, they noticed us and waved us in. John, P and I went in, and as soon and the guys entered, then woman grabbed them and started dancing with them. The one guy who was dancing grabbed me. They were passing around many bottles of cervezas and gave us a glass. I was laughing so hard i could hardly drink the beer. There were 2 crazy woman who kept dancing with John and P and would spin around and their skirts would hit other people. I was being rotated with a younger guy and an old man who wanted to dance. It was so funny, and all the other older woman who were sitting along the edges was laughing at us as well. We finally had to make an excuse to leave for it was too hot and the woman were crazy with their dancing and forcing the beer on the boys. We told them we had to go find our other friends and bring them back. So funny!

Tomorrow i hope to go to some of the other islands and spend a few days there intereacting with more locals.