Puno, Cusco, Machu Picchu

Hi!

We left Arequipa for Puno the day after our last post. Arequipa was a supposedly nice city, but Cassie and I were still having stomach problems from the bad water in Pisco and when the whole city lost water for twelve hours we decided it was definitely time to move on. So we hopped on an early morning bus east to Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca is huge, 699 miles around (Tahoe is 71), and sits at 12,500 ft. elevation, making it one of the highest navigable lakes in the world. It is split by the Peru/Bolivia border. Puno is a nice fishing and tourist city set on the hills jutting up against the lake's northwest shore.

We spent the first day or so taking it easy to get acclimated to the elevation. Our second day there was Thanksgiving and for the first time this trip we had a tv in our room and the Puerto Rican channel was playing the Macy´s Day Parade, so we took a slow nostalgic (though neither of us, I don´t think, had actually watched the parade since we were little) morning watching the parade. We both missed being home for Thanksgiving dinner (and our families, of course) but as any kind of typical American dinner options were pretty much off the table, we decided to go as far in the other direction as we could. So, Cassie had alpaca and I ate guinea pig for dinner. Alpaca is quite good, I'd put it somewhere between beef and pork. The guinea pig came fried, looking just like a flattened guinea pig, and though it was pretty tasty there was too little meat and too many bones.

After Thanksgiving we went to visit the Uros Islands, which are man-made floating islands that the Uros people have lived on for thousands of years, apparently originally for defensive purposes. The islands now are very turisty but still amazing to see - they are made out of dense roots that are tied together underwater with many layers of reeds on top. As the reeds rot more are placed on top, and when you walk around on the islands (of which there are fifty, with about 2,000 inhabitants) your foot sinks noticabley - they feel spongy. They have two floating schools, a floating hospital, and use solar power for energy. They look like this:


The next day we went farther out into the lake proper to Taquile island. The lake, from this island, looked like the ocean and the water was remarkably clear. The tour was a slooooow 3 hour boat ride out, but the island and the lake were beautiful and it was interesting to see the people there- unlike other groups around the lake who continue (especially the women) to wear indigenous, or indigenous inspired dress, the people on Taquile having been dressing in a Spanish colonial style since the 1600s. The men on the island wear hats that look like sleeping caps or santa claus hats that they knit themselves - and the people of the island are apparently famous for their skill in weaving.

After another two days in Puno (one planned, the other due to a protest that blocked the highway somewhere en route) we took a bus northwest to Cusco. In Cusco we are staying at a hostal that gives a little discount to people from Pisco Sin Fronteras, so it was nice to run into a group of friends from Pisco upon arrival. We spent the first day in Cusco getting to know the town, which is beautiful, and checking out some museums and cathedrals. The next day we set off for Machu Picchu.

There are usually two options to get to Machu Piccu - the train or one of the treks like the Inca Trail. The train there was something like 40 bucks each, though, and we didn't have enough time here to hike for four days in one of the non-Inca Trail trails, so the owner of our hostel helped set us up with an alternate route. It goes like this: first, miss the bus you are supposed to take and get put into a bullet colored vw beetle for a 30 minute car chase to catch up with your bus. Then, get onto the bus for a five hour ride through mountain switchbacks climbing first up above tree level and then down into the jungle, mostly on unpaved roads, making sure to get off in a little town called Santa Maria. Then, with the two other backpackers on the bus (a German and an Argentine), catch an hour colectivo (private taxi) ride to a town called Santa Teresa. There, eat and make friends with the German and Argentine and get a taxi together to the hostel for the night, outside of town located just across the river from some fantastic hot springs. All together it cost about 30 soles (10 dollars) and we found ourselves in a lodge in the jungle, hanging out in the nicest hot springs we'd ever seen.

The next morning we got up at 4:30 in the morning to take a half an hour taxi ride with the German guy (the Argentine couldn't wake up so early, he said) to a hydroelectric plant from which we walked about 6.5 miles along what we thought was a decomissioned railroad (until the train came by) to Aguas Calienters, the feeder city in the valley beneath Machu Picchu. It rained the whole walk, which we were expecting, it being the rainy season, but then after a quick breakfast in Aguas Calientes it cleared up and was beautiful for the rest of the day. We made it up to Machu Picchu at 9:20, before the first train got in from Cusco (10AM) and in time to get to hike up Waynu Picchu, the mountain just behind the city. Getting up Waynu Picchu was a solid climb, but the views from the top were stunning. We spent the rest of the day exploring the Inca city, then caught the train halfway back to Cusco, took a colectivo the rest of the way, and made it back to our hostel last night by 9:30 to take showers and pass out.

This afternoon we will take a 20 hour bus ride out of Cusco and back to Lima, where we will hang out for a few days before flying to Costa Rica on the 10th. It will be the longest bus ride either of us have had yet - should be fun!

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was great, we were thinking of you,

C & A

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