i am not quite sure where i should pick up from since i don't know where the last post left of. ah, the fun of writing posts out of order. but i guess the logical place would be leaving cuzco. maybe i should do a lil summary so things make a bit more sense? kinda like a "last time on naninaninani." so after machu picchu, we returned to cuzco and bummed around. after a day of misc activities (which perhaps someone will write about, but prolly not since it really wasn't all that newsworthy), ari headed down to lake titicaca and amy and i stayed in cuzco for more randomness + sightseeing. then saturday amy and i took the train down to puno to meet up with ari. and this is where i will start.
based on the recommendations of others, amy and i opted for the long, scenic train ride down south instead of one of those night buses that we are so fond of. the ride was quite beautiful... and high up at more than 3000 meters above sea level. we read, looked out the window, napped. we eavesdropped on other gringos conversations. we made our bp+j sandwiches much to the scorn of the train workers who were trying to sell us grossly overpriced food. eventually though they gave up and by the end of the trip no longer even offered us a menu. so after ten hours of repeating these activities, we arrived in puno.
ari was kindly waiting for us at the station and took us to our hostel and to book our two day lake titicaca tour. we went to dinner with some other travelers ari met on his tour, but it was to be a short night for amy and me since the ten hour journey of doing nothing wore us out, so it was back to the hostel for a nice hot shower. sadly what we got was a hot-turned-cold electric shower complete with electric shocks and incompetent hotel workers looking at me standing in the hall in a towel while i waited for them to fix it (or as they preferred, not). amy had her own method of dealing with their incompetence, which namely was to walk back upstairs and leave the cold shower running.
soon enough it was time to say bye again to an overtired ari. he had stayed out late the night before, so only offered quiet grunts to our goodbyes. ari was heading back up to cuzco later that day for his language course, and amy and i were to continue to lake titicaca (and eventually onto bolivia).
as amy and i booked our two day tour with the same company as ari, i am operating under the assumption that our experiences on sunday-monday where quite the same as his on friday-saturday. so you can read this through, enlightening yourselves on what we girls were up to. and then you can read it again, substituting pronouns and imagine that it is ari doing x, y, and z. good? good.
the first stop on this tour de laco titicaca was the famous reed islands. made entirely out of reeds, walking on the islands are kinda like walking on a sponge. we got the run down on the reeds (in addition to island-making, they can also be used to make cookies, houses, or tourist souvenirs) and we got some time to poke about the island... all 10 square meters of it. there are scores of these islands around, the super touristy ones seeming to be just for sightseeing purposes while others are where people actually live.
then it was onto the a-something-or-other island where we would stay with a family. we stood on the side of the path while the different families were assigned their tourists. it was kinda like being picked for teams and happily we were not picked last. our assigned family had two sons and a young daughter... all very sweet. we spent the better part of an hour peeling dime/sized potatoes for lunch (or maybe it was for dinner... or breakfast. we ate a lot of potatoes). after lunch we did some exploring of the island, walking up the large hill in the middle of the island for some great views of the lake (with added bonus of a sunset and a lightning storm(. then it was back home for more potatoes and that's when the rain started. crazy lightning flashing down pouring storminess reminiscent of our near death storm in guatemala. by that point it was cold and we were tired and in no mood to get wet, so amy and i opted out of the dance gathering thingie that was going on that night.
the night morning was an early one. a quick breakfast and goodbye to the family and it was off to t-something-or-other island. there we walked around and heard some about the local traditions. apparently you can tell by the types of clothes someone wears if that person is single or married. for men its the color of the hat, for women the skirts. amy and i saw many an eligible bachelor, but we restrained ourselves. after lunch, it was time for the long boat trip back to puno. like the train journey, the passed with some reading, sleeping, and staring into space.
not much else to say about puno. though we met some lovely irish people on our tour, and went out with them for the longest dinner. ever. the food was great vegetarian stuff, but it took about an hour and a half for it to come. at least the company was good (wait, the food was good too. well at least we got a discount. amy's ability to argue in spanish is very helpful.) after dinner we were left with about 6 soles between us, and we figured that if we happened to need money at the boarder for departure taxes or unforseeable peruvian charges (see amy's next post), that six soles would certainly not be enough so our best course of action would be to blow it all (save .5 soles) on snacks. i like the way our minds work. unfortunately, the peruvian boarder control did not... but more on that next...
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