Peruvian Adventure

we arrived in puno after a marathon bus ride from arequipa. our send off in arequipa was classic, our collection of peruano men was assembled on the door step of the agency to say good-bye, and we already miss having fun dancing partners and people to practice spanish with. when we arrived in peru, i was a little nervous because we had no more connections. however, cassidy is much more confident than i am, and stepped into the bus station to figure out what we needed to do. the first thing we saw when we walked in was a sign with my name on it. it was such a suprise that i wasn´t sure how to react. a man introduced himself to me and explained that numan´s friend, ronald, from arequipa had called ahead to puno to make sure we were taken care of. palermo drove us to a hostel, where we got a pretty classy room for half price. he also arranged our tours through the islands as well as our future trip to cuzco. we settled in and went out to dinner to a restaurant called la casona. we were seated right by the fire-it´s cold here!-and were immediately served our favorite roasted corn kernels and some fire warmed bread. we than ate a delicious dinner…i had trout and avocado, free pisco sours, and then a dessert similar to cheese cake-yoghurt pie and oca jam. the next morning, we woke early to get on the bus to lake titicaca and bolivia! yes, i just got back from bolivia today, so more stamps in my passport. after passing through immigration and changing some money to bolivianos, we drove into the town of copacabana. no, music and passion didn´t seem to be in fashion, but being a bohemian sure did. there were a lot of vendors selling jewelry layed out on blankets in the sidewalk, bob marley spilled into the street, and amongst all of that, women walked with little felt hats perched on their hats and colorful bundles swathed to their backs. cass and i grabbed a quick lunch of sandwiches, and then met palermo back at the bus. he introduced us to an archaelogist friend of his who lives on isla del sol, and we walked down to the dock to board a sluggish white boat. cass got down and bought us icecreams from a squat indigenous woman, which we ate from the cone with little wooden paddles. the ice cream seemed to be a tradition for all of those returning to the islands from market day in copacabana. we were the only tourists on the boat and sat on top with a leathery old man in a fedora and alpaca sweater and two young indigenous girls with sparkling skirts, thick sweaters, and their long black hair in braids. it was a cold, long ride, but it was fun talking to the girls about their life and aspirations. we waited through several ports before docking, enjoying watching the people of the island unload their coca colas and large bundles. we saw women doing wash in the freezing water of the lake and drying their colorful skirts on the beach or on shrubs. sheep and burros seemed to run wild. finally, we landed at our dock, where we walked down a shaky plank to be introduced to a man whose family ran a quaint yellow hostel on the hill. when we arrived, we were the only tourists in town, and the hostel was incredible, with a commanding view of the intense blue of the lake and the little tableaus of life being played out beneath us in the village. our room had wooly little llama rugs, a sun room with roughly hewn wooden chairs and llama cushions, and bright yellow walls. we were immediately served mate de coca tea by the accomodating juan on a table outside, overlooking the lake. cass went for a walk, while i read and wrote, and juan donned a white chef´s cap and apron to cook us dinner. meanwhile, some dutch guys showed up, which ruined our feeling of isolation. they were also demanding, and often asked that cass translate all that they wanted. cass and i bundled up as it was freezing, and we played with juan´s three daughters, drawing pictures, playing with little crochet puppets i had given them, and braiding hair. all the girls were younger than seven. finally, we ate a delicious trout dinner with vegetables, rice, and french fries (a suprising peruvian staple). this morning, we ate bread, jam, and butter with our tea and then walked back to the dock for the boat ride home. we were accompanied by juan´s brother, who actually owns the hostel. he gave us a very thorough talk about the island´s legends, culture, and agriculture. the altitude was so high, it was easy to get winded, but the distractions of the children running to school and the farms and the animals and the amazing blue expanse of the lake were enough to take my mind of my breathing. we visit the islas flotantes tomorrow and leave for cuzco tomorrow night…hoping to catch my breath some time in between. love you all, thank you for your letters. darcy

we made it back, barely alive! i am so sore and bruised and scraped up, but that´s just the bad news. we started our adventure by staying in a friend of a friend´s extra room, christened the trash room because of a pile of trash in the corner. we then hung out with a new friend, raul, before leaving on our bus trip. we listened to music and talked about a million things. he and cass even salsa danced in the tiny room. then, it was off to the bus station in a crazy caravan of taxis. we waited forever, worried that our trip would be delayed again. finally, we were on the bus. the road, after awhile, was so bumpy that i came off my seat at least three times, there was no sleeping, even though it was around two in the morning by this time. then, the worst happened, our bus couldn´t make it up a hill, so we had to get out and walk in the cold and the dust. then, it was back on the bus, only to get off again and do the same thing. then, we all switched to another bus, where there was standing room only. we were all so tired and irritable by that time. it reminded me of what i had read about the trains taken in the holocaust, though our experience lasted only three hours. i tried to be tough, because it didn´t seem that bad, but there were the bodily smells of at least sixty people or more, trapped in a tight space, shoulder to shoulder. so many people were sick and our guide kept wiping alcohol over our faces to keep us from throwing up. at one point, i knew i was going to pass out, so our guide, abil, moved so i could sit on the arm of a chair near him and i sat like that for the rest of the trip. i was so tired though that i was resting my head against the seat in front of me, and i even snuggled on this poor peruano woman. then, abil let me sleep leaning on him, and we were finally there. we ate a quick breakfast at chivay of bread and mate de coca and then it was back on the bus until we made it to lunch at cobanaconde. after lunch, we started our trek. canyon de colca is the second deepest canyon in the world, and the second only by 163 meters. cass and i went with the spanish group, which included two girls from spain, a couple that consisted of a brazilian guy and a dutch girl, a dutch guy, two norwegians, a group from france, and us. we hiked the last part in the dark, and as i had stupidly forgotten my flashlight, i shared cass´s headlamp. we went through many wonderful little villages, and even got to go to one of the canyon schools and meet the students…hope my pictures turn out. abil was very informative. we crossed a suspension bridge, walked through several streams, and finally arrived at our hostel, where they had candles burning and dinner waiting. we ate by candle light in outdoor patios with palm leaf roofs. we shared a room with the two spanish girls, julia and suzanna, which was also lit by a single candle. i slept like the dead, but then it was up at six thirty to walk again. the whole trip consisted of standing aside as mules and indigenous people passed by on their business. we walked through desert landscapes and terraced farmlands where we saw chickens, pigs, cows, mules, and lots of dogs. we also saw two condors. the next day, we finally arrived at paraiso, or paradise, and oasis on the canyon floor. i forgot to mention that i ate it hard right by these gorgeous waterfalls and have some spectacular bruise memories to prove it. the oasis was incredible, bamboo and palm leaf shacks, alpaca, sheep dogs and mules everywhere and two cool green pools. we all took a dip and then ate a hurried lunch before climbing out of the canyon again. it was a rough trip that took me three hours, and i was in the slowest group. i walked amongst mules to the sound of scratchy peruvian music from one of the men´s radios. the canyon was spectacular. we were passed by a peruano woman and her son guiding a mule, a donkey, and a horse up the canyon. the woman got of her horse and left the four year old boy to ride alone, which he did, whipping the horse gently with a rope the whole time. when we arrived back to cobanaconde the whole city was dark and the street vendors had let their stands with candles. the restaurant, where we threw down some mate de coca, was also candlelit. after our tea, we went to the hostel, suffered through some freezing showers, and went back to enjoy dinner in our multinational company. we plan to go out with many of them tonight. much love, darcy

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