Most of Peru

We´ve been travelling pretty quickly trying to complete our loop around Southern Peru and it just occurred to me that I haven´t actually written anything for several weeks. From our camp in the jungle we took a boat, a bus, a plane, a taxi, a bus, and another taxi to Puno, which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the world´s highest navegable lake. The border with Bolivia passes through the lake and apparently the Bolivian side is pretty neat but it costs mucho dinero to get into Bolivia so we stayed in Peru. Apparently five days down in the jungle cost us our acclimatization and so the 7 hour bus ride uphill from Cusco was demoralizing. We could scarcely think straight whne we got in so we spent most of the next day remembering how to breathe. We decided to take a two day tour of the lake starting with the Uros Floating Islands. The islands are actually rafts made from reeds in the lake. Each one is home to 5-10 families and lasts for 40 years. Originally the Uros people took to the lake fleeing the Inca and lived on fish and foul from the lake but now they mostly live on tourist dollars because exotic species are leading to the collapse of lake fishing. The families on each island work together and defer to the president of the island. If there is some dispute, they simply cut the island in half and shove them apart.
Later we went to another island a real one that can´t be moved around. We stayed with a local family for the night, Gregorio and Andrea. They speak Quechua at home but Gregorio knows a little Spanish so we could communicate somewhat. Andrea cooked our meals in an adobe stove with a woodfire in the kitchen, which made things rather smoky. At night they dressed us in traditional clothes and we went to a dance with the rest of our tour group. Andrea showed me the steps but she kept trying to spin me and since she´s only about 5 feet tall it didn´t come off well.
From Puno we took a late bus to Arequipa, which is on the dry west face of the Andes underneath a couple of very large volcanoes that haven´t destroyed the city since 1979 or so. The city itself is very beautiful and we got to visit an old convent that seemed rather cheery except for the statues of Christ on the Cross and Our Lady of Misery everywhere. From there we went up to the Colca Canyon and saw a totally bewildering number of terraces, and a condor that couldn´t have been more than 5 miles away. We also ran into what seemed like every other tourist we had met so far. They call it the Gringo Trail and I guess there´s a reason. We went back to Arequipa, headed down to the pacific to visit the ¨poor man´s Galapagos¨ where we saw a completely unfathomable number of birds(including some lost-looking penguins) and some lazy sea lions. The town we stayed in, Pisco, was hit by a level 8 earthquake in 2007 and none of the roads had been resurfaced which gave it an eerie feeling.
In Lima we mostly just hung out at the hostel with some people we met there, although we did manage to do some salsa dancing. Now we are in Santiago, Chile, staying with my friend Carolina. So far the city seems very nice, and is framed by snowy peaks. This morning we saw a large parade or demonstration which was very interesting, though mostly lost on us. Someone was demanding justice, self-determination, and territory, but we couldn´t be sure who or from whom it was being demanded. Nor could we determine whether they were also demanding socialism and anarchy or whether these were separate groups. There was also a feminist contigent whose flyers admitted that although this wasn´t really a feminist issue as such they didn´t want to feel left out.

Peru photos.

Some photos. Left the memory card from the first half in my hotel room. I can´t flip the last one but I still like it.

Island children in traditional dress.

Amantani Island in Lake Titicaca.

Our tour group beat our guides in a football match at 3900 meters above sea level.

The Uros floating islands are large rafts constructed from reeds where people live most of their lives.

Before the rains on the Altiplano.

Boat ride along the lower Rio Madre de Dios.

Tarzan.