02/20 - back to Peru

 We woke up on Isla del Sol and had a good Americano breakfast, [with a looong wait,] at the same restaurant where we had had dinner the night before. It was right near the pier, (luckily) since we had to board the boat back to Copacabana as soon as we were done eating.

We rented a locker for our bags when we got back to Copacabana. We wandered around in the nice weather, took photos, and shopped. I had to pay 1 Boliviano every time I had to pee, which was often. We saw the priest blessing car engines in front of the Cathedral. The Cathedral, itself is very impressive, but no photography allowed, so I found some photos online.

We took a 6pm minibus back to Puno, Peru. The border crossing was a lot easier on the way back. And Jim took my photo with the giant Peru sign and the giant beer. We gained an hour on the trip. I paid 50 centimos to use the bus station bathroom. Then we took a 9:30pm all-night bus to Cusco, with first-class seats that allowed us plenty of sleepy-stretchy legroom.

02/19 - Isla del Sol

 We got up early and took a boat to Isla del Sol. The boat ride was long, but the weather was perfect. And, when we got there, the island was perfect. We hiked several hours, from Yumani to Challa Pampa. It was very hot, sunny, and beautiful. The terrain is steep, and there are views of the Andes from the south shore-- where we started. Lake Titicaca is at 3800m (12,467ft), and the highest part of the island is 4100m (13,451ft). [That is really high!] The hike up was tiring, but I think we did well, considering that Jim's place in California is only at 800ft or so. The path we chose took us severely uphill until lunchtime. We stopped to eat at a lodge surrounded by stone walls and elaborate terraced gardens, with an astounding view of the bay below.

The rest of the hike was gentler. We got to Challa Pampa in the late afternoon, and room in a stone hut with a thatched roof, at "Casa de Alfonso." It reminded me of our quarters in Colca Canyon, but there was a bare electric light bulb.We had drinks at a nice outdoor cafe in the tiny village, and went to bed soon after dark. I still had a cold, and I'd gotten a little sun.

02/18 - Copacabana

In the morning, Jim brought flowers, because I was coming down with a cold. When I finally got myself out of bed, we walked to the shore of Titicaca. The main street slopes toward it; it's quite scenic. We had fresh orange juice, on lounge chairs, in the sunshine. We took photos, but most of them were on my camera. There was a place that rented yellow-ducky paddle boats. I was too sick to try one. We did some shopping and internet cafe-ing. But mostly, we just wandered around the small city. The cathedral was stunning. The festivities were endless. The markets were colorful, and cheaper than Peru. The alleys and walls near the plazas reeked of urine. Men were fall-down drunk on the arms of their wives. Everybody was wearing shimmery, sparkly costumes. Many of them matched. We even saw one red-white-&-blue cowboy. Children were tending a lot of the shops while their parents were dancing and drinking at the festivals. We got dinner at a "Thai" restaurant where a 9-yr-old boy was the only person on staff. We waited at least an hour for the food; possibly longer, and it was pretty bad. But, at least it was memorable. 

02/17 - Uros, then Bolivia

We got up early and took a boat tour out to the floating islands of the community of Uros, in Lake Titicaca. The islands are made of reeds, and more are stacked on top every 2 weeks to maintain them. As soon as we hopped off the boat, each islander grabbed a few tourists and dragged them into their hut. The woman who grabbed us was named Alicia. She dressed us up in native clothes and encouraged us to take lots of pictures. This, it turned out, was a ploy to acquire loyalties for when it was then time for all the islanders to sell their wares at us.

Our boat took us back to Puno, and we caught a 2:30pm bus to Copacabana, Bolivia-- the other side of Lake Titicaca. The border-crossing was confusing. There was a lot of paperwork, and we didn't know US citizens have to pay $135 to cross. But we got through, and it was worth it. The lake is deeper and wider on that side. Puno is on a smaller bit, but Copacabana felt more like being on the ocean. However, it was getting dark when we arrived, so we didn't go down to the water until morning. We arranged two nights at "Hostal el Dorado," which would not be very good. There was no shower curtain, so the lukewarm water sprayed all over the bathroom. At night, the floor was very cold, and was always soaking wet. Of course, we didn't know that when we checked in.

I was feeling sick, so we got cold medicine at the pharmacy below the hotel, then went exploring. There were 5 or 6 stages with live music, all around the main square. Everyone was drinking and dancing and drinking. They would see an empty cup, and fill it from a large glass bottle of beer. Nearly everyone seemed to have big red plastic cases of these "Pilsen" beers. We ate a cheap meal from a curbside cart: salted meat slab -pounded flat & fried- served on white rice, with fried egg & pickled vegetables on top. A local man was slumping heavily on his wife, spooning rice into his mouth, eyes mostly closed. But he was far too drunk for eating, so all the rice was falling down his sparkly costume, back onto the plate in his lap. We also met a nice German couple, who highly recommended touring Isla del Sol. I bought 10 cough drops for 1 Boliviano. Then we went to bed.

02/16 - from Arequipa to Puno

Our bus left Arequipa at 8am. I think it was about 5 hours to Puno, which is on Lake Titicaca. We wandered around some shops and found a reasonable hotel: Cielo Andina. This was the first place in which we had electric hot water. It was a tiny bathroom, with no ventilation, so it was always damp. There was a breaker above the toilet, which you had to flip on before showering. There were electrical wires coming out of the wall inside the shower. I found an image reminiscent of it online. (Except ours was sketchier, and the walls were a sickly salmon color). Our shower head had the same odd appendage as this one, though, and we never figured out what it was for. We spent the afternoon shopping and relaxing. The next few days were going to be hectic.

02/15 - out of the Canyon

We had to leave the lodge at 5am. We took a much more direct route out of the canyon. Pretty much directly UP. Thankfully, we started before the sun was up, and it was slightly overcast, so the heat did not murder us. It was absolutely exhausting, but we made it out. We even took a group photo of everyone at the top. Unfortunately, that photo was on my lost camera. But that's one memory I am not afraid of forgetting. It was quite a feat. I am pictured stretching my sore, sore legs.


  

We hiked to the nearby village of Cabanaconde for breakfast. There was a pair of parakeets in a cage by the bathroom. They were sweet. We got to wander around a bit while we waited for another tour group to join our bus. We met a local woman who was keeping a small courtyard full of chickens, cats, and guinea pigs. She brought them a backload of cornstalks, and the guinea pigs went crazy munching on them. It was incredibly cute, and surprisingly loud :).

Our bus went back through Yanque, and we stopped for about an hour at a hot springs there. The sun was shining, and the pools were clean and clear, (unlike some hot springs we would later experience.) It was nice to soak our tired, canyon-climbing bones. After the hot springs, we stopped for a huge buffet lunch in another small village. We got back to Arequipa around 6pm. I turned in pretty early, exhausted and sunburned. We were heading for Puno in the morning.

02/14 - Cañón del Colca

Our bilingual guide, Omar, and his Canadian girlfriend, Sophie, picked us up at 3am. We took a mini-bus to the pueblo of Yanque, right near the canyon. There, we had breakfast, and the man there brought out a baby alpaca. She was just 19 days old. I got to feed her, and took lots of videos with my phone, which, sadly is lost. When everyone walked back to the bus, I lingered behind. While I was packing up my things, she came over and started nuzzling me and I got to pat her a lot. She was much less shy after everyone else had left.

Then we went to Cruz del Condor, a point overlooking the canyon,  where one can always spot some condors-- the sacred protectors of the realm of sun and sky.  We saw a few, but they were too far away to take good photos. It was an absolutely amazing view. The place was also inundated by trinket vendors. We resisted buying very much there, but it actually turned out [we discovered later] that their prices were some of the best we would encounter in Peru.


So, then, we hiked a switchbacky 7km down Cañón del Colca. The vistas were stunning. We took countless photos. It was relentlessly sunny, and I got burned, despite multiple rounds of SPF 50. My knees were incredibly sore from the steep downhill climb, but it was worth it, and I healed up in a few days. We lunched in one of the villages near Tapay. Then, I fell asleep on the grass, right outside the toilet hut, having made no conscious decision to do so.

Then we had to hike several more hours downstream to our lodge at Oasis-Sangalle. I tried to swim, but the sun was setting, so it was too chilly in the pool. They gave us a lovely open-air dinner, lit by candles with plastic soda bottle reflectors. Then we went to sleep, in our stone hut with a thatched roof. We knew we'd have to get up before sunrise the next day, but that's not why we went to bed early. We couldn't have stayed awake if we'd tried.