Planes, trains, automobiles and peru

Ok people, the last month has been one of note, or lots of notes as you will see, no need to waste more time!

On the 27th of June i left my house in concepcion early with my packback filled to the brim and my final assignment for the semester in my hand. I passed by the professors office, turned in the paper, and I was off to Viña del Mar. I arrived just in time that evening for Clares going away party. It was fun and not too messy. The next night Clare and I set off for Santiago and spent the night in the airport as our flight left at 6 am for Arica, Chile which is on the border with Peru. We arrived and hopped in a colectivo car to cross the boarder. It was three of us in the backseat and three grown men in the front seet of an 80s Chevy. An hour later we were in Tacna, Peru. After buying our bus tickets through to Cusco via Arequipa, we set off to eat and had our first experience with ordering ¨menu.¨ We didn´t know what was going on because we asked for menus and they brought us soup and then gave us a couple options for a second dish. We went with it and then it was super good and very cheep. About 6 soles in total. 3 soles = 1 USD. In peru this option is usually available everywhere and for every meal... We eat a lot of menus!

On our walk over to the bus with the little travel agent guy who sold us our tickets, he asked us if we would do him a favor. We said sure, and he handed us a package said to conain shoes that he wanted us to delever to his parents in Cusco. Its suposedly expensive to send such items because of customs and the shoes are much cheeper in Tacna. I accepted the package on good faith and shoved in in my pack and tried to forget i had it.

We arrived in arequipa several hours later and had about 1 hour layover until our bus to cusco. We again happened across a very small local place to eat where the mom served us up some more soup and chicken with rice. Several more hours on the bus and we arrived in Cusco about 330 am. We were supposed to arrive around 6, so the receivers of the package were not there. We negotiated a hostal for a few hours to sleep and then called the name and number we were given just in case for the package. The woman was very nice, and her husband came to recieve the package, which at this point was confirmed to be only two pairs of shoes and nothing more exciting. Anyway, Jose arrived and we passed on the goods. We then told him that we were trying to get to Ollataytambo in the sacred valley where our train left the next day for machu picchu. He then imediatly hailed a cab, got in with us and took us to the little micro bus station where those buses take off from. He not only paid for the cab, he also paid for both of our bus fairs to the sacred valley... only a total of about 10 soles, but it was a very nice gesture. He even got up on the bus with us to make sure we had our seets. Once the bus was about the leave, the door opened one more time and it filled up with school kids... yes all the seats were aleady taken, but they packed in. As we hit the road with absolutly to space to move in the bus, we stopped and picked up two more: a mom and her little daughter who proceeded to have her cute little hand on my knee until they got off.

We arrived in Ollataytambo, found a hostal and ate some food and chilled in the small mountain town. There were alot of tourists as it is a jump off for machu picchu (MP). The next morning we got on the train at 530 and proceeded up the valley with amazing views of the Peruvian andes... really some of the most beautiful mountain views i have ever seen. 2 hours later we arrived at Aguas Calients, bought admission to MP and bought tickets in a little bus to take us up to the site. You can also walk up, but we wanted to get there early. We then proceeded to take in all of the amazingness. Its just like the picuters, but real, in your face and full of energy. It was amazing how preserved it was, and you were allowed to go almost anywhere you wanted. No ropes or fences telling you ¨NO¨. We were able to climb up Wayanapichu which is the peak you see in all of the pictures behind the site. They only allow 400 a day, so we were lucky. This part was sooo amazing. We climbed straight up ancient stair cases that are still in perfect shape. For this part I opted to go barefoot to feel the cool rocks, and be like the incas! Yes yes I know, i´m really cool. Anyway, after taking more than 300 fotos and taking the whole place in, we walked back down to Aguas Calientes and then got back on the train. From Ollataytambo we took a bus directly back to cusco.

In Cusco we found a nice hostal with hot water in a nice spot down town. We showerd and passed right out. We wanted to go to the amazon jungle which is somewhat close by, so the next day we dedicated ourselves to figuring that out. After looking at some tours and deciding that wasnt our style, we decided to call up Jose for his advice. He came to meet us later that afternoon. He went into several tour agencies to ask proces for us because they always try to take advantage of the gringos. But, after explaining to him we kinda just wanted to do our own thing, it was off to the bus terminal. Puerto Maldonado is about a 30 min flight from cusco and is a jump off for the jungle. We opted for the bus route instead however. 18 hours! But Jose negotiated getting us the front seats on the second level of the bus, so we had a panoramic view of the whole trip! He was really a great guy and it was worth every risk taking that package to him!

We left the next afternoon for Pto M. WE arrived the following day in the morning. We hoped in a little motorcycle cab and went to the main plaza. We then came across a great little hostal with a our own balcony looking over main street. We then rented a little moto to check out the town. There are hardly any cars there.. everyone is on a moto and all the taxis are motos retrofitted to have a bench seat on the back, little cart type things. So with Clare on the back we cruised with the warm wind on our backs, it was awesome. And I didnt even wreck! 3 hours cost us 10 soles, super cheep! Later we searched for a tour to get us into the jungle. Becuase of just the way it is, its not possible to just jump on a boat and wing it like we wanted to do, so we had to find something more organized. At one place as we talked with the woman, she suddlenly pulled her small child into her lap, pulled out her nipple and started to feed the little brat. She didn´t even break stride in her schpeal either.. However, it took everything i had to not start cracking up.

We ended up going with a different company that was cheeper, but no nipples. The next day we went up the Madre de Dios river about an hour and then walked about an hour and a half through the jungle to Lago Sandoval. There we stayed for the next two nights and three days. We stayed in a really rusted cabana thing. There was a really nice lodge on the lake too, but we wanted the real experience. So, with huge spiders as our roomates, we took in all that we could of the jungle. Our bed had serious netting over it to protect us from all the creepy crawlers in the room. It was not a net, it was actually canvas sheets. Clare demanded that I check every last inch of that bed before she would get into it.. i wasnt really against the idea either.

We spent the days swimming in the lake, canoeing and walking through the junlge. We saw lots of exotic birds, parrots and all other types. The lake also had lots of Black Caymen: one of the only places in the world were they remain, and yes we saw several. We also saw some other swimming creatures but i cant remember the name. Help here Clare, please! It was super fun and interesting to be in the amazon and feel all the energy of so much life.

When we arrived back in Pto M, we were greated by a paro. As i have explained before, paro is basically a boycot. But this paro was of the whole town. So, there were no cars nothing, and we had a bus in a few hours. So, we walked the 20 blocks in the heat with our big bags amongst people walking an protesting in the streats. At the bus terminal they said the bus wasn´t going to leave for atleast 3 days. So, we walked back to our little hostal from before and got the same room with the balcony. There we stayed for the next 3.5 days watching the people marching through the streets almost continuosly. It was a great view! Because everything was closed, we had to search out clandestine restaurants that were serving. We looked for cracked open doors and people standing outside whispering ¨almuerzo¨. It was like a little mission and adventure everytime we wanted to eat. But, we did eat alot and it was really good. The best food of our trip by far. One time however, the protesters came to the restaurant where we were eating and strated yelling and throwing stuff and banging sticks before the workers could force them out and shut and lock the door. It was intense! Another time at night, we were getting sandwhichs on the street and the protesters came, and we had to duck into the little building the cart was at and shut the doors and lights.

After 4 days of this, we finally left. We got on our bus, but this time the bus did not have the upper level with the good seats. Instead this was a bus without a bathroom that was half broke down. So not only were we on the dirt road which makes the trip longer anyway, the thing couldnt hardly go and kept breaking down. About 22 hours later we arrived. It was hell basically. We then imediatly got on another bus in cusco to go to Puno. We succesfully were on a bus for 29 out of 30 hours. It was a tour de force! We arrived in puno and just died!

Puno is on the shore of Lago Titicaca. We took a little boat out to the island los uros which are floating islands. They are constructed of reeds as are all of there things, such as houses and boats. It was very interesting to see the very unique traditional culture still surviving. Then we hoped back on our boat and headed to the island Taquile where supposedly the best knitters in the world come from. The lake is at 3800 meters, almost 12000feet and the second islands plaza was up above 12000 feet. All the flat landers that were there were huffing and puffing to climb up to the plaza!

Next we got on our final bus which was from Puno back down to Tacna. We thought we had already had the worst bus ride ever, but we were wrong. When we got to our seats, they were covered in vomit. So, we didnt sit in them. However, soon enough the bus filled up and we couldnt stay in the other clean seats. We then sat at the very back of the bus on a little shelf. It was baring wide enough for one person, and we both sat there for about 9 hours. They over sold the bus by 8 people so there were six more people sitting on the floor in the isle the whole time. Every one on the bus was indigenous peruvian because we werent on a tipical tourist route at this point. They however didnt seem to have a problem sitting in the vomit seets. Ours were no the only such ones. However, we made ourselves happy and confotable cramed in the corner witnessing people vomit the whole way. When we finally got to tacna we jetted off of that disgusting thing and zoomed back across the boarder to arica, where our flight left from the next day.

The next day we were in Santiago and then over to Viña. We packed up Clares stuff and headed back to santiago the next afternoon for her to catch her flight back to the US. We had an amazing time together on that advneture despite at the very end both of us having very unhappy stomachs. Thank god it was at the very end... we blame it on the super nasty bus rides.

It was very sad to see Clare go, we really had a great great time together. It is a minor miracle she didn´t kill me, and she even insists she still likes me! She gets woman of the year award. 20 days straight with me and no other human contact, any other takers?? I didnt think so!

I then met up with my friend who lives in Santiago and we went snowboarding together. It was really fun despite not great snow. Yay for snowboarding in the Andes in July!

Im now in Mendoza, Argentina all alone. I´m going to do a bicyle wine tour tomorrow and then head off the Buenos Aires in a couple days before heading back to Concepcion by the end of the month to start school again.

Im sorry for some of the quick explanations, but please please ask me specific questions if you have them. It was such a cool experience, I know clare and I would be happy to talk your ear off about it if you want more.

For now i´m off to pick my clothes up from the laundry mat and sip on some wine!

I hope you are all doing great and I hope to hear from you! Leave a comment or email me!! I will update again when i get back to concepcion.

I miss you all! Take care! Hugs and kisses!
PEEEAAAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEEEE
Dan

PS sorry for all the spelling mistakes, this computer only does spanish spell check and im too lazy to proof read!!!