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Titikaka and Machu Picchu
Cuzco, Peru
July, 2005
Puno and Lake Titikaka
Really fun trip, 3 days and two nights from Cuzco. Paid $65 for entire trip with most meals included.
We departed from Cuzco at 8:00AM from the "First Class" bus depot on Main street (ave Del Sol). I had heard it was a good package from an English couple I met on Easter Island. The trip was for 3 days and 2 nights. I paid $65 which included the bus to and from Puno and most meals were included.
When I got on the bus I was lucky to find that the person sitting next to me was a pretty girl. She was 30ish, blonde hair and I couldn't immediatly tell where she was from. I said, "Hello" in English and she immediatly replied with, "Yo ne hablo Espanol?"
"Crap!" I thought to myself, this is going to be difficult. "You no speak English?"
"A little." she replied. The accent sounded familar. "I only speak English and French." I said.
She smiled and said, "C'est bien. Je suis Francaise."
I knew it. Now I was really in trouble. I can speak French, sure, but comprehension, not so good. This is the problem with ever claiming to speak a foriegn language, you will be called on it.
So, in French, I say that I speak some French because I spend alot of time in Morocco and Paris, but I live in Expat communities and that my comprehension isn't that good. To be specific, I told here that in Paris I can barely understand anything people say.
She smiled at my effort and replied, in English, "Yes, it is difficult to understand the Parisians, they speak very quickly."
Her English was great. The French always say "A little" and turn out to be quite fluent. For the rest of the trip we spoke slow english and a little French.
Her name was Valerie and she was currently living in Bogata, Columbia working for the French Embassy. Her Family was from Normandy and she had studied Spanish at the Sorbonne. She also had a masters degree in teaching French to Forieners. She was very good looking, long blonde hair, brown eyes and a nice figure.
A great start to the trip, indeed. The ride to Puno including all of the tourist stops was 8 hours. The first Tourist stop was the X Church. It was touted by the guide to be the "Sisteen Chapel" on Peru, but Valerie and I weren't so impressed. It was nice with the typical highly ornimented gold altar and some larges frescas on the walls, but no paintings on the celings. After the tour we went outside, sat down and she lit up a smoke.
"Do you always travel alone?" I asked.
"Yes, I must. It is much better for me."
"Yeah, I once traveled with a girlfriend," I replied. "It was a disaster, we broke up after 6 months."
"It is difficult. Much easier alone." she replied.
I wondered if she had once had a bad experience but she did not offer an explanation. Later she told me she had once traveled with a boy and he was always hot and she always cold, always having to shuffle blankets and sheets. During the entire trip Valerie was cold, so this made sence, but I was looking for a little more.
The second stop was at some ancient Inka ruins called X. This was impressive. There were these giant adobe walls, about 100 feet high with gaps every 50 feet. There was also a ancient stone city with viasble circular graineries. There wre still people living in the area, still farming, but hey were living in Mud brick huts. I thought it odd that the ancient houses, made from stone, seemed much nicer that the home the peolpe were currently living in. This seem to be true all over Peru except in the modern/tourist cities like Lima and Cuzco. I mentioned this to Valerie and she said, "Yes, I agree, very odd."
The next stop was for lunch. It was a nice buffet with salad, vegtable soup, rice, chicken stew, vegtable beef and spagetti bolonaise. When we sat down, I noticed her choices.
"So you are vegitarian?" I inquired.
"Yes."
"That's cool. But you do eat cheese and dairy products?" I continued.
"But of course! I am French!" She said. "I do eat fish sometimes."
This is the glory of traveling. Being put randomly next to someone on a bus and then getting to spend a few days getting to know them. This does not happen in the regular world. Also, this only happens when you travel alone. When you have a companion that person is your focus. When alone, you have to reach out. No one likes to eat alone!
After lunch everyone on the bus had a good nap and after few hours and a few bathroom stops we arrived in Puno.
Valerie was staying at a different hotel than me, and I wasn't even sure if she would be on the same island tour. I might not even see her again. A new friend is something very dear on the road, so I decided to ask her for dinner.
I was actually nervous. I figured I had to ask her before we got of the bus into the tout/taxi mayhem, but I didn't want to ask her too early like I was some desparate creep. Can you belive it, how old am I, I may never see her again, what does it matter? I tell you, some things never change.
When Puno was in our sights, I tried to be cool, but clumsily blurted out, "Um, if your not doing anything tonight, would you like to have dinner, I mean if your not busy that is...."
I felt stupid. Like she could be busy, doing what? Luckily, with the language gap and all, my aquardness was not so appartent and she said, "Yes, that would be nice."
Since we were at differnt hotels, we were in a city that we were not familar with and had no idea where our hotels were, I told her I would meet her at her hotel. She got out her voucher and read, "Camino Real."
"8:00? 9:00 if that is too early."
She smiled and said, "8:00 is fine."
When we got off the bus and went outside the terminal neither of our guides were there to meet us. Lots of touts approached us but when you have a voucher and have already paid they have no sway.
A man named Palermo was to meet me. I had an envelope for him so when the touts approached I just showed then the envelope. "Palermo will be here soon." they would say as they walked away.
A lady from Camino Real was to meet Valerie. After 10 minutes still no one showed. All of the other people from the bus were gone. We both looked at eachother in dismay.
A few minutes later a lady walked up with a papar that said, "Ponald Bouer." It seem close. "Palermo?" I inquired.
"Si, Si," and she went on to explain in Spanich that she was not Palermo but she would take me to the hotel. I didn't understand a word she said but the meaning was obvious.
I felt bad leaving Valerie there, but there were lots of people around. Before I went with my host, I went up to her and gave her two French cheek kisses and said, "Enchante (French for very nice to meet you), see you later."
She smiled, a little worried and said, "See you later."
It turned out that the lady never showed up and after a few more minutes waiting decided to take a cab. When she got to the hotel the ladiy said, "Sorry, I forgot."
The lady that walked me to my hotel was very sweet. She was actually the owner and her name was Maria. Like lots of Hotels in Peru, the rooms are actually part of the persons house. When we arrived she welcomed me to her home, showed me my room (clean, ensuite, very nice) and then invited me for coffee.
We sat and waited for Palermo over a nice cup of Nescafe. She spoke enough english that we could communicate. Everytime she would say something in English, she would repeate it in Spanish and then have me say it. It was very sweet. It was 6:30PM, I relly wanted to shower, shave and relax before meeting Valerie, but I had to wait for Palermo.
While waiting I asked Maria if she knew where the Camino Real Hotel was located. She said she knew and showed me the direction on the map. It was about a ten mnute walk past throught the center of town.
I decided I wanted a beer so I asked her where the closest market was in the neighborhood. She pointed to a place way far away on the map. I said "Non, uno Mercado para Cerveza."
She smiled, said ok, and we walked together to a local market. On the way we ran into Palermo. He asked me if I had the envelope for him. I did, gave it to him and he walked away saying something to Maria in Spanish. She could see I was flustered, so she said to me, "He will meet us back at hotel in 5 minutes."
Great I thought, 5 minutes peruvian equals a half hour. We fould a market with beer, I bought a tall boy, but it wasn´t in the fridge. Warm beer? I forgot that we were at 12,500 feet and everything is cold.
I have yet to mention the issuses with high elevation. At 12,500 feet everything you do requires extra energy. You run up a flight of staira and suddenly your heart is really pounding. There is even a thing called Altitude sickness where you puke and get very dizzy. I adjusted in Cuzco so by Puno I was in pretty good shape.
Palermo actually did show after 10 minutes and gave me my ticket for the boat the next day and vaguely discussed the itinerary. It really didn't matter too much. I was to get on a boat in the morning and they would drop me back off in two days where I would retun to the hotel. I said fine took the ticket and went up to my room for a quick shower.
To be continued......
The Incas called Cuzco "the navel of the world" and the lake Titikaka "The womb of Mankind" , lakeside dwellers of today regard themselves as the "oldest people in the world" . The lake covers approximately 9000 km2 and like many things in Bolivia it takes another highest championship: it is the world's highest navigable lake (12,500 feet) 3,820 meters, its depth was recently measured at 457 Mt. Lake Titikaka has long been known to be not only the largest but also the most sacred in the world.
Uros Island - Amantani - Taquile Islands
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