Peru, Peru, Peru ...

...Oh how I heart you: your millions of stray dogs, cheap ass food and your many different altitudes. 

My time in Peru was amazing. All of my time spent in the country was with two Californian boys Scott & Nathan and we had one heck of a journey!

Puno: you´re so dizzying 
Arriving to Puno was much the same as being beaten by a baseball bat. Coming straight from the coast to 3900m in altitude equals one HECK of an adjustment.
The main reason you visit Puno is to see Lago Titicaca ... so that is exactly what we had planned to do, however we were feeling so crummy that we ended up staying in Puno, the town, one whole day ... just to acclimatize ... through the benefits of coco tea, leaves and candy this is just what we did.

Puno was a funny little place, but we enjoyed it a lot. We stumbled around the streets, sat in the sunshine and ate ... A LOT. I think I had 3 servings of dessert ... well, I know I did :)

The next day we visited ....

Lago Titicaca: you are so high ... the worlds highest lake to be exact!
Wow, what started as an early morning wake up call turned into one of my favorite days ever in Peru. We started in a mini bus (organized by Carlos ... our savior - we had met Carlos in the bus station at 5 am two mornings before ... nearly dead ... he drove us to his hostel, set us up in an amazing room in Puno and hooked us up with an amazing tour of the islands ... after some bargaining on my part of course :) haha) ... and we were dropped off at the harbour, which may I say was filled with more boats than I have ever seen. We jumped into our boat and within minutes were weaving our way through the hundreds of other boats ... determined to be the first to the reed islands.

The reed islands were so neat, there are a bunch ... each one a different community, with different families and leaders. On the particular island we stopped at, the President and his assistant gave us a full blown lesson of how they built the islands ... paying particular attention to its upkeep!
We were then invited into the presidents home ... which consisted of a small hut (constructed from reeds of course) with one bed and straw. It was pretty amazing to think that four people fit in there ...

We were then introduced to some local songs, reed drinks (that we were told not to drink ... as they were much to fibrous for forgeiner stomachs like ours) and finally a local boat ride to the neighboring island.

This little boat ride was probably my favorite part of the entire day. I was the last one on the boat ... sitting in the back with the President (whom was paddling) and a bunch of local little kiddies! I asked to take a picture with them ... öf course, of course¨ and had no idea what I was starting! It was so cute because everytime someone takes a picture the little ones say ¨Lake Titi-caca .... whiskey¨ (instead of cheese). Anyways, after the picture was taken ... I showed the kids on my camera and that was it!
They FREAKED out!
The next 30 minutes consisted of my camera being tossed between 5 indigenous children under the age of 7 who had probably never seen a picture of themselves ... EVER.
It was hilarious, they were laughing and giggling and taking movies and pictures and crawling ALL over me.
Along with my camera, another thing they found absolutely amazing were my lu-lu lemon pants. I suppose they haven´t ever felt material like that before because they were all touching it like it was from another planet ... hilarious.

Anyways, my favorite part was when the Presidents seven year old son took hold of the camera, pushed the others away ... put my sunglasses over my eyes and screamed SOLO! ... he wanted to take a picture of just me, it was so funny :) such cuties.

Anyways, after that we arrived at the next island ... where they had *the fish* of Lake Titicaca ... RAINBOW TROUT. I had to laugh.

Next came the big island: Taquile. 
It was absolutely breathtaking. We climbed up to the top of the island (which at 4000m is harder than you think) ...  and had lunch, which was amazing: rainbow trout, veggies, soup, papafritas and coco tea!

Such an amazing day. Thank-you Gilbert the tour guide for your knowledge :)

The next night consisted of an 8 hour bus ride to Cusco ... in a seat that did not recline ... with 2 local women sitting on my feet ... gotta love South America :)

Cusco: you are so cheap 
I loved it here ... such an amazing vibe: the architecture was wonderful, the weather for the most part amazing (despite it being the rainy season), the people were so friendly and the food was SO CHEAP.

After one day of wandering we found the best market ever: San Pedro.
We were the only gringos wandering about for miles ... and everything was so so so so cheap ... it was heaven.
You could do everything from eat meals, stock up on supplies and shop for alpaca clothes. I did it all ...
I ate an entire lunch for 3 Sol (which is less than $1.50) ... consisting of chicken soup, pescado, arroz, papa fritas y salad! MMMM
Bought some amazing fruit (mangos, watermelon, apples and more), created some tasty ass trail mix and found a great little alpaca sweater ... the only thing I desperately wanted from Cusco!

Despite loving Cusco ... it was the first time I got really ¨sick¨ ahahaha ... I don´t think I have spent so much time in my life in the bathroom ... but it was worth it. Haha.

We spent 3 nights and 4 days here in total .. on the second night however we decided to escape to Machu Picchu :)

It was one heck of a journey ... but such an adventure. Because the Inca Trail was closed in February (ie. no 4 day trek) we caught a taxi to the city ofOllantaytambo (a funky little place with one cafe and 400 stalls of food. It was here that I had my first taste of street boiled Peruvian corn ... a real treat).

From here we caught a train (such a beautiful ride) though the Rain Cloud Forest .... all the way to ....

Aquas Calientes (the town of Machu Picchu): you are to expensiveWe arrived to the musty, moldy and steamy hostel very hungry ... ready to explore. Luckily, it was a beautiful day ... and we set out on an adventure.

We got frustrated quite quickly however at the price of the foods ... how can we be paying 8Sol for the same meal that we were paying 2.5-3 Sol in Cusco ... the answer: touristas ...
We were too tired and hungry to fight it so we gave in for one meal, soon after however we found were the locals hung out ... ate Peruvian-Chinese food and watched the Oscars (re-run) in Spanish before we set out for Machu Picchu .. ahaha WRONG IDEA.

The next morning we awoke at 4am to start out hike up to the top! We walked for about 20 minutes along the only road in town until we hit a bridge ... it was here that all the trekkers (aka: too cheap for the bus) collided! After we were let through, then came the steps ... about 2 hours of them. HAH - they were exactly as wonderful as you´d pictured in the pitch black ... ;)

Finally at about 6am I made it to ...

Machu Picchu: you really are a natural wonder
When you first arrive, its a pretty surreal feeling ... your on the top of this huge mountain ... peering down onto this village ... constructed entirely from stone. It´s an amazing feeling first of all seeing it in real life and when you actually start learning about the history, it´s even better.

Because we were there so early, in the off/rainy season (even though it was SO sunny and warm) ... hardly anyone was there. It was incredible! SO LUCKY!

After the tour of the entire Inca Village - we hiked Huayna Picchu - the *small* (hah) mountain just beside the big one. With the altitude, and the brilliant idea of chinese the night before ... it was nearly the death of me ... but once I reached the top ... it was SO beautiful and the view ... so worth it.

We came down, wandered around and took some more pictures before deciding that it was time to descend! Now
you´d think it would be much easier to get down ... but because of good old HKIN and that lesson on eccentric contractions ... I knew this was going to be a bitch! We ended up RUNNING down the entire 2 hours of stairs in less than 25 minutes. Once you gained momentum ... it was easy ... the next two day however consisted of the WORST shinsplints ever ... stupid me :)

We loaded up on pastries, caught the train back, got stuck in Ollantaytambo for a couple of hours because our dude forgot to send a cab and arrived back to the pouring rain of Cusco.

*My favorite part of the cab ride back ... was the toilet paper roll acting as the defroster - gotta love SA :)

We spent one more night in Cusco and began our 20 hour bus ride to Lima the next day ....

Lima: you remind me of North America the most
Weird place. Beautiful, but weird. We spent our time in Miraflores ... and it was all a little too North American for my South American trip. The McDonalds was a treat, and the movie theater was even better ... but I didn´t come here for that ... ahaha I guess a little luxury every now and again never killed anyone but I needed out of my comfort zone.

Hello to another 20 hour ride to the coast ...

Mancora: you´re a party ...
Wow. What an adventure. There was no surfing because of the lack of swell ... so I partied way to hard, sunbathed a bunch and slept a total of about 10 hours over 4 days!
I even stole a brownie ... oops.
Great place.
Funny memories.
Sad goodbyes.

Goodbye comfort zone.
HELLO ECUADOR


:)