puno and arequipa

since our last blog update, we have eaten a lot of really good food (FINALLY!!!!!!) and seen some great sites. first of all, lake titicaca (pronounced teeteekaka.... it looks pretty obscene i know) has been quite good to us in terms of food. there is some amazing trout and kingfish coming from the lake. wowza!!! we had some amazing grilled fish that was out of this world, sometimes more than once a day. and for less than $6 too! DEALZZZ AND BARGOONS.

another great thing that we found in puno specifically was the availability of special bargoon set meals called ¨tourist meals¨, that include an appetizer (usually soup, salad, or an omelette), a main (usually trout, beefsteak, chicken, spaghetti or alpaca), and a dessert or beverage. all of these were for $18 sols, or $6! to reiterate, DEALZZZZ AND BARGOOONS!!!! we took full advantage of these meals. almost too much so.

by the way, i might add that the other day i had an alpaca tourist meal, all while wearing an alpaca sweater!! is that wrong? hmmm.

just some background on lake titicaca - it is on the border between bolivia and peru and it is allegedly the highest navigable lake in the world. it is all freshwater, and we found out on the tour the other day that they do not use the water at all for irrigation because it is evaporating - it sounds weird that a lake is evaporating, but this is allegedly the case. another thing i find so amazing about the lake is its pristine condition - people are quite respectful of other people who use the lakes resources, such as the uros people who need to drink it. apparently only the water outside of puno, or 0.02% of the lake, is polluted (with algae). would you ever see that in the great lakes? not so much.

yesterday we went on a day tour of the uros islands and taquile island. the uros islands are very unique in the sense that they are manmade out of reeds, or totoras, and float on the roots of the reeds. the uros people, who are direct descendants of the incans, have been maintaining these islands for thousands of years. they have to rebuild the islands every several weeks and spend lots of time doing so. they also subsist on handicrafts and fishing. everything on the islands (save for a couple things such as the solar panels) are made out of reeds - chairs, boats, houses, kitchens, tables, beds. truly amazing! the reed boat that we sat in was slightly more modern than their ancestors - on the bottom they placed 2500 plastic bottles for flotation. if only the big beverages companies could see that! muy reusing!

another great thing about them is that if they don´t like their neighbours, they can pull up their anchors and move somewhere else. pretty convenient!

after the uros islands, we sat in the boat for 2.5 hours to get to taquile island. taquile island is the textile island and the island is known for its specific style of dress, which is very spanish (i think the guide said it was the catalan style.... liz help me out here with your spanish prowess!) lots of big belts and pouffy pompom hats. the belts were unique in the sense that they are constantly expanded with stories - for example, where you were born, how many sheep you own, what you do for a living. super neat! also, when people get married on the island, they cut the hair of the bride and sew it into a belt for the groom! and, men wear hats that indicate their marital status. pretty interesting stuff.

the place where we were staying, the q´orikhana inn (spelling is completely botched) was referred to us by one of the hustling men at the puno bus station, which to our surprise, was named oscar. after hearing his name, we had a pretty good feeling about him! he got us a significant discount on the place (we paid $15 soles a night, or $5 a night, instead of $30 soles a night). he also guaranteed us hot showers, which were kind of sporadic.

also, the rooms were a bit cold. kavitha and i asked for ¨el fuego¨, which means both heat and fire. little did we know that we would get both! the inn proprietor came into our room, poured a liquid on to the ground, then threw a match on it. our room was literally on fire! EEEK! kavitha moved away all the wooden furniture, the room warmed up, and gradually the liquid burned away - thankfully the inn did not burn down. the same exercise was repeated in smutty, cheryl and keith´s room, to their shock!

this morning, we took a bus to arequipa (sold to us for a bargoon by oscar, woooot!), which was a very windy and bumpy route. to add to that, there was a peruvian man hustling what seemed like a south american herbalife collection. at the front of the bus, right in our ears, he yelled about cleaning your system, the prostate, ovaries, red meat, alcohol, fried foods, caffeine overdoses and the like, all in the name of selling a 7-herb tea. then, he brought out a smelly ointment and yelled about it for another 20 minutes. we were not amused!!!! thankfully, we had some saltenas and croissants to keep us quiet, that KT, KD and i picked up in the morning at a bakery called rico-pan in puno.

as we get further and further into peru, it is getting less indigenous and more spanish. we even saw churros here in arequipa! we will miss the cute chubby and red cheeked indigenous children. sigh!

tomorrow..... we are not sure what to do yet in arequipa. we shall see!