Puno

We arrived in Puno at about 4:30 after our overnight bus trip from Cusco. The sun was already coming up over the lake. It was really pretty. However, we did not sleep much and the travel agency wouldn't be open until 6:30. So we hung out at the bus station, eating in their little restaurant area and then at 6:15 we were off. Over breakfast, I told Kiah that I could really go for a couch right now. Just something to sit down on and fall asleep on. But didn't know when that would happen.

We arrived at the travel agency and they were still closed. Kiah saw this lady peak her head out of this iron door and wave to us. She had us bring our stuff inside explaining that she worked at the travel agency that we had booked our boat trip through. We went up 2 flights of stairs (and I don't know how I walked up more stairs but I did) and we were brought to her living room. She told us to relax and she would open the travel agency soon. Kiah pulled out her book and I soon drifted off to sleep in an arm chair. We were there for about 2 hours because the person that had closed the travel agency the night before had taken the keys and she couldn't open it until he got there. I slept on and off for the majority of the 2 hours. It was as if God heard me cry out that I needed more sleep and something comfortable. It was some of the best sleep I've gotten on this trip.

At about 8:30 the van came to pick us up to go out on our tour. Our travel agent friend let us keep our stuff there (which we didn't know what we would do if we couldn't leave our stuff there) and we hopped in the van. We got to a boat that took us out on Lake Titicaca. However, the correct way to say it is Lake Titihuaka. Lake Titihuaka was the Quechua way say it. It translates to gray puma. Looking at a map of the lake upside down, you can see the puma eating a rabbit. It all makes sense now. The lake shares it's border with Bolivia and has floating islands and that is what we wanted to see. 

Our boat tour took us out to Uros which is the largest floating island community. The islands are built with the root and dirt of what look like reeds. The roots are chopped into small pieces, about a square foot around and secured into the ground with a long stick used as an anchor. They then put reeds upon reeds crisscrossing in every direction to build the islands. Each island lasts about 20 years and it takes about one full year to fully successfully build one. Stepping out on the island was weird. Your first few steps sink into the floor as if you are stepping onto a pillow. Maybe not pillow but it was fluffy. It was kind of trippy. After they described the island and how it's made, the ladies on the island break you up into groups and invite you into their homes so you can look at it. They have solar panels to bring electricity into their homes so they watch tv and listen to the radio. They were able to mix their cultural way of life with the modern entertainment that we probably take for granted everyday. They do kind of pressure you to buy stuff since that is their way of life (and as you are listening to the island explanation, you can watch them making stuff right in front of you) but it was worth seeing.

We were only in Puno from 4:30a.m. to about 3:00p.m. We slept, did the boat ride and ate at a little place that our travel agent friend told us about. She got a taxi for us and we finally found out that her name was Maruha (so Kiah says) or Baruha (as I say because we still aren't sure. Whichever it is, it's common in Peru.)  She was like the Peruvian grandmother that we always needed but never knew we wanted. We bid her adieu and were on our way to the bus to take us on a 5.5 hour bus ride to Arequipa-the White City. 

We arrived at the bus terminal at about 8:30p.m. and got a taxi. I heard a local tell this Chinese woman to get a taxi within the bus terminal and that it was unsafe to get a taxi outside the bus terminal. Once we got our luggage, we went to the taxi area and got our own taxi within the terminal. As we were leaving, the taxi driver noticed the Chinese woman out on the street walking out of the bus terminal and got her attention to ask if she was going to the city center. Through the language barriers, she got into our taxi and we became her translater. The taxi driver reiterated, MULTIPLE TIMES what the local had told this Chinese woman earlier. However, since he only spoke Spanish and she only spoke English, Kiah and I then had to translate this important message again, MULTIPLE TIMES. We soon learned that she lived in West Virginia with her husband who was getting his Ph.D. in something doctorate like. The taxi driver soon dropped us off and Kiah told her to be safe and she said that she was now worried about traveling around the country by herself. Kiah just told her to not to be scared and careful of her surroundings. 

The hostel that we arrived at was super nice for a hostel. We checked in and basically had the room to ourselves except for our roommates luggage. We were so excited to take showers and sleep in a bed since we had spent the previous night on a bus and hadn't showered since before Machu Picchu. We were super gross and just excited to go back to normal. Again, the room that we stayed in was upstairs and as I let out a little moan we managed to make it up the stairs with our luggage. We took a quick walk around the plaza looking for food and quickly realized that everything was super overpriced and went to a chicken place a block way that was much more reasonable. We ate, went back and showered, and enjoyed the modern convenience of the interwebs before we went to sleep.