–> Arequipa

I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve written about what we’re actually doing. The summary: From Ollanta we took a train to Aguas Calientes and then the bus to Machu Picchu early the next morning (nope, no Inca trail and I’m actually feeling okay about that), and then took a train-bus combo to Puno by way of Cuzco. Stayed one night in Puno, one night on a tiny island in Lake Titicaca, then went directly to Arequipa. 2 nights in Arequipa, 1 night each in two of the small towns by Colca Canyon (Cabanaconde and Chivay) then back through Arequipa to Pisco. That’s where we are now.

So now you’re all caught up and can discuss the trip among yourselves very knowledgeably. But for those of you who have nothing better to do and want more details, here’s the breakdown:

Machu Picchu: The ruins definitely lived up to their reputation, and I guess that I can’t really complain that the place was crawling with tourists, even at 6am, considering that I’m one of the crawlies. I do think that if I ever go back I’ll try to go during the off-season. But no matter…

Puno/Lake Titicaca: Town of Puno — scary/highly sketchy. Funny, too, cause our area seemed so normal by day. Luckily we were only there for one night. And I loved the tour we did of Lake Titicaca. We went first to these floating island that are made by an indigenous tribe called the Uros, then on to a regular island called Amantaní. We actually spent the night in the house of a family there! It was really cool, because to a large extent they maintain the traditional ways of doing things — no running water or electricity, they’re vegetarian (best vegetable soup I’ve had in South America), they speak Quechua… and they dressed up all the tourists in the traditional gear, for a supposedly traditional celebration. It was so much fun, even though it was obviously a little forced, and even though the clothing was by far the least flattering I’ve ever worn. If you don’t believe me, I’m sure J will be happy to display the blackmail-quality pictures he took of me. (his comment when our hostess had finished dressing me: “Wow… (pause)… you look… heavy.” THANKS.)

Arequipa: By far my favorite city that we’ve been to in Peru. I was sad we couldn’t spend more time here… it’s touristy, but in the way that tourism sometimes has a good effect by making things look nicer. Not as frantically tourist-dependent as Cuzco, not as ghetto as Puno. It’s a big city, but if you’re in the downtown it doesn’t feel that way, and the buildings are beautiful — they call it the White City because a lot of the buildings in the center are colonial casas antiguas made of white clay. The climate is perfect, and it’s surrounded by mountains. The food was even good.

Cabanaconde, Chivay, Colca Canyon: Arequipa is the main jumping-off point to trips to these towns, and really the only reason that anyone would go to these towns is to see the canyon, which is the second-deepest in the world. Too bad it’s such a long jump — 6 hours in bus between Arequipa and Cabanaconde, and ooooooohhh the most uncomfortable bus ride of my life, narrowly beating out the previous titleholders (before it was a tie between my ride from Calafate to Chalten and the marathon Santiago-Esquel). They call it a road. Ha. ha. But whatever, even though the towns themselves had very little of interest, the canyon was spectacular. The view from Cabanaconde, especially, was worth every bit of uncomfortable bouncing, jarring, jolting, back-aching bus time.

Pisco’s still left to write about, but I’m out of energy. Maybe it has something to do with the overnight bus we took and the rather rude awakening when we arrived at 5am. Anyway, I’m tired, so good night… and um, happy satyuga to everyone in Fairfield, yeah?