Samana Wasi Puno

... is comfort in numbers, especially after being molly-coddled on tour for three weeks. To recap; Colin is the Scottish chap who looks a little like Ric***********d and is often and hilariously angry at the smallest of things. Including drops of rain, mayonnaise on sandwiches, spoons being too small and there being too many cool things to buy at local markets. Often I will hear him scream at the top of his lungs in his crazy Glaswegian accent; “Jesus Christ ...

... i knew the few people working up on the hill had seen my acrobatic feat, and more embarrasing the herd of goats did. the video is quite shaky and unclear, but it's worth a look, since i did that for you in the first place. hopefully we'll be able to get it up on the blog at some point.

3) the "gringo skipping stone" fall - the other two falls were funny and stupid. this last fall was just downright painful and pretty awesome, if i do say so myself. We've had a day of climbing to a ...

... Salvi – one of the Spanish guys from the Nasca plane – was going on the same trip. And so were two other Spaniards from the Canary Islands, Jose and Luis (Mario was back at the hotel resting).

As we drove towards Sillustani, I came to appreciate that we were indeed on the "Altiplano” – the high plateau. The view of the plateau was great: All flat and with the mountains surrounding it. I might have been premature in naming one of my previous ...

Depois de Machu Picchu voltei a Cusco por uma noite so
para organizar a camioneta. No dia seguinte de manha segui
rumo a Puno. A cidade esta as margens do Lago Titicaca
que e o lago mais alto (navegavel) do mundo. Estou a 3.850 metros
de altura. Hoje vou fazer uma pequena viagem a uma das ilhas daqui.

... the reeds. They make their living from fishing and selling woven rugs and have lived this way for approx. 2,600 years and not been bothered by the Incas, the Spanish or even the Peruvian government until about 30 years ago when they were “discovered” and now tourism plays a big part and helps improve their lives a little. Inside their islands they raise their own guinea pigs ("cuy") and trout to eat. The people on these islands are SO friendly, they showed ...

... They were filthy, remnants of the previous occupant bobbled around. Flushing was done by scooping water in a small bucket and chucking it into the toilet. Handwashing was done by dipping your hands into the same tank of water outside. When we got back to the bus they were ushering all the occupants into a waiting minivan. Apparently there were not enough passengers to warrant the expense of a large bus travelling the last hour to Puno, there were just 10 of us left. The last hour ...

... host family, we trekked to the top of cerro Pachamama, one of two summit cones rising upward from the island at 13,000 feet. From the top we watched the glowing sun set over the Peruvian horizon and celebrated the halfway point of our 81-day voyage, and also a Halloween abroad.
Once back on land following our weekend holiday, we pitched in another couple days of work, and enjoyed the incessant celebration taking place in the city with the recognition ...

... was a total bore, though we did have some great views and got a few good photos out of it, as well as a few more doses of Bruno´s pedantic speeches. We skipped out on the 15 soles lunch (an outrage) and made our way early down to the harbor on the other side of the island. It was pretty clear everyone was ready to be done with the tour and they did their best to get us back to Puno in short order. Back at the Hotel Europa, we stowed our backpacks ...

... and chatting... saw the southern cross, and shooting stars and so much more.. absolutely amazing! (we had also popped into aunt selmas new (half built) house to meet her daughter on the wya to the party!)

Al and I decided to buy some handicrafts from aunt selma (really to help the family more than anything= and then over breakfast of fried bready pancake thingys... we showed her and Juan pictures of our family, and exchanged addresses, took in the view one last time before ...

... assigned to a host family for the night - myself and another solo traveler (Giuseppe from Italy) were assigned to Felicia. She took us to her house for lunch and some relaxation before the next event. Felicia has one daughter still at home (Esmerelda, age 9) and we had tons of fun doing girly stuff - she braided my hair and we talked about boys =)

We re-joined the rest of the group for a hike to the highest ...