All pictures courtesy of Nikita since my camera died =P
On the overnight bus
Sitting in a bicycle taxi
On the boat to the islands
Playing a number game
On top of the boat
Floating islands
Boat made of reeds by the floating island people
Floating island lady
Demonstrating how to make the island float
Dressing up in their clothes
View from floating island
Amantani
Walking up Pachatata
Pachamama across the way
Sunset over Lake Titicaca
Bolivia in the distance
Rock wall
Dressed up for dancing
I am dancing in the left side of this picture
Entire group
Nikita, Sandhya, Neha, and Sindu
Inside the boat again
Taquile Island
At restaurant
Going back down
Restaurant in Puno
My accidental flaming shot
First bar
Second bar
Hiper Orgasmo
Flash inside a dark bar
Leaving the bar
Puno
Back to Cusco
The bus
left at 10 pm for Puno. First we were on a regular bus that took us to our
overnight bus. The overnight bus was a two story bus. The seats were normal,
maybe a little more room to push them back, but basically the same. Nikita and
I decided it was a good idea to sit in the front of the upper level. Bad idea,
it was freezing in front of that huge window. Sleeping on the bus was
uncomfortable in general. We arrived in Puno at about 6 am and had breakfast at
7 am. It was really good. Then we left for the harbor, to get on a boat that
would take us to the islands. We hung out on the top of the boat. First we went
to the floating islands. These islands are created by the indigenous people
with reeds and some kind of buoyant dirt. It was really interesting. We ate
some of the reeds which are supposed to be good for your teeth. They don’t
really taste like anything. Then we were on the boat for a really long time and
I took a nap. We finally made it to the island of amantani, which is where the
indigenous family that we were staying with lived. Nikita and I got picked up
by our indigenous mom. Her house was so far away, amantani is higher elevated
then Cusco, so I felt like I was super old even worse. Watching this old lady
trek up this hill with no problem made me feel so out of shape. We finally made
it to her house and ate some quinoa soup. It was really good. Then we napped
until it was time to play soccer. I suck at sports. I tried to kick the ball
and ended up falling on my butt, yeah like little kids in the movies. Very
funny, my butt is now bruised, not very funny. Afterwards we walked up this
mountain to the temple of pachatata, for the sun god. It was pretty cool. We
watched the sun set over Lake Titicaca while walking around the temple three
times for good luck. Beth and I talked about life and how she wants to do
medicine in South America. It was really nice. Then we started to go back home.
It was SUPER cold. When we got back we had potato soup for dinner. I was glad
we were eating something warm. After a little while we got dressed in
indigenous clothes! It was pretty fun. We then went dancing. That was really
fun; it was just basically running in a circle and pulling each other around.
Almost like that game where you try to keep the snake from eating itself. Haha
Afterwards we looked at the Milky Way. I could see so many stars it was insane.
Nikita saw her first shooting star after missing about 5 of them and staring at
the sky for forever. The indigenous clothes were helping against the cold but I
was still freezing. So we walked home, which was insane since there were no
lights, our host mom just knew how to get places. She had a tiny flashlight she
used for us to not trip and die. We passed out under a hundred layers of
blankets. In the morning we had fried dough with coffee for breakfast. It was
pretty good. Then we ran to the boat since we were the last ones. Haha oh well,
we had another boat ride for about an hour to another island, Taquile. This one
has specific clothes to show if you are single or married and to indicate if
you are an authority. The culture was really interesting. All things were split
by the island and if you got married the island authorities would give you a
piece of land to cultivate. There was basically no crime or social classes.
Also only the men do the weaving. The walk to the center of town was really
difficult though. It was such a steep walk. After getting to the top and
looking around we had lunch. Then we got on the boat and went back to Puno. We
arrived and I went to take a shower. Something was wrong with the water; it
shut off in the middle of my shower. If I only had the cold water on it was
fine though. I took a terribly cold shower. When Nikita found out she got
someone to fix it, too late for me though. I just watched TV until it was time
for dinner. We went to this place and got soup, pizza and crepes. The crepes
were not crepes; they were like ice cream cones. After that we went to this bar
to get a drink. I got a cucaracha, which turned out to be a flaming shot, I did
not know this. I thought it was just another drink. It was pretty interesting.
Beth and Catherine got a “swimming pool”, it was a huge fish bowl drink. Beth
ended up having a coughing fit while drinking it and spit up the last huge
gulp. We decided it was time to leave that bar.
At the other bar we ran into the rest of our group and professor. We
ended up going to the same bar and getting a couple of drinks like the hiper
orgasm and tequila sunrises. We drank enough to be having a good time. I talked
with the guy who works for centro tinku, Eddie. It was pretty fun. After our
drinks we ended up dancing the night away. Nikita, Beth, and I mainly. We tried
to keep away from the creepy dudes in our group. Some fails and successes in
this attempt. We ended up being the last ones out with Eddie, the professor,
and this guy CJ. It was pretty funny since they were just keeping an eye on us;
we showed them that we knew the way to the hotel without any help though. In
the morning I wasn’t feeling up to par. I ate breakfast and got on the bus for
another long bus ride. This one was worse. I had trouble sleeping and it was
super hot. We got down for lunch and afterwards had to have a class discussion.
Worst idea ever. I was so dead. Nikita and I were the final ones to talk with
the professor it was terrible, we only ended up talking with him for a couple
of minutes after waiting 2 hours. Finally we made it to Cusco. Sandhya had been
feeling bad the entire trip and so we ended up taking her to the hospital. She
ended up having Salmonella. I felt so bad. She felt so bad. We went back home
and had some bread AGAIN with Carola. Then we tried to do our laundry. We went
up to check and see if we could hang them up and scared the shit out of one of
our host brothers and he came out in his underwear with a hairbrush to defend
himself with. Nikita had accidently
pressed pause instead of start, though. I hope they will be able to get dry by
tomorrow.
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