Lindsey's Christmas

Feliz Navidad,

Just another update and hello from Selina and me. I think my last

email ended in Arequipa. The next morning we took a posh bus ride to

Puno for $25 but I would have paid $50. It was probably the most

luxurious part of our trip with first class seats that reclined,

movies, and snacks. The 6 hour ride was absolutely beautiful and very

similar to places in the US around Colorado, Utah or Arizona. The one

surprise were some flamingos in some small mountain lakes. Yeah,

random.

Our bus ride got us into Puno, the largest Peru town around Lake

Titicaca, in the late afternoon. We hopped into a cab for about $1 to

get us into the main area of town and started our search for a hostel.

After bargaining and seeing a few rooms we ended up at one of the

worst of the bunch out of pure exhaustion. The elevation was starting

to hit us and at that point we didn´t care where we were laying our

bags. We walked around the streets of Puno and stopped for some Coca

tea in hopes to remedy our weary bodies and pounding heads. After an

hour rest we went to run some travel errands. Dropping off some dirty

clothes at a laundry (the one thing more expensive than in Chicago),

looking for a book exchange, and picking up some fresh fruit and

veggies to take to the locals on our lake visit the next day. By the

time we ventured through Punos streets and picked up some Chifa

(Puruvians version of Chinese) for dinner we were exhausted and ended

up in our hostel room. We were a pretty pathetic sight with gross

Chinese, in a dingy room, freezing and Selina´s elevation sickness

getting the best of her (puking). At 6 am the next morning we were up

and heading for the bus station. Unfortunately missing our trip to the

islands on Lake Titicaca, but also giving us more time in Cuzco to

relax and plan a fun hiking trip to Machu Picchu. Puno was not a loss

though, the markets were fun to experience especially around the

holiday season. Rows/stands of meats, potato, grains, etc. I guess the

Lima version of the Westside market but not as sightly. Although the

food looked good and the prices were right!

Yesterday we made the mistake of taking a ¨"local" bus and not the

tour group bus to Cuzco. Luckily the bus tickets we chose were first

class leaving us with decent window seats which was way more than our

options of standing or an armrest on the upper level. The views were

again beautiful. We were both feeling sick and nauseous but it was a

good experience to see the small towns and mountain farmlands. We

pulled into Cuzco around 8 and had a cab drop us off in one of the

nicer neighborhoods surrounding the main Plaza de Armas. We luckily

stumbled into a nice looking hostel within our budget. It feels a lot

like being at camp with bunk beds and timbers lining the ceilings. The

only thing we cared really about were clean beds and hot showers (or

at least luke warm). We settled in and ventured out finding some Thai

food which was a welcome surprise. Peruvian food is fine but we were

over bread, white rice and chicken. We ended the night early and were

excited to crawl into warm beds. The occasional firecrackers were

going off as we crawled into beds. By midnight the city´s sky was lit

up. Up and down the mountains and through the streets people were

setting off bottle rockets which created a display much like shooting

stars all around you. Every few seconds a large firecracker would

appear high in the sky somewhere in the city lighting up the sky.

Luckily our room has a small window on the second story and I got to

watch the show from my cozy pjs. Happy birthday Jesus.

And here we are on Christmas. After getting a good night rest Selina

and I (now with a cold) had a relaxing day walking up and down the

streets and around the plazas of Cuzco. It reminds us very much of an

old European town. Maybe its the small cobble stone streets or the

backpacker haven that we have stumbled into. After visiting Arequipa

and Puno we seem to blend in a lot more. We picked up some local

crafts for souvenirs and found a great coca/chocolate shop. You will

all have a sample of some unless I eat it all on the plane ride home.