Stories from Peru

One of the coolest things I saw in Peru happened on a bus. On all of these long distance bus trips that I have been taking, people come on and off the bus all the time to sell the passengers stuff like water, soda, candy, sandwiches, in Chile empanadas. On the way from Cusco to Puno a lady came on the bus with a huge cloth bag on her back. She opened it and inside there was cooked lamb meat. She then took out a huge knife and started hacking at it and selling it to the passengers on the bus along with some cooked potatoes. Keep in mind that the bus was moving at the time and that we were on a Peruvian road with lots of bumps and turns. It was one of those wow I'm definitely not in America moments. I bought a piece and it was pretty good.

In Puno, we ended up spending a night on an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca sleeping in the house of an island family. I learned a new game from the family's kids that involved throwing rocks into holes. If you hit someone else's rock you got another turn making the game a lot like croquet. I lost badly.

Machu Pichu was definitely the highlight of the trip. I wish we could of arranged it to spend more time there; we did it as a day trip meaning we had to wake up early to catch a four hour train ride and then leave early to to catch the train back to Cusco, leaving us with only 4.5 hours on the mountain. We paid for a guide at the mountain to explain everything to us in English which was definitely worth it. He kept making silly jokes like the Egyptians the copied this from us. Afterwards, I was surprised because the other volunteers decided to leave Machu Pichu to try to get lunch in the nearby town before the train ride back. I on the otherhand was determined to spend as much time as possible on the mountain so I stayed and wandered around some. I ended up trying to climb the mountain behind me (see pictures) but ran out of time (and water) before I could reach the top. Part of me wishes I had played it less safe and kept climbing, but I was pretty tired, kind of thirsty, and a little dizzy (from the altitude) when I turned around. (My shirt was completely sweated through) Still I managed to get some pretty cool pictures from way above Machu Pichu.