Christine's Trip to Peru

I'm back from a two week trip through some fantastic places in Peru. I went with three fellow volunteers, Johnny, Joe, and Paul. We left Saturday, July 12, in the evening to go to Arica. It's a mid-size city, wealthy, and right along the coast near the border of Peru. It's a perfect midway stop between Antofagasta and Cusco.

Here's our gang at the bus terminal leaving Antofagasta.

In Arica we climbed El Morro de Arica, which is a national monument standing 110 meters tall. It pays tribute to the Chilean military victories in the 19th Century Pacific War.

The next morning we headed for Cusco, Peru. It's a very charming city that has created an atmosphere tailored to tourists, which has its advantages and disadvantages. I was very struck with the fact that although Peru is not economically as stable as Chile, they have nicer looking roofs made out of clay stucco material and not aluminum metal. However, most of their building material are mud-clay-straw bricks versus cement in Chile.

I loved Cusco and had a great time. Not to mention things were cheap. You could get a great meal in a very local atmosphere right out of the center downtown for 3 soles or about $1.

In and around Cusco, we saw Saqsaywaman (pronounced like "sexywoman") ruins and of course I had to give a "Saxy Woman" pose......

We visited Machu Picchu which was beautiful!!

We tried Chicha, a drink made out of fermented corn but not considered an alcoholic drink, unlike Joe's expression might suggest-haha.

We saw Cuy (Guinea Pig) being raised or kept for future meals. Yes, we did try these little guys during our trip. Tasty but a lot of work for a little bit of meat.

After Cusco we headed to Puno which is right on Lake Titicaca. There we visited the floating islands of Uros and a couple other islands. There are just over 50 floating islands. They are built with about 3 feet of a plant root that floats very well, topped with 3 feet of a cat-tail like plant. We visited two separate islands. On the first island there were 8 families that lived on the island, which was probably less than an acre big. Here we are approaching the first island on our boat.

Here I am posing infront of their kitchen. There is a black blob in the picture which was a dead bird they killed to make the soup she was cooking.

We also stayed with a family for one night on one of the main islands, not a floating island. Her name was Carmen and she and her husband had 6 children. Our room was small and cozy, made out of mud bricks, fishmeal sacks for the roof, twin size beds, and a small sitting table to eat at. There was no electricity so the night was lit with a candle.

This is the front door to the house. The sheep pen was to the left.

For lunch they fed us soup with bits of rice, potato, and carrots. We had a side plate of 3 types of potatoes and bits of carrots, tomatoes, and cheese. For dinner we had the same soup except noodles instead of rice. Our side was rice and french fries. For breakfast the following day, we had sopapillas or fried dough. With each meal we were given Muña tea which is very healthy for the stomach. Joe and I shared a room. As you can see, not much, very simple but decorated tastefully.

The night at Carmens house was cold. The wind was strong and sometimes it blew so hard you wondered if the house would stand. Having no electricity also meant that there was not a bathroom in the main part of the house. Yes ladies and gentleman, they had outhouses. My families outhouse was slight nicer than others on the island, meaning it had an unflushable toilet. However, on an emergency bathroom break where I had to use some random neighbors toilet, I just had to take a picture of what I was up against. Also shows that within the "lower" economic class, there are levels of status- those with toilets and those without.

And on our last day Carmen was polite enough to let the gringa take a picture with her.

I have too many pictures to post but overall I had a great time in Peru and would definately like to go back one day. The people were nice, spoke Spanish clearly and understandably (unlike the Chileans), had beautiful culture, and magnificent history of the Incas. I highly recommend those to go who have not been.

Thanks for reading and your interest in my blog.

CW