Peru – Part 1

Puno (Lake Titicaca)

Our next stop was Puno at the Lake Titicaca as well but on the Peruvian site. To cross the Peruvian border was not a problem at all. We could walk over the border, get the stamps on both sides and get in the same bus again, which continued driving after all the passengers were back in the bus again. This is probably the most touristic border crossing between Bolivia and Peru. When we arrived in Puno, unfortunately Peru was going to lose the football game against France, what means, they cannot qualify for the finals anymore. The atmosphere was very sad, and we could even feel it at the mood of our hostel receptionist. Football means everything for the people here, and in every corner, shop, house, etc… people were watching this football game. So, we could feel the sad atmosphere around us everywhere. Nevertheless, this afternoon we explored the city centre of Puno and the promenade at the lake. We had a coffee at a nice place and a delicious dinner with Alpaka meat in the evening. We enjoyed the sun and strolled through the markets. On this high altitude the sun is strong, and it gets very warm on a day, but as soon as the sun disappears behind the hills, the air feels cold and the nights are freezing. Fortunately, Lisa could ask for a heater, when our receptionist was in a better mood again. 😉 We decided to get up early the next morning, for another boat tour on the Titicaca Lake. It was worth it. First, we visited the floating Islands Uros, a community which uses layers of the buoyant totora reeds that grows in the shallows of Lake Titicaca. It was very impressive to see how they live, and how the children did walk around without shoes even though it was very very cold. We continued by boat to the Taquile Island where another community lifes. This island has a lot of Inca remains like the pre-Inca terracing and small ruins. We walked around and had lunch in a place, where our tour guide was telling us some stories about the community which lives on this island. The islanders are speaking their indigenous language “Quechua” and their live minimally changed by mainland modernity. They still live their old traditions and wearing their own traditional clothes. On the boat trip were many other young travellers from France, Chile and Mexico. We had nice talks during our lunch and on our boat trip back to Puno.

Cusco

Cusco so, I think it was one of the coolest city we visited. We took a very comfortable bus to Cusco and walked to our next Couchsurfing host Jorge. He lifes in a hotel room. That means it was one room with a small kitchen and a ‘’bathroom’’ behind a curtain. This evening we made a delicious pumpkin-zucchini-risotto for our host and he made an awesome passionfruit-ginger ale Pisco. After that we tried to sleep on our air mattress. Some of us slept very well, some of us did not. 😉

The next day we walked around in the city centre. The centre was crowded because of the ‘Inti Raymi’ festival. This festival is an Inca festival in honor of the god Inti (Quechua for “Sun”). It takes place every year on the shortest day of the year (24^th of June) and many people from all over the world travel to Cusco at that time. The celebration involves a lot of music, colourful costumes and traditional dances. It was nice to see these ceremonies (at least Lisa could see something over the small Peruan people 😉). Fortunately, we met another Couchsurfing friend, our favourite chocolatier Oskar. He showed us his work place, the chocolate museum from Cusco. We had an interesting tour with a special Pisco tasting at the end. It was amazing to try chocolate and Pisco at the same time. What a great combination! After that we visited the San Pedro markets. There, we had a typical Peruvian lunch and bought some souvenirs. In the late afternoon we met another Couchsurfing friend, our tour guide for the next day, Washuma. We realized fast, that he is a ‘’special’’ guy. Open for a lot of things…. In the evening we met Oskar and his friend again. They cooked for us a perfect Lomo Saltado and made some Pisco-sour. This evening/night was epic. We tried to dance Salsa and a few other dances for the first time. I think Natascha and Lisa did a great job and Oskar is a sustained Salsa teacher, but still I have two left feet! And I think, this is not true at all. Claudia did a great job as well. Like me, she had problems with the turns. Every time we should do a turn, our feet came in such a confusion, so we were out of the rhythm again. 😊 But I’m quite sure, after some (long!) training we all would be able to dance like professionals! 😊

Because of the long night out, we didn’t have a lot of sleep. Maybe two hours. We promised Washuma, that we will meet him at the bus station for our walking tour in the morning. We were all a little bit tired, but still we managed to reach there on time. We took a bus to Yungcapata and walked to the InkillTanbo ruins. It was a chilling walk through the beautiful landscape from the surroundings of Cusco. Washuma told us a lot about the plants and other natural things. After this ‘’funny’’ adventure we came back to Cusco and watched the Portugal-Iran football game in a cool coffee. As usual, we cook one time for our hosts, so we cooked this evening our famous ‘’Rösti’’ for Jorge and had a few Pisco’s. In Cusco there is a club named ‘’Mamma Africa’’.  From 8 till 11pm, there is a free Salsa course. We went there with our host Jorge. It was another great and funny party evening. 😉