August 7th - Flaming Guitars and Floating Islands

Hello all,

My stay in Arequipa was really nice. It was great to see some familiar places, revisit my favorites, and see a few new ones too. Arequipa is celebrating its 450th anniversary of being a city on August 15th, and in anticipation, there are lots of cultural events going on. While I was there, there was an International Festival of the Guitar - four nights each featuring 6 or 8 guitarrists from eleven different countries, and then a final evening which brought them all together. I caught the last two nights, and it was amazing. Brilliant classical guitar, amazing latin guitar, melodies and countermelodies and fingerpicking like you wouldn't believe. It was a lot of fun. I bought a few CDs too, so I can share some it with those of you who live close by.

My bus ride to Puno was surprisingly fun. The bus was quite comfortable as busses go, and in our five hour ride, we were served a meal, played a game of bingo, and watched two movies. Not bad, hm?

Puno itself isn't exactly as I pictured it, but that's not a bad thing, just a surprise. I don't know why I imagined that the hills would be green. It's the altiplano - a very high altitude environment, and there's very little rain here. The streets are narrow and busy and bustling, and buildings are two or three or four stories tall, and creep up the mountainsides surrounding the city. 200,000 people live here, and the major industry is tourism, so it's easy to find what you need and get around. I had brick oven pizza for dinner tonight, which was surprisingly tasty (Pizza is fairly common in Peru but not really well understood. One place I went to in Nazca used pie pastry as the crust.)

This morning, I went on a private tour south of Puno to visit the towns of Chimu and Chucuito. Chimu is tiny and specializes in making boats from tortoro reeds. It was interesting to see the tortoro all laid out to dry along the lake front, and to watch the people weaving it together. One thing that I really love about this area (and about the mountains of Peru in general) is that people still dress traditionally, not because of tourists, but because they are proud of their heritage. Further south is Chucuito, whose main claim to fame is a pre-Incan fertility temple. I'd heard about it, but sure enough, it's a big rock garden of penises. Some are 5 feet tall, most are smaller (although I imagine the Incas all claimed they were 5 feet!). Some point up, others are pointed down into the earth. They're arranged in rows inside a rectangular stone structure with two gateway penises out front. There's even a tiny penis on top of the church tower next door. Interesting.... The local kids do the tours for tips. It was entertaining. After all that, we went up to a mirador (view point) high above Puno. It was a great view, and I'm so glad that I got a ride up instead of walking.

Oh, incidentally, Puno is at an elevation of 3,830 meters, which is something over 11,000 feet. Lake Titicaca's claim to fame is that it's the highest navigable lake in the world. Anything higher up would be frozen, I guess. Temperatures in the day are fairly warm - maybe in the 60's, but at night it's down to freezing or below. The lake helps to insulate the valley though. It's not as cold as it could be!

After my morning tour, I walked by the plaza where it appeared that all 200,000 of Puno's inhabitants had gathered. Apparently every single Sunday there is a major gathering and parade in the plaza, where all schools, government related agencies (like hospitals), and the army come to goose step (yes, really) around the plaza and sing their national anthem and listen to the army band play. Even the tiny children are dressed in military costumes and carry little flags. It was an impressive showing of patriotism and community and the kids were so adorable. I braved the crowds for a while and then did the gringo thing and got myself a balcony table at one of the restaurants overlooking the plaza. Hey, great view, no crowds, and fresh squeezed orange juice - can you blame me?

This afternoon, I took another tour, this time on a big ol' tour bus, to Sillustani. Sillustani is an important archaeological site, from both the Incas and the Colla culture who came before them, featuring over 200 round funerary tours on the hills overlooking Lake Titicaca. It was inspiring to see, and interesting to see the stylistic changes over time. Our guide was informative, and alternated between English and Spanish. It was fun to follow both. The wind picked up and the extremely rare rain started threatening as we left the site. I was so hoping for a rainbow, but no luck. I'm sure I took enough pictures as it was.

And then, after my aforementioned pizza, I gave my parents a call because it's my Dad's birthday tomorrow (Hi Dad!) and I won't be near a phone then. It was great to hear their voices and catch up on things. Dad, have fun at your recording session. I want a copy of the CD! :)

Tomorrow I'm taking a trip to the islands, starting with the floating islands, then going on to Amantani to spend the night with a local family there. On tuesday, I'll head back to the island of Taquile and then Puno again. I'm going with a group from the same agency as today's tours, so I'm really looking forward to the trip. I'll blog you all about it when I'm back.

For now, I need to head up to my room and pack up my stuff. The bus will be by early in the morning. Thankfully I can leave my suitcases at the hotel and just bring my day pack with me, but still I need to get everything contained.

Good night, from my corner of the planet to yours.

Karen