Cusco, Peru

12/12/2005

hello everyone,
i am in cusco right now... i started this email in puno, but didn´t finish
it... i had typed this long email but then accidentally closed the window...
so i lost it.
anyway, i am doing well. the bus ride from puno was long, but it will be
nice to just chill for a few days. in puno we went out to lake titicaca,
the highest navigable lake in the world. i think its around 9,000 feet or
more... the meter to feet conversion gets me confused.
we took a tour out there and spent the night with a family on one of the
islands. they made us food, and we had a fiesta that evening where we all
dressed in traditional peruvian clothes and danced to live traditional
music. it was a little touristy for me, (like peru in a zoo) but we had a
good time and our host family was nice.
the bad thing about going with a tour group is that you will surely
encounter some strange folk. for example, at the fiesta, this one
australian girl decided to demonstrate her enthusiasm for the music by
clapping her hand to her mouth and hooting and hollering (like she was
playing cowboys and indians). i was pretty embarrassed, seeing that at that
moment she represented white people as a whole. i hope the locals weren´t
aware of the meaning behind her cultural insensitivity. but i felt
extremely thankful that she wasn´t american. i mean we get into enough
trouble as it is. hehehe.
the boat ride over was crazy too: it was five hours on rough waters. the
boat was rocking so bad that four people vomited in the cabin. (and i
wasn´t one of them!) the problem was that after one person threw up, it
kinda started a chain reaction. the smell was incredible. but i was in the
seats outside the cabin, and i just kept focusing on the horizon so i
wouldn´t get sick. and also i refused to give my seat up to anyone. they
were clawing to get out of that cabin once the smell got so bad. hehehe.
the ride back from the island was a lot smoother, so nobody got sick.
cusco is nice so far, we took an all night bus and got here 4 am this
moring. i really like the city - its beautiful. but drivers here are crazy
as everywhere in peru. we just saw a little taxi try to cut off a bbig tour
bus and get smacked. and i was almost hit by a car in lima, and then in
pisco i got side-swiped. i was crossing the street and a taxi ran over the
edge of my left big toe, and hit my arms and my hands. it didn´t knock me
down, just scared me kinda bad! well, i am learning to be more careful:
just cause you are a pedestrian, doesn´t mean you won´t get hit here!

well, i will get this machu picchu thing all settled here today or tomorrow,
and i will email again then.
hope everyone is well and having a good holiday season thus far! it is fun
to hear all the christmas songs in spanish playing around peru. they love
salsa here. that is mostly what plays on the radios here.
joseph