It was decided we would go into Lima, so after preparation we waited for the bus on the dirt strip between roads for the bus.
We caught one to Lima that was only moderately filled with people, but on the way it rapidly became jam packed. It was quite hot and stuffy on the bus and I zoned out for most of it.
The section of Lima we were exploring had several malls and we spent the first fifteen minutes talking to the Olo Internet people.
The plan was to take the little ones to Divercity, a children’s museum of sorts. We found out it wasn’t open until three, so we walked over to the food court in one of the malls.
After some discussion, we ate there and I watched the siblings as we staked out a table and Mother and Father got food.
Whilst we ate, Mother and I made a bargain that if I took the young ones to their museum, I would get Nutella. I was quite happy with the situation, until we found out I wasn’t old enough to take them there myself.
We left Father and the small ones there and walked over to Plaza Vea. Ryan and Mother had long conversations about chocolate for a while before we walked around the upscale mall and looked at clothes and whatnot.
I made them stop at a Nescafe sample store thing, and we got free chocolate coffees. Well, Jack had the caramel, but in my opinion the chocolate was better.
My stunning beauty was so impressive that the Nescafe guy invited me to take a photo shoot for the Nescafe Facebook page. Since he didn’t want to be rude, he had to bring Jack along too.
Once I had finished modeling (and Jack) Mother and Ryan went shopping and Jack and I walked over to Divercity to see if Father was still in there.
Jack lurked around for a while before finally being brave enough to talk to them and we asked to fetch Father for, which they did and we went back to Mother.
We caught the bus back to our beach house and so ended our day in Lima.
Today was spent lazing around the house and discussing the Amazon trip and whatnot. Lovely times.
Jennah
]]>
The first thing that happened was we got our cards – wait! we didn’t get our cards, we got a map. We went in and we got these watches that scan you in. We had to put our watches on these hand things so we could go in to different things, like be a model or deliver propane. This was a like a children’s museum but it had fake jobs, like a grocery store, a restaurant, a cooking school where we made these crackers and you can eat them. They are real. They had a hospital where you could be a doctor (editors note: this was the library and Sylvia did not go work at the hospital) but you didn’t really do much but draw and then you get an eraser. It was a pink heart. You get fake money for working at the stores. You put the money into your bank account. I had an ATM card. We used the money for buying stuff. We didn’t really buy STUFF but we got makeovers and that cost money. It cost about 40 bucks for the whole thing, I go my nails painted and my hair done and my eyes done. My nails were orange and pink. My eyes were blue with sparkles on them. I went to the propane station. This is where you drive around in a truck and pick up and deliver propane, basically fill them up with gas.
We went to the model thing, me and Annabelle. The model thing is where you dress up and change and me and Annabelle both got black hats but we didn’t have the same pants. I had totally dressed in black pants. We did not put a shirt on we kept our shirts on and put black jackets on. Once we were totally dressed I went out on the thing, the thing people walk on that’s like a line and goes to a circle and then goes another way. People were in the audience watching me like dad and this other girl’s father. Annabelle wore the same thing as me but different pants. There was a girl who worked there that kind of speaks English and they all got my name wrong like Sophia until finally at the library they got my name right. The girl that worked there helped us pose. We posed and posed and posed. After I left there, I went to see if Cocacola was done because i wanted to get a coke. They were not done so I went to the toilet paper factory. They showed us what it is made of. It is made out of trees and then they turn it white. Then I went to Cocacola. They show you how make coke. They fill the bottles up with sugar and water and I don’t know what the brown stuff is I think its cocoa and they mix it up. We got our own bottle! I went to work at the gas station with Max. You fill up the cars. Annabelle was not there she had to go through a HUGE driving test. At the library I read books. I read a creature book, I mean a monster book and a book about a train. At the end of the day when I left the children’s museum I got cotton candy and Max and Annie got cookies. Annie got chocolate chip and Max got oreos. Jack and Jennah were waiting for us outside and we went through all these lights at the mall, lights on the ground, lights in the fountains, lights everywhere! Then I got to mom. I had my cotton candy. Wait! I still have it now!. We went home on the bus. We had to walk far to the bus station. The bus was really crowded. I sat on mom’s lap and someone gave us their seat.
The very best thing was the modeling. And the makeover.
***Editors note: We went to Divercity which as over 60 fake but real places kids can work like the Tottus (grocery store), propane delivery, gas station, hospital, hair salon… Kids get an electronic bracelet so you can go to computers all over the place and scan your bracelet and see the location of all your kids at any time. They get paid fake money and have a fake ATM card and can deposit and withdraw and pay for services. Annnabelle got a driver’s license. It was pretty cool.
]]>A little of a let down after being in Chile for so long. No more clean places and such.
The first day here was spent getting comfortable and helping Mother, Ryan and Jack to get ready to go to La Paz.
The next couple of days were spent recouporating from our airport shanigan.
It was all very chilled and Dad went out to get hotdogs. We cooked them about was about to eat them when we made the startling discovery that the hotdogs were wrapped in plastic wrappers.
Ah, Peru.
So father used a butter knife and attempted to scrooge the hotdog out in little clumps until we had a big plate of shredded hotdog and made sandwiches.
Luckily, the adjoining nights were better.
The pool has been getting used frequently. Sylvia seems to enjoy getting out, taking a shower and getting dressed then deciding to get back in.
Yesterday we checked out the beach and discovered that it was at the bottom of a cliff/steep hill. There were locked gates and such so we have yet to go there.
We explored the neighborhood a bit, walking about a mile to the nearest ATM. It was pretty much the same; restaurants, one fancy restaurant and a barren strip of dirt between the roads. How pretty and photogenic it was.
Ryan, Jack and mother got back last night and brought me a wonderful leather jacket. It wasn’t the original one they had shown me, which was garishly red and has a horrible fur collar. It was apparently a joke. Ha. Ha.
They also brought back several bars of Bolivian chocolate, which was quite delicious, some oven mitts that father got endlessly excited over and other things.
Now that they are back, I’m sure adventures shall start soon…
Jennah
]]>Or, like Scuffy the Tugboat: there is only one way to go and that was with the rushing river
On Friday, April 26, we sold the camper. The man who bought it did not have a vehicle big enough to tow it so we towed it to his work, which was a well drilling company, and spent two more nights in the camper.
On Saturday, we went to Fantasialandia! Fantasialandia was a great amusement park that was modern, clean, had fabulous rides and there were NO LINES. We rode rides, had ice cream, generally a fun day.
On Sunday, we began the task of leaving. Everything came out of the camper and the van. We made four piles – trash, stuff to give away, things we were shipping in the van and what we needed for the last month in South America.
After a very long, long day, the van was packed up and the camper was empty and 8 different colored LLBean duffel bags were stacked outside. We went to town and bought champagne and ramen and a cuban cigar for a celebratory dinner!
and even Ryan is smiling!
The next morning, we packed up the van with 8 duffle bags, 8 carry on bags, 2 dogs, 2 dog kennels and 8 people and Mark dropped 6 of us & 2 dogs off at the Santiago International Airport. We had done some recon there a few days before and Jack had picked out a place that was tucked away in a loft with a wide open space and no people. We had some kind of flatbed thing as a table and 6 seats. It was perfect. We carted all the stuff, dogs and children to the spot and promptly made a fort of duffel bags and hung out. We played travel Monopoly, Quibbler, Memory, Magic and Boggle. We colored. We played with little cars. We played Mother May I and Red Light/Green Light. We had a picnic lunch. For 17 hours.
Meanwhile, Mark & Ryan went back to the camper and loaded 8 plastic tubs + all of our blankets Shana made us into the van. They drove to Valparaiso to meet with Sergio, our freight forwarder. They spent some time doing paperwork and then drove the van to the staging area so it could be loaded into a container. The city is built around the shipyard in Valparaiso but the logistics part is through three mountain tunnels on the other side.
The van was supposed to fit in the container with less than 3” to spare wide and 1” to spare on the top (with the front bumper and light removed). But of course we didn’t really know as we have never driven the van into a container. At the shipyard, the men didn’t think it would fit.
There was a lot of measuring and then they got a ramp with a long straight run so the van would not hit the container at an angle and Mark drove it in – and it fit!
The van shipped on the NYK Lodestar. It left Valparaiso on May 2. You can track it here:
We could only use a container because we had a back door on the van, otherwise you would be trapped inside the vehicle you drove in. Mark and Ryan made a quick stop at a grocery store for essentials we knew we couldn’t get in Peru (coconut milk and chocolate bars) and then hopped a bus to the airport, which is a 2 hour drive away. They arrived at the airport around 7pm – it is a 2 hour drive from Valparaiso to Santiago.
Then – it was date night at the Santiago International Airport! Nescafe and a pastry and 30 minutes of adult conversation.
One problem with the airport was that no internet worked, our smartphone didn’t work and no place had wifi. We had things we needed to do but we needed internet! At about 11pm, Sylvia began to throw up. Of course. At 2:25am, we were able to check the dogs and our bags and head to the plane! We flew on LAN which is a very nice airline with free movies and games and food and drinks and it’s fancy. Sylvia perked up and seemed to feel better as she ate her entire breakfast. They let her keep the LAN blanket because she told the flight attendant it was so so beautiful. It’s solid orange. We arrived in Lima and proceeded smoothly through customs. We had to wait for the vet, who was late and arrived highly caffeinated.
We found a beach house south of Lima to rent. But, like all South American things, it was very casual and that was not reassuring. No deposit. No confirmation number. Not even an address. The woman we rented from, Karina, was very nice and told us someone would meet us at the airport – which is in Callou, 35 miles away. We walked out of customs with 4 carts, 6 kids, 2 dogs and we were exhausted – and a guy was standing there with a sign that said Michel De Corz, and I knew that was us! He took us to a van, we all piled in and we began a slow, slow, slow drive. Here is a fun fact we learned last time we were in Lima: most taxi drivers don’t know Lima. They move from very rural places, where they never had a car, to Lima and pay to share a taxi with relatives and they take turns driving 24/7 but they don’t know where anything is. This was the case with our van driver. Even we knew shorter ways to get around Lima.
Part II: From Lime to Peace (Lima to La Paz)
We were feeling kind of pressed for time because, well, this is a long story too. Once we knew we were selling the camper in Santiago, we needed plane tickets back to Lima. We had already bought plane tickets out of Lima in February. Plane tickets to Lima were expensive but tickets to Bolivia, which route through Lima, saved us more than $3000. We bought tickets with a 16 hour layover to make sure we could get all our bags off the plane. Tricky thinking, eh? Then we started thinking about actually going to Bolivia. We decided that Ryan, Jack and Michelle would go to Bolivia for a week, take a bus to Puno, visit Puno friends, take a combi to Juliaca and fly back to Lima. In order to do this, we needed to make it to the beach house, help everyone get settled, make hotel reservations in La Paz, find a 4cm passport photo for me (required for entry and I didn’t have one but Jack and Ryan did) and get back to Callou at the airport. The beach house was better than we imagined. It has three bathrooms! Like a palace, a mansion, so much space, and a pool!
We were so tired, you cannot imagine. Mark, Ryan and I were now at 30 hours without sleep. In order to make hotel reservations and find a passport photo place, we needed wifi so Ryan and Mark left to recharge the trusty old Claro stick. They returned, we checked email but no confirmation on our reservation. We had to call, which we did. Now there is another little issue with Bolivia. When I made the reservations, I was only concerned with getting to Lima. If we get into Lima at 7am and have a 16 hour layover, our plane to La Paz leaves at midnight – and arrives in Bolivia at 2:55am. This is a bad time to arrive. Especially since the airport is actually in El Alto, the notorious barrio with more than 2 million people. I really wanted a hotel reservation, you know? We called our hotel, La Joya. Our conversation went something like this:
“Did you get our reservation?”
“No, we have internet problems.”
“Could we make one?”
“Yes sure see you then.”
“Wait! Do you need the dates and our name?”
“No it is no problem”
“But we arrive tonight”
“Tonight?”
“Yes tonight”
“Ok. No problem, see you tonight”
“Wait! We come in very late”
“Ok. No problem, see you tonight”
“We come in at 3am”
“Ok. No problem, see you tonight”
“How do we get to the hotel?”
“Ok. No problem, see you tonight”
“Do we take a cab?”
“No.”
“How do we get there?”
“We will be there”
“At the airport?”
“Ok. No problem, see you tonight”
“OK! You will pick us up at the airport tonight at 3am?”
“Late tonight or early tomorrow morning?”
“I am sorry. I don’t know what you mean”
“Ok. No problem, see you tonight”
Skype drops the call.
So we took showers in the beach house but there was no hot water. We called to ask how to turn it on and the Karina’s husband came over. He said there were no water heaters, was that OK? I said no, it was very cold water so he said ok, we will put in a water heater. And they did! As we walked out with our bags, we asked Karina’s husband where to catch a bus to Lima. He said he would just take us so we climbed into his car and headed to Lima. Karina’s husband likes to surf. We talked about surfing. He took us to his office and called us a radio cab to the airport in Callou. It took over an hour to drive the 14 miles. We got to the airport and found an IPeru office where they gave us the address of a photo place. We put our one bag into bag storage, took a taxi to the photo place and got there just before they closed. We ate dinner at a little restaurant and then headed back to the airport, retrieved our bag, checked out of Peru and boarded our plane. 38 hours without sleep.
Bolivia is a very interesting place. The Spanish took all the silver from the mines of Potosi and used it to fund 200 years of Spanish projects, like the Inquisition. Bolivia got independence in 1825 with the assistance of Simon Bolivar (who would be one person I would love to have dinner with) but civil war erupted and Bolivia has had 198 distinct governments since they got independence from Spain. Chile took their land that bordered the ocean because they wanted the saltpeter. You may remember that from the blog post about the battle of Iqueque. Bolivia appeals every year to the UN to get the land back. The loss of the sea is a Bolivian tragedy. They mourn the loss of the sea. They celebrate the Dia del Mar, a day of mourning and sorrow for the loss of the beloved ocean. Bolivia now has their first indigenous president, Evo Moreles, who I think is pretty great. I feel bad for Bolivia, a very disenfranchised country.
La Paz is in a deep canyon at 14,000 feet. The roads here are very, very, very steep. The airport is the highest international airport in the world. Special planes need to land here as there is less oxygen and they need special tires. Our plane looked unspecial, like a 737. The guide books say that when you leave from sea level and arrive at 14,000 feet you will get sick. They say that when the plane lands and they open the door and unpressurize the cabin, people pass out. Lan carried oxygen for this purpose. I was not looking forward to landing. We spent a month in Puno, just a hundred miles away and at 12,800 feet but we got there gradually and I still had some altitude sickness. We fell asleep. Slept hard. I tried to wake up Jack right before we landed and he hit me and told me to stop hurting him. The plane landed. The door opened. The cabin lost all pressure. The German tourists all took their sorochi tablets. And nothing happened. No one passed out. Nothing. We went through customs, bought our visa ($135 each), filled out all the forms and they didn’t want my 4cm passport photo because you know what they did? They bought a camera! We cleared customs. We were the last people out, as buying a visa took some time. Only Americans have to buy a visa because Evo Morales is irritated at the US. In fact on the second day we were in La Paz, Bolivia kicked out the USAID Program (very dramatically here but on US news it wasn’t even a blip). The La Paz airport looked a lot like the Bethel Airport but browner, not gray. Very small. No place to spend the night if we had to – and it was cold. But there – standing in the airport in the cold at nearly 4am was a man with a sign that said La Joya. I was so happy I actually cried. We piled into his minivan which had a cholita woman in the front seat and no back window. They offered us a blanket. We drove through El Alto and into La Paz and to our hotel where we went straight to our room and went to sleep.
]]>I love coffee. I used to drink coffee to keep me awake during 24-hour halibut fishing openers in Kodiak. I has a skipper on my crab boat that brought a 50lb bag of Espresso beans on the boat and would make the crew freshly ground super strong coffee BEFORE he woke us up every day. I really came to love coffee shortly after I met Michelle. I was at her cabin on Goldhill Road one night and she made me coffee with vanilla ice cream in it. It changed my life.
I prefer my coffee in a large cup with a teaspoon and a half of sugar and Coffeemate (TM). Many people have suggested cream or half and half to me, like I’m missing out on something. I have to say here that Coffeemate (TM), for me, adds a wonderfully delicious flavor to my sweetened coffee that I totally enjoy. No other non-dairy creamer adds the same flavor as Coffeemate (TM), nor does cream, etc. Just to be clear.
Michelle and I have been drinking hazelnut coffee for as long as I can remember. It used to be that the only place in Fairbanks you could get it was at Country Kitchen, but as the coffee movement in the USA grew, it became more widely available. At some point we switched from fresh ground coffee to Folgers hazelnut coffee. With six kids, you do what you can to save money.
Coffee availability in SA was a big concern for us. Mary and Brian had been to Ecuador not too long before we were heading there and told us there was no good coffee in Ecuador. This was pretty horrifying What about the rest of SA? We were going to Colombia so thing should be pretty good, right? Just in case, we stocked up on Folgers in Florida before we shipped the camper over. I think we had like 8 cans of coffee. We also had a giant can of Coffeemate (TM).
In Colombia it turns out that most of the coffee there is for export. When I was picking up the van and trailer from the port I was in a warehouse filled with coffee. And I mean filled. One hundred pound burlap sacks stacked on pallets and then stacked on top of each other something like 40 feet high. It was all unroasted coffee beans. It reminded me of the warehouse they stuck the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was an unbelievable amount of coffee. Inconceivable really.
As we drove south all too quickly through Colombia we came to the city of Caucasia. We saw our first supermarket in SA and screeched to a halt on the side of the road to head in. We stocked up on many groceries, but one of the things we bought was a 5 kilo bag of ground coffee. It was something like $35. It turns out we should have bought more.
Our giant bag of coffee was pretty good stuff. I have to say, Colombian coffee is really good. We didn’t have any coffee worries at all through Ecuador. We didn’t run out until our lengthy stay in Puno. At the supermarket in Puno (Plaza Vea) they sold some coffee that turned out to be tolerable. Altiplano was the brand. It was pretty expensive, at least compared to the prices of other things in Peru, which were generally pretty cheap. It was about $7 a pound. One night we stopped into a smaller market that had coffee for sale in plastic bags. It smelled pretty good so we bought it. It was $5 for two pounds. It was terrible and still sits in the cupboard to this day.
We has a lot of hopes for Chile after spending two months in Peru. Good coffee was one of them. Oh well. So far we have tried four or five different brands of coffee in Chile. They were all OK, but Chile itself is pretty expensive and coffee is no exception. It runs $10 a pound for cheaper stuff (Haiti brand or Colombia brand) but quality coffee is way up there. Juan Valdez brand (REALLY!) from Colombia is $20 a pound. We have not bought it.
We have quite a bit of our Folgers hazelnut coffee left, but it turns out that we are not liking it so much. We ran out of Coffeemate (TM) a long, long time ago and it seems hazelnut Folgers is not the same without it. Especially black. Many of you who have been to our house may already have known this. We did not, since we had been adding stuff to our coffee. I don’t know what this means for us when we get home. Will we continue to drink strictly Folgers hazelnut? I don’t think so. I am looking forward to moving back to fresh ground coffees of many varieties . I am hoping to have a few or several different types of coffee on hand for whatever mood suites me. But first I must talk about an unforeseen development. NESCAFE!
The coffee aisles in supermarkets (or any market that has coffee) are filled with instant coffee. Seriously. There is something like 3 feet of shelf space for ground North American style coffee and then 25 feet of instant stuff. Ryan had brought some Nescafe from the US with us and we (Michelle and I) decided to try it. It turned out to be not so bad. Really. We followed the directions exactly to see what it would be like and it was pretty good! Best of all, it was really easy to make. Just heat up some water and pour it over the instant coffee in a cup. No need to get out the generator and the coffee maker, find the filters, measure out X amount of coffee, make sure we have enough water (always an issue in SA since any water we consume, we buy), etc. Most importantly, since we have all moved to black coffee (except for Ryan, who was already there), it tasted good. And we can make it quickly anytime anywhere, which can be pretty important when you’re traveling like we are.
Now I’m not saying we are switching to instant coffee on a permanent basis. I don’t really know what this means. I am still looking forward to stocking up on coffee as I mentioned earlier in this post. I am curious to see what happens when we get back. I can certainly see the advantages instant coffee can present when you need coffee pretty bad.
One thing I know, I sure do miss good coffee.
]]>
March 13 was the scheduled departure from Puno.
The night before, we had a sad goodbye with the Grifo folks. Ryan helped them with an English lesson CD on their computer for awhile and we looked through our hard drive of music and listened to Whitney Houston and Madonna (their choice).
We woke up early, secured the camper for travel and ventured into town one last time to pick up some last minute supplies – also Annabelle, Sylvia and Max wanted to climb to the top of the Mirador. The Mirador sits on a hill above Puno, a 1,027 foot ascent up steep streets to a staircase of 622 steps. Half of us had already climbed so Mark took the kids while Jack, Ryan and I ran to the mercado. Jennah stayed in the camper. The plan was to meet up at noon and have lunch and then leave for Chile.
We split up and Ryan, Jack & I headed for Scotia Bank (yes, there is a Canadian bank here) to withdraw money. When we got to the ATM, I didn’t have the card. I have the only card as Mark lost his wallet at the gas station with the sodium cyanide trucks. I guard the ATM card – where could it be? I think you all know the answer this already. We began the ascent of the Mirador but I was certain Mark didn’t have the card, we had stopped to buy something on the way into town and he didn’t seem to have the card. We texted Jennah but she couldn’t find the card so we grabbed a taxi and returned to the camper where the card was not found. We hopped a combi and returned to wait for Mark.
And guess what. Mark had the card.
We still had shopping to do and lunch so we decided to just postpone leaving. Because we like Puno. We spent a wonderful last day shopping and talking with Puno friends. Ryan and Jack got interviewed and video taped by a team of high school students who had a project for their English class.
School here is all boys or all girls and everyone wears a uniform. Sylvia LOVES the uniforms. She asked me if there were any schools in Fairbanks she could go to wear she could wear a uniform – and I said home school requires a uniform! So she is most excited to buy one, they sell them everywhere. There were some things I wanted to buy anyway. They sell these things I would call knitted sock tights. They are thickly knitted footless tights and they are $2.40 USD a pair so I bought Sylvia two more pairs. So warm for winter! Annie didn’t think they were very stylish. Ryan got his hair cut ($1.60 USD) and the daily lightning and thunderstorm rolled over the lake so we headed to the van to wait out the rain (we hardly ever drive the van, we usually take a combi but we had a lot of groceries to buy so we left Trek inside to guard the van). We got to the van, hung out with Trek, dropped off our bags and waited out the storm. Once it passed, we headed to the music store so Jack could buy a mamaquena. He has been wanting one since before we arrived.
Jack, Jennah and Ryan headed to dinner and the rest of us went to the mercado. We had to do the last vegetable and fruit shopping trip. We returned to the van to drop off the bags and the mamaquena before heading to Plaza Vea, the hyper mercado, for water.
Mark went to open the back of the van but the lock had been smashed in! The door was unlocked! We do not keep the generator in the car but all of Mark’s tools are there and I left my smartphone in the car because of the rain. It appears that someone tried to break in and then Trek kept them out. We gave Trek a lot of love and praise! Mark decided to run to Plaza Vea while we stayed in the van as the back door no longer locked. Its a quick trip, we were a block away. Max, Annie, Sylvie and I were sitting in the car when the bad guy returned! Outside there is very loud music playing all the time (at this time, it was Jump!) so he must not have even thought to look for people in the car. Trek growled and I looked toward the back and the guy was trying to open the back door! I told the kids to STAY THERE and jumped out of the van with my keys in attack mode but the door opening made the guy run away faster than I could catch him – and really what would I have done if I had caught him? It was very exciting.
Mark returned with water and there were 4 excited different versions of the story. We returned to the grifo where the folks there were incredulous that this had happened to us twice! In the morning, Mark took the smashed lock out and headed to a shop where they are repairing it so we will be able to lock the door. We are waiting for his return to leave Puno. The Grifo folks came and got Ryan to fix their printer and then wanted him to go to Sillustani to pick avocados in the avocado field but its a 3 hour trip so he stayed here. Or else we would never leave Puno.
Like everything else in Peru, the lock was carefully saved and rebuilt where in America it would have been thrown away and a new one ordered. It cost $18 to rebuild the lock. While the lock was being rebuilt, Jack & Ryan hopped a combi into town to pick up a few guinea pigs as farewell presents for the Grifo family and some seeds for the garden in Alaska.
We are heading to the Atacama having decided to skip Bolivia. 24 days on the shores of Lake Titicaca has been enough like Bolivia that we decided we didn’t want the hassle right now. We may change our mind later but at this time, begging for gas sounds pretty awful. Bolivia is even poorer than Peru and that is hard, too. Other overlanders have told us that we should bring rice to give people as gifts. Also it is the rainy season and the salt flats are muddy. Bolivia is officially on hold.
We said another goodbye to the Grifo people.
]]>
Mother and Father heard a cover of Dust in the Wind by Kansas played on the pan flute when they went out. Of course this led to the purchasing of two CDs full of Andean classic rock.
I think I’ve already talked about this but here in Puno there’s a hotel that’s a tower. I don’t know for sure but I’m pretty sure this hotel is the tallest building in Puno. At the top there’s a restaurant and on top of that there’s a bar with windows for you to look through. We’ve been trying to go to this bar for three days now but every night it’s been closed due to the lameness of the bar tender. Maybe tonight it’ll be open. The other night Mom, Jennah, Ryan, and I went out for pizza at the restaurant called Macchu Pizza. This restaurant was kind of really slow but that was okay because their chairs were comfortable. The pizza itself was mostly cheese and very little pizza but I still enjoyed it. I bought a CD with one gigabyte of Samba music on it. My South American music folder is pretty full now.
There’s this alcoholic beverage sold down here called the Pisco Sour. I’ve never had it of course but it’s made from egg whites, a wine called pisco, salt, and other nasty things. I think it’s funny because it’s really, really, nasty sounding. Egg whites don’t taste good. I bought a cup of white foam covered in cinnamon that looked really scrumptious but then it turned out to be egg white and made my hands really sticky. After spreading the egg whites on a few people on accident I found a trash can. While my egg white problem was happening, Ryan bought himself a giant, llama-less blanket and I found a cool pen. When I was younger I used to collect pens but I’ve out grown that now. I had a ton of pens. It was really cool. Everyone would come over just to look at my pens but I lost all of them somehow.
The witches here don’t let people photograph there llama feti so I haven’t been able to get any photos of those, sorry. Not much is happening. We’re still waiting for the phone; still buying hats.
Good bye.
The floating islands were cool, though they smelled bad. I think that the reeds under were rotting. We walked around the reed desert and looked at what they sold. I wandered away from the rest of my kin and was promptly called back in. One of the local persons forced a local wear on me, which wasn’t very flattering. We then took a reed boat to the other island. I rowed for a few moments, as did Jack, but then the original rowers took over, since we were being too slow. Jack started talking to some guy he thought was Ryan, but then it turned out to be some British guy.
One day in Puno, Ryan, Jack and I walked to the top of a mountainous hill. It started off as a gentle slope, then escalated to a very, very steep road then ended as stairs up the hill. At the top was viewpoint with a giant condor on the top. Ryan took pictures of Puno and I had to take pictures of him. We headed back down.
The other night Mother, Jack, Ryan and I went out. We went to the witch market, which sold llama fetuses. Jack tried to take a picture of them but the lady tending the booth started to yell at him. Mother and Ryan looked at blankets and I wandered off to look at red pea coats. The market was separate into ,rows and you couldn’t go to the next one unless you went all the way to the end. There was, however, a space to cross over which I did. When I was finished looking to coats I realized my bridge had closed. I was stranded.
I went all the way around to get back. Whilst I was preoccupied Jack had unwisely bought something from a cart. It was in a clear plastic cup and topped with cinnamon. It resembled banana pudding. He, at first, said it was really good and I refused to taste it. He then said it was ‘the foulest things his taste buds had ever touched’ so of course I had to try it. I didn’t think it was that bad, but he kept calling it sludge and abandoned it on the side of the road. We walked up to the fanciest hotel that had a bar on the top. It had windows so you could look over Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately, it was closed, so instead we went to Macchu Pizza (haha) to eat. The pizza took forty-five minutes and was greasy, but still good. Mother ordered a pitcher of sangria, which tasted okay and had little apple slices floating on the top. We finished and walked around a couple of moments before going back.
Jennah
]]>