South from Cusco

South from Cusco

I left Cusco after being there for too long. Cusco is one of those places that everyone says you have to visit. I guess you have to go to Cusco because it's the gateway to Machu Picchu. It's a place that the tourists and travelers all visit but people talk about it like the place itself is something special. It's good in that lots of people are there to have a good time but besides the party and its proximity to archeological sites, it's kind of crappy. Everyone wants to rip you off and/or sell you something and lots and lots of fake culture. More about fake culture when I talk about Arequipa and Southern Peru. Anyway, I stayed too long. Had a good time but it was good to get out. On to Puno, Lake Titicaca, Arequipa, and Bolivia.

Puno

I took the train from Cusco to Puno, about a ten hour trip. We went through some cool villages and natural areas of the Andes, although the Andes are not particularly beautiful. They can be impressive but not necessarily beautiful. Part of the reason I have not been that impressed with the mountains themselves is that I am spoiled. California has the Sierras and the Siskiyous and places like Yosemite, the North Coast, and Big Sur. Plus I have spent so much time in the Rockies, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and other places in the Western United States. We have so much and so many people in the world have never seen mountains like we have. The Andes are relatively dry and the rivers in the populated areas are so polluted, it's hard to be impressed. Traveling always makes me realize how incredible California is. The rural villages were interesting but very desolate. Some were downright bleak. I passed through probably the bleakest place I have ever seen, a town called Juliaca. The entire town is a giant street market and a huge garbage dump. Dry, windy, cold, dirty, crowded, not close to anything. It ain't San Francisco or San Diego, that's for sure. I've lived in paradise most of my life.

I arrived in Puno just after dark and got off the train just in time to catch someone walking off with my backpack. They give you a luggage ticket and then throw the bags on the train platform in a pile and nobody watches. Obviously the local luggage thieves know the system and stand there and kind of randomly grab a bag and walk off. When you see someone carrying your bag, it takes a second to register. Mine is pretty distinct so I realized what was happening in time to walk up to the guy, punch him in the back of the head and grab my bag while telling him in Spanish he was a piece of shit thief. Gringo 1 Peruvian thief 0. I had a $7 a night hostel picked out near the train station which turned out to be the coldest, darkest place I have stayed so far. At least they had Wi-Fi. It's amazing, you have these luxurious places where the Internet doesn't work and you have places with no heat and barely any light with super fast Wi-Fi. Go figure. It was probably 25 degrees inside my jail-cell-like room but at least I could do some research for my fantasy football team. I was in puno for the "Great cultural experience" that are the Uros floating islands. The quotation marks are there because the Uros are one of many "cultural experiences" in Peru that seem to exist mostly, if not entirely, for tourists with cameras. And money. The Uros Islands are islands constructed out of reeds by the indigenous population around Lake Titicaca. They measure maybe 50x50 and are where the Uros people "live." The Uros people also make their living fishing on boats that they also "construct out of reeds." Understand that for so many people, their trip is all about taking pictures of things, real and imagined. It's kind of like getting off of a plane in a bunch of countries, going through customs to get your passport stamped, and getting back on the plane. They never go to a city and just walk around on their own, maybe wander into a bar or cafe and talk to some locals or just go sit in the park and watch what's going on. EVERYTHING is a photo op. To the point that it's annoying. And everyone now is apparently Ansel Adams and has to get THE shot. Sorry but I'm walking through your picture. The Uros Islands are made for these people. Literally. I mentioned fake culture earlier. The Uros, as far as I can tell, is mostly a fabrication of a culture that once existed. Germans and French with $3000 digital SLR cameras love this stuff. The islands are pretty cool and the people do build them. I took a boat out to one of the islands with about 30 people (one of 50 boats going to various islands that day). The first sign of trouble when we arrived was the craft market set up like everywhere else you go in Peru. Hats, necklaces, carved figurines, etc. It reminded me that this is Peru and everything is a sales opportunity. While the Germans and French walked around taking 100s of photos (I took three), I went to talk to a little girl. First, I asked her if she lived there. Confirming my suspicions, she said no. At least she didn't sleep there. Right. Then we started talking about the boats and she asked me if I wanted to know a secret. Well, yes. She took me behind the huts and showed me how they really built the boats. Under a tarp were hundred of plastic water bottles used for the hulls. They didn't tell me that in the brochure. Then, for a charge, some people could ride on one of the "reed" boats. About half the people piled on and the natives serenaded them with "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" as they floated away. Appalling. Fake culture at its finest and lots of photos for the Euros with their expensive cameras. We went on to some other regular island on the lake (after our boat caught on fire once) and saw other people pretending to live like they did several hundred years ago. I was over it by then. Back to my cold and dark room in Puno for the night before leaving for Arequipa.