78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



Puno
2005-07-23   8:07 p.m.

A breathless hello from Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. I appreciate John´s ¨huh huh huh, you said Titicaca¨ response to my email muy mucho. I miss my friends, but am traveling with the best friend I´ve ever had, so that sort of makes up for things. Props to Kevin too for pumping his Peruvian friend for advice and then emailing it to us as we go.

There was another political demonstration before we left Arequipa, and this time, despite the consular´s obligatory "American citizens should avoid all political rallies", we were braver and checked it all out. The protesters were insistent upon justica social for someone whom we knew nothing about, so after I (carefully) ask around or research myself, I´ll write more about it.

We took a long bus ride today through beautiful mountain passes reaching 12,000 feet and arrived in Puno around 1:30. Outside of the city, now, it´s been interesting to see rural Peru. I always seem to forget how humbling travel is - how when I see how modest the accomodations are people live in, how simply they live their lives and how happy they still are, I feel spoiled, gluttonous, and ashamed even of the mass of things on my back I "needed" for the month of travel.

Maybe I can just chalk it all up to a striking difference in cultures, but I can´t help feeling like we´re very wasteful and greedy in the US when I see how understated and conservative even "wealthy" locals´ homes, cars, and clothing are. Consider me humbled, and remind me of this next time I whine about feeling poor.

Tomorrow, we head out to some of the floating islands on Lake Titicaca, and I had to go and forget my hat. I think I might get muy sunburned, so perhaps I´ll buy one. We`re both much better with the altitude, and hopefully can sleep better tonight than we did the first time we were this high in Chivay. We´re drinking lots of coca tea, and yes mom, that´s drugs, sort of. But it´s so helpful and so legal. We´re wondering about bringing it back to the states, though - I´m guessing since we give even hemp farmers a hard time, the answer would be a firm no way. It doesn´t get us silly, or anything, just clears our heads. We think. tee hee.

Ok, we´re off to see Puno´s night life, or maybe just go to bed after a few deep breaths.

Miss everyone lots.

xoxox

T