Lima at night
We are really not planning these posts, we are writing them as we go, and in this particular one we want to start w/ the flight situation, 5am was our flight from Mexico City to Bogota, we were in a lot of pain and tired so we really did not pay much attention to the flight aside from where our seats were and if our carry-on fit in the overhead (we were flying w/ Avianca), but when we got to Bogota, and after sleeping for 4+ hours we were a little more awake, the first thing we noticed was that the Bogota airport is really nice, nicer than the one in Mexico city, contemporary and easy to go around and find our gate, we didn’t need to wait much for our flight from Bogota to Lima and when we got to the plane we got a few pleasant surprises, and believe Avianca is not giving us commission for what follows: the chairs are really comfortable, not just because they are wider than most, but when you recline the back, the entire chair slides forward a little and becomes really comfy, every seat has a TV, w/ a remote control that doubles up as a video game control, it even has a cup/phone holder w/ and USB port for charging!, of course a folding little table, but that is not all, is has a folding FOOT REST! I have never seen that in any flight if you are not in first class!! We were pretty surprise buy this and by how nice the attendants were and efficient. AND then they rolled w/ the food cars, these were full meals FREE!!, and then Bryan said to me ‘I really need a beer” so I ask the girl of the drinks about the price of the beer, she told Bryan the options and said that the bear was also FREE! I honestly don’t remember when the last time was I took a flight that included meals, drinks and alcohol!! Not in the last 15 years at least. If I must use one word to describe Avianca airlines, I’ll say ‘OUSTANDING’! nothing less. One more thing… they do NOT charge for luggage!!! Awesome!
Oh…. Yes…. Sorry… about Lima,… well, we arrive at the hotel at around 5pm, took showers, organized our luggage for next morning and by the time we were able to go out for dinner it was already 7pm, the hotel suggested to go to the Miraflores barrio and walk around, one thing that we notice is that with the change on backpacks to my sister’s little rolling suitcases we definitely forgot a few items, like my thermal tights and Bryan beanie and gloves, so we needed to do some shopping as well, we cannot really form an educated opinion about Lima because we were only there for a few hours and really the Miraflores barrio is very modern, although the place we had dinner was nice and we ate typical Peruvian food, we really were not in the historical downtown, the areas that the taxi drove us were poor, polluted and with a lot of traffic, so really we don’t feel that we could say that our visit in Lima was eventful, we did not have the intention really to see Lima because our time was really limited, so maybe another time we’ll come back and really spend quality time there, we pretty much had dinner, walked around the shopping district and took a taxi back to the hotel.
Lake Titicaca
Next morning woke up early to catch the 6am flight to Juliaca, again a nice flight w/ Avianca, no problems at all. To experience the lake Titicaca and after a lot of research we found out that we could not do it without a guide/tour, so we arrange a 2 day tour, they pick us up at the airport, drove us to the port through Juliaca and then Puno, the tour people was already there w/ a boat ready to go, now our take on Juliaca and Puno, we were just passing by but you can really see the character of the place, underdeveloped, polluted and not dirty, but very dusty, is a very dry area, the traffic was absolutely crazy and most of the cars there wouldn’t pass emission test , the people is super nice and helpful though. At the port with our guide (Juanito) we were told that we were going to stay w/ a family on Amantani island (we knew that when we booked the tour), He suggested that it would be nice if we bring some essentials to the family, like sugar, rice, pasta, some candies and so on, so we did, there were some little grocery stores at the port and we were able to but those items plus some bottles of water for us assuming there were not bottled water in the island, a little bit later we climbed the boat and were in our way to the Uros floating islands. The place is an absolute cultural shock, these people have been living like this for thousands of years, floating in a really cold and isolated lake and honestly after seen how little they have it make us thing on how wasteful we are in many way, although Bryan did not grow up in a rich family and I grew up in a 3rd world, we do have a lot of appreciation for most things, however this people have almost nothing, they livelihood is the lake, the ribs that grow in the edges and their textiles that are BTW very beautiful and so un-expensive, we got a few items like Bryans gloves there and the beanie because they were supper cheap (in lima they were 50 dollar for the gloves and beany) we pay 5 dollar in the islands. We learned that in the Peruvian culture there is really not a ‘macho’ mentality, men and women ‘pull’ kind of at the same pace, all work, men even help on the textile work knitting and sewing, the women drive the boats and do ‘men’ jobs…no problems!, you can see the rugger of their work and the environment in their faces, they seem to age really young and the lines in their faces can tell you their story if you pay attention. Our guide (Juanito) was knowledgeable he is a local from Puno, so he knows his craft as well. He explained us the mentality of the people and the damage that the Spanish did to all of them and their traditions and original cultures. Pretty much like what they did in Mexico.
Strong Lady!
Woman were mostly driving the boats @ Uros Island
After Uros the boat took us to the Amantani island where the temples of the Pachamama and Pachatata are (they are BTY in the top of 2 hills like 1000ft above the lake level), this is where we were sleeping this night w/ a native ( and I mean NATIVE) family, in route to the island the guide explained how this people live, function and how they were going to take us in their ‘guest rooms’ also what was expected from us and the schedule he needed to follow. We meet ‘Jovita’ (diminutive for Jova, in Peru they all get a diminutive version of their name, in Mexico you get a nickname -I have a few: ‘Flaca and Rata’-), the woman that was taking us in her home, after introductions we walk to her house and I was so impressed with the strength of this lady, Jovita and Juanito helped us carry our luggage (that were not backpacks any more) that was really hard to move w/ them since there are not even roads.
Lunch with Jovita
The island has 4000 people living there in 10 little communities and they all have a way to host people every day, it works in a rotation basis. A few interesting things that we found out about this island are: there are no dogs for some reason, they only consider dogs for protection and the island is one of the safest places in Peru, they don’t even have police there, everybody knows each other and protect each other, they have a system where they ‘finger-point’ their leaders and they are picked as per the quality of their character, their work ethics and their intelligence and kindness, they have interesting ways to for example ‘reprimand’ their youth when they do something wrong and as we were told they get ‘whipped’ and the amount depends on the crime, needless to say that their kids behave really good.
Jovita
Any way after walking for like 10 minutes we got to Jovita’s home where after we got settled she had made lunch for us, very simple but delicious, I was impress on how humble and sweet this woman is. After lunch and clean up Juanito, Bryan and I walked to the Pachatata trail…. HOOO MY GOD!! That was hard… first the elevation (well it help a lot that we were drinking Coca tea w/ muna) the lake is at over 13000ft over sea level and the temples are another 1000+/- more up… by foot, it was cold so we carry our jackets, use my tights and cargo pants, shirt, light sweater, sweater and jacket, Bryan was pretty much the same just no tights, please remember that we are doing this with 2 broken ribs and the multiple bruises, the walk was a really painful process but it was worth the effort, the trail and the people are absolutely beautiful and photogenic, the views are fantastic and mother earth gift us w/ clouds and rain in the distant an even lighting that were a great show, we arrive at the Pachatata at sunset and enjoy the beautiful views of the Andes from there.
Climbing to the Pachatata
In our way back we got some rain (thank God we took our wind breakers, we walked down hill in the middle of a really not to heavy rain, down hills are always easy so we did good time back to town, Jovita was waiting for us with dinner, again another delicious typical dinner and her and Juanito’s company and conversation about their culture, customs, the way people live in the island, we were impress and sadden when Juanito told us that Jovita carries almost every day big buckets of water from the springs downhill to her house for her use (and her guests) on her back, she doesn’t have running potable water in her house and she is single, she needs to take care of that herself, she is a tiny lady with the strength of Bryan (he is 6’-2 and solid muscle). We were so tired from the hike that we just went to bed. Side note: her house is made of adobe, and the guest room where we stayed was small but comfortable, but what was surprising was that even though it was freezing and raining outside, inside was just perfect, we slept well. Next morning woke up early, Jovita and Juanito were waiting for us to have breakfast and after that we all walked to the port where we took a water taxi to the closest port in the main land were a taxi was waiting for us to drive us to the airport. Our experience on the island with Jovita was really humbling.
Lake Titicaca from the top of the Pachatata
