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Puno, Peru
15° 49' S 70° 1' W
Jan 09, 2006 01:53
Distance 0km

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Other entries in Puno

wasted money but not time

Text written in: English

first things first, last night while i was using the internet here at this cafe, fatty came in and told me that the entire 5 story hostel was without hot water cause someone had left the hot water running in their sink for about 4 hours. that insensitive clout was none other than yours truly and i had to laugh when he told me. apparently the hostel attendent on duty had been running all over the place looking for this problematic room and eventually found ours because there was steam coming out from under the door. now if i was inconvenienced with a lack of hot water because of some dufus, i would be pretty upset but since it was me who was at fault, i could only laugh. i apologized to the hostel owner when i saw him but that means that fatty and i have been stinky for a little while longer now.

so puno is not really anything to visit either. its a port city on lake titikaka and the only thing to do is take day trips out on the lake or stay with host families on islands in the lake. we didnt have time for the latter and have heard that the novelty has worn off and a lot of the experiences we heard about have not been great. so today we took a boat tour of some manmade floating islands and another large island with nothing on it. we got what we thought was a good price for an entire days trip including transportation but on the boat, we found out that we paid nearly twice what other people had paid. apparently, our friend Juan had taken advantage of two travel weary americans yesterday when he quoted us our steal of a deal. the floating islands were cool but i couldnt understand why people would live on them. i mean, there is plenty of room on the mainland and the only reason i could come up with was so that they had something to sell. the islands themselves were made of bouyant dirt blocks and then a layer of long thick reeds. the ground felt soft and cushy to walk on and the explanation of their creation was interesting but the guide failed to mention their purpose. after a few looks at similar but different flaoting islands and a tour of the arts and crafts for sale by the inhabitants, we were off on our painfully slow boat to an island far far away. we all had a chance to take a long nap along the way because it was that far and our boat was going that slow.

when we disembarked, we had to climb from lakelevel to the top of the island and then wlked along a path decorated with small houses, small herd of sheep and their shepards, and countless little girls offering braclets for sale. i lost count of how many times i said no gracias but i did note how disgusting i felt invading their island and somewhat forcing them through the tourist trade to pawn these crafts every day to a new group of vacationing foreigners. there were also women much older who must have looked and acted much like these little girls do but i doubt the old women had to deal with the invasion of tourists. their faces were tired and san and unlike most of the other inhabitants, not a single old woman said a word as we walked along the path. we got to the main square and there wasnt much to see. it was sunday so church was in session led by a white minister. we ate lunch at a restaurant designated by our tour guide, obviously a set up to give a friend some business. then it was back to the sea sloth that was our boat and we didnt enjoy a 3 hour ride back to Puno. overall, it was something that i could have done without but i got some good scenery photos and i bought a wall tapestry that i look forward to hanging in my mansion one day.

when we go back, we walked through the local market looking for nothing in particular just kind of strolling and occasionally scanning something of interest. you have to be careful when you show too much interest in anything. the owner of the stand will come over and insist on the perfection of the product and if you shake your head, he or she has another similar item ready for your approval. fattys eyesight isnt always so great at night so when i pointed to a Dallas Cowboys hat just for kicks, he hesistated to find it and the owner thought we were very excited in purchasing the cap. fatty had to come up with some excuse quickly so as not to have to haggle and we moved on. it was funny to both of us because the market went on for maybe 15 blocks and about every 1 and a half blocks, the items repeated themselves. it was like the simpsons episode where bart and lisa are walking thru Itchy and Scratchy studios and Roger Myers explains that to save money, cartoons often repeat the background. except this was real life but the images were just as cartoon like. we saw countless stands of caps, jackets, and scarves, then we saw plenty of CD and DVD stands, our personal favorite was the one playing MC Hammer Cant Touch this video and on the way back, Ice Ice Baby. then in one section we clearly stumbled into the produce and meat department because we were suddenly surrounded by fruit stands and goat heads. there were literally thirty different tables set up with raw meat, post-cleaver, lying there without ice waiting to be purchased and cooked. it was eye-opening. we shuffled back to our hostel and got ready for dinner.

tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Bolivia and we have yet to decide if were just passing thru or if were going to hit up the salt flats or anything else. regardless, we should be in Buenos Aires within a few days, relaxing and eating lots of meat. adios