Jen in Peru: Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, and Machu Picchu

          Because Peruvian tourist visas are only valid for 90 days, any foreigner who wishes to stay longer and doesn't have a work or student visa must leave the country and re-enter once every three months in order to be issued a new visa (or else pay the Peruivian government for each day they remain after the first 90). I of course, being the travel lover that I am, decided to use the opportunity to spend some time seeing a different country. I chose to head to Bolivia since other than Ecuador, which I've already seen, it's probably the cheapest and most easily-accessible by land from here. Also, it just so happened to work out that my first 90 days in Peru were up right after commencement weekend at Purdue, so Steve was able to fly down and join me for the trip (thanks to a very generous graduation gift from his parents).


          I left Trujillo on May 17th on an overnight bus to Lima, where I met Steve the next night.  From there, we traveled southwest to Puno, taking a day trip to the man-made Islas Flotantes (Floating Islands) on Lake Titicaca. Next, we crossed the border into Bolivia and spent a couple of days in the beautiful lakeside tourist town of Copacabana and on Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun), the largest and most famous island in Titicaca, where the Incans believe the earth was created. After some intense hiking at a ridiculous altitude of 13,000 ft., we decided to move on and spend a few days in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia (which actually only ended up being a couple hundred feet lower in altitude, but with some altitude pills and a whole lot of coca tea, we managed to survive just fine). Next, we headed back toward Peru, once again rounding Titicaca, and crossing through the Andes, up to one of our new favorite cities, Cuzco.  The trip wouldn't have been complete without a visit to Aguas Calientes and the epic Machu Picchu, which became our second of the Seven Wonders of the World--our eighth, if you include the 14 official finalists--to see together.


              I could probably go on and on about each of the destinations we visited and tell a million stories about all of the amazing sites, people, nature, food, culture, and history we experienced during those two weeks, but I think I'll just sum it all up with a list of my favorite parts/most memorable moments, thus sparing you the details and saving us both time. Pictures speak better than words anyway, right? Anyway, here's the list:

1.) NOT getting pick-pocketed or mugged in Lima. In fact, I actually quite enjoyed the city, in particular, the Changing of the Guards at the Governmental Palace, the Larco Art Museum, China Town, and my first suspiro a la limeña (Literally, "Breath of a Liman woman," a popular lemony dessert).

2.) Enjoying what we imagined might be the best pizza in all of South America, which was made from scratch and cooked over a fire inside the home of a tiny old indigenous Bolivian man on the Isla del Sol.....only to be trumped a day later by an Italian pizza that we decided was quite possibly the best pizza south of the Equator, if not in the best in the world. My mouth is starting to water now just thinking about it...

3.) Isla del Sol. Spending our days playing with baby llamas and looking for (invisible) holy Incan temples and our evenings watching the sun set over the highest navegable lake in the world, with the snow-capped Andes for a backdrop.

4.) Getting some free magic tips from a couple señoras at the Witch Market. Did you know that burning a taxidermied llama fetus inside your home will bring wealth and good luck to the household? The bigger your llama offering, the bigger your reward. It's all the rage in La Paz...

5.) Everything alpaca, everywhere. Sweaters, pants, hats, gloves, socks, even delicious filet mignon steak, all made from alpaca.

6.) Gazing (with my own eyes, not at a mere photograph) at the wonder that is Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. Also, being one of the 200 people permitted to climb the summit of Waynapicchu at surise. (Even Steve agrees--the view was definitely worth all the effort it took to get there!)

7.) Celebrating La Paz's patron saint's holiday with some of the locals, who were participating in a 24-hour parade. We seem to have a special gnack for (often unknowingly) showing up to cities in foreign countries for their biggest celebration of the year, my personal favorite being Saint John's Day in Oporto, Portugal.

8.) Being woken up and forced to get off of our border-crossing bus and pay for a for a 20 minute boat ride across the narrowest stretch of water in Lake Titicaca, only to watch our empty bus drive onto its own separate boat to meet us at the other side of the lake. Apparently, it's the passengers, not the bus itself, that would cause the boat to sink.

9.) Finally getting to eat our first cuy (Spanish for guinea pig, quite the delicacy here in Peru), which was only possible after a great deal of instruction from the owner of our hostel in Cuzco.

10.) A grand total of 94 hours of quality time spent together on public transportation. (If you'd like the breakdown, it was 4 hours on trains, 5 hours on boats, 6 hours in taxis and/or colectivos, and 79 hours on buses.) Now if that didn't teach me patience, I don't know what will...

Here's a small sampling of the 1000 some photos we took on the trip. The rest of the pics are available for your viewing pleasure at http://jenenperu.shutterfly.com/