Puno

Alas, my Thanksgiving vacation came to an end all too quickly and I headed back to Peru.  This time I opted to cross the altiplano (high Andean plateau) in a long distance bus, which was a lot more comfortable than the collectivos  from the initial trip.  From the bus windows I saw some beautiful scenery and was able to capture some of it:

I even saw snow in the Titicaca National Reserve, but I didn't photograph it, since I'm sure I'll be seeing enough on my trip back to the US.

Leaving Bolivia and returning to Peru was also much simpler than the initial trip-no crazed running back and forth from office to office this time.  Since I had an extra day before I needed to return to the plant, I decided to stay in Puno to see why everyone raves about the place.  Unfortunately, I think I will have to find that out at another time, since the weather on this trip did nothing to endear me to the place.  Officially the rainy season (clima lluvioso), I got both a cold and a sunburn in the 30ish hours I spent there.  (Of course, part of that might be because I got lost and spent an hour walking around in the rain, looking for my hotel, but that's a story for another time!)

I did manage to see Lake Titicaca:

I also managed to stumble on a festival (which seems to happen commonly in Puno) and got to see some traditional dancing:

But, as the weather got rainier, I headed to the Plaza de Armas (Main Square) to see the Catedral de Puno (cathedral) and check out the Museo Carlos Dreyer (museum):

Catedral de Puno

The most interesting part of the Carlos Dreyer Museum was their exhibit on funerary items

It includes this full-scale replica of a chullpa, or funerary tower...

...and 3 mummies...

...with a reconstruction of what they might have looked like

All in all, I would like to return to Puno, when the weather is nicer, to take a tour of the islands that occupy Lake Titicaca.  

Bolivia!

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to visit a friend in Bolivia for Thanksgiving.  I was a little nervous about travelling all on my own, especially since my Spanish is still quite basico and my travel route would include several points of negotiations.  Of course, the easiest way would be fly directly from Lima to La Paz, but unfortunately the price, which seemed to be more apropos to flying across all of South America instead of to the capital of the neighboring country, prevented that from being a viable option. Instead, I opted to fly to Juliaca, then take a bus that would cross the border and end up in La Paz.  In addition to feeling nervous about being able to communicate, I was also worried because I had very little leeway in my travel time in order to make to my friend's house before dinner.

Luckily, I worried for nothing.  The communication went as smoothly as it could have, despite the fact that, instead of a bus that would take me directly to La Paz, I ended up taking a series of taxis and collectivos (shared taxis, where you wait until the car fills up).  [Shh...don't tell my students, they'll say it's unsafe!]  The only snag was at the border crossing into Bolivia.  Not only do they charge Americans for a visa (unlike most of the other countries in South America) as a reciprocity fee, but they also seem to enjoy making them run back and forth between various service windows to complete the process.  But, this was merely annoying, I eventually jumped through enough hoops and was allowed to continue my journey.  I even made it on time for dinner!

I spent the majority of time in La Paz catching up with my friend and getting to know his fiancee, but we did manage to go out and see a bit of the city:

One landmark of La Paz-La Muela del Diablo (the Devil's Molar)
Maybe some day I'll be crazy enough to try hiking it!

In addition to being at a higher altitude than Lima, La Paz also has a different feel from being situated in a valley, rather than sprawling along a coast.  But crazy traffic remains a problem for both cities.  In an attempt to alleviate some traffic congestion, La Paz has recently installed 3 teleférico (cable car) lines.

They took me to test out the yellow line

Julia & Ralph

View from the station

They also took me to El Mercado de las Brujas, or Witches' Market and explained that once a year there is a ceremony where you buy symbols for things that you want to happen to you (new car, baby, house, husband, etc.) and place them in a basket as an offering.

Though La Paz shares a lot of cultural similarities with the mountain region of Peru,
I love the bowler hats that the women in La Paz wear!

How To Talk To A Peruvian

On my way to Bolivia to celebrate Thanksgiving with an old friend and his new family, I was inevitably asked the question, "Why is your first real vacation trip outside of Peru instead of seeing somewhere in your host country?" 

Fair enough. So I started to explain that this trip wasn't really about the place so much as spending the holiday with friends, which was met with shrugs, nods and murmurs of acknowledgement.

But I then followed it up with, "and really, it's even more about the food." At which point there were enthusiastic nods and exclamations of understanding. Ah yes, how could I forget? For Peruvians, it's always about the food!

Chorrillos

A few weeks ago, I spent a day exploring a new district, Chorrillos.  Just south of Barranco and Miraflores, it's right on the coast, so of course there is a malecón, or walkway that looks over the sea.

I also visited the Museo Planetario y Observatorio del Morro Solar, where the Peruvian Astronomy Association presents a show about the stars as well as runs a small museum.  I went for the show with one of my students, Alberto.  The conversation went something like this:

• Me: Alberto, are you going to translate the whole show for me?
• Alberto: No, it's not necessary, I think it's in English.
• Me: (looking at all the kids around): Ummm, ok.

It, of course, was not in English.  But, since it was a visual presentation, I was more or less able to follow along.  It was cool to see the stars from a different perspective.  

The museum was even more interesting. Nowhere have I seen such a random collection of stuff crammed into one small room.  Not only did it host information about astronomy, there were also exhibits about aliens, the Battle of Chorrillos (1881), and pre-Inca civilizations.

We are here

I'm pretty sure the model's jacket was NOT hand-stitched! 

On the left, the Battle of Chorrillos.  On the right, pre-Inca civilizations.
Everywhere else, astronomy. 

...and aliens!

But the view from the hill is spectacular-even better than from the malecón!

We also took time to visit the monuments that pay tribute to those who fought in the Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos:

 

And the Christ of the Pacific statue (by all accounts nowhere as impressive as Christ the Redeemer in Brazil):

From the hilltop, we headed down to the beach to have lunch at the fish market.

pelícano

Fresh ceviche with chicha morada

Last, we took a short ride in the harbor on a boat, which was apparently long enough to disorient me, as I nearly fell climbing back onto the pier.  Luckily, the driver caught me, but I ended up with some nasty bruises from hitting the side of the dock.

The boats work like shared taxis-you wait until it is full before you leave on your ride.  I suppose some days you could sit for a long time while waiting for enough people to fill the boat up.

View of the planetarium from the boat

Chancay Castle

After the hike, we rode back to Chancay (pronounced Chan-kei) to have lunch in the castle there.  It's hard to describe the castle.  I guess you would say it's small theme park, along the lines of Hershey-with no rides, but plenty of places for photo ops, eating and souvenir shopping.  Peruvians seem to love posing for pictures, so here we go:

As you can probably tell, I got a bit of sun while hiking in Lachay!

My Juliet picture-in the tower of love

From what I understand, the idea for this park was based on a real castle and events from the life of a local family...but all the signs were in Spanish, so I might be mistaken.  In any case, we had a nice meal and had fun taking pictures and agreed that we would like to return to explore more of historical Chancay in the future.

Another weekend, Another hike

This weekend, to start off a round of lasts with my current batch of intern students (who will be leaving the beginning of January), we decided to try another hike. Alberto did some research and planned a trip to Lomas de Lachay, a nature preserve a little more than an hour north of Lima. Alberto promised that this would be a much easier trek than the one to Palakala and was (mostly) correct.

The adventure started when the bus dropped us off at the road into the reserve and we began walking...and walking...and walking...and...realized that the road into the reserve was quite long itself.  Luckily, a bus of school children picked us up and gave us a lift into the park.  (We later found out that walking the whole road would have taken us an more than an hour just to get TO the park!)

One of the exciting parts of this trek was the opportunity to see native wildlife. Whereas in Palakala we saw donkeys and dogs, in Lomas we saw foxes, birds, bugs and lizards.

This owl was on the road into the park.  Talk about an exciting start to the trek!

Look closely to find the coastal fox (zorro costaño)

We almost missed this lizard!

The day started out misty, but warmed up about halfway into our trek, giving us a beautiful variety of pictures from the day.

Alberto, our fearless leader

Resting, at what we thought was the top of the trail (it wasn't!)

Luis contemplating the mysteries of life.
(Actually, I have no idea, I skipped this part of the climb and took the flatter, non-mountainous short cut!)

 

Also unique to this area are the tara trees, as seen here

Los adventureros

All in all, it was a great trip, an exciting new place, and I made through the whole trip without having a breakdown.  Who knows-maybe by the time I leave Peru, I'll be an avid hiker.