Puno Parte 2

In Peru, drivers love to honk their horns. Taxi drivers will honk at anyone on the street that looks remotely like they might need a ride, especially two tall white guys and a Chinese guy. In Nazca, none of the cars were marked as taxis, and it seemed that pretty much anyone that owned a four-wheeled vehicle was looking to pick people up; perhaps this is the only way that they can afford to have a car.

There are a lot of dogs in the street in Peru, but unlike in Taiwan, where even the smallest, cutest looking little dog being walked by its owner will yap at you and go for a calf bite, even the wildest dog is very well behaved and playful. On our second day of hiking from Canyon de Colca, we were accompanied by a dog at the Oasis for about 15 minutes. Dogs will nap happily in the middle of the street, completely passed out, with no fear of pedestrians stepping on them, not a care in the world.

At 3:30 p.m. we got picked up by a van and rode off to the docks of Puno. In a small tourist boat, we explored Lake Titicaca, the world´s highest elevation navigatable lake at 3,812 meters. Titicaca, literally means ¨rock puma,¨and from above, it does look vaguely like a puma chasing a rabbit. We visited two of the floating islands of Uros, of which there are 42. These islands were originally created by the natives for defensive purposes. They take the huge roots of reed plants that live in the lake and tie them together, making huge floating structures. They then cover them with layers of reeds that need to be maintained constantly, because they spoil quickly. I was overwhelmed by the display of human tenacity, and also a little perplexed as to why anyone would submit themselves to a shelter that requires so much maintenance. Cooking must be done over special reed root surfaces so that the entire island does not go up in flames. Each island has a rotating president, and the first island we visited has only 8 families, or around 25 inhabitants.

It was very hard to resist the puppy-eyed stares of the natives, imploring us, amigos, to please purchase some of their crafts, so that they could feed their children and afford medicine. Señor, this weaving took dos semanas, two weeks to make. They found Everett to be the most sympathetic to their plight, and he bought a nice big blanket. In truth, I really wanted this awesome mobile that had little men and women in fishing boats hanging from stars, but it looked too fragile to make it home in one piece in my backpack.

After returning to Puno, we had dinner, where for S/22 ($7), I had a cream of chicken soup, fried tuna, half an avocado, a fried egg over rice, sausage, and french fries. I am the fullest I have ever been on this trip. It is pretty cold in Puno at night - right now it is in the high 40s F. Hopefully it does not get much colder than this.