Puno

Short post today because we do not have internet access in our hostel in Puno, and I am in an internet cafe.

Left Arequipa at 6 a.m. by bus for Puno. The trip began with a very eloquent appeal by a man trying to get us to buy these Twinkie-like candies, Thank God for this marvelous day, that we have existence, Senores, Heads of Families, Honored Tourists, I beseech upon you to help me, because it is my responsibility to feed and provide for my family, here are some high quality snacks from the company Bimbo, which has a very good reputation, I will give you one, and come around again, if you choose to keep the snack, please find in the goodness of your heart to give me S/1 (1 sole).

The bus was like a flea market at lunch with people coming by trying to get us to purchase their food or wares, Evan and I tried choco con queso, which is corn with cheese. The corn cob was boiled, and about half the length of corn we are used to in the U.S. with kernels about 3x larger, so I could pull them off one by one like I did when I was five.

We had an amazing lunch for S/3.50 (a little over $1), which included a hot soup with some kind of grain, corn, potato, and pig(?) intestine. Evan had a potato dish for his second course, while Everett and I had chicken with potato and ¨Russian salad,¨which was basically boiled beets.

We are going to wander the city a bit before our tour of Lake Titicaca at 3:30 p.m., where we will go on a boat ride and see some of the floating islands.