Lake Titicaca!

After our whirlwind 2 days in Colca Canyon we took a bus from the main town in the canyon, Chivay, to Puno. The journey took about 6 hours and was one of the most terrifying bus rides we took. For over an hour the fog was so thick while we were driving up out of the canyon the bus driver could not see more than a foot in front of him. I had been asleep and woke up to this terrifying sight and tried to force myself back to sleep so that I could not see! Other than frighteningly high mountain passes, thick fog, and crazy Peruvian drivers the journey went off without a hitch. The scenery was beautiful; we saw lots of huge towering green mountains and beautiful crystal clear lakes. Peru is a country that has to be seen to be believed, words and pictures cannot fully capture or demonstrate its beauty! Of all the places and countries I’ve been in the world (which at 20, almost 21, is quite a few) I think Peru is at the top of my list! I absolutely loved it, from its huge urban center of Lima, to the highlands of the Andes, it is a beautiful country filled with very warm friendly people and it is bursting with culture and history! I want to go back very badly! I have 3 weeks after my exams end in July and I’m hoping I will be able to spend them traveling more around Peru! Ok. Back to our journey!
We arrive in Puno at around 7:30 and check into a nice hotel right by the main plaza. Tired, cranky and hungry we wandered out of the hotel to have a mediocre, borderline bad meal, but we were just happy to have food in our bellies and ready for a good nights sleep in a REAL bed before our big day out on Lake Titicaca. We woke up at 6:00am to eat a hurried breakfast and board a bus to take us to the dock.



We boarded a nice little boat and started off on our lake adventure! We first went to the Uros floating islands! Families live on islands made out of reeds, everything on the island is made from the same reeds, their homes, beds, and they even eat the reeds. Everyone on the island was very friendly, we were invited into the home of one of the women and she showed us their beds and explained a little bit about daily life on the islands. Everyone on the islands wears traditional dress of some of the most vibrant colors I have ever seen. The women make beautiful embroidered tapestries and other colorful textiles and handicrafts to help earn money for their families and the community. We took a traditional reed boat from one island to the next and two adorable little girls got on our boat and sang us songs, in the video below they are singing a song in Aymara. There are many floating islands, floating schools, and a floating clinic, which make up the network of the Uros floating islands.




The next island we visited was the island of Taquile, which was a 2.5 hour boat ride away form Uros. Taquile is a beautiful Island on the Peruvian side of the lake. The people still dress, work and live in their traditional manner. They cultivate crops in terraces on the sides of the island; they also raise sheep for wool to knit their hats and traditional dress. While there are animals on the island they eat a mainly vegetarian diet. The men and woman wear beautiful brightly colored textiles. Men wear 3 different kinds of hats and each hat has a meaning. There is one hat for unmarried me and children, one for married men, and one for the officials. The men also carry a pouch around their waist filled with Coca leaves, and when men greet each other instead of shaking hands they exchange some coca leaves from their pouches.



Taquile was very beautiful. It was quite a trip to be on a little island in the middle of such a beautiful majestic lake. The vistas from the top of the island were mind blowing. Lake Titicaca is the highest elevation navigable lake in the world. It spans two countries, Peru and Bolivia. The Peruvian side makes up about 60% of the lake and the Bolivian side is about 40%. Because of the lake high elevation and reflections, the sun is very intense in this area and skin cancer is a huge problem for the communities that live on the lake.

The pictures don’t even really do this area justice. Lake Titicaca is so beautiful, I think you have to see it to believe it. We had a great time on our last day in Peru touring the lake, little did we know the chaos that would ensue after we left Puno…almost missing our connection in Lima, earthquake in mid-flight to Chile, 12 hours stuck in the Iquique airport, crazy last flight into Santiago before the airport shut down for days.

It has been quite the adventure for my dad and me but we made it! Today I move into my home stay and start university on the 15th, and while I’m sad to part ways with my dad I know we will see each other very soon for more adventures in Chile. I know that if we survived 5 weeks of traveling all the way from the Amazon to the Andes we can do anything we set our minds too!

Thats all Folks,
Sophie Curtis

Colca Canyon–Southeastern Peru

After Lima we headed south to Arequipa, which along with Trujillo is considered the second most important city in Peru. It is known as the “White City” because it was built with white sillar (volcanic stone) which is plentiful in this volcanic region. The city actually resides in the shadows of three volcanoes, the Misti Volcano, Chacani and the Pichu Pichu Volcanoes.



Like most colonial cities it has a main square with splendid religious architecture and lordly mansions of curved and tall fronts that are characteristic of the 15th & 16th centuries. We visited the museum, ate good food (we both tried alpaca which Sophie liked and I thought was so so…but passed on the opportunity to eat cuy, aka: guinea pig) and walked around the town for a few days but our primary interest for being there was to visit the Colca Canyon and the Lake Titicaca/Puno areas of the country. We splurged and chartered a van with driver and guide to take us to the Colca Canyon.

The Colca River originates in the highlands south of Peru and crosses the Western Andes before reaching the Pacific Ocean, a distance of some 280 miles. Over time, the river has carved a 100 kilometer (62 miles) section more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States, making it one of the deepest canyons on the planet.




The name Colca refers to small holes in the cliffs in the valley and canyon. These holes were used in Inca and pre-Inca times to store food, such as potatoes and other Andean crops. They were also used as tombs for important people.

The drive deep into the canyon took most of a day as the roads are unpaved and you can’t go very fast because of potholes and people and livestock traveling along the road.

We spent the night in the canyon and had a rough time sleeping because it was cold and the beds were very hard–essentially a box spring (not an actual mattress) and a woolen blanket.

There is a video at the bottom of this posting that actually show the condors in flight

After not getting very much sleep we got up very early in the morning to visit 'Cruz del Condor' a popular tourist stop where we were fortunate to view many condors in flight. They soared gracefully on the rising thermals occurring as the air warms and are best seen in the early morning and late afternoon when they are hunting.

I loved the simplicity of life and the native people (Collaguas and Cabanas) who live much the same as they have for hundreds of years. They still maintain ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate crops using pre-Inca terraces. The fields are plowed with mules or donkeys and the harvest is gathered by hand because most of the steeply terraced growing plots are inaccessible by tractors or machines.

The area has a rich tradition of living in harmony with camelids–llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and sheep. Their woolen products, alpaca sweaters and embroidery needlework is colorful, intricate and exquisite. We just could not resist bringing a few examples home with us.

Both Sophie and I loved the native attire and handiwork.

And of Course no venture to the Andean highlands would be complete without Mate de Coca the plant Peruvians have used for centuries to provide energy, combat altitude sickness and many other ailments.

There are California poppies in the Andean highlands too!

Lima, Peru

...just can't get that good Peruvian food off my mind...have done a lot of hiking and walking but I think I'm gaining weight...

During our two weeks in Peru we unexpectedly fell in love with Lima and ended up spending much more time in the city than we had first planned.Lima is large city with a diverse array of neighborhoods. We stayed in the Miraflores neighborhood, a nice upscale barrio, which has many restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. It also has a beautiful walking malecón, where one can stroll through parks and public areas while gazing at the beautiful pacific beaches below.



Lima, although the beaches are rocky not sandy, is a very popular surf spot and every day many Limeños go surfing in the frigid pacific waters. This area is also a popular parasailing destination where people fly off the cliffs for a birds eye view tour of the Lima skyline and beautiful coastline.



Also along this stretch of the coast there is a very famous shopping mall called “Larcomar” which is an architectural marvel since it is built into the cliff side overlooking the ocean providing beautiful views of the ocean.




In the heart of Lima is the plaza mayor in the downtown area of Lima. The plaza is surrounded by important historical buildings and churches from the colonial period and have been kept up and beautifully preserved.



Many of the buildings have intricately carved wooden balconies, which look out on to the plaza and the central fountain. These wooden balconies are unlike anything neither Sophie nor I had ever seen before and had been remarkably well kept and restored.



While exploring the downtown area we visited the San Francisco convent to visit the famous catacombs. The catacombs are a network of caves and passageways that served a multitude of functions, however their main purpose was that of burial galleries underneath the church. However it is believed that the passageways connected buildings and some even lead all the way out to the sea to escape if for some reason the city were under attack. Underneath the church we explored the small passageways and piles upon piles of bones, skeletons and skulls. While underneath the church both Sophie and I had fears of an earthquake striking while we were in the catacombs, luckily one did not occur, that is until we were en route to Santiago de Chile.

As part of an art promotion, throughout Lima in all the areas we visited, there
were colorfully painted cows on display that we felt compelled to take pictures of.

While Lima is a great city to explore on foot, every time you cross the street you put your life at risk. The drivers are absolutely nuts and they definitely have the right of the way. It seemed as if some drivers were trying to hit you while you crossed the street. While there are streetlights and crosswalks, every time you must cross a street it is a challenge. Luckily, during our time in Lima we never had more than a couple close calls, but I’m just glad we made it out unscathed.