Lake Titicaca

So I thought before too much time passes, I’d wrap up the rest of my trip with another blog post or two. In my last blog post I had said that my mom and I were on our way to Lake Titicaca… it sits about 3,800m above sealevel , about 400m above Cuzco, which is getting pretty high. The temperature of course was also colder because of the altitude. We spent the first night relaxing in a nice hotel in Puno, and I was so grateful for a hot shower and a nice warm bed to sleep in after 3 months of practically no hot water, and no heat in my house. It was a nice change :) We woke up at 6am to have breakfast and our tour guide, Guido, picked us up and we headed to the harbor. The lake was absolutely beautiful. It was like looking out at the ocean. It was a beautiful morning with clear skies, just like every morning I have seen in Cuzco since I’ve arrived. We boarded our boat with our tour, and in about a half hour we arrived at the “floating islands”.



People live on these man made floating islands that are made from the roots of the reeds that grow in the water…literally the island is floating on this stuff. Every 2 weeks they have to put more reeds on the surface of their “island” to keep their ground (of other reeds) from getting too wet from the water coming up from below. It’s a crazy concept, but these people make it work, and they really live there! It was really cool to see. They still dress in customary clothes and practice their old traditions, but they still have a tv which amazes me, since the families of 4 to 5 live in a tiny house. The house is essentially ONE room, where they only spend their time sleeping or relaxing. The rest of their day is spent outside. I couldn’t believe it! My mom brought lots of beanie babies from home so she was handing them out to the kids who were more than happy to have a new toy to play with :) They were adorable!

After that, we got back on our boat and had about a 3 hour boat ride to the Island of Tequile. I slept for most of the ride, but after we got past the harbor it was almost like being on the ocean the lake was so huge. It’s the highest navigable lake in the world. Once we got to the island, we went to meet our family who was going to be hosting us for the evening. The guy who owns the house that we stayed in, is actually a world known weaver. In the house lived the world known weaver and his wife, their son, his wife, and a daughter. They cooked an amazing trout dish for lunch which was incredible!

Afterwards we took a short nap (because let’s be serious, we’re in South America and you can’t go a day without napping). After finishing the nap, we walked to the “downtown” of the island with Guido, and it was a ghost town. It was basically a plaza and there were about 5 locals sitting, weaving, and eating home made popcorn. There was one store open that sold chocolate and that kind of thing…but nothing else. It was so crazy! We hung out with the locals and with our tour guide for awhile until it was time to walk back to the house. The house was very typical, it had no heat, and there were lots of animals in the yard. My mom was complaining of the cold, but to me it was what I’ve dealt with for months so I guess you could say I’m accustomed to it. We had a nice tea to warm up (it wasn’t coco tea but something else I can’t remember the name of) and soon after that it was time for dinner. South American life seems to revolve around sleeping and eating, but I’m totally okay with that. They made a pasta dish, and afterwards they performed some traditional dances for us. They even made us get up and dance with them! Afterwards we attempted to sleep, but my mom was so cold she insisted sleeping in my bed (we had about 4 layers of clothes and our boots on and were still cold… it’s crazy how these people survive).

The next day we woke up early again (as always) for breakfast, then went downtown. There were more people because the market was open, so my mom and I looked at the handcrafted products that were made by the residents of the island. We bought a pair of gloves and a hat for pretty cheap… afterwards we just hung out until we had an early lunch (trout again, I never get sick of the stuff). The restaurants there are just like they are in Cuzco. You don’t order, but you get bread and ahi (a spicy type of salsa type of thing), a soup, main course (trout) and then a tea after to settle your stomach. Oh god do I miss the food from South America…
We then took a boat back to Puno, where we spent the night again. We had to wake up at 4am the next day to make it to our flight from Puno to Cuzco…We arrived in Cuzco around 8:15am, and after checking into our next flight, I picked up my luggage from my host family in Cusco and said my goodbyes. I can't believe my time here is over..

hasta luego<3

Mugged by a Cab? & Agnes' Arrival

It’s been forever since I updated and I have no idea where to start. Right now my mom is here with me in Peru and it’s been an experience for sure. The last few weeks have flown by. I finished up my job at the hospital, and all in all I have seen 7 live births. It was incredible and I am so lucky that I had this experience to work in the hospital. The last couple weeks I’ve been saying a lot of goodbyes too… to other travelers that finally began to get on their way after staying in Cuzco for weeks. Goodbyes are so difficult for me and they don’t get any easier I have realized…I’m hoping to stay in touch with everyone but it always makes me sad to think that I probably won’t ever see them again. Oh well, that’s life…

I grew really close with the Kusi Kay guys the last couple weeks. They became truer than any of the other friends I had made before, and it became apparent with how much they looked after me and treated me like I was part of their family. Hanging out with them was great because I got to eat some of the best food for cheap (around 6 soles each meal… $2, can’t beat that). One thing I’ll never forget is going to get breakfast in the Mercado San Pedro … me and the Peruvians, going and sitting at a booth with the same lady cooking us breakfast: coffee with a sandwich made with Peruvian bread, cheese and a fried egg. Mmmm… the lady thought it was so funny that it was this group of Peruvian guys and this white American girl. I love being the minority and being with them though…makes me feel like I’m really learning about the culture here.

The night before my mom arrived in Cuzco, I had a decently scary experience that shook me up pretty good. I was walking back to the boys’ place after dinner (which was pretty early) and I was walking with a backpack for the first time. I was bringing my laptop to their place so they could transfer music and photos to their USB’s. This was the first time my laptop has ever left my host family’s house (when I use the internet I normally just go to an internet café since my family doesn’t have internet). Anyways, we were walking down their street when a taxi pulled down the street and started going pretty fast. I stepped to the side of the street to get out of the way, but kept walking and the next thing I knew I was on the ground in the middle of the street. I thought I had been hit by the taxi because I honestly didn’t even know what had happened…but my friends that were walking behind me said that someone had reached out of the taxi and grabbed my backpack in hopes to rob me. When my backpack didn’t slip off, they let go and I fell into the street really hard. The guys tried to get the license plate of the taxi but it was going so fast that they couldn’t… I’m really surprised I didn’t break any bones. I landed completely on my right arm, and I couldn’t move my elbow and arm for a few days because the tendon was so sore, and the knee of my jeans got ripped from the impact. Luckily I still have my laptop, although the corner of it is cracked from the fall also. It was scary that someone would do that to me even with 3 other guys around me… I guess you just never know…

Tuesday, my mom arrived in Cuzco. Of course from the beginning it was pretty much a comedy act. I couldn’t find her hotel because I couldn’t remember the name of it, couldn’t open my email to get the name, and when I finally found her hotel, the person in reception told me that she had left to walk around to see the plaza. There was a festival going on so I decided to just wait for her in the hotel room. The woman at reception gave me the key and I went upstairs to take a short nap while I waited. About 30 minutes later, an old man walks into the room and sees me sleeping in HIS bed. The lady at reception had given me the wrong key…ahhh dios mio SO embarrassing! My mom was back at this point and was just laughing…oh god. We spent the day walking around Cuzco and I showed her some of my normal places that I go. That night we went and saw the Kusi Kay production to see my friends perform. Of course since most of the guys in the show know me, I was picked as the “guinea pig” for practically ALL of the audience participation parts of the show. One part of it I was pulled up on stage in front of everyone and had to be a bull. They tied a tail on me and everything, and the funniest part is I could see my friends backstage laughing at me as I was made a fool in front of the audience. It was funny though…the show was awesome, way better than the first time I saw it. My mom really enjoyed it too. Afterwards my mom took me  out to dinner, and then I took her back to the hotel since she was too tired to go out to salsa.

On Wednesday, my mom and I went on a halfday tour of some of the nearby ruins of Cuzco. It was the first “touristy” thing I’ve done in Peru and I really didn’t like it. I’m so used to hanging out with the locals and doing things that sitting in a tour bus and listening to a guide really was boring for me. My mom seemed to like it though… that night she had a salsa lesson with my friend Franschesco, and then afterwards I took her to Inkateam to meet more of my friends and to dance more salsa. She had a blast, and even stayed and danced when they started playing club and hiphop music. She has really loosened up over the last year which is nice…everyone kept asking if she was my sister, and I know she loved the attention. Although by midnight she was definitely ready to hit the hay…


Thursday was the famous Inti Raymi festival of Cuzco. The lady that has been doing my laundry in Cuzco had invited my mom and I to join her family for a picnic and to watch the procession up at the inka ruins up in Sacyswoman. It was an awesome experience. We met at her house first thing in the morning, and then trekked up for almost 2 hours to the site. It was so steep leaving the city of Cuzco, especially carrying all the food, and helping with the kids. All together, it was my mom,  my friend, her 3 daughters (all under the age of 10), her neice (8 month old baby), and her mother (70 years old). I’m not sure why we didn’t just take a cab but walking up there was part of the experience. I thought my mom was going to die hahah but it was a different cultural experience for her since we were the only tourists there. We sat on a rock/cliff to watch the festival, crunched in with so many people. We ate bbq chicken and potatoes with our hands, and tried to watch the procession of “the Inka”. We got back down to the city around 5pm, and by then we were completely exhausted by a long day walking up the mountain, and the sitting in the sun. But it was so worth it. I wouldn’t trade an experience like this for any tour…

The traditional processional

so many people gathered for Inti Raymi

Friday we left at 4:30am for Machu Picchu. We took a 2 hour bus to the train station, then an hour an a half train to Aguas Calientes. From there we got on another half hour bus to the base of Machu Picchu. It was incredible! We took a 2 ½ hour tour, and then had the rest of the day to wander around and just enjoy the beauty of the site.

Saturday morning we woke up at 4am to make it to the busstop at 4:30am so we could get into Waynu Piccu (the big mountain that is seen in the pictures of Macchu Picchu). They only let in 400 people per day, so we had to get there early. We were probably in the first 10 people to get let in to climb Waynu Picchu, and I took about 35-40 minutes to get up to the top. My mom was behind with another girl we had made friends with, and they had a bit more trouble because of the thin air (I’m more used to it from living in Cuzco). It was a tough climb for sure, but the views on the way up were very inspiring. When I got to the top there were only about 8 or 9 other people up there, and it felt like I was sitting on top of the world. I can’t even describe the feeling. I just sat up there and took it all in for about 2 hours…but the more people that arrived at the top, the less enchanting it was, but nevertheless was gorgeous. My mom was panicking about the height and worrying about us sitting on the cliffs, but it was definitely an adrenaline rush. After we came down the mountain, we walked back through Machu Picchu and then got lunch. Our train left at around 4pm to get back to Cuzco, but about an hour into the train ride, we had to switch trains because another train had been derailed in the train tracks. Dusk had already fallen, and we had to walk ¼ mile to the other train without any lights… I felt so bad for people with suitcases or people that had trouble walking…The people on the other train had to switch to our train too, so there were tons of people, confused, pissed, and cold trying to find their way to the opposite trains… what a disaster. Once we made it on the train station, the busses to Cuzco took FOREVER because people were doing construction on the roads. We finally got back at around 10pm…6 hours later, 3 hours extra of travel time. So frustrating, especially after being exhausted from hiking all day…but my mom and I managed to find humor in it, as always.

Now we are on our way to Puno, and Lake Titicaca. I can’t believe that in just a few short days I will be home…