Flying to Juliaca and catching a Bus to Puno

We met Pablo in the lobby around 3:50 in the morning and headed to the airport to catch a flight on LAN Peru up to Juliaca. This flight actually made two stops before ours which kind of made it confusing as to when we should actually get off. Juliaca is a scary and unsafe town. We got our bags, ducked down and ran for our van, avoiding sniper fire from all directions, explosions from grenades to the west, and a swarm of people peddling all kinds of crap. Well, that’s actually Hillary’s version, really we just swiftly walked through a swarm of people peddling all kinds of crap to our van and left town as soon as possible. We headed off to Puno, about two hours by car, about half have we stopped at the Sillustani Ruins, this is a pre-incan burial ground near a farm town.








This is right next to Lake Umayo.


We were just shy of being at 13,000 feet and I was starting to feel the effects of the altitude, but for the time was holding off on any medication.


We started to hike up to the ruins, I was breathing extremely hard and my heart was racing, but I was getting very little oxygen to my brain, so we took it slowly to the top.


All the doors to the tombs faced East as they believed the Sun was reborn by Mother Earth each day.


The nicer, smoother, and higher tombs indicated a person of importance or high society.






The sun was out but it was not all that warm.


I believe these are Llamas, they actually have both Llamas and Alpacas which look almost the same. I believe that Llamas are larger and their coats are more coarse then an Alpacas. Also, Alpacas are very precise in how much they will carry for you. They will gladly carry up to 50 Kilos, however load them up with 50.01 Kilos and they will just lie down.


We got back in the van and headed off to visit a local farmer and his wife.


They were friendly and for a few Sol(s) invited us inside, here is their kitchen. They offered us some amazing cheese, a tasty barley like cereal, and some potatoes.


They were also drying out meat for tonight’s dinner. Well, not really, its just the family dog taking an afternoon nap. In fact it seems that just about everyone in Peru had a dog as they were all over the place everywhere we went.


Outside of the kitchen they have a house for their Guinea Pigs, and I’m serious this time, these are not pets, they are in fact eaten. It was getting close to lunch time so I was looking for traditional Peruvian dishes and I think I just stumbled across a new one.


While there the farmer also showed us how he could use a native slingshot type thing. And believe me, he could launch rocks with that thing that I’m not sure ever landed. We then left and headed to Puno. Before getting too far our tire was a little flat. This is a gas station, and that is our driver adding more air to the tire.


This is the town and local sheep herder, school teacher, arc welder, and notary republic.


Another local.


We got back in the van and took off. At this point I decided to take a pill for the altitude to stop my head from exploding. This would be the only time I took one. I’d like to say it was because I wanted to fight through it in a primal way until I acclimated, however it was really because the pills made beer taste funny. We arrived at Puno and checked in to our hotel, La Hacienda Puno, a nice hotel except that the rooms did not have any kind of alarm clock, or really any kind of clock, so you had no idea what time it was or when to get up. The staff was also not all that friendly. I found communication difficult and that few spoke any English at all. I think this is because most people traveling down here know Spanish so there is no need for them to learn English or any other language. During my other travels I usually try to pick up a few words in the native tongue, however in this case I found that even a simple “Si” to indicate “Yes” gave them the impression that I knew Spanish and they would reply with a whole slew of words, none of which I caught, and now I was really screwed. We ventured out to get some lunch and explore the town, passing the Puno Cathedral.


We found a place for lunch and for the first time in my life I had real, actual corn nuts, not the prepackaged American versions. They were awesome. I also tried an Inka Cola which I was less impressed with. This basically tasted like Jones Soda, the bubble gum flavor, except that it was yellow rather then blue.


For lunch, yup, Guinea Pig. They basically butterfly the entire rodent so that the top set of teeth are on one side and the bottom set is on the other, then dunk it in the deep fryer. The little meat I found on it was not too bad, a little greasy and hard to get at. We also tried the Alpaca which was quite good. After lunch we came across a market and ducted in to see what it had to offer.


They had everything, including Hearts…


Hoofs…


Heads…


Intestines…


And Livers, I was going to buy one of these however they did not come with any instructions on how to install them.


It was not all just animal parts, they had a fruit and vegetable isle as well.


We continued around town.


Passing a school as it was letting out.


We then hiked up a hill that over looked the town, which was now a bit easier with the altitude pill enabled.


Lake Titicaca off in the distance.




On top was a statue of the first Inca King, Mano Capac.


That night for diner we eat pizza and drank wine (which is not affected by the altitude pills) which gave my stomach a chance to settle down a bit, it was a nice place with a good vibe. Afterwards we went back to the hotel. The plan was to travel out on Lake Titicaca tomorrow, however some of the details were rather thin and we were not having much luck flushing them out, so we figured it was best to just show up in the lobby the following morning and hope for the best. Now if we could only find a way to ensure that we would wake up early enough.