Puno, Arequipa, Canon Del Colca, Peru - Bolivia

Ok wow - it has been almost two weeks since updating and we've certainly been on the move in that time!!!  I haven't been feeling to well this week and we also haven't had internet as much this week so I'm using those as my two big excuses for not updating!  But enough of the excuses because there is a lot to write about!  Oh yeah - and I tried uploading some pictures for this post but the first picture I had going for over a 1/2 hour and it wasn't 1/4 done uploading yet so I'll have to scrap that idea until we get better internet (sorry Leighton!)

Alright so...while in Puno we did a day trip to two different islands on Lake Titicaca - Islas Uros which is actually a group of floating islands made of 2 meter thick reeds, and Isla Taquile.  The floating islands are extremely touristy with welcome signs and the locals trying to sell handcrafts and such but it was still a really neat experience.  The islands last for 11 - 12 years before they rot out and a new one has to be built.  The first one we visited was 5 years old and felt quite solid!  The second island housed a school, restaurant and a fish farm which apparently housed Canadian salmon which was kind of interesting!  We then took the very slow boat ride to Isla Taquile which is a farming island and the locals are very traditional!  Their clothing identified there relationship status' which was quite interesting!  The males wear long toques which are red and white if they are single and more solid red if they were married.  The single guys wear the tail of the toque to the left of their head if they have a girlfriend and to the right if they are looking for a girlfriend.  Wearing it straight back meant they were single and not looking.  The women were similar in the fact that married women wore solid red tops while single women wore other colored tops.  If a single woman was interested in a man - she would twirl the pom poms on the edge of her head covering in the direction of the man looking for a girlfriend!  What a system!  So we had lunch on that island...no I did not buy a red and white toque and wear it on the right side of my head to see if I would get any pom poms twirled in my direction, and we headed back to the boat for the slow ride back to Puno. 

After Puno we headed to Arequipa to hopefully catch a good glimpse of El Misti volcano looming just outside of town and to see Canon Del Colca which is over twice as deep as Grand Canyon!  Well we didn't get to enjoy a great view of El Misti as the clouds kept her hidden and the few clear glimpses we got were on the bus with no chance of getting a good picture but thats ok!  A quick side not, it seems every city and town in Peru had the main plaza named Plaza de Armas which means Plaza of Arms.  It was a military strategy as this would be the center of refuge upon an attack and the place to distribute arms to defend the city.  We had been wondering why the name repeated so many times and this makes sense!  Anyways, Arequipa was a fairly ritzy city and had one street running off of the Plaza de Armas which made us thought we were back in North America.  It was full of fancy stores and restaurants including a Starbucks of which we did partake in some Christmas blends!  This street also had a 4 ft wide "sandwich restaurant" that served shawarma style chicken (vertical spit of chicken) sandwiches which were quite excellent!!!  We tried hiking north through the town to get a better view of El Misti but the views were continuously blocked by buildings but it was a good hike outside of the more touristy area!  Although the "touristy" area was filled with way more locals than tourists so that was good! 

From Arequipa we did a two day trek into Canon del Colca.  We saw condor's which are an endangered vulture which grows to over a 1 meter tall with a 3 meter wide wing span!  There was a Cruz del Condor lookout location which is supposed to have regular Condor sitings and as we were piling back into the van after not seeing a condor - someone yelled out that they spotted a condor so out of the van we jumped!  It was an amazing graceful bird that glided through the air effortlessly!!!  After the condor lookout, we were dropped off at the start of our 18 km hike which brought us to our Oasis hotel which really was an Oasis!  Pools, concrete huts with reed windows and roofs, dirt floors, volleyball and a wide variety of plants made it stick out from the more deserty surroundings!  When we got dropped off for the hike - 4 of us were told that we actually had a different guide that we would wait for once we hiked down to the bottom of the canyon since groups were only supposed to be 8 and we were 12.  So we made our way down to the bridge crossing the river at the bottom and there we waited....for 1.5 hours until our guide showed up with the 3 women he had with him.  After they had a short break - we took the short 20 minute climb up to our lunch restaurant.   Us 4 original guys got to the restaurant first and were almost finished our soup by the time the women got there.  We just finished up the last few bites of the main course when our new guide informed us that they would take too long to get to Oasis and the rain was starting to fall so he suggested we go with one of the groups that was just leaving which happened to be our original group!  We did get a little wet but it was refreshing and luckily didn't come down too hard!  The climb back up out of the canon the next morning was certainly tiring!  We got moving around 5:20 a.m. and climbed 1100 meters over 7 kms of switchbacks!  It was a constant uphill climb which was easier where the path was "smooth" but the stair sections got difficult by the end!  It made sense by the end why a bottle of coke was 5 soles at Oasis since this was the only path down!  (although 5 soles is only like $2 so it really wasn't unreasonable - especially by North American standards!)  I did the hike in 2 hours which I was happy with - really didn't stop to take breaks - just wanted to complete the task!  We then walked 20 - 30 minutes to our breakfast spot where we relaxed for a while.  On the trip back to Arequipa I was sitting beside an atheist from England and we had a good conversation about religion!  One of the women from "our group" was sitting in front of us on the bus and she started listening in as she was intrigued by our conversation.  It was good to hear his questions and responses to my answers.

So the next day we headed back to Puno in order to cross into Bolivia the day after that.  So we took the bus to Bolivia on November 21.  We booked tickets all the way to La Paz which is the capital city.  It was supposed to be approximately 6 hours total but was closer to 7 by the time we had a lunch break and went through border crossing transitions.  It was the easiest border to cross!  Started by a quick stop in the Peruvian police station where they simply looked at our papers, then to migration where we were stamped out of Peru.  We were asked no questions in either location.  Then a quick walk up the street through an arch and after 10 seconds in the Bolivian migration office where they again asked no questions but simply handed us our tourist papers, we were officially in Bolivia!  Well the bus took us to Copacabana where we had an hour break to find some lunch and wander around before we would transfer to a smaller bus which I understood was necessary in order to get over a bridge (some people were staying in Copacabana so the big bus wasn't necessary either!).  After lunch down by the water where I got a western burger which had 2 big beef patties, ham and bacon (yes i was quite impressed by the burger!) we boarded the smaller bus and headed out of town.  Oh yeah - to enter Copacabana - all of a sudden the bus stopped and we were told we need to pay 1 boliviano in order to proceed...wasn't too impressed at the surprise cost but in reality it was only like 15 cents.  So 10 minutes outside of Copacabana, we pulled up to a docking location where i realized we weren't taking a bridge across the sliver of Lake Titicaca - the bus was going on a ferry!  Well the bus stops and we are told to get out because we would have to pay 1.50 bolivianos in order to take a different boat across.  Now i wasn't too impressed - I know - 1.50 bolivianos again wasn't much money but to me it's the principle of the matter - I had already paid to get all the way to La Paz, that should include any mandatory expenditures on route!  Plus the guy at the ticket window gipped me 0.50 which he quite rudely waved me on and i simply walked off - it wasn't worth fighting for.

So we got to La Paz without anymore surprise expenditures and after finding a hotel we walked around for a while exploring.  We eventually made it back to the hotel and there were ATM's right across the street which was perfect because Mike and I didn't have a lot of Bolivianos (we exchanged the few Peruvian soles we had left at the border into Bolivianos).  So Mike tried the one ATM and it didn't work.  So I proceeded to the other one, tried to take out 1100 bolivianos and the machine told me that was not possible at the time, asked if i wanted to do another transaction so I said yes and proceeded to successfully take out 500 bolivianos.  Well, successful until the machine started to shut down immediately after I got my cash and my card was stuck in the machine!  It slowly rebooted and then displayed a "machine out of service" screen!  Smashing buttons didn't work so I got Mike to wait at the machine while I went across the street to see if I could use our hotels phone to call the number on the ATM.  The owner took his cell phone out - guess they didn't have a land line?, and called the number where I proceeded to explain to the rep what the machine had done.  They informed me nothing could be done for me at that time and I would have to call back the next morning.  So I called Royal Bank right away and explained my situation so they put a note on my account that my debit was lost but may be recoverable.  Instead of calling the next morning, I went down to the bank of the ATM where I explained the situation and the bank informed me there was nothing they could do - my card was gone.  Very helpful I thought!  So I called Royal Bank again and cancelled my card after looking at my accounts online.  I discovered a discrepancy on a withdrawal which worked out to be the 1100 bolivianos I had originally tried to take out but never got!  Yeah -  I still got charged that amount!  So I told Royal Bank but they said there was nothing they could do for me until I was back in a Royal Bank!!!  I explained to them that I would be gone for another 4 months but that didn't matter - they needed my signature in order to start the investigation...that makes absolutely no sense to me and certainly doesn't make me feel protected by my bank while overseas!!!!  Then I asked if there was any way of waiving the cash advance fees associated with visa since that is my only option left for getting cash at the moment and the woman was quite rude as I explained that I was going to be gone for 4 months!  She just said - "well can't you just pay for everything with your visa or why do you need cash?".  She also said "4 months of cancelling fees isn't a solution!".  Well no it's not I thought but I'm kind of stuck!  And obviously she's never left Canada because for some silly reason all the little shops down here, and the lack of electricity in some places means visa isn't generally accepted and cash is a necessity!  Well, Chris Klassen will be bringing down my new debit card so I won't need the visa for cash advances after that and the bank has said that the charges for cash advances can be reversed at that point if I call in again...I really hope that is the truth!!!  A big thanks to Chris though - that works out really well!!!!!

All in all, the banking incident wasn't really a huge headache - a learning experience for sure!!!  It does lead to a funny story though!  When my card first got stuck - a guy from Spain asked if everything was alright and I explained how my card was stuck in the machine.  He offered his condolences and wished me all the best!  Well the next day at supper we ran into him at a restaurant and he asked how everything went so I briefly told him the situation.  We started small talk and I asked where he was from, where he was traveling, etc. and he explained that he was from Spain but living in Caracas, Venezuela and was working there.  I asked him what he did for work and he said he was an electrician.  I found that slightly amusing as he was dressed in fairly typical "hippie" attire and he proceeded to explain that he connected electricity everywhere - in people, through people and the cosmos, etc, etc... yup -  he was certainly a very interesting individual but extremely friendly!

My battery is about to die and I don't have a charger so I will quickly sum up the last few days.  We left La Paz November 23 on a bus that broke down 15 minutes into the drive so again we got transferred to a smaller, much more uncomfortable bus!!!  We got to Oruro and I have been sick since so not much has happened!  Mike hasn't been feeling the hottest either although he is getting quite a bit better now!  Yesterday we managed to bus to Potosi which is one of the highest elevation cities in the world at over 4,000 meters and it is a city full of rich history!  More so the rich part because of extensive silver mining where over 8 million african and bolivian slaves died under Spanish control of the mines! 

Ok, now my battery is really going to die so I'll try sending this before that happens!  Will add more pictures when we get better internet!  Hope you are all doing well!!!!!