march madness

I am surprised to come to the site and see that I last posted on March 1. It has been a rather crazy month but in the best of ways. I left Chile in the same abrupt manner in which I arrived. Last minute rather than taking a week to get out I got on a marathon bus ride to Peru. Over 50 hours. As you might imagine traveling by bus in a rapid fashion means you eat a lot of bad food. Between my own parasite issue and others food borne illness I shy away from bus station foods which leaves me with crackers, chips and candy. In Chile you often get a meal on the bus. A lovely young man in white shirt and tie comes through the bus handing out sandwiches. I learned to appreciate the sandwhiches. IN the morning breakfast on the bus is cookies and juice. Less desireable but still edible.

The landscape of Northern Chile is surreal. The desert spills into the ocean with massive sand dunes threatening the pan american highway. I enjoyed that. The border crossing into peru was a little stressful with me not knowing what the process was exactly and trusting everything to my taxi driver. I arrived and another woman from the collectivo made sure my new taxi driver into the peruvian city was trustworthy. She also went and argued for a good rate on my money. Oh the kindness of strangers... a lesson I would becvome quite familiar with in my time in Peru.

I spent the night in an ¨"expensive" hotel. I think it was 30 dollars. It had a bath. I was so excited!!! it had no hot water. so at midnight after 50 hours of bus I took a cold shower and fell into bed to begin my Peru experience the next day.

According to lonely planet I was in for a 6 hour bus ride to Puno and Lake Titicaca. According to my taxi driver, 8 hours. IN reality it was near twelve. Gove were the men in crisp white shirts, gone were the sandwiches and cookies, gone were the toilets that functioned. I leave the hellishness of this bus ride to your imagination but at this point my body was DONE with buses. My experience was not, however, anywhere near ended.

Puno was not a very interesting town. I am sure my opiinion was colored by the non stop drizzle and the fact that as a town it was empty of other tourists. There were four of us in the hostel. we went to the floating islands in lake titicaca. It was interesting and we learned how they make the floating islands out of reeds. I watched as a woman finished a wall hanging and knowing that their existence is dependant on purchases I bought it. I have seen so many massed produced crafts that I felt great satisfaction in getting something from the hand of she who made it. Other than the island tour there is no reason to be in Puno so I made ready to bus to Cusco.

I met this lovely couple ion the island tour. They were also heading to cusco. They told me about their bus. A full cama bus (that is where the seats fully recline into a bed, lunch, 7 hours and 40 dollars. The girls in my hostel suggested that we book through the hostel. Although this seemed like a VERY BAD idea (it was) the hostel owner was right there and overheard us. I felt obliged. 40 dollars later and early the next morning I got on my unbelievabley bad bus with no bathroom, seats that do not recline and traveled for 13 hours in a rain that ignored the fact that we were inside a vehicle. With my window closed, I shivered against the wall wearing my rain jacket with hood up so as to stay dry. rain came through the roof and the closed window. At this point I was so happy to be staying in oone placve for three weeks.

I was about to begin my three weeks of yoga, meditation and dream journeying.

to be continued...