Oh, Puno...

Melissa and I have just returned to Cusco after two and a half days in Puno. Puno is the main city in Peru that is on Lake Titicaca. One can access the lake by from both Peru and Bolivia. We chose to stay in Peru in part because I have in my mind what is likely a ridiculous stereotype of Bolivia and it scares the bejeezus out of me, but also because I think Melissa as a Canadian would have had to pay a pretty expensive entrance fee. (Side note: Something I didn't know before this trip was that some countries have what are referred to as "reciprocity fees" - meaning that if Canada charges Bolivians entrance fees or requires special visas, Bolivia is likely to do so in return.) 

So, we decided to travel by bus to Puno from Cusco. It took about seven hours and cost US$40 for round trip via tickets. I will admit that I really wasn't jazzed about the bus ride, especially since I get motion sick so easily. On the way there it really wasn't as bad as I expected. First off, the bus was a double decker, but we were advised to sit on the first floor due to the potential for motion sickness. When you buy your ticket you do so like on an airline, with an assigned seat, but the seats were sooooo much better than on an airline. Think first class seats that recline almost as much as business class seats. They were pretty great. It's felt like real motor coach travel. 

The real bonus of the ride out to Puno was that the route didn't seem to have any scary edge-of-the-cliff drop offs or tons of twists and turns. The same could not be said for the return ride. We basically got the old model bus (although this one had wifi!) and the route seemed to be different. Maybe we both slept through the twisty parts on our departure, but it seemed like an alternate route that was much more... um... interesting. Read: Katie was motion sick for 7.5 hours & we didn't even have a 30 minutes break at a rest stop like on the first leg. It was brutal.

I was also EXTREMELY satisfied with our return to Cusco because we dropped almost 1,700 feet of elevation, which meant a lot of my elevation sickness subsided. Being in Puno was very difficult for me because I experienced mild altitude sickness 90% of the time. Melissa seemed to fare better, but experienced some symptoms. I'm telling you, you really have no idea what altitude is like until you brush your hair and find yourself out of breath. It was brutal. I know I have some insight in my last post, but I felt nauseous, light headed at time, my limbs tingled, and I had a hard time breathing. It's like having a virus and an asthma attack at the same time, while your feet and hands that fell asleep start to wake up. So, all of that sort of put a damper on my experiences in Puno. That being said, Puno is kinda... well, I read a blog before traveling to South America where an Irish woman declared it a shit hole. I wouldn't go that far, but there's not a lot to be desired in that town. We pretty much saw what needed to be seen in the first couple hours.

 

That being said, we did experience a few cool things - like this totally random, spontaneous Christmas parade on December 23.

 

Every Christmas parade should have firemen angels, right?

And then on Christmas Eve we happened upon a huge market for the holiday. I think I already posted a few picture from that in a post. (Because I'm writing on my phone I can't check as I write this post.)

We also happened upon what seemed to be a men's league fútbol match near the market. We stayed and watched for a few minutes, but the sun was just beating down on us and we needed to keep moving. Mild altitude sickness does not pair well with any level of heat stroke. I would like to add that I've been very conscious of my water intake and drank three liters of water by dinner that day. Also, just before we were about to leave I noticed that Melissa and I were pretty much the only two women in the entire area. It was obvious that the gringas were out of their element. 

 

Also, it was NUTS on Christmas Eve - at the stroke of midnight the entire town started celebrating Christmas by shooting off fireworks. It was hot and heavy for about 20 minutes, but the fireworks went on for at least an hour. I'm not exactly sure how long they went off though because believe it or not, I fell asleep. It turns out that the exhaustion I felt because of the altitude made me crash every night. I can't believe I even made it to midnight. 

There is so much more to say, especially because our third day is Puno was the only really satisfying day - it was our Lake Titicaca day! But right now I'm sitting outside in our hostel's common area and am getting quite cold. The wifi doesn't work in our rooms. 

 

Thanks to Snapchat I can provide this creepy, yet festive picture of me before I run inside to get a shower - it's been a few days. 😃

I'll try to post about our Lake Titicaca experience tomorrow. Good night, my friends!