Strike!

Jan. 20

Yesterday's bus ride ended up being 9.5 hours and it was an interesting one. We left our posada at 7am to catch the bus. The altitude had finally gotten to me so I was feeling pretty crappy and hoped to sleep on the bus. It wasn't meant to be though. We took the front two seats so we could enjoy the view. Turns out the bus driver talks with his horn so everytime I came close to sleep I would be awakened by a loud horn blast. I gave up on that and decided to just take in the scenery.

The first city we drove through was Juliaca, the place we flew into on our way to Puno. There are about 200,000 residents. Many of them use the bike rickshaws as transportation so they flood the streets. Our driver just honked at them and threatened to run them down. It's so sad to see all of the stray dogs. There are tons of them and their fur is matted and nasty. There is a tremendous amount of garbage on the sides of the road and in the rivers.

We continued on toward Pukara but had to detour to a dirt road when the highway was covered with large rocks. We wondered what was going on since the rocks were placed there - there was no hill for a rock slide to fall from. As we drove closer to the town our guide said the people in the town were on strike because the mayor wasn't doing any work and was still getting paid. Apparently he had left and gone to Puno and this had been going on for some time. We drove into the town where we were supposed to make a stop at a museum. There was a large group of people in front of the museum frowning and wagging their fingers at us. Our guide took the hint and told us we would not be stopping because the museum was "closed." Ok. So we continued on down a narrow road. There were buildings on each side and a large dump truck in front of us. There were probably vehicles behind us too but we couldn't see out of the back of the bus. We slowly made our way down the street and then stopped. We couldn't see in front of us. It was quiet. This couldn't be good. We sat there for a minute or two and then thankfully started moving again and that's when we came across the townspeople digging a ditch across the road so vehicles couldn't get through. They were using shovels and farm implements to dig. Our driver wasn't having any of this and luckily they hadn't completed the ditch. They refused to move until the bus nearly ran them over....again, it's good to be riding in large vehicles. We all breathed a sigh of relief and thought maybe that was the end of it. As we neared the highway we saw people congregated, more rocks and small brush fires burning on the road. We stopped and the bus driver got out - not a good sign. He came back and said they weren't going to let us through. Our tour guide told us they wouldn't hurt us but they might hurt the bus. We later found out that they planned to keep us there until 5pm. It was 9:30am. Ugh. We got off the bus for some fresh air and waited. After a half-hour the bus driver came back and said they would let us through in 10 minutes...apparently he knew someone. Then he wrote "Viva el paro de Pukara" on the windshield. "Viva the strike of Pukara" - putting this on the bus windshielf was a condition of our passing. And then they did let us pass. Whew! It was arond 10:15am when we got back on the road.

The rest of the trip was less eventful, although we did have a close enconter with some sheep that were being herded across the road. We made a couple more stops at touristy places where there were some ruins, churches and shopping. As we neared Cusco the scenery was very pretty with the road following alongside a river and the mountains around us.

That night we went to dinner at a fantastic local spot. We went with four of the cool kids from the tour group and had a great time. On the way there we walked into the Plaza de Armas for the first time and it was amazing. The square was all lit up and there are two beautiful churches and arcades all around it. Beyond the square twinkling lights of the houses on the hill lit up the night. It was incredible. After dinner we walked to La Bondiet, which was supposed to have the best desserts in town. Unfortunately we only had a 50% success rate but it was still a good time.

Jan. 21

Today we took a walking tour of Cusco. We went to the market where the locals do their shopping. They had just about everything there - from cheese to clothes to toothbrushes. The meat area had whole pigs hanging on hooks. We walked down the "entrails" aisle where there were livers and other organs for sale. There were also sheeps' head (used to make soup, we're told) and horses' muzzles, complete with teeth and whiskers. It was all very interesting but I'm not sure how much the locals appreciated us being there. We then walked on to the Sun Temple where we toured the church that had been built on Incan ruins. The old Incan walls were amazing - perfectly cut and shaped stones. Totally amazing.

After the walking tour we had a great lunch and then picked up some snacks and water for the Trail. We have to pack up our clothes and weigh them as we are only allowed 5 kilos for the porters to carry. Anything else we carry. I'm not too worried since I plan to be stinky and smelly and wear the same clothes the whole time. Poor Matt:-) We'll be on the Trail for four days so the next post will be after that. We're both really looking forward to the hike. Cross your fingers for sun!

Ciao!