She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain When She Comes...

I reached my highest point so far while I was in the mountains of Peru and I actually don't think I will reach any higher altitude (14,942 feet/4528 meters) on this trip. I enjoyed the mountains in Peru. However I didn't enjoy the winds which were the strongest I had felt since Patagonia. It is simply amazing how the gusts or interruption in wind that happens when a truck passes feels like a giant hand that grabs me, shakes me, then lets go in a fury! 
Children here have red cheeks from wind burn (much like in the Tibetan plateau). In these mountains it was sometimes super pretty and had that big sky feel but I still can't figure why anyone would want to live in such a harsh environment. They don't have heat in their houses so often it was as cold inside as outside except for the wind block gained by being inside.

Cool sign showing the icon that Peru has adopted for their tourism campaign. It is meant to look like a Nazca line.

I happened upon this cute village by accident not knowing what to expect when I veered off of the main road to have a look. I ended up spending two nights in this small village with this immense church.

There were many "street food" vendors in the main square around the church, the food was yummy and cheap. 

I found a place to stay behind the municipal office building. I was the only one staying there. This was the way I opened my door from the outside, with a string that wound through to the inside (shown here) so that I could pull the string and unlock it to open it. 

There were some downsides to staying in a cheap place. I fixed this issue by stuffing toilet paper in the hole of this shared bathroom door. On a side note: The mountain bathrooms in Peru rivaled the worst I have ever seen which were in China. For some reason bathrooms aren't a priority when you are struggling to survive day to day.

Yummy ceviche! Peruvians are supposed to make the best ceviche. I have had other versions of ceviche in   different parts of the world (Conch Salad in the Bahamas, Kinilaw in the Philipines) and this ranks right up there but I think it is a toss up for the best, I love them all! Those are crunchy corn kernels in there which is different from anywhere else I have had ceviche.

Lake Titicaca 

Women gathering reeds near the lake.

The unfortunate state of litter around the lake. I know I have a lot of litter photos but I guess it never seems to amaze me how blatant and prevalent it is in these countries. Here in Peru it seemed particularly bad in waterways. It makes me so sad, don't they realize where they get their water? I am trying to think of a way to make a living campaigning against litter around the world, any ideas?

Those are sheep strapped to that roof. Around the lake most of the public transport I saw was in minivans like this. I saw very few private cars on the road. 

Camping next to Lake Titicaca

Reeds from the lake drying in the sun. Locals gather these reeds and use them to make the floating islands (that Lake Titicaca is famous for), to stuff in mattresses as padding, and who knows what else!

 This photo and the one following are from another trip when I had visited the floating islands in 2010. I inserted these photos to show how some of the reeds that are collected from the lake are used.  Here are some guides demonstrating how the floating islands are created by using mud that is packed down and anchored to the lake bed then layered with reeds and finally houses are built on top of it. 

This is the second photo from a prior trip in 2010. It shows one of the floating islands crawling with tourists and some of the vendors selling their "handmade" goods. I was very disappointed in the floating islands.  Visiting them seemed much like visiting a Disney World site. More floating islands are created every year for the sole purpose of meeting the demands of tourism. On many islands there are pseudo homes and locals often don't even live in them or on the islands, they live in nearby Puno and travel to "work" each day to dress up in traditional clothing for the massive amounts of tourists who visit each day. Granted they are islands made like they were made hundreds of years ago but all of it just didn't sit well with me. I had heard of what to expect or saw photos in advance but only went as a way to get transport to another real island where I wanted to spend the night with a family that was not "pretending," 

Bike taxis were popular in the city of Puno. 

One of many cool statues in the town of Juliaca.

Llama pelts for sale roadside in Juliaca.

Imitation is the best form of flattery?

It was super strange that anywhere there was a sign not to throw garbage there was a lot of garbage! I don't know what came first, the chicken or the egg but it seems that if they put the sign up because there was a lot of garbage being thrown there that they would first clean up the garbage!

The mountain area accommodations were always very spartan and very rarely had any piped in water. The places usually were cement block buildings with metal doors, no heat, rarely locked (or rarely had a working lock), and the bathrooms were separate from the rooms and shared.

Typical mountain town, this one is called Santa Lucia.

The morning food stalls had some tasty quinoa prepared kind of like oatmeal.

I never really tire of seeing llamas roaming free. Actually these may be alpacas, I can't tell the difference.

This location is called Lagunas Lagunillas (in Spanish translates to gaps/lagoons of the little lagoons??).

This was one of my favorite camping spots.

There were all kinds of birds in the lagoons around my camp spot.

View looking back down at where I camped.

Highest altitude reached on my trip was14,942 feet above sea level. In the sign "msnm" means metros sobre el nivel del mar (or directly translated-meters above the level of the sea). 

Train workers wrapping it up for the day and unloading the train car and then putting all of these little rail cars away in a building near the tracks. The yellow one was pivoted sideways and is ready to go into that building. It was cool to watch how they moved it off the tracks.

The next day I saw some workers going by in the distance.

Prayer flags draped across some rocks. Am I in Tibet again? Actually some of this area in the mountains of Bolivia and Peru reminded me of Tibet. 

The wind was really whipping in this area and caused some nice shapes in the rocks and terrain.

Camping in an empty room at a police checkpoint. I arrived here late in the day expecting a town and found only a police checkpoint and fruits/vegetables checkpoint and some shacks with food vendors. There were really no buildings to speak of, much less a hostal. I asked the police where I could safely camp and they offered me this room.  I was super happy to get it as it was really windy here and no place for shelter.
I used my Go Girl here and emptied it later as no bathroom existed (I think there was one in the police building but I didn't dare ask as they did not offer). Male travelers who stopped here were using the street side for their urinal.

Food shacks at dawn in the place I thought would be a town.

Typical bathroom in the high mountain area. The barrel of water and a bucket were used to flush the toilet as there was no running water here.

"Jessica Leon Temptation of Hearts"-advertisement for a popular performer. In the mountains the people were very traditional in everything including their taste in what is attractive dress.

Right on cue, these guys are good!

Oasis being farmed in the desert . 

And off in the distance I saw what looked like a bad rendition of the Emerald City.

But I guess the Emerald City was just a cement factory.

Arequipa-a very nice city that was kind of an oasis itself. It sits in a valley with views of several volcanoes in the distance and has a very nice old town square and historic center. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I seem to be hitting a lot of those on this trip. I rolled into Arequipa after a very sweet and super long down hill. It think it was about 24 miles/40 kilometers!! It was nice and warm in Arequipa too because of the difference of about 3,200 feet/2,000 meters from where I had been!

View of the town square from my hostal's balcony restaurant.

Yum, cafe mocha on ice and in an air conditioned cafe with wifi! Talk about being spoiled!

On the route leaving Arequipa with the mountains behind the city.

It is amazing what they can grow in some of the desert oases. Here they grew grapes and in another valley you'll see in another post they specialized in olives.

This town from a distance looked like it was laid out kind of like a giant maze.

Tunnels are always fun! NOT! I've had to go through quite a few, usually there is a shoulder but sometimes not. Fortunately a lot of the trucks drive through riding the middle line anyway.  At times like this I love having my geeky safety vest on!! Thanks Kim for insisting I wear one!

Just enough off the road (trucks can be seen in distance) not to be noticed (hopefully).

This truck was delivering what looked to be a bag of clothes to the different restaurant shacks. I was not sure if it was charity donations or what it was they delivered but I did notice these bright green bags at times as trash on the side of the roads. They really stood out.

I reached the coast again after having left it in Antofagasta, Chile 4 months earlier.

As usual this is the map of my route ending at the last photo for this blog posting. The orange lines indicate where I rode and the black lines indicate where I used other means of transport.

As you may have realized, tourism is such a conflicted topic for me. On the one hand I see the good in generating revenue for a place and on the other I have seen it turn a wonderful place into a horrible place where the locals barely acknowledge your presence or smile at you because they are so tired of dealing with tourists. The world is becoming more and more assimilated with the popularity of internet and satellite TV. I hope to always leave only a small footprint as a traveler not a tourist and to try not to contribute to the rapid assimilation of all peoples (that is bound to happen eventually).

This blog brings you up to date on my travels until October 19, 2012. I am in Costa Rica now as of this posting on June 10th, 2013. 

Photos and blog posts to come:
More Peru

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends-a special dedication posting and my break to the United States

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Being Robbed In Peru

Ecuador
Colombia
Panama
Costa Rica-a.k.a. Gringolandia