Peru Day 2 - Part 2

So to continue on with my second day in Peru, I must write about Puno. The bus ride from Juliaca to Puno was about 1 1/2 hours. We came over a large mountain and this is the view I saw out the window. I have included some facts about Puno in order to understand the dynamics a little better.





Puno is a city in southeastern Peru located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. The city was established in 1668 by viceroy Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro as capital of the province of Paucarcolla with the name San Juan Bautista de Puno. The name was later changed to San Carlos de Puno, in honor of king Charles II of Spain. The city has several churches dating back from the colonial period, they were built to service the Spanish population and evangelize the natives






Today, Puno is an important agricultural and livestock region; particularly of South American camelids (llamas and alpacas) which graze on its immense plateaus and plains. Many homes in Puno, much like surrounding cities, are half-finished. This is done so that the inhabitants do not have to pay taxes. Much of the city economy relies on the black market, fueled by cheap goods smuggled in from Bolivia.



Puno is situated between the shores of Lake Titicaca and the mountains surrounding the city. There is less than 2 miles distance of flat land between the shores and the foothills, which has caused the growing city to continue to expand upwards onto the hillsides. As a result, the town's less developed and poorest areas, which are high on the hillsides, often have very steep streets, which are generally not paved and cannot be accessed by automobile.



Puno is known as the "Capital folklórica del Perú" (folkloric capital of Peru) due to its wealth of artistic and cultural expressions, particularly dance. They are most notable during the celebrations of the Feast of the "Virgen de la Candelaria" and the Regional Competition of Autochthonous Dances. Puno's access to Lake Titicaca is surrounded by 41 floating islands. To this day, the Uros people maintain and live on these man-made islands, depending on the lake for their survival, and are a large tourist destination.




We arrived at out hotel, The Eco Inn, around lunch time. It was considered a very nice hotel by Peru standards. It did have a beautiful view of Lake Titicaca and surrounding areas. Puno is located in the South-West tip of Peru. Because of this, we were at a high altitude of 12,421 feet. Since Saratoga Springs is only at 4,505 feet there was a noticeable difference in the air (or should I say lack of air) and many of us felt the feelings of altitude sickness. I was light-headed and felt as if I was floating. Simple things like climbing stairs or bending over made your heart race. This was a strange feeling. You can drink a tea made out of cocoa leaves that is supposed to help. I couldn't choke it down, it tasted too much like hay. So I just suffered through.

By now, I was going on about 36 hours with very little sleep, so Missy and I found our rooms and crashed for awhile. Boy did those beds feel wonderful.

After we rested, we took our group into town by taxi. It cost 3 soles per cab which is equivalent to 1$. We went to the town plaza. It was beautiful in it's own right. There were old churches and cobblestone and quaint fountains and shops.

We went to the outdoor market and it was fun just to walk around and see the various stands. To see so much food out on carts was unbelievable. There was meat and cheese and all kinds of other things that weren't refrigerated and yet selling like crazy.

There were piles of bread on carts and for 1 sole (33 cents) you could buy a whole bag. I took of picture of this lady's cart and she yelled at me. Apparently she didn't appreciate her picture being taken. I told her I was sorry and then pretended not to know any more Spanish. Overall the people were really nice, maybe she was having a bad day.

We went to a restaurant in the plaza. It was nice and the food was delicious. I had Beef Lomo with onions and rice. We usually ordered off a "menu" which is basically a set 4-6 dishes you could choose from as well as an appetizer and a dessert. Throughout the trip, I found the choices to almost always be the same. They eat a lot of chicken, alpaca, trout, beef and pizza in Peru. I wouldn't say the food had a whole lot of spice and pizazz but it was generally good. The avocados there were to die for and I had several of them throughout my trip.

While we were eating dinner we heard a commotion out in the street. We went to check it out and the people were having a parade in honor of one of their Virgins that they worship. It was so neat to see their colorful costumes, listen to their musical instruments and see their joy in dance. I was having one of those surreal moments where I just couldn't believe that I was there and really experiencing that moment. Wow.

It was a lovely evening and gave us the chance to get to know our group a little better in a more relaxed setting. We came with some wonderful people and by the end of the trip I can say that we were all pretty close. I felt like I had known them all forever and couldn't have chosen a more fun and inspiring group of people if I had tried.

Here is our group:

Ronald and Doradene (the grandparents of the group)

Nancy and Gordon Palmer (seasoned travelers)

Greg and Pamela Palmer (young married couple)

Ryan Palmer (newly returned missionary)

Beau Palmer ( just got his mission call to Peru of all places)

Jenny Palmer (a young adult seasoned traveler

Ceann and Jayden Whitehead (mother and 14 year old son)

Randy and Robin Moore (great couple)

Kristen and Taylor Moore (single kids of Randy. Super great and hard working)

Rob and Marilyn Moore (Loved loved loved this couple)

Amanda Moore (single adult daughter of Rob and Marilyn)

Micah Miller (single gal that is my age and just a neat person)

So that is our group. I am sure I will write more stories about them later.

And of course there is Hernan Carrasco, our guide. He is from Cuzco, has a cute family and is a member of the church. His whole extended family helps out Eagle-Condor. They are all salt of the earth kind of people. Hernan was with us for an entire week and did it all without pay. He is grateful to anyone that would serve his people and so he willingly wanted to help us because of that. He is a humble man that would give you the shirt off his back. Missy and I were with him constantly since we were running the show. We couldn't have pulled off this expedition without him. He was a real joy to get to know and I loved speaking with him in Spanish. I can honestly say he became a close friend of mine by the time we said goodbye.

That was pretty much the day. Missy and I were getting along fabulously and thanks to the Internet I was able to keep in touch with my loved ones back home. I seriously still couldn't believe that I was fortunate enough to be there and I constantly reminded myself of how lucky I was to have this experience.

Peru - Day 1

My dad works for a non-profit organization called Eagle Condor. This organization does humanitarian work for people in Peru. My dad has been down there several times as well as my sisters and mom. They would come back sharing amazing stories of the people, the country and the service they did. I had such a strong desire to also go there and have those experiences but with my time of life and the poor economy and so forth I wasn't sure it would ever become a reality.

Well my mom and dad offered me a great opportunity. There was a group of 20 people that wanted to go down there and they needed someone to lead them. My dad didn't want to do this one so he asked Missy and I if we would be willing to take the expedition. It took a lot of arranging and relying on other people but we were finally able to work it out. My dad and mom pooled their flight miles to get me a ticket down there. Roger selflessly encouraged me to go and stepped up and took on a whole lot more home responsibility so that I could leave the kids without a worry. Family members and friends also helped with my children to keep them happy and entertained. I am so grateful to everyone that made this incredible experience happen for me.

It took quite a bit of preparation to get everything ready to lead a huge group to a third world country. Missy and I arranged the schedule, decided on the service projects, contacted people in Peru, solicited donations of books, clothes, toys, computers and money for the people down there. We had orientation meetings and a packing party. On paper everything looked good and the departure day finally arrived.

I was feeling quite nervous and sick at this point. I have never left my children or husband for that amount of time. I also feel as if I have buried a little of my independence and courage to try new things since becoming a mother and staying home in my comfort zone. I was hoping and praying that I would get over that. Plus I was a little nervous about my Spanish since I haven't used it much in my daily life. The night before I left, I asked Roger for a blessing and it was beautiful. It brought much peace to me and throughout the trip I saw the promises in that blessing being fulfilled. I was truly grateful for that.

So our adventure began. It was nice to have uninterrupted conversations with my sister. I didn't have to worry about taking care of the needs of my children. I could sit on the plane and read or watch movies or sleep or whatever. It was nice for a change.

We flew to Atlanta for 3 1/2 hours. Had a 2 hour layover and then it was another flight to Lima, Peru. This one was 6 1/2 hours. I should have tried to sleep but I was just to0 excited and enjoyed the free movies on the flight.

We arrived in Lima just before midnight and went through customs and immigration and so forth. I just couldn't believe that I was truly there in another country. Our next task was to check in for our flight to Juliaca and this is where we had our first major hiccup. (I was told that in Peru you have to roll with things because it was always changing.) Apparently they had overbooked flights and put our group on 2 separate flights through 2 different cities. Once we got over the panic and assured everyone that they would still all make it to the same place we were able to move on to other things. We exchanged money, paid taxes and got to a terminal where we could try and get some sleep.

The first flight left at 4:50 a.m. We all attempted to sleep since we had been going straight through the night and was quite comical. Missy took several pictures of our group in all of their glory. Unfortunately Missy's camera got stolen on the last day of the trip and thus many pictures were lost. So I will just have to fill in the gaps with words.

Our in-country flight was on a small plane that made a quick stop at an airport in Arequipa. It was literally like a bus stop. We landed on this tiny airstrip with a Podunk building on the side. People jumped on and off the plane and then we were back in the air 20 minutes later. It was crazy.

We finally landed in Juliaca, an airport not much bigger than Arequipa. We deplaned with the first group and then waited for the rest of our group to come in an hour later.

Up to this point, Missy and I were still a little nervous about being in charge of all these seasoned travels and young adults. But when we got off the plane, we immediately say Hernan, our in-country guide. Relief settled over us and we knew all would be well.

While we were waiting for our group we were continually bombarded by Peruvian women and even children selling their wares. It was hard to constantly say no thanks to them as they were quite pushy. It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't in America any more.

Happy 9th Birthday Ryan

Today is Ryan's Birthday! My boy is now 9 years old. I am not ready for him to be that old yet, but I guess I don't have much say in the matter.

We started the day off with donuts and opening presents from Grammy. She sent him many cool science toys. His favorite is the Zero Blaster which is a gun that shoots smoke rings. He also got a remote control car that climbs on walls. Is still freaks me out to see this car going over my head. It is pretty cool.

Since it was our last day of spring break as well we decided to combine a birthday celebration with a lot of play. We went to classic skating with Aunt Missy and our cousins.

In the beginning we practically had the place to ourselves, which is a good thing considering we had many novice skaters. I was a little put off by the sign that read "If you are over 21 years old the risk of injury increases and we recommend that you don't skate". Well I used to be a "pro" skater (or so I thought), so the sign did not deter me. (Of course I am just slightly over 21 so I figured it would be OK.) Eventually the little kids rode their scooters which allowed all of us to cruise the rink many times.

Classic Skating also has a huge jungle gym called "The Jungle" and it has all kinds of obstacles to climb on and swing on and so forth. Even Aunt Missy and I ventured inside. There were also all kinds of huge inflatable slides and ladders and obstacle courses. We went nonstop for four hours. We had a great time and it wore us all out as can be seen by the bright red faces.

We ended our time there playing in the arcade and winning prizes. I believe fun was had by all and it was an especially good day for Ryan.

That evening we met up with Daddy to go out to eat. Ryan picked the restaurant Rubios because he has a thing for taquitos right now. I am glad we aren't always stuck at McDonalds anymore.

Before bedtime, Ryan got to play "Lord of the Rings" online with daddy. He loves that game and I foresee him being a fantasy gamer in the future just like his dad.