Luxury! Catastrophe? Cacophony!!

Luxury

I intended to take a bus tour to Puno friday morning (there would be stops at sites of interest and guided English etc) but I still was not 100% and opted to sleep in, after Delfina´s best efforts to wake me. I went down to the train station on bought a ticket from Cusco to Puno, runs only 3 times a week, including saturday morning. Only thing is that on this route there is only first class. I took the train back from Machu Picchu with Perurail as part of my Inca trail package and it was very comfortable in the backpackers section so obviously I thought to cusco would be the same.

I couldn´t have been more wrong. Cherry tables covered in white cloth and single seater upholstered armchairs were in order. Not to mention the gourmet lunch (I went with the pumpkin soup and chicken), observation car (all windows or open air), free drinks, music etc. A perfect 10 hour ride, with some stops at places of interest, and spectacular Andean highland scenery. I met two Swedes there, about 50, named Magnus and Michael. We had a good time and some great conversation.

Catastrophe

I was finished taking a lot of videos from the train when I checked my back pictures... I was actually going to show Magnus a pic of the Guinea Pig castles...when....it appeared as if 150 photos had gone missing. In fact, the whole week before of photos were gone. Why is this such a problem? Ive taken about 1500 photos/videos so far and I´d say only about 8 of those photos are exceptional. Three of those I took last week in the jungle...as the troupe of Howler Monkeys crossed a vine I got the perfect silhoutted shots of 1. a monkey climbing across the vine on all fours, tail in the air 2. next monkey swinging along vine like tarzan 3. monkey mom with baby on back going across vine. I couldn´t upload these shots at any pc since when you import they only read and display the first 1000 pics (1180-1330 are missing). I thought maybe a pc had thus wiped off the excess shots, but that couldn´t have been the case since the last day of Cusco I took photos that are gone and I hadnt been at a pc for 2 days beforehand. Similarly I´ve been in a lot of rain but none for the camera in the past week. I can only hope that the video and sun overheated the memory card so it temporarily forgot the shots.... why would it randomly erase 150 photos? Anyways, that card is retired to avoid further exhertion and I am on 2GB #2. Oh well, I guess I remember what the photos look like... though I did promise them to Carol and Colin..

Cacophony

Puno is in the midst of a musical festival and is very loud, into the night. I got turned away from the first 4 hostel I went to last night but finally found a spot at a hotel for not too much more. Tonight I´m staying in an absolute hole in the wall, and in the case of the bathroom, in the floor. You would not believe this place! Thankfully its only for one night. Tomorrow morning I´m taking a collectivo boat out to Amantani Island in the middle of Lake Titicaca where I plan on staying 2 nights. Of course I could stay a week if I want. I´m going to try and camp there with my tent, but if that isn´t an option I´ll be staying with a local family. One problem: they don´t even speak Spanish there... they speak Quechuan. So while I look up how to say "can I camp here tonight....with tent?" right now in Spanish, it may be for nothing. I can only hope there is an English Quechuan translation service somewhere on the net...

On the island I eagerly anticipate swimming in the lake -- which I reckon is probably 12 degrees or so. Hopefully the locals don´t think Im too weird....

The music here is loud but enjoyable enough... the costumed dances parading around in the streets at all hours is really incomprehensible.

Finally, I had my closest encounter with possible violence earlier today. I was relaxing by the lake with my new Sodoku book (much more interesting than Heidegger) when a Peruvian vacationer with a video camera was accosted by this drunk youth. The young man accused the older of videotaping him without permission (camera´s can steal your soul remember) and made quite a scene. I was the only other one on the boardwalk apart from the old guy´s family and the drunk´s drunken friend. Once the man walked away I considered relocating, but didn´t immediately, the youths went back to where they had been sitting. But, I thought, I should continue to be prudent, and it was good timing because as I started to walk to the next sitting area (200m away) I was accosted by said drunken youths. They were friendly for about 15 seconds before it became clear I wasn´t giving them any money. Then they began to beg. I wasn´t quite in range of a large group of people such that I thought they would be dissuaded. I also didn´t see any cops (usually everywhere) -- but then again in Cusco I tapped the shoulder of a cop to point out a woman being assaulted in a busy part of downtown, and he shrugged and walked in another direction!

Anyways, after the begging was over the tactic was forceful insistence. The younger drunk stepped infront of me and put his arm out to prevent my passage. Well I think it became clear to them then that I was willing to beat the shit out of them both and might actually opt for the fight of the fight/flight choice... conflict resolved.


Back in a few days

Gareth