March 9, First day aboard ship

Along with about 60 others, we board the Chilean vessel Australis Friday evening in time to sail about 8 p.m. Our cabin was perfect, on 1st deck with a huge window to give us a great view and hearing the slapping of the waves to lull us to sleep each night. We were mostly in inner passageways so it was pretty smooth sailing. Only one evening about 2 a.m. We were told it might get rougher when we were out in more open water. I did notice when I got up during the night there was a lot more wave slapping, but I went right back to sleep.

Our first launching onto the 4 zodiac boats was to go whale watching. Humpback whales were summering in this area before soon heading up the Pacific coast to Columbia for the winter. there was one mother with her cal and several others. I wasn't quick enough to get pictures when they would flash their flukes but there was a slideshow at the end of the trip that the crew would email to everyone that had great shots of all we'd seen. The crew was very explicit and careful in their instructions about how to get in and out of the boats and everyone boarded and disembarked safely. It reminded me of our rafting trip on the Colorado River a couple of years ago with Tom, Rosemary. Bev, Larry and Betty, although it was NEVER as rough as we experienced on that trip. I remember on that trip getting bounced to the floor of the zodiac and decided it was a good idea to STAY there and I did! We just had a rope to hang onto but it wasn´t rough riding around and soon I could let go and take photos.

We came pretty close to some whales and it seemed closer than when I´m working on the Dolphin Fleet in Provincetown on the Cape because we were so low in the water! One of the crew got some great shots of the tail flukes (like a fingerprint on a whale) and they were able to call out the name of the whale they´ve given to identify them. I was never quick enough with my camera to get a good shot.

There were dolphins swimming all around, various birds flying overhead and sea lions and fur seals swimming near shore. We were out for a couple of hours and then they took us back for the next group to come out. There were only 4 Zodiacs for the whole boat so we had to do two shifts. Always to greet us when we came back was hot chocolate and whiskey if we wanted it! The only time I tried the whiskey was our next day when we landed at Pia Glacier and walked around. At the end, they had shots of the whiskey in glacier ice!! I HAD to try that! I remember Shelley Gill, a children´s author from Homer, Alaska, who frequently works with whales, etc., calling it ¨Christ Ice" because it was 2000 years old! I thought it was hilarious! It certainly warmed our insides!

There is a whole section of the Beagle Channel where there are glaciers: I learned there are "hanging" ones that look suspended on a huge rock, "marine" glaciers that calve right into the sea - so you can really sense the whole thing is moving, and the ones in between, can´t remember the name, that end with a moraine of scraped rocks at the bottom before the water. We saw one, I think it was Garibaldi glacier, that had a central moraine, where two glaciers each push from the sides and you can see a gravel stripe in the middle where stone is pushed up. We were also told the glacier isn´t actually touching the rocks underneath but a layer of melted water flows under, probably from the friction of the glacier pushing! At Pia Glacier, we got off and walked up high for a view and then sat down right across from where pieces were calving - unfortunately didn´t get to see any gigantic icebergs break off but it was cool to sit there!

Back at the ship, we cruised through Glacier Alley - Romanche, French, Italian, Dutch glaciers with appropriate drinks and food being served as we passed (this ship is top drawer!!! :) like cheese and beer for the Dutch, champagne, wine, etc. It was fun!

People on the boat: first and foremost were the two German couples who were our tablemates for most of the meals. We had spotted these two tall, I thought they were Scandanavian when we saw them waiting at the Australis office in Punta Arenas, Chile, Germans from Munich - Jutta and Willy. She was an elementary teacher, now retired, and he was a businessman of some sort. He had been widowed when his daughter was 12 and he raised her and now has a granddaughter. She married him 3 years ago, her first marriage, and they enjoyed the granddaughter together!

The other couple was in their 30s, Sebastian, a lawyer, and Martina, a secretary from Bavaria. They joked a lot about how Bavarians think they are B. first and German second! And better than other Germans! Their language is even slightly different and sometimes not understandable to other Germans. They were married last September and seemed very tender with each other! It was cute to watch! The slideshow at the end showed them kissing on the beach and everyone sighed!!! Sebastian especially had excellent English and we had lots of discussions about the law in Germany and US (his job, criminal law, is VERY different than a lawyer in US. Not all this jury trial, two judges and one other person serve as judge/jury in most cases)., differences is what the government provides for people (free health care, retirement, education from6 mos. on, etc.) and their high taxes. He had a really funny quirky sense of humor. I told him after all the wine we drank (the waiters just kept refilling the glasses as we ate and talked, especially that first elegant dinner!) I felt I began to understand their German!!! We had buffet breakfasts and lunch that were amazing! especially the elegant desserts at the lunches! Then we would order at lunch for our served dinner - usually either fish or meat dish. Patricio was our wonderful waiter each time! We all had envelopes in our room at the end to leave one tip - suggested $15/day/person - to leave for everyone in a box at reception, so we did that! Service was wonderful! But there were only 63 or so passengers and 45 crew!! It wasn´t full this trip which was lucky for us!

Another entry later!

The Unexpectedness of Travel

Today was a rainy and dreary day. I had to buy a postcard of the gorgeous volcano and waterfall as it was too cloudy to see it. Andreas our hostel owner and tour guide suggested a talk in a forest to see these 1000 year old trees and then go to the fish market because this wouldn't depend on the weather. I wasn't too enthusiastic but off we went.He brought rain ponchos that a fisherman had left for us but turned out we didn't need them.

father stopping for water for us, we bumped through the countryside of farms and germanlooking architecture to a park. We walked a kind of boardwalk trail through a forest filled with these now preserved trees. People used to make shingles and window frames of the wood because it repels water. It's very light and soft and doesn't hold much weight. But now they are endangered, and GIGANTIC,soaring into the air. they are a kind of evergreen called Alecia or something like that.

After our walk, we drove to the industrial port of PUerta Montt but down near the fishing port where we could shop a bit.WeranintoNils who had met us at the airport yesterday with Andreas.He is visiting with his Chilean wife Mary who is from PM. they joined us in this funky little two long table restaurant that they said was the best after we had walked through the fish market. Therewereguys scooping insides out of sea urchin-looking animals with their bare hands. Hige salmon, whole, smoked and filleted we there along with clams, huge mussels and other seafood.

At the restaurant this jolly older waitress seemed to know them all, Andreas said he brings a lot of tours there so she gave us a good price. She was always smiling. apparently her husband was in the back doing the cooking. Andreas warned me against ordering the salmon as it was farm-raised and not hood,filled with chemicals he said. We had some other fish that was big boned, fried and delicious! White wine came in small glasses,not wine glasses. Nils said they used to not be able to sell wine so you could order "tea" or "coffee" which meant white or red wine! Nils had this huge serving of mussels, chicken, pork, and potatoes. It overlooked the boats coming in. Nils and Mary live in Hamelin,as in the Pied Piper of, near Hanover, Germany.He works with disabled adults and she works in a retirement home there. He spoke English quite well and she not at all.

We rested back at Casa Azulejo and then walked downtown for olovely chocolate mousse and on for me and brownie and wine for Betty in a little bistro. Turned out to be a pleasant, relaxing day after all.

Tomorrow we'll be on our cruise around Cape Horn!

March 5th and 6th Peru and traveling to Chile

DIED AND GONE TO GERMANY

It´s the weirdest thing! We´re still in Chile but no more adobe-brick buildings, dusty streets. Everything is made of wood, the hills are rolling and filled with trees and lakes around! And many speak German, including Andreas, our host, and Nils, his friend, who picked us up yesterday at the airport. Germans were encouraged to move here in the 1800's and given land to farm. And they stayed! It´s also cool like Germany was last August, even cooler as it turns to fall here. It´s also cloudy and we have yet to see the gorgeous glacier covered volcano at the edge of this lake that is the reason we came here! Andreas said we might not see it as it is supposed to rain and be cloudy and we leave tomorrow for Punta Arenas and our 4 day cruise through the Straits of Magellan! Oh, well, back up! When last I left off, we were headed to Arequipa in Peru by bus from Puno. We arrived and taxied to Pirwe which had a huge room for us, nice shower with an outside patio upstairs for breakfast. The host, however, was pretty lazy and seemed to be always sleeping. We had to ask at 8 the next morning when breakfast was and he kind of threw it on the table. We had one day there until our night bus to Tacna. so we walked down to the truly most beautiful Plaza des Armas we´ve seen! The cathedral was on one side with big archways extending over the street on either side. It was filled with pigeons and people at all hours, flowers and trees as well. We walked around and found a tourist agency and bought tickets for the bus tour around the city. Of the 9 or so stops, we skipped over about 3 of them, one the poorly English speaking young girl said they were filming a movie in the museum. Another was a horse ride stop that both Betty and I skipped and stayed on the bus. One was a reconstructed hacienda from a rich family and we were going to skip it (we had to pay extra) but then decided to walk through. They do weddings there and it was lovely and gave you an idea of how the Spanish lived when they took over! Otherwise it was a pretty uneventful drive through dusty city streets for several hours. There were a couple of stops at high points to take photos and buy stuff and once in awhile we got a glimpse of the volcanoes surrounding the city. We headed back to our hostel to pick up our things and get a taxi ride to the bus station. I had gotten cold on the bus and didn´t have my jacket with me and couldn´t remember where I´d put it. I asked the guy at the desk if I could look in the room and he pulled out a bag with both Betty´s and my jackets!! If I hadn´t asked, I´m sure he would have just let us go off without them!! The jerk! They had been hung in our closet, big mistake!!!! I forgot, at the travel agency we had bought our sleeper bus tickets to Tacna and she was to deliver them at 8 pm at the hostel, which she did. But the company we wanted was full, so she switched bus companies, which we hoped was okay. Our taxi dropped us at the bus station, crowded, people yelling out something we couldn´t understand, I think advertising buses. We tried to find our bus company sign and told to just wait!! No one spoke English. We figured out this time how to pay our tax and get it put on our ticket, that you need to do when leaving a station. Last time they had checked our luggage and taken it to the bus. This time she said just go through the gate, finally, and we found someone riding the same bus who showed us where to go!! Very stressful!! We got on and instead of the upper berths like we expected we were downstairs. But the seats were very wide and comfortable and I actually slept a few hours I think. The movie kept running loudly (Spiderman in Spanish!) and we had to cover our eyes but otherwise it was okay! The lights came on and I thought we had arrived about 3:30 am but it turned out to be some kind of province border stop, and we had another hour to go. We stumbled out and into the station at 4:30 a.m. and sat until daylight. We had met a couple who said to just walk across the street to the international bus station and find a collectivo, car or bus to cross the border to Arica, Chile. Lots of taxis and guys were hovering outside so we wait until daylight and then did just that. We again paid a fee and walked through the gate to where cars and buses were waiting. We rode with this guy in a big car and 3 other riders the 40 or so km. to the border, got out and walked inside to have everything stamped and checked, and then got back in the car to the Chile border house, did the same thing and then on to Arica, through the Atacama desert with big empty sand dunes on both sides! Weird country! It reminded me of when Doug and the monks and I had stayed in Tijuana and crossed the border with his friend! We felt like drug runners, jumping out of the car, mingling with the crowd of students and workers crossing the border, and then jumping back in the car!! But for all my worries about this part of the trip, it went just like the books and people had said! At the bus station Betty found someone to call Sunny Days hostel and Russ the friendly New Zealander told us to just walk there so we did. He was outside to greet us and it was a lovely spacious home and friendly information! He fed us breakfast and then we laid down for a rest to catch up! In the afternoon we walked down toward the beach, which was quite ugly and industrial looking so we went back later. We walked into town and there wasn´t much to see. I think it´s some kind of mining going on in the town as there was an odor sort of sulphuric smelling. There was a pedestrian street with some shops and we stopped for a snack/lunch. But we headed back, did go to the beach so Betty could put her feet in the water but it was a non-eventful town! More later! Breakfast is on!

March 3rd and 4th, Puno to Ariquipa

Our alarm wasn´t even set for Sunday as we had no rush, our bus wasn´t leaving until 3 p.m. We ate one breakfast, the usual bread, butter and jam and tea and then headed out to the Plaza des Armas. At the cathedral we could see chairs set up outside for dignitaries and lots of army guys and police all around. Inside the church the whole left side was filled with soldiers. Mass was going on. In came about 20 guys in army fatigues with instruments and stood in the back. We left when the sermon came on and went for another breakfast on the square. This one had fresh squeezed orange juice!!! and an omelet with ham! There was a woman in there who spoke English and told us what was going on. Every Sunday, in all cities, villages, towns in Peru, at the Plaza Des Armas, there is a military gathering to promote patriotism. She said most of the time the mayor will show up or send a representative. Each week there are different squads represented so they get practice playing and marching. Townspeople were gathering to watch as it was free entertainment. We watched the puna and then Peruvian flags being raised, and a lot of marching around. One squad was all women! This woman said there used to be mandatory military obligation but now it´s volunteer. Poor people especially send their sons for a job. We walked back and picked up some things to snack on for the bus ride. Our taxi took us to the Estacion Terreste, very nice bus station by the port. We checked our luggage and then waited. The tour agency had made an error on Betty´s passport number so she had to wait to get that changed by the manager when he came in. We got the reclining seats, rather than the laydown ones (more expensive) on the lower level. They were pretty comfortable. There was like a stewardess on board who brought us a sandwich and drinks. We were told we could use the bathroom on board if we had to pee but otherwise we should stop the bus!!! Weird!!! This was a 7 hour trip! A guy came on board and took movies of each pair of seats! And then of the bus leaving! That also was weird. Three movies played during the trip - in Spanish of course but American movies so one of them we could follow. We crossed a very bleak Andean plain and could see a couple of lakes in the distance before it got dark. We got a taxi to our hostel, it was a huge room and we had a great night´s sleep! Again same ole breakfast! So we later stopped for OJ!! We were going to check into a bus to Tacna (we´re taking it at 10 p.m. tonight, getting the sleeper seats) so we headed downtown. It was a beautiful sunny day and there is a lovely park across the street. Things look more tropical here and I´m not noticing any altitude problems, although we are still up high, and surrounded by glacier/snow topped peaks and a large volcano! By afternoon they were lost in the clouds. The manager stored our bags for the day while we did a city bus tour. There seemed to be 3 companies doing these tours and ours wasn´t very good. They said they had English guides but she could hardly speak any English. There were supposed to be about 8 stops and many were skipped. One museum we think she said they were shooting a movie there. One of the stops was a ranch so people could do a trot around on a horse. I passed on that! Horses don´t like me!! There were a couple of hilltop view stops, and one hacienda that had been rebuilt to replicate the colonial era. They hold weddings, events, etc. there now. It was pretty nice! The Plaza Des Armas here in Arequipa is said to be one of the most beautiful in SA. I believe it!! It´s pretty amazing and was crowded all day. There was a lovely pedestrian walk up to it with lots of nice shops and restaurants. I frustratingly tried to upload pictures at an internet cafe but no one spoke English and after 2 hours it said it failed. Turns out about 26 of the picts I uploaded worked! I tried here again at the hostel and it´s not working! Got to find an easier way to do this before I travel again! If anyone knows, send me an email! I´m trying to use Shutterfly. Off to our third country tomorrow! We will not see much of Chile. We are crossing the border by land because we are cheap and we think it avoids the $140-$160 reciprocity fee that Americans must pay if you fly into Santiago from out of country. We will fly from Arica to Santiago and on to Puerto Montt in the south. Only 2 or 3 days total for Chile! Not fair but what can we do? We´re booked to sail March 8th from Puno Arena in southern Chile for 4 days to Ushuaia in Argentina. Hasta luega!

March 2, On Tequile island and back to Puno

After a lovely breakfast from Emmy, some kind of grain pancake but delicious and again coca tea, we headed down to the port to meet up with the group and Clever for our ride to another island. Tequile is another communal island where one family was selected at a restaurant to cook our lunch. It was about an hour ride to the next one, again a stationary, not floating, island. Our boat was going to meet us on the other side. So UPPPPP we went!! Finally the nice Argentinean man showed me to walk zigzag as being easier and it was. At the top it was pretty level to the Plaza des Armes. We went to the one in Puno today and every Sunday, in every town and village there is a military/patriotic assembly. There were chairs set up for the dignitaries today, I´m assuming the mayor of Puno and generals. All around the plaza were squads of different military and police. One was an all women squad. There was saluting of each squad, marching around the square and raising the Puno and Peruvian flag. We stopped in for a second breakfast (some protein this time!) and a Peruvian woman in there who spoke English told us it is different troops each week. It´s done to keep up Peruvian patriotism. Lots of crowds were on the steps watching. She said now the army is all voluntary but used to be one year mandatory at 18. She said Peruvian women do vote (on the islands they said only married women do). She said many Peruvian women are standing  up for their rights and in this machismo society (her words) the men don´t like it. So every night on the news someone is beaten or murdered! The Minister of Women is working to correct this. Anyway back on Tequile, here ONLY the men do the knitting and boys are taught starting at age 5. The women only do the weaving. A red hat indicates married man, each family designs their own pattern so there are 800 patterns on this island. While he is living for 2 years with his future wife before marriage, he must knit his red hat and design his family pattern to show he is worthy. Single men or widowers after three years wear red and white hat.  Little girls wear a woven cute hat until 5 and then they wear black shawls for the rest of their life, over their heads. Single girls have big pompoms on the end of the shawls and married women have smaller and not so colorful pompoms. Again the church here is open only once a year for the priest from Puno.  They seemed to grow a lot of corn on this island. We visited the obligatory shop where each family has a number and display and prices are fixed. It´s supposed to be the best quality weaving and knitting but we didn´t buy anything. The men also wear a waist belt of two layers. The top one the wife weaves for him with the history of Tequile and presents at the wedding. The underneath one is woven from the women´s long hair that she cuts off when marrying and weaves with alpaca yarn into a very strong belt used sort of as a truss to help with heavy farm work. Clever talked to an 85 year old man whose wife had recently died and expressed his condolences. The man showed him the belt he had on and said "She´s still with me!"  I thought that was kind of cool. Then there was the 550 steps down to the boat!! Sweet Maddy lingered back with me so I wasn't the last one down. The boat ride for 2.5 hrs. back to Puna was lovely, chatting and sunning on the upper deck. We took a group picture at the pier and a driver took us each to our hotel. Betty and I went out. I got my sunglasses fixed for 4 soles. We had delicious pizza and cerveza and found someone who would do our laundry and she delivered it all done at 9 am. That was Betty´s birthday present!!! Got to Facetime with Kerry and briefly with Jackson and Sarah, playing the recorders Nana had bought them LOUDLY!! Jason said thanks to Nana!!! We head to Arequipa on the 3 p.m. bus and then need to figure how to get over the Chilean border to Arica. Ciao! (they seem to all say this rather than other phrases)

March 1, Off to the islands on Lago Titicaca

At 8 a.m. after our usual bread and tea breakfast at the hostel, we were picked up by a van and off on our unique adventure of visiting and a homestay on these islands (there are about 85 or so, not exact because some of them are floating and if they don´t get along, the 10 families or so who live on one cut the island apart and form a new one!!) Our group first: There was a lovely 20 something couple from Buenos Aires who didn´t speak much English but were very nice. He works for the subway system there, she´s a buyer for clothing, and was dressed lovely! Compared to most of the rest of us scruffy ones! Barbara is from Germany, a manager fora  volunteer agency, has a daughter living in Arequipa and she speaks fluent Spanish but not much English. Emmanuelle is from Toronto, is an osteopath, has her own practice out of her home and is down here for two years in a row volunteering in Arequipa for a month doing medical work with Peruvians. Her boyfriend works with street people in Toronto, some kind of social agency I guess, and is working now in Ecuador and they´ll connect later. Laura is a social worker from Scotland and she was doing a mission in Cusco with teenager girls who have been abused, etc.,  here for a few weeks and is headed home today. She was traveling from Cusco with Madeline, an 18 yearold just out of high school who is doing a gap year before starting school maybe in Ottowa. She was working in the rain forest in deforestation (clearing paths, I think) for a few weeks. She got bit by a bullet ant on her hand - feels like you were shot with a bullet and her whole hand swelled up. they gave her some leaves to chew and then put on it (she said it was kind of hallucinogenic) and it got better. Very painful!  She was delightful and kept asking me questions and encouraging my stories!!! Poor girl got an earful!! :) She´s from outside Toronto and I told her if I go to see the first retreat in Ottowa, I´d call her!! Then there was Eli, a doctoral candidate in paleontology, studying in Lima, from Paris, with his visiting girlfriend, Sandrene, who is a chemist for L´Óreal. He said (she spoke almost no English and seemed very shy, although gorgeous reddish hair and creamy skin - must be all those LÓreal products!) that she had yearly contracts so had a nice apartment in Paris (VERY expensive he said for something even tiny!) so I´m assuming he lives with her, said they´d been together a year.  He asked if we´d seen sloths in the jungle - we had, just one hanging by one arm from a tree - and said he was doing his doctoral studies on an extinct sloth, land based, gorilla size! I asked what he might do for a job when he was finished and he laughed! Hadn´t a clue! Thought he might do a post-doc stint in Lima! Very nice and helpful!!

Our boat has a car engine so went VERY slowly but I didn´t mind. It was relaxing! We stopped at Uro floating island - very small, only 10 families, 32 people (2 babies). The reeds need constant resurfacing yearly and it was 10 years old, would last another 10 maybe and they would move to a newly constructed island. Tourism is their next occupation and they were ready for us with their wares all laid out. The men weave the reeds into little boats, hanging ornaments, the ladies do the knitting and weaving. A little girl grabbed us from the boat to show us her family´s hut with two beds, one for parents one for 2 kids. One hut was for cooking. Then, of course, she wanted us to buy. We resisted! There is a chemical toilet somewhere recently required by the government. There is a floating island school or boat for kids. We then paid 10 soles for a ride in the tatori raft boat, with two little girls singing songs in our boat as we met up with the big boat. On to the second island Amantani, that was a stationary one with terraces for farming. It´s a real communal society with a president who doesn´t get paid a salary, works for a year, and someone else does his farming. The tourist visitors are rotated among 500+ families so maybe our host family hadn´t had visitors in over a year. The ladies were waiting at the dock for us and we were matched up! We went with Emmy 45 and her daughter Jenny 6. It turns out Clever the guide was also staying at their farm. Then we started climbing up and up!! We´d left everything but a small backpack at the hostel in Puna but still with the altitude I was huffing and puffing and resting a lot! We finally arrived and shown our lovely room with 4 beds, heavy alpaca blankets - so heavy you could hardly turn over under them! Made me wonder how in the world they EVER have sex under this! First thing Emmy did was bring out her huge bundle of all her knitting. She was knitting all the time we saw her, even walking around, except when we saw her cook. I hate feeling the pressure to buy stuff!! And carry stuff!  It was time for lunch so we went outside their courtyard (where the bathroom was -it was huge, very modern, but no shower water! But the toilet flushed! Fortunately I had my headlamp for our during the night visits. There was a plastic chamber pot in the room but we both opted for going outside. When I went out at 2 am the moon was shining, and the stars were incredible in a place where there is no electricity! Actually they had a solar panel on the roof and had a small fluorescent in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. When I went out again at 5 am the sky in the east was rosy and the birds were making an incredible racket. One couple said they had a rooster crowing at 4 am but we didn´t hear it!) The kitchen was a separate building tinier than the bathroom, with a woodburning stove reminiscent of colonial times. Emmy prepared delicious soup, then a plate of rice, potatoes. Only vegetarian pretty much on this island. There are like 40 different kinds of potatoes. We were to bring a gift for our family so we had bought a bag of rice and lentils from the grocery store, neither of which they grow there. We had the usual coca tea (really helps with the altitude). We met Emilio, 50, the father in the family, and Madelay, the 14 year old daughter. I asked Clever later privately why the families were so small, since they were all Catholic. He said recently the last 2 years of high school students were taught about all that. I was surprised! On the next island he said couples meet and marry around 20 but are encouraged to live together for 2 years before the wedding! These clans are so isolated in the past that they each developed variations in the cultures. Clever took us to the Plaza de Armes where the church was (a priest only comes once a year from Puno - for weddings, baptisms, etc.) so it was closed. He was leading them on a 3 hour hike to the top of the mountain but I passed. I walked around the village, over to the west side to find a spot to view the sunset and watch the couples coming home from the fields carrying bundles of firewood (eucalyptus leaves), maybe potatoes, and their tools. Very peaceful and bucolic! No vehicles anywhere in sight, although Clever said the boat we were riding on was made on this island. By dark many locals were gathering in the Plaza to visit, a lady was grilling potatoes I guess, and people came by. Finally the hiking group showed up exhausted and I was glad I had passed. Back to Emmy´s for dinner around 7:30 of again a delicious vegetable soup, more rice, potatoes, etc. with lots of cooked vegetables. And then a good night´s sleep. More later! Clever was our Peruvian guide and he took us to the boat at the port. He said we had to sit inside until we were well away from the coast guard who didn´t want us to sit on top. So he gave us information about these amazing reeds-tatora - that are used for everything from eating the inside (very pleasant tasting, sort of like celery - kids were munching on them) to building their floating islands, to making boats that we took a ride in. Apparently they date back hundreds of years getting away from warring natives like the Incas, so they floated out on this highest navigable lake in the world, second in size only to Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Their first occupation is fishing, then hunting (ducks, etc), then egg gathering - they only take one egg from a nest of maybe 8+, then

March 1st, Some thoughts on Peru

These are just random things I want to remember or mention. NEVER miss the opportunity to grab extra napkins, sections of TP here as most of the time you will find none where you land. The hostels are fine. But places we´ve stopped on the tours, restaurants, often aren´t well equipped. The worst was yesterday when we stopped for a few minutes at the highest point to take pictures of the glaciers, you go and then a guy follows you in and throws a bucket of water in so it will flush!! I passed on that! Then I desperately had to use the little emergency one on the bus (several people had used it) where you shut the door, can´t stand up, and THERE´S NO LIGHT! That was fun but necessary!!  :) Peruvian people seem really poor! Much more so than in Ecuador. It reminds me of China in some small towns, or Mexico where every tourist stop has SOOO many tables and hawkers selling the same stuff. And it´s uncomfortable to even look because they seem so desperate to sell you something!  Yesterday I heard that lovely Peruvian flute ploaying and stopped to look. I thought Doug might really enjoy learning to play it and maybe it would fit in with their chanting somehow. Anyway, I asked the guy how much, he said 50 soles, professional. Then I looked at the cheaper looking one with the llama on it and asked him to play it. I could heaqr the difference. I walked away. Then he kept coming down, 45, 40. I had offered 30 and he finally followed me to the bus and took 30. Oh, he tried to sell it to me for 30 without the woven case, but I said no, thanks. So I was happy with my purchase! Have bought 2 CDs from musicians playing in restaurants where we were. There was a lovely buffet yesterday on the way here, and they played Guantanamera. I could just picture Rob ert playihng and singing it! Anyway, when he came around, I bought it and had Betty take our picture together! He was charming! There were little girls out by several llamas and we also posed with them. The older girl with the bucket for soles wouldn´t smile and seemedf annoyed that people took to the littler ones who were just having fun. Gotta go to breakfast!!