Thought Terrarium

We flew out of Cusco to Lima, and then from Lima to Tumbes near the Ecuadorian border after a four hour layover. At the Tumbes airport we opted against the 100 sole taxi fair to Mancora and caught a small bus going into the city of Tumbes. The bus waited for a couple airport employees, and because of this, we all suffered in dense clouds of mosquitos. My feet are still covered in bites. In Tumbes we discovered that the taxi fare wasn't going to change, and I, determined not to be ripped off by the taxis took the invitation of the bus conductor to find us a cheaper ride. He took Cassandra's bag and walked us through town and to a weird little garage full of American sedans from the late seventies and early eighties. This would be our ride. A thirty foot long black Lincoln with no regard for speed limits or reasonable passing. This particular mode of transport is called a ¨collectivo.¨ Like any ride in Peru, one feels in a collectivo that safety is perhaps not the highest priorit...

The trip into the heart of Bolivia was fast and strange. We spent less than twenty-four hours there, and then we were gone. My impressions are vague and almost dreamlike. Now we're back in Peru, in Cusco via one night in Puno. Walking through this city one can't help but be struck by the history of this place. We are staying in the center of the city, not far from the Plaza de Armas. The street plan, and foundations of many of the buildings are pre-conquistador. Only a few blocks from our hostal is a street lined on both sides with Inca masonry, one piece of which is the famous 12-sided stone. Many of the stone faces are the size of a dinner table and at least three feet thick. On top of the amazing Inca stones are the square and very linear mortared Spanish walls. One sees in these very stones the succession of civilizations, and something of the change of pardigms that occured. When Pizzaro defeated the Quitan army at Cajamarca in 1532 he took the Inca emperor, Atah...

I may have talked about how big and impressive Lima is, but I hadn't been to La Paz yet. I don't know how many people live here or the elevation, or really much about it at all. You'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge. And I'll try to forgive myself, because it's already gotten us into trouble. When we arrived in the city yesterday afternoon, the conductor stopped us before we got off to give us a stern warning. "Don't trust anyone," he said. "Don't take any taxi that only says 'taxi,' don't follow strangers, take much caution," and again, "don't trust anyone, it's a very dangerous city." We caught a very legitimate taxi, and took it to the center of the city, which is I guess where tourists usually go. We had a few ideas of hostals that we'd like to look at from the guide book, and we'd met a couple fellow travellers on the bus. One was a fellow from Juneau named Matt, and the other was a ...

We've been in Puno for five days now. It is the main Peruvian city on Lake Titicaca. We didn't plan on being here this long, but Cassandra was sick and she visited a doctor here and needed some rest, or at least a break from travel. We've spent a lot of time wandering around, looking for restaurants, and various other little places where we can get the things that we need. A couple days ago we visited a small menu place. It is a common type of restaurant in Peru. There is a soup, a choice of entre, and a drink, almost always a sweet purple colored liquid made from corn. The whole meal costs between 2 and 4 soles, or 65 cents to $1.30. This place that we went gave me yet another reason to admire the resourcefulness of Peruanos. Unfortunately I was unlucky enough to be party to this habit directly. I accidentally ordered a plate of beef tripe and potatoes in a yellow sauce. It was served on rice. I'm afraid if it wasn't for the assaultingly spicy sauce sup...

We tried the beach but it was too cold. And there was a minor fiasco trying to get there. We passed it, and made it almost all the way to Arequipa, but decided to try our luck with a random smaller bus going back the other direction. It didnt take long, and there was a very friendly english speaking guy at the restaurant where we were dropped off. Thank goodness we didnt get stranded there. It was a small place in the middle of nowhere. We had traversed probably one hundred kilometers of completey barren dunes between there and la Punta Camana. These were severly impressive, massive, mountainous wastes of sand. That it is habitable to humans defies my imagination. But we made it out of there. It turns out that la Punta Camana, and Camana proper are two different places. It is noticable on a good map, but not in the Lonely Planet. La Punta was the beach. It was warm outside, but the water was cold. Too cold for C. So we went into the city proper and have been here for th...

Yesterday as Cassandra and I walked throught he Central District of Lima we came to a bridge across el Rio Rimac. When we got to the other side we found a bunch of fruit vendors, and what appeared to be a much poorer area of the city. We walked for a couple of blocks, not really knowing where we were going before we were stopped by a policeman who told us it was dangerous for us to continue in that direction. He looked at the bag I was carrying and made a gesture to show that it was going to be snatched if we continued on. He escorted us back to the bridge. I wish I could blend a little better here. But when you are a foot taller than everyone, blonde, and walking around witha girl that has tattoos all over her body, you cannot help but draw attention.