Floating and Island

5/26/15

   
               Growing up in Hong Kong and Singapore (well, some may say I am still in the process of growing up mentally), I was trained to be fast. You walk fast to your destinations, finish your homework as fast as possible, eat as quick as necessary. This is because time is money. We all have places to be and things to accomplish before a certain time. Turned in homework late? Demerit. Did not finish experiments on time? No result = no answer. Being a good student (well, relatively good), I did as much things as possible with the shortest duration. Finish college fast, complete projects before deadlines, eat my meals fast. It is a race against time to be someone and do something before…something happens.

I woke up at 6am to get ready for my tour ag 6:45am. Walking downstairs for breakfast, the hostel owner was surprised to see me and asked why j was awake. I told her about my tour and she said :”Crazy tourist, it is only 5:30am. There is a time difference of an hour between Peru and Bolivia! Now go back to sleep.” 

An hour later, I had my breakfast and waited for my tour to the famous floating island on Lake Titicaca (heh, Titi). Of course. This being in Peru, we then waited on the boat for other travelers, for the captain, for everyone to get ready. The guide then explained that Lake TitiKaka is named after titi (heh, it means puma), and kaka (lake). The lake is shaped like a puma chasing a rabbit (use a lot of imagination), and it used to separates few tribes. The lake is 190 meters long, 90 meters wide, and deepest at 285meters. It is a fresh water lake, supplied by rivers from Bolivia and Peru. Well, that was about all I remembered because the boat trip to Tequile Island took 2.5 hours, and everyone started to get bored and did their own things. 

We hiked the Tequile Island (which habitants speak Kechua(?)), had a great lunch and was shown where we can buy souvenirs. While the scarves and clothes are made of alpaca wool and looks great, I really resisted buying more things since I had to carry everything. Also, things in Peru are noticeably more expensive, and I really need to stretch my budget. ( sidetrack: I did buy an ocarina yesterday. I used to watch Bobby play a lot of games, and one of them is Zelda’s Ocarina of Time. Seeing a homemade ocarina just reminded me of the good times, and I had to buy it from the little girl selling trinkets.)

After that, we went back to the boat for another 2 hours trip to one of the floating island where they demonstrated how the island was constructed. On the island of Suma kurmi, one of the many floating island of Uros, we all sat on the reeds and learned all about the construction of the island, the boats, the prices of the locally made goods (which I would have bought if I am not traveling for so long!). It all ended on another an hour ride back to Puno. 

After a nice dinner, I am now rushing to go back to my hostel, pack my bag and leave for Cuzco before the protest hit. As I am rushing around, I realize how much I love taking time to do things instead of rushing. I can do things at a slower speed, understand things better, and be a better traveler. I guess as we go on, we all need to slow things down a little to enjoy life. Life is short after all.

(Excuse me while I rush to pack my bags….the adrenaline!!)

Sun and Fountain of Youth

5/25/15

  
   
   
   
     
(Ok. I am now in Puno, Peru and the wifi is really bad. Will see if this post. Photos will have to wait. Sorry!)

I am generally a very layback person. (Have I already said that before??) Especially on trips, I know how things tend to go awry and there is little anyone can do about it: strikes, natural disasters, no fuel, bad weather, the list goes on and on. I mean, things Also usually have a way to work themselves out. With my Asian training, I can usually smile while cursing up a storm internally. I guess today is one of those days.

I woke up at 6am to get ready my 6:45am bus to Copacabana. My plan is to spend one or two days in Copacabana, visiting the Isla del sol (sun island), make my way up to Peru and see the floating island near Puno, then head to Cuzco. It was such a great plan, and I was moderately proud of it until the bus agent told me: there will be a strike on 27 and 28 for mine issues (you know, foreign companies buying up mines in Bolivia), and the whole southern Peru buses will not operate. That put a huge hole in my plan, especially since I already got a ticket for Mach Picchu. (Damn this idea of planning ahead!) 

In the end, I decided to do the shortened 2 hour tour of Isla Del Sol, have lunch in Copacabana, and stay the night in Puno. I was rally looking forward to Isla del Sol, since this was the place where the Inca believe the sun was created. It is te rumored place where inca began, and the location of the fable fountain of youth. Thankfully, I met some really cool travelers on the bus and we chatted about our plans.

Arriving in Copacabana (that song is running non stop in my head now), I went for a quick hike, had really good fried trouts for lunch (trouts were introduced to Lake Titicaca by Europeans, which ate all the local frogs). Being at Lake Titicaca was surreal (no, not just because there is titi in the name), since it was a place I have read so much in the past. The highest lake in the world, birth place of the Incas, and here I am on a boat in the Lake. I was super excited.

Well, of course then thins go awry again. Being on The Sun island,it started to rain heavily when we started our tour- right when I walked into the Sun temple (I think someone somewhere is giving me a sign…). It continued to rain, making the path slippery. The view was still great, and I can easily imagine why it is a place of legend. Imagine finding a huge lake in this elevation, and see that there are islands and the sun reflects brightly on the water. Well, at least that was what I was thinking as I walked carefully down the Inca steps (where Spaniards found Inca tribe) and washed dirt off my hands in the fountain of youth. I was tempted to drink it, but was told I might get violently sick…i guess eternal youth is not my cup of tea.

Rushing back, we headed to Puno, crossing the border of Peru. It was quite chaotic at the border, since we have to get an exit stamp from Bolivia, walk 10 mins, cross the border, go through Peruvian immigration (without custom-maybe nothing worth smuggling through??). After another 2 hours, we managed to get to Pumo, where I am sitting in the hostel tying up my blog on extremely poor wifi. As I sit trying to relax, I realized I handled various setbacks a lot better than I could have expected. There are so many things that can go wrong, and at least all that is happening is only minorly disrupting my trip. I am still having a grand time seeing places I have only heard about, meeting new people and seeing great landscapes. There was this quote about lemonades, but thinking about it only makes me wish I could find some nice cold lemonade in Peru. 

(But seriously, couldn’t k just get some sun when I visit The Sun Island?! Or is this someone telling me something I should know about? Next time, can the message be in clouds across the sky instead???)