Tierra del Sol



Crossing the equator !!



Dec 9 2001 Paul and me take off for Lima, where we stay at the house of our freak sister Gabi, where we get royally pampered by her mom with several course lunches and dinners ( recordas aji de gallina ? carne seco ? ceviche ? y un millon otras preparaciones of the millon types of potatos, corn and chilli peppers ..), while checking out the vastness of the Pacific amidst the freaky garua or coastal mist that the city of Lima is always enveloped in, the sun a silver disc in the gray sky.

Two days later we head to arequipa, in the volcanic desert mountains of the western andes. a day by the plaza and winding streets, and we spent half the day chatting with local folks ( esp las chicas ;-), all incredibly lissome and pretty in the andean air ). Hanging outside a church where some youths played blues guitar,and then there was an impromptu fiesta de la virgen del guadalupe, followd by more aimless wondering getting teased by the angels on the streets, finally ending up in the seciond floor balcony of a restaurant having coco leaf and cats claw tea, talking to alejandro, who spun crazy stories of smuggling from Chile.

Cla-a-a-ro !

The next two days were spent in the canyon del colca, a bit of hiking and lot of time at the hot springs. walking at night with Annalis a swiss girl, gazing at the southern sky with its inverted constellations and la cruz del sur, singing dylan songs .. travellers seem to have a common musical vocab -- especially marley and manu chao. waking dogs in slumbering villages. At the pena, the folklorico group also plays a string of beatles tunes, in their panpipes and zamponias and charangos, and we take it as a tribute to our departed fellow soul, George Harrison..

by now I was maxed out on heavy breakfasts, lunches and dinners, of alpaca steaks and fried trouts and beef strips with potatoes and decided to go frutarian for a day.

We head back to arequipa to catch an overnight bus to the highlands of Puno. On the way there is a road block with lots of buses, vans and vehicles all stopped, people hanging out, siting on the ground. They are asphalting one section of the road, and so the block. No use fretting and fuming, if we miss the overnighter, so be it. So the four of us who by now have formed a group in these two days, Vlad from Chile, lees, Paul and self construct a seismically stablestone cairn as the sun sets over the desert, silhoutting the jagged mountains. A sign makes an appearance "Cold beer and sodas". Give it another few hrs and there'd be signs " Cuartos para rentar" rooms for rent for sure. Strangely enough, soon as we finish the construction, there is a rumbling of engines coming to life, people rushinhg back to their vehicles, dust in the air, and the block is lifted !

we move on to Puno, and the Lake titicaca, where we join a tour group to visit islands, some of them floating, built of the reeds that grown on the shores. Legend has it that the Uros islanders did not want to live under yhe dominuiation of the incas, and so pushed off into the water to stay on islands they built themselves. Staying the night with a local family in isla amantani, which was a major flashback to rural india, as we sat in the kitchen of the family, joking with them in my broken spanish. no electricity, woodsmoke in the eyes, as dusk deepens at 4000 m, the snowy cordillera real on teh Bolivian side glowing in the evening blue. That night was a penia organized by the village, and many a local girl I must have impressed by the lack of rhythm in my dancing :) spent the next few hours haivng some beers with a german couple who spent 6 months in India/Nepal/Tibet and were now spending an equal time in the Andean regions.

We return to Puno the next day amidst a storm on the Lake ( more like a sea ), and proceed to get drunk in a reggae bar with torsten and julia, having a conversation in english after what seems months ! A hailstorm rages outside.

We move on to Cusco, what a memorable bus ride, with the change from the Puna ( high altitude grasslands ) to snowy ranges to an increasingly cultivated area with eucalyputs ! By the time we hit Cusco I was having Kodai flashbacks ( blame that on the mist and eucalyptus ). Anyway, to cut the story short, this was where we met Sonali and Gabi, who'd flown up from Lima. the next few days were spent knocking around inca and preinca ruins and cobbled streets in the Urubamba valley, sitting inside old old churches and bell towers, including climbing up to Macchu Picchu through the cloud forest above the rushing river, the lost city of the Incas and spending a day in those mystical ruins. I also end up buying a Charango, the little shrill lute prominent in andean folk music.. back in Lima, we eat more and meet the family of my other friend pepe, and the visit culminates in some great "come together" meals. Thats it, two weeks went by like two snaps of the fingers. Now its snowing here in Chicago.