Peru Part Three: In which an adventure begins and the three travelers experience some of the local culture

I´m happy to report that I´m feeling much less stressed now, having had my last meeting with the hospital staff yesterday morning. Sunday was also a great day--Marco and Edward and I went to the market at Pisac, a town about 45 minutes from Cusco. The town is surrounded by hills lined with Inca terraces, and although the market happens every day, Sunday is the biggest. There´s an artisans market, where you can buy all the textiles (Marco), jewelery (me) and bells to hang around llamas´necks (Edward--really!) that your heart desires. But the best part was the food market, where I could spend all day just watching the people. In this area, many people, especially the women, still wear traditional dress, which includes multilayered skirts, embroidered shirts, a great variety of styles of hats, and colorful cloths slung across their backs, containing merchandise, food, or children. Fruits and vegetables are stacked in neat piles, chunks of meat or piles of fish or sometimes entire animal carcasses are on tables ready to be sold, bags of spices and grains and other staple foods are available for purchase.



Yesterday we took a bus from Cusco to Puno, opting for the cheapest ticket we could find, about $5 each for what turned out to be an 8-hour ride. During the trip, passengers loaded and unloaded, carrying boxes and bags of food, blankets and all kinds of things, sometimes sitting in the aisles when all the seats were taken. Occasionally, we would pick up a woman or two selling food--fruit drinks in plastic bags, ears of corn with slices of cheese, loaves of bread, jello cups, and once even a fully cooked meat and potatoes meal. We´d drive along with them while they made their way through the bus, stopping off to let them off when they were done. Presumably they picked up another bus later to sell more of their wares and find their way back home. About 6 hours in, an earnest young man addressed the passengers with a sales pitch for herbal supplements guaranteed to improve your mental, respiratory, cardiac, sexual, and general health. We watched three DVDs: The Green Berets starring John Wayne, dubbed in Spanish, and two compilations of music videos from Peruvian artists. These last two were simultaneously annoying, fascinating, interesting, and ridiculously irritating. Take a look at Katty Portella singing of her love for gringo tourists, and you may understand why we decided to take a break today, hanging around Puno before our trip out to several of Lake Titicaca´s islands tomorrow: