Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everybody! I know what you're all thinking, "I shouldn't even be reading this because its been 4 months since this clown updated with a REAL post, I shouldn't waste my time anymore."  Well, in the spirit of the holiday season, and because I have a ton of free time everyday, I'm going to give the gift of actually continuing this blog. Last time on Dan's South American Adventure, I had just spent a few days on Lake Tititcaca and was headed towards Puno and Cusco in Peru. Here we go:


We boarded the buses in Copacabana, Bolivia and crossed over the Peruvian border (where we were greeted by a sign that said "Welcome to Peru: Country free of the avian flu") and drove along the seemingly endless shores of the lake until we reached a small city named Puno.  There we boarded some boats which took us out to the "floating islands"- islands built out of reeds and mud that "float" and are anchored to the lake's floor with ropes.  There were a ton of these islands all tied together, each with a bunch of huts and other structures on them so it looked like a small town. It was a pretty intense tourist trap, so we left pretty quickly.
Our bus to Cusco wasn't schedule to leave for about 4 hours and there's literally nothing to do in Puno and the power was out in the entire city for some reason, plus there was no heat and it was nighttime and the middle of the winter- so we sat, freezing cold in the dark, in the bus station and played Hearts for 4 hours.  Finally our bus came and rescued us.
We arrived in Cusco at about 330am and walked around for a bit before we found a hostel.  The hostel actually had hot running water, so I took my first shower in what had been 5 days or so.  My hair was quite long and curly, and the lack of washing it combined with an abundance of filth and sweat buildup from sleeping in a mud hut and/or on a bus/bus station floor had turned it to dreads, so that was kinda cool, yet annoying to try to wash out.  The next day we explored Cusco a tiny bit.  Cusco is an incredible city, my favorite of the trip.  It has a lot of big beautiful plazas, ancient Spanish influence, amazing architecture, and delicious food. We got breakfast in this tiny little cafe with incredible food and good music.  The famous composition Bolero by Maurice Ravel came on, which I hadn't heard since I played it in my high school's concert band during freshman year, and it reminded me of my grandma, so that was really cool. I digress. After breakfast we walked around for a short time and then grabbed a cab to our next leg of the trip.
It was a 2 hour cab ride to a place called Ollantaytambo.  On the way our cab driver took us to 2 sites, one was a giant outdoor market where natives sold the same blankets, sweatshirts, hats, gloves, and other things made in China that we saw everywhere else in South America, and the other was a place called Moray.  The market was a waste of time, but Max and I walked around the town a bit and it was super interesting.  Old buildings, windy cobblestone streets, an old church, soccer fields (obviously, although the altitude was about 11000ft) gave it some genuine character. Moray was incredible. Click here for info and a picture.  The big circle-ish thing in the picture was unbelievably huge and had perfect acoustics, so good that Max and I had a conversation at normal speaking volume while he was at the top and I stood at the center of the bottom. It wasn't used as an ampitheater though, it was used to do research on ideal climates for different crops. It was about 300 degrees out that day, so we hurried back to the cab and continued to Ollantaytambo.
The ride was breathtaking to say the least.  The roads we took wound through mountains, farms, meadows, over rivers, and more.  It was really beautiful and made the 2 hour ride fly by. There's nothing in the town of Ollantaytambo except a train station, so upon arrival we boarded the train and took a ride to Aguas Calientes, home of the famous Macchu Picchu.  Those stories and more tomorrow! Enjoy the snow everybody!