Amateur Traveler: Friday, May 22

We were up and ready to go back to the airport at 8:30am, our flight was to leave at 11:30am. The same taxi driver we had before was taking us back. It was a somewhat sunny day. I did not mention the smell in the air. They air is very dirty in Lima. There do not seem to be any controls on emmissions.

As we were going back to the airport we drove by the ocean, there were surfers in full wetsuits. At this latitude so close to the equator the cold water from Antartica makes it's way all the way to Lima. This is the reason that Peruvian fisherman coined the phrase El Nino. Normally the fisheries are very good, the cold water keeps plenty of sealife available. But during an El Nino year where the Ocean surface warms up, the fishing is noticably worse.

Another thing on the way to the airport, it seemed there was a huge police presence, they seemed to have staked out every other corner on the main road to the airport. It was fine by me, and nobody asked me for a "service" payment.

We arrived at the airport and stood in line to pay the airport tax. Whenever leaving from a Peruvian airport a tax is required. $7 (US) for domestic and $30 (US) international. For some reason they can't just add it to your ticket.

We flew out to Juliaca on the high dessert plain. The plane had a stopover in Cusco. I got up and walked around on the plane and I immediately noticed the altitude, Cusco is at 11,500 feet. Julicaca and our final destination is at 12,500 feet. We got to Juliaca, it reminded me of the tiny airport in Yakatat Alaska which services Boeing 737s. You take the stairs out of the plane and enter a one room airport. Our driver was waiting for us. It was warm and sunny. But we had been warned that nights drop down below freezing.

We drove through Juliaca, a large commercial city. I will talk more about Juliaca as we found some interesting information about it later. We drove the road to Puno, along the way there were farmers harvesting the grain of the field by hand. There were a lot of small adobe buildings, many seem to be in disrepair and abandoned. We questioned our driver about them in our broken spanish, he told us that those were their homes. We found out later that these homes had no electricity, heat, or running water. There is no firewood in this area so dried Llama or Alpaca dung is used for heat during the cold nights.

We arrived in Puno, as soon as we walked into the lobby, I was really impacted by the altitude. When the hotel attendants found out that we came straight from Lima, they offered me oxygen, which I gladly took. They took the luggage to our 4th floor room, no elevator. After the oxygen we went upstairs. We all had to stop 2 or 3 times to catch our breath before we could make it to the 4th floor. It was going to turn out that making Puno the first stop was a big mistake for me.

We had the afternoon open, we had planned it that way so that we might acclimate to the altitude. I had some coca tea, they say that helps. One of the guys from the tour company arranging our activities in Puno came to the hotel for payment. They had wanted payment in $US. That was fine and I was prepared for that, but he rejected 2 of my bills because they had very small tears in the bills. It was a bit annoying, but I found 2 more bills that were acceptable to him. Apparently the banks are very picky about what they will accept. I imagine counterfeiting is a problem.

Currency is a bit confusing in Peru. Some prices are in $US, some in Soles and some in both. Some merchants want $US, some want Soles and some will take both. In general, Soles were used most regularly. One problem we ran into was trying to break a large Soles bill that we obtained from the ATM. At one place I wanted to buy water for 2 Soles, but they would not break a 20 soles bill. 20 Soles is worth a little less than $7 US.

Although my apetite was diminished we found a nice place to eat, where the food was very nicely presented and very tasty. I knew that coffee and alcohol could make the altitude worse so I opted for water only. It was Friday night and there was some concert in town that was attracting a lot of young people. The narrow streets were very crowded and we were some of the only "Gringos" around. I could see over everyone's head. We must have really stuck out. Everyone was very courteous. We were told that Puno was a very safe town, and indeed it certainly seemed like it.

The "International" airport in Juliaca