Out of Bolivia safe and sound

So! I´ve been trying to blog with some kind of frequency, but of late the connections have been too slow to let me even log in without timing out. Then again I was in Bolivia, a substantially poorer country than Peru. Well, we're back in Puno, Peru and just had another lunch in the form of a 'menú'. Now we're in an internet cafe (obviously since I could type this) killing time until our bus leaves for Arequipa (five hour ride), where hopefully I get to see the deepest canyon in the world. The place is also apparently surrounded by vocanos, so this should be fun! Especially since we're dropping about a mile in altitude... now that we've just about fully adjusted to it of course.

Yesterday we hiked Isla del Sol (after a very sloooooowwwww ferry ride over) which according to legend was the birthplace of the first Inca, and before that the place that gave birth to just about everything in the world. It was neat. Dry. Very dry. And a very long walk. Somehow it seemed be mostly uphill as well, and with the complete lack of tree cover (not many trees at that altitude anyways)it was dry, cold, and sunny. The sun was incredibly strong since we were so high up, but it was too cold to not wear long sleeves. That probably saved me from some serious sunburn though so I suppose it's a wash.

Bolivian T.V. Talk about a propganda conduit for the government. Just about every hour had about fifteen minutes devoted to saying good things about the President. I mean they could have made even Bill-O and Fox noise blush. Sometimes you have to see the other side to appreciate just how important some things are. And yes of course, as anywhere, The Simpsons are on at all and random hours of the day. Los Simpsons! My favorite parts are when they read anything written on a sign (or Bart's chalkboard in the opening sequence) aloud in spanish over whatevers going on in the show.

I'm not sure what else I've forgotten to blog about. There was the long bus trip from Cusco to Puno a while back (about ten hours with the stops to visit some tourist things) in which we saw some interesting things. We've also all been pretty sick (Emily's actually been pretty much fine though) but I'm feeling a hell of a lot better than I was even a few days ago, and Chip was never all that bad. Mom though had a rough time of it for a while. And no this has nothing to do with altitude, these are the cold old fashion viral and bacterial sicknesses. All kinds of fun.

It seems like the local 'protest' is over now completely. By protest it was kind of an almost earth day event though. People were parading with bands and such to stop polution with signs demanding greater protections for Lake Titicaca which they (and rightly so from my point of view) see as their and their city's future.

The trout here is freakin' tasty. The Alpaca delicious. And guinea pigs aren't just pets anymore. Roast 'cuy' being a local delicacy. It just goes to prove again that cuter means more delicious. I've got to try and remember to get a picture of it...

That's all for now. I'm going to have a fairly steep bill so I've got to run now. Bye from Peru!