Here’s what the life of a backpacker on a normal day is like. 😁
– Sorted out the card problems.
– Added more money to my phone card.
– Had lunch at an ‘exotic’ restaurant. To me, it was foreign. To them, I was foreign.
While I was having lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, a little kid in the spider man costume sneaked into the restaurant. He was pretending to be a spider man. That was so funny.
I was getting used to this kind of life. I started to enjoy it. The transition period was gone. I wondered what would happen to me when I went back home. <- that’s what I wrote in 2012. Now, in 2021, I can tell my past self, ‘because of this trip, I can’t live like those so-called normal people. I can hardly work in the office and stick to those 9 to 5 jobs.’
As suggested by Juan, our tour guide, I went to Inca museum. It just happened that there was a guided tour but it was in Spanish. It was fine for me because the guide also used some English words. There were only four of us in that tour. One of them was a traveller that I met at Waynapicchu yesterday. Small world.
What the guide told us was the same as what Juan said. Juan was really professional.
Inca – still no one knows where they were from. According to the legend, they were from Lake Titicaca in Puno. They were not nomads. They just came and conquered and brought ideas from their previous dynasties. There were many dynasties before them.
They used threads to count. Each thread had a different colour which represented a different meaning. It could be used to count millions of things. It was like an abacus.
Their mummies were positioned like a baby because they believed there was life after death. After they died, they would be reborn. That’s why they positioned the mummies this way. This sounds like the Egyptian.
What else?
They used stones to make a big nail to help them build the roof of the house. We saw them in Machu Picchu too but I think the guide didn’t call it a nail. Just some stone that jutted out of the wall. And they used some ropes to tie the nails and then built the roof. When we knocked on the nail, it sounded hollow. Remember, that was a stone. So interesting.
Some sculptors from Italy made a Europeanised sculpture of Inca.
Another interesting thing I saw in the museum was that some sculptures had a swollen bit on their face. The guide explained, ‘because they were chewing coca leaves.’ One of the Spanish girls said it looked like a mosquito bite. That was so funny.
I went to the bus terminus to buy ticket to Puno for the next day. It was quite a dumb idea that we had to go there in person to get the ticket.
——
I arrived at Puno after the 7-hour bus ride. It was exhausting.
I didn’t have any expectation about this place. This was like a stopover to me. But so far it had been a good stop over. 😊
I went to the information centre to get some information to Lake Titicaca. They recommended me two tour agencies. Since the price to go there by myself would be similar to joining a tour, I took the tour option.
I was very hungry as I didn’t eat much on the 7 hour bus ride. I went to the cathedral in the main square and saw them preparing for a wedding. There would be a wedding ceremony at 6pm (it was 5:30pm). As I didn’t want to miss it, I quickly had late lunch and went to the tour agency to pay for that local tour. The guy at the tour agency said it was a special price for me. Probably it was a last minute deal. He didn’t lie. The price was really low.
On my way to the cathedral, I saw this:
I couldn’t believe it could be that cold in this area. Tropical weather. Cold!
6 – 7 December 2012
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I‘ve been to Puno, too.
We went there by train, which was also not very comfortable even if it was in first class, if I remember correctly.
I had altitude sickness the first night, though. Right after arrival I slept fully clothed in my sleeping bag covered with a couple of blankets for 12 hours. But then I felt ok.
The next night we spent on an island on Lake Titicaca, where one of my fellow travellers got sick.
Yes, sleeping is the best strategy. That’s what I was told before I went to Tibet. Did the other traveller suffer from altitude sickness too? I didn’t spend a night on the island. I wonder how it feels to sleep on such an artificial island in Lake Titicaca. How was it?
We didn’t stay on one of the floating islands but on a solid one, I guess Amantani. At that time there weren’t any guest houses, we spent the night with different families. It was very simple but everybody was very friendly.
I guess my friend had altitude sickness, too. Only later he told me, that when he blew out the candle before going to bed he also blew out the light of his life – but he woke up again next morning and was ok
The families used candles! That sounds very exotic. 😊