Puno, Peru

We reached Puno on an afternoon after a long busride, however, I was feeling very sick, I felt this way throughout the journey. We stopped in Copacabana and it was nice ther but I never felt good in this ride. I felt like throwing up and could not eat anything much at all, I could feel that I was going to be very sick soon. Yes, I was right, I survived the bus-ride to Puno somehow. But as soon as I got here, I completely collapsed. My stomach was not treating me well at all, I felt like throwing up several times but could not, so it was a really ugly feeling. I did not feel good at all that day in Puno. It was a massive food poisoning. Most likely, it was due to the last meal that I had in La Paz, unfortunately it was an Indian meal. I did not feel good while having that meal but rest of the people were so enthusiastic about it that I kept myself shut. That was the killer, oh, can you imagine, after almost 2 months I had an Indian meal in this South America trip for the first time and it did not suit me at all!

Anyway, evereyone else went for a walk in the town and they were planning for a group dinner in Puno but I just stayed in the hotel. I was making my way from bathroom to bedroom several times. O,I felt numb, weak and terrible! I just felt like taking the next flight back home. You feel bad when you are sick espesially, in an unknown country where nothing seems to be yours! You feel like a stranger, don´t you! I felt like calling my mom but controlled myself somehow. Instead, I called my GAP leader and explained him my sickness, the idea was that, if I did not get any better by next morning, I will not leave with the group next day for the home stay in Taquila island and would rather stay back in the hotel and get some rest. He agreed and next morning, I did not feel any better, in fact it was lot worse, so I had a doctor coming and seeing me in my hotel room, he gave me two injections, gave a whole bunch of medicines for the infection in my stomach, pain etc. I paid US$30 for the doctor´s visit , borrowed that money from Kate before they left for the day. Now I am left with only 30 soles. Guess what, I had to go to the pharmacy to get the medicine, before that I had to get money from the ATM. How was I going to do all that, I could barely stand at that point, I felt so helpless! On top of that, my room was on the fifth floor from where I could see lake Titicaca but that also means I had to take the stairs down 5 floors and then walk 10-15 minutes to the ATM and then go to the pharmacy and another 10-15 minutes walk back to the hotel and take the stairs to the fifth floor to my room again! My head was almost spinning just with the thought of this little but tough journey and was not sure how I would manage to do all this just by myself. I do not speak Spanish either, otherwise, I could possibly get help from the hotel guys! They could be helpful! Anyway, I did exactly what I just mentioned here. I was walking like a sick pale person who could fall down any moment but I did it all and got back to the hotel safe! I got money, medicine, then I needed some food. that doctor adviced me not to take any solid for a day, so I ordered a soup and the front desk people were nice. They got me a nice chicken soup and it was tasty. Although I felt better after the little food, medicine and the injection, food was not staying much inside me and I was still very weak.

Manuel, our team leader insisted on me doing some local trips while they were away but I was not quite up for it. That evening, a female travel agent, Guadalupa came to see me if I was doing okay and by that time I was actually feeling quite good. She suggested that I could be picked up next morning by her people at 9 am and could visit few of the floating islands with some other people and she could then arrange for me to meet my team leader as my team would be visiting the islands around the same time. I was hesitant initially but then I thought, I did want to do this and really did not feel like being on the bed feeling sick. So I went to the floating islands and those were amazing. It was so surprising how people live in these islands. They gave us a demonstration of how they make these islands and what they do to stabilize them and also how they live their lives here. I was thoroughly impressed and I was feeling lot better to be able to do this trip. I met my team in one of the floating islands. We helped the Uros people pushing a new boat to the lake and then we took a ride on that boat, it was fun, they even sang and danced for us, I bought some nice tapestry from them, it was expensive but beautiful and I can use it for the home decoration later. The money I spent would help the community directly so I felt quite good. I took pictures with the girl from whom I bought the tapestry, she was so happy, I felt really good to see her big smile. We had a picnic in the boat although I was afraid to eat and so I did not, still stayed on liquid only for another day.

We came back to Puno in the afternoon and there was a massive parade going on and all the kids were nicely dressed up and they were dancing throughout the parade. It was a charming experience to see them all dancing and happy, we got stuck in the middle but managed to get some place to stand and watch the parade. I think we are in a festival season.

I forgot to mention in the post for La Paz, we saw another parade in La Paz the day we got there and it was initially a small one but then, it turned out to be a huge parade. The colors of the custumes, the dancing, the makeups and the band groups along with them with diferent musical instruments were amazing and it was a big show, I took pictures from the hotel glass windows, it was superb.

We left Puno next day and came to Cusco, the archeological capital of South America. I am so glad to be staying extra days in Cusco while the team is doing the Inca-trail or 4 days! Coming up in my next post, all about Cusco.....