The Bellybutton of Sweet Pacha Mama

Greetings faithful readers,

¨Jumping for Joy at The Door of Wisdom¨

On our last episode, we had just finished shreding the sandy slopes before heading up to altitude. We got into Puno around 8:01 pm, found some grub, and hit the sack. Sleeping proved a wee bit dificult for some, as Puno sits at about 11,000 ft, especially mixed with the chilly weather. What happened next, we knew not. We crawled out of bed around eight, for we had scheduled a meeting with a shaman named Raul. He stands about 5´7¨. His pony tail extends down to mid back, with a kind face. After the first greeting, he would flash his trademark smile, one worthy of postcards across the globe. An hour van/bus ride later, we arrived at the sacred, or so he said, Pink Mountains. Not too sure of the name choice, the mountains had a pinkish tinge, but nothing flamingo-like. What transpired after this can really not be described adequately with words, for the experience spoke for itself. However, we will do our best to provide a highlight reel for your curious imaginations. It began with an offering of some sweetly scented oils combined with some coca leaves as an effort to please the powers that be. We then trotted (carefully) down the spine of a giant (rock) snake, taking us to a mystical land. It was nothing Narnia-like, but it was pretty bacon (not food, but a synonym for awesomeness). Rocks soon surrounded us, jetting out of the grassy hills. We started to climb, led by our friend Raul, stopping many a time to listen to the tales of the condor, snail, worms, family, caterpillar, and more. For all these animals were personified by rocks and told a grand Incan story. Soon, our travels took us to the Door of Wisdom, where we connected to Pacha Mama on a much deeper scale. It was magical...

Thus, we digress. After a spiritual experience with Raul, the group headed to Lago Tits (a phrase coined by Zoester). Lago Titikaka, as the locals prefer to call it, is an incredible place. We visited the floating islands and then headed to Amantani, the second largest island of the lake, where we all spent the night with indigenous host families. After watching an amazing sunset on a freezing look out point, we attended Prom for Jordan and Eli. Instead of tuxes and fancy gowns men were garbed in ponchos, while the women wore traditional skirts and shawl-like apparatuses. A cold night and a short boat ride later, we found ourselves walking along the beautiful island of Taquil (something like that). We toured around the island, learned a bit about their culture, and later, some of us plunged into the freezing cold waters of the lago. So worth it. A longer boat ride took us back to Puno, where we had a free afternoon to relax and explore the city. 5:45am and it was time to get up to catch our bus to Cuzco. Slightly brutal, but you got to do what you got to do sometimes. The bus rumbled into Cuzco around 3:38, tallying 7 hours (roughly) for our tired group. It was an eventful ride including but not limited to: beautiful scenery passing by, horrible Greek Mythology movies playing on a small tv, card games, reading books, ipod sock making, great conversations with your neighbor, massages, jello eating, and an extremely urgent stop to urinate. All in all, quite the trip.

Well, we have a full week in the Sacred Valley ahead of us with no time to waste. Wish us luck!

Toodles,

PB and J

(Patrick Burkhardt and Jordi).