Monday

Sunday ended up being a do nothing day however I hesitate not to post something lest it appear the blog is silenced. Layne didn’t go to the market yesterday as it closed early, but she went today, Monday. I went to pick up our laundry yesterday, Rusty spent the day moving between sunshine and shade alternating his nap locations. I think forgetful set this post to publish early in the morning. Silly me, apologies. 

We have planned our departure and want to leave before the city’s holiday reaches a crescendo, we don’t need the chaos. The plan now is to leave on Thursday morning and take to the mountains. There is a Quechua women’s weaving collective outside Cusco Layne wants to check out. It’s in a town that goes by the lovely name of Pisac (“pee-sack”) pretty much directly on our way to Brazil. She’s seen all she wants of Cusco through my photos so we will be pressing on to get past the Andes, our last high pass for a while, to descend to the rain forest on the other side, marked below in green: 

Until then we enjoy perfect winter weather with patience. 

Sunday In Arequipa

I expected to get a wheelbarrow load of pictures from Layne yesterday as she had planned to go to the San Camilo market in town. It’s a very photogenic covered city block filled with booths. Maybe tomorrow…The reason she didn’t get there was purely due to the city being in holiday turmoil. She couldn’t get an Uber; as simple as that.

There is so much traffic in the city it was hard to move. I wanted Indian food for dinner and we hadn’t managed to get any delivered our first night so yesterday I ordered early and they got our lamb and biryani out to us. We order on WhatsApp in English and we really like their food.

There’s not much going on around here to be honest. I’m enjoying doing little chores and sitting out in the sun with my Kindle. This does not make for an exciting travelogue.

We met these guys in a parking lot in La Serena in Chile around May. They had two dogs and we chatted briefly but we made a connection. Bjorn is another young German tired of Germany and its regulations now enjoying the wide open spaces of South America. 

Alessandra is from northern Italy near Milan. Her father is one year younger than me but Italian speakers are rare on the road so she was happy to chat with me, the old man, in her native tongue. She said she wishes her father would get off the couch and get out and see the world the way we do.

Their Volkswagen breaks down all the time and Bjorn has learned to be a mechanic. It was the vehicle they had when they wanted to come to South America so they stuffed it in a container in September 2023.  One of their dogs has died and the other one is elderly. In a couple of years they figure they may be free to ship to Southern Africa and explore that continent. He plays music, she makes crafts, they buy interesting locally made products on the way and sell them online across Europe. They make it work on about $1600 a month. They left Arequipa bound for some beach time after weeks in the mountains. I hope we see them again before too long.

Now we are alone in the campground at least until the next overlander arrives. Rusty has the run of the place and we can use the women’s toilets, the ones closest to us, without fear of me offending a female camper. 

Layne has been route planning and the news we have on a proposed visit to Lake Titicaca is not good. The word is tourism has wrecked the place. The famous reed islands people live on are retained for tourists only and tours are hard core exercises in sales of “souvenirs.” Apparently the balsa reed islands are maintained for tourists and tours are taken on plastic boats camouflaged with reeds. Layne nixed that and I can’t disagree. It makes me glum feeling I’ve come too late to feed the memories of my discovery of Kon Tiki in my childhood. Bugger. Consequently Layne has been looking around and has found some stuff she wants to see around Cusco and the Sacred Valley. There is so much of Peru that is devoid of visitors it is jarring to find Instagram has Disneyfied some bits you’d really like to see. 

The world keeps moving. I am looking forward to moving ourselves. If not Titicaca other interesting places.