You Know You're In South America When..

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm in Peru. For those of you just getting to your seats, I've already been through much of Chile and Bolivia (check past blogs by clicking links on the right hand side of the page).

Shoeshine boys in La Paz hide their identities, but it's a little shady.

So I'm writing this from Arequipa, Peru. After the Amazon, I took a 20-hour bus ride to La Paz, Bolivia (not that pleasant, I had a seat but it was standing room only, a lady with a monkey, and plenty of crying babies). I spent one night in La Paz and headed off West to Copacabana, Bolivia, which is right on the beach of Lake Titicaca and close to the Eastern border of Peru. I'm pretty sure it's not what Barry Manilow (Yeah, come on, you know you thought it) was singing about - I've been informed that it was about a club in Rio, I wish I could be his biggest fan but I'm not - but it was definitely as pleasant as it could have been without Lola.

Copacabana: Just like Barry said.

Lakshore.

I rented a kayak and went out on the lake for a while, then rented a mountain bike and rode an offroad path next to the lake. The path wasn't the easiest, as there were huge rocks on it and there was a drop off the side to the beach, which isn't sand, just giant rocks. But what made it difficult is the bike I was renting for 8 Bolivianos per hour (about a buck) was the most dilapidated piece of metal with wheels that ever attempted to call itself a bike, let alone mountain bike. I had met some English friends at the rental and was riding with them. Luckily we made it to where we wanted and started heading back without a hitch - then I ate it right over the handlebars. I was mostly ok, and we made it back even with my pedal actually snapping off about 100 meters before the rental place.

Don't be fooled, this was the easy part. Copa in the background.

After Copacabana, I grabbed a bus over the border into Puno, Peru. I stayed there a night, and had a pretty good vegetarian lunch for cheap (made by the Hare Krishnas..!). I learned that there was rioting in La Paz for something or other - labor or police corruption or something - and I had missed it by 2 days.. good job, me. I ended up not really liking Puno. In my opinion it's a poorly planned town (I was constantly getting disoriented and there are almost no street signs) and it just really didn't have much to offer; it seemed like every other little pueblito and nothing unique stuck out. Maybe that's just me being an ignorant tourist and not searching things out - but I read up on it and didn't find much.

Puno: Same ol' same ol'.

So in the morning I cruised on out and over to Arequipa, (which is where I am now) but not without a hitch. You know you're in South America when your bus is stopped by three men holding large guns in the middle of the street. Luckily they turned out to be police, but two of them weren't in uniform so it was a bit of a scare at first. Confusion took over everyone in the bus as 6 or 8 more uniformed police showed up out of nowhere. Spanish was flying and a couple people were forced off the bus, but basically, long story short, the bus was carrying a couple large bags of cocaine (according to those that translated). We were stopped for a while, then had to stop at another checkpoint and be searched, adding more than 2 hours onto a 5 hour bus ride.

Non-uniformed guy with big gun.

Uniformed guy holding something suspicious.Goodbye, ''cocaine,'' (who really knows if it was). Throwing it in the truck. Only like half these police are uniformed, very professional indeed.

Finally I arrived in Arequipa, which is a pretty cool city so far. I had dinner a while ago, and here's what I ate (I had to try it):

If you can't tell, it's a whole guinea pig, feet, head and all. And of course, it tasted like chicken.. just like everything else you're afraid to try.

My meal wasn't complete without begging from these two the whole time:

Hope everyone at home is doing well. I will be whitewater rafting on the Rio Majes in Peru in a day or two, and after that I'm headed toward the coast to buy a surfboard and grab some waves.

Miss you all, and thanks for the love in emails and comments.

Hasta mañana,

Brian