Pre-Christmas Road Trip, Part One: Puno

Norah, Lola, and our rooftop view of Lake Titicaca.

While the children are still nestled, all snug in their beds, I've got a chance to write a little about our recent trip south. Lake Titicaca sits on the Peru-Bolivia border, a ten-hour bus ride from Cusco. Since it is a whole lot easier to keep the nippers entertained while they are asleep, we opted to take the luxury overnight bus this time. This itinerary wasn't without its costs, though, as our departure day was a busy one, full of kid birthday parties and Melissa's work commitments, and we managed to get to the bus terminal only after a mad scramble.

The night's bus ride was, for the most part, a restful one, although we arrived in Puno at 6am, far earlier than the customary waking time of 80% of the family. This made for a groggy beginning to our morning as we trudged around our new environs:

Harper and Norah panhandling on the cathedral steps.

Our, sweet, exhausted, passed-out Lola, doing her best itinerant inebriate impersonation.

Unbeknownst to us, and without needing to move muscle, this sedate exploration soon turned into a very lively civic event! What we didn't know is that this date was some kind of national holiday celebrating a big way-back-when military victory over the Spanish. The Plaza de Armas, where we were lounging, turned painfully slowly into a military spectacle and parade, with a crowd growing larger as the morning wore on. I wish we would have thought to take some footage of the Hogan's Heros antics we witnessed as the military folks made their final preparations for this thing, but we were far too into the fun of it all. Huzzah for military superiority and smug Gringo exceptionalism, right? 

Here's the only shot we took:

Some Quechua women pulling up a seat for the big event.

Otherwise, as we had read, Puno itself doesn't have a long list of tourists sites, although it sits second on the country's list of tourist destinations due to its proximity to Titicaca. While the balance of this first stage of the trip was spent settling in and making preparations for the adventures that lay ahead, we did manage to finish the day diving headlong into the tourist scene and broke bread at Puno's famous dinner show! An evening of traditional Andean music and dance!?! Would it live up to expectations??? 

Since we had little ones in tow, and much to our girls' bewilderment, the reservations folks made sure we were sat front and center for all of the action. You likely know that Condors are a pretty big deal here (you know, as in El Condor Pasa?). Anyway, here's a shot of the Condor dance, and Melissa managed to capture Harper's freaked-out expression, which speaks volumes to how captivated they were by the whole spectacle:

The girls were also blown away by the jingle bells sewn into these dancers' costumes. We should have taken some footage of this one:

Given that it was a free show in a pretty confined space, I thought that the performers did a fantastic job. Plus the show had the added advantage of keeping the girls from crawling around on the floor and scraping gum from under the tables while Melissa and I played "momnivore" and actually ate the food we had ordered. How do kids manage to survive on so little food?






Did I mention that there was even a Devil Dance???

After all of the fanfare, the girls got on stage to top off the evening with some clowning around. Naturally, toe-head Lola and her blond hair stole the after-show.

(Stay tuned for a blog post covering the Latino fascination with blond hair.)

All in all, behaving like full-fledged tourists for the day was a great way to begin this excursion. 

Now on to the lake to get away from it all!