After a seven-hour bus from Puno, I arrived in Cusco this afternoon. And after nearly 45 minutes in a taxi fishing for a hostal, I am booked into Amaru Hostal, in which I will only stay one night (because it is full tmr). Luckily I have found a nicer place to stay for tomorrow, hehe. Thanks to Macchu Picchu, which was discovered in the early 1900s, Cusco has become probably the most touristy city of South America, and is often called, the Kathmandu of South America. At first glance, it is just like any other non-modern Peruvian or Bolivian city (dirty and rugged..). Initially I thought it looked a bit like La Paz, being at 3,400M in altitude and also having hills of houses caressing its center. At a closer look, Cusco is a shopping paradise for tourists and a salad of Spanish and Incan cultural attractions. On your feet lies Incan style cobblestones while above your head rise Catholic churches that were built by the Spanish conquistadores since its invasion in the 16th century. Like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, it took me two hours to cross three blocks from my hostal to the Plaza de Armas as every touristy store seemed to be beckoning my visit, and every store, at first glance, seemed to hold so much potential...

Before I ramble on more about Cusco, let me regress slightly to my two-night Isla de Amantani trip on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is one of the three sacred lakes in the world (the other two being Lake Baikal in Russia and Pyramid Lake in Nevada). Legend says it gave birth to the father and mother of the Incan Empire in the 1100s and it is also the cradle of two pre-Incan civilizations with about 3,000 years of history, the Quechans (which I met on Isla de Amantani) and the Aymarans who live on the Uros Reeds Floating Islands, which I also toured.

Basically that morning right when I landed at the pier I was pulled into a tourist boat and was quickly acquainted with a bunch of other travelers. Shortly after we pulled out of the dock, I quickly forgot about the harbour which I found dirty and was mesmerized by the incredible stillness of the lake, which really felt more like a sea. We stopped over at the Uros Reeds Floating Islands, which initially seemed really interesting - they are basically a group of mini-islands made out of woven reeds and you have these Aymaran families selling tourist things on them. 15 minutes of being surrounded by the touristiness of on these islands felt slightly suffocating. What is worse is that I found out from earlier travelers that the families no longer live on the islands anymore, so they merely come here during the day for the tourists. Well, to be more practical-minded, tourism has its merits for bringing in wealth to the poor. Another 3.5 hours on the lake, we landed on Isla de Amantani and four other travelers and I were grouped together to stay with one host family on the first night and had a nice peaceful time enjoying island scenery and food. Shortly after I landed on the island I hit myself really really hard on the top of my head and felt drowsy from it afterwards, so instead of following the group to see the ruins on the top of the hill, I took things slow and went to the harbour to meditate and rest. Second day I pretty much spent the whole day on my own (as the group has left to visit the neighbouring Taquile Island while I opted to stay behind for some quiet time). I spent the morning on the top of the island awing at acres and acres of dry terraces separated by low rise stones and their interplay with exotic clouds (where clouds are so huge and close I can almost touch them), which rendered various great photo moments. After a cleansing meditation on one of the ruins that overlook the beautiful lake, which really resembled more like a sea (Lake Titicaca takes 12 hours to cross on a moderate speed boat), I descended to the other side of the island and met a bunch of local musicians in the plaza who delighted at meeting a Chinese girl. They eagerly showed me their instruments that were made in China! Shortly after they invited me to a wedding ceremony, at which they were playing their music. I followed the group of musicians to retrieve the marrying couple from their home and followed them on a long windy path to the wedding place, which is an open area with two long benches and some local women sitting on the floor in the middle. Many courses of food were served, which started with soup (first course), followed by another soup (second course), then a handful of cereals, then rice dish with different types of potatoes.. which I couldnt quite finish as I was stuffed to the brim already from the previous soups, and a local came over, grabbed my dish and passed it to a local lady who poured my dish into her bag. The courses went on and on, and somewhere in the middle, I sneaked out of the wedding to take a nap at the lakeside. Without enuf sunscreen, my face is now as BBQed as a half-cooked duck. And as I edged my way back up the island passing the wedding, they were still eating... probably onto the tenth course! I made it up to the top of the island again, to the other ruin (there are two in total on the top) to watch sunset. Watching the sunset brought back memories from my previous trip to Taquile Island (the neighbouring island). Thinking that the sun will take a while to fully set, I started to make my way to my family on the other side of the hill. My sense of timing was off and by the time I got near my family on the other side of the island, it was already dark and I did not have my headlamp with me and I was trapped n lost in the rice terraces unable to find my way back to the family. Just as I was really panicking and thinking that I need to just walk to any house with light on, I was saved by a family that kindly conceded to let me stay overnight until I can leave to look for my family in the next morning. And just as I was happily settled into their dark house (all they had was a candle for me in their room), the whole family came in and investigated me on the details of the family I was supposed to be staying with. I could only recall the name of one of little boys in the family... and after much debate among the family members in their native language Quechan, they have managed to narrow down the possibility of my family to two and then kindly launched a search crew, which consisted of the mom and the little son, to locate my family in the dark. Luckily these ppl do use flashlight so very quickly I was able to re-unite with my family and had my warm dinner followed by a restful sleep. Next day I went back to Puno and today I am in Cusco. Overall, the experience was healing, fun, and a bit shocking (the getting lost in the dark was a bit scary for me...).

Have booked myself for a 30-minute Coca tealeaf reading with a local shaman tomorrow morning. Friday I will do a three-day whitewater rafting trip on Rio Apurimac, which has come highly recommended by many. So I will not write until after. No Incan trail for me as it requires 3-month advance booking and I was too late. Instead I plan to do some bus hopping to sandwiched towns with connections via the Incan train, to see the much awaited Macchu Picchu.