Peru at last

So After leaving the desert and San Pedro we headed north to the border town of Arica to get our selves together before crossing into Peru. Arica actually turned out to be rather pleasent. It was still more or less in the desert but is located on the coast. We were only there for about 24 hours but happened to catch this man pooping in a grassy island in the middle of a busy intersection. We were pleased to learn that our next destination puno, on the coast of lake titicaca, was supposedly only 4 hours away. We bought the ticket from the bus guy but we felt from the beggining that something funny was going on. When we showed up for our bus the next morning we were suprised not to find a huge bus waiting for us but a taxi driver with a pony tail and dragon ball z decals on his buick lesaber. Apparantly he was to drive us over the border to the next town in peru where we would catch a bus to puno. The drive went well enough and we passed into peru with no problems. However our taxi driver did disapear with our passports for several lengthy periods of time which made us a little uncomfortable. The second we stepped out of our taxi in the bus terminal in peru a man yelling james and joel told us to grab our bags and run. apparantly we only had 10 minutes to get on our bus that didnt even leave from the terminal but some other spot accross town. We ran and jumped into another taxi and started weaving through traffic accross town. When we got to the other bus terminal our bus was gone. The man who was rushing us around town would not settle for defeat. he got us back in the taxi and told the driver to chase the bus down outside of town. about 5 km later we caught the bus going up a steep hill just out of town. our helper guy waved the bus down and we got on. once on the bus we realized that things worked a little different in peru. there were people everywhere and half of them seemed to have the plauge. they were hacking and throwing up into grocery bags. we soon realized that this bus ride was not a mere 4 hour jaunt into the mountains. Puno was over 400km away through winding mountain roads. the roads we were on were like nothing ive seen before. at one point we were driving through a blizzard going over a 15000 ft pass. starting the day at sea level jim and i were both suffering from the alitutde change. gaining 15000 ft in 4 hours is no joke. at one point all i could do was close my eyes and take deep breaths to not pass out. After 10 hours of winding mountains roads, children throwing up in bags, one stop to fix the front bumber, and countless others so vendors could jump on the bus to sell us jello we finaly made it puno. So far it has been great here. both jim and i currently outfitting ourselves in full alpaca jump suits.