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Published: June 17th 2006
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Peruvian style phone box
ps...the phone actually did work! Puno town itself is nothing much special besides having many places to dine and to book tours from and the facilities to change money. It does have a beautiful asset though, that being the base to settle and leave your bags in storage for the night while heading out to the islands on Lake Titicaca.
I arrived by bus from Cusco late afternoon on the 19th May and booked into a tour the following day for a 2 day, 1 night venture to the closest 3 islands to Puno. They are Isla Uros, Isla Amantani and Isla Taquile.. (not to be confused with Taquila! so the guide kept reminding us). This is the package tour that pretty much every operator can book for varying prices… 40-45 soles was the going rate.. don’t pay much more than that even if they insist that lunch is provided.. it is not.. you will have to pay in cash at the restaurant again anyway!
Again, it is who is on your tour that makes your tour! and i was lucky enough to have the company of Yoel, an Israeli that was staying at the same hostel as me in Puno as well as
a delightful couple of girls from Melbourne, Isabella and Nicola. A little bit uncanny, but something that traveling is all about, I had actually shared a taxi with Isabella and Nicola on the way back from Ollantaytambo to Cusco after the Machu Picchu escapades and we by chance ended up on the same boat.. hence, on the same tour together.
I have to extend a HUGE thank you to the girls for their compassion at the loss (or breakdown) of my one and only remaining camera and sharing their snapshots with me… a couple of theirs appear on this blog.
Our boat ride started at the jetty in Puno and headed across the waters of Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is known as the world’s highest navigable lake, resting at 3820m above sea level and with an expanse as far as the eye can see… well at least out through the crystal clear air and out to the horizon. Our first stop was at Isla Uros to check out the floating village and way that the Peruvians live out there. The floating Islands are man made by dragging portions of land from the banks of more solid land, tying the
squares together with reed and planting vegetation on top which stabilises it a little more. Beneath the land that we were walking on was 17m of water... the communities are pretty set in their ways, where the men head out on thier man made boats to fish in the lake for thier dinners and the women make handicrafts that can be sold to both the passing tourists or taken into the city markets for sale, again to the tourists that come through these parts.
As a group, the four of us stuck together on the treks up the mountains and on the island tours and it was a relief that it was not only myself that felt absolutley unfit on the walks and out of breath and amazed at how much altitude really does thin the air of oxygen. We had plenty of laughs along the way and drank the coca tea by the pot full at our breakfasts to minimise any of the headaches that we got from altitude.
Overnight we stayed with a family on one of the Islands and got to interact a little more with the local communities. Our family was lovely and the
mother was a great cook!! She had 3 sons, 2 of which we met and were pretty young, about 6 and 8 years of age, while her eldest son was one of the first to actually be on the mainland in Puno furthering his education. It had been a rarity that the men actually move away from the island and persue something other than the traditional roles that the community has for men... Her son was only one of 3 that had taken this opportunity.
At night we also got to dress up in traditional outfits and attend the local 'town hall' to enjoy their traditional music and learn a little Peruvian dance. Funny though, when we got there Isabella and I were the only girls wearing the mens attire of a heavy woolen poncho and beanie. All the rest of the girls had real pretty dresses on!!!.. we didn't feel very pretty after that realisation, but still had a great time! A little more on the attire... after arriving at the final Island we were going to visit on this tour we saw a pretty efficient way of defining the official (those that keep the island running and
ensuring rules are kept too... sort of like police i guess) men, the single men and the taken men on the island all defined by the different coloured hats that they wear.
After the tour we all got together again for a couple of drinks and a send off to Yoel as he was heading in the opposite direction to us three who were funnily enough again heading down by bus to Copacobana, Bolivia.. just the other side of the border.
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