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Published: June 12th 2008
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Kate - We did another overnight journey to get to our next destination Puno where the famous Lake Titicaca lies. The journey was probably our worst yet!! I think we knew it was going to be a killer when we were the only ´gringos´ on the bus and every Peruvian that got on the bus was carrying at least 2-3 blankets with them and we we didnt even have our jackets on. Needless to say the 7 hour journey was FREEZING!!!! We managed to huddle together and get a little sleep- i think it helped that we were so exhausted from out 4 day trek but it was definitely a long night. It didnt get much better when we arrived in Puno at 5.30 in the morning. I think it was only about 3 degrees and we hadn't got anywhere booked to stay. Luckily a Peruvian lady convinced us to go with her and she took us to a nice and cheap hotel with heater-thank god!!!!
So the main reason for visiting Puno is as i said before was Lake Titicaca which it the highest Lake in the world (around 3800 meters above sea level) and i think i am
right in saying the largest Lake in South America- well anyway it is huge!!!! It actually lies in between Bolivia and Peru! We didnt want to spend too long in Puno as sadly our Peru trip is rapidly coming to an end so we booked on a full day tour to visit the lake. The next day we were up at 6am and off to visit some of the incredible Islands on the Lake.
The first stop was to the ´Floating Islands´ which is home to the Uros tribe who consider themselves owners to the Lake and its waters. They live on around 42 individual floating islands constructed of water reeds called Totora. It is quite something to see. They literally make and remake these floating islands from the totoa reed which is also used for food, transpotation and constructing their homes. They make big boats out of the reeds so thay are able to sail in between the different villages. They even have one which takes all the kids from the villages to the school on one of the floating islands. The people were wonderful to meet and we were able to wonder around the floating island and
discover how they live, It is incredible how self sufficient they are, they even have a hospital on one the of the islands!
The next stop was the island of Taquile around a 2 and a half hour boat journey over the Lake. The views are stunning and we were so lucky to have such a beautiful, day to explore the lake on. This island used to be a prison but now is inhabited by Taquile people, around 3000 in total. It is a beautiful island- unfortunately for me to get to the main Plaza was another uphill walk-nooooooo!! and after the Inca Trail my legs were so sore, and the walk up the hill that day was painful!!! The altitude here is also a factor. At over 3800 meters the air is really thin and it gets hard to breath especially when walking up a bloody great hill. I think at the top were at 4200 meters, the same height that were as at the highest point on the Inca trail! You don´t really realise how high up you are until you see from across from the Lake a tip of an iced capped mountain, not the whole
mountain just the tip! To me that really brought home how high we actually were-maddness!
Anyway when we reached the top of the hill and the main Plaza de Armas there was a wonderful celebration going on marking the national day of the flag. Everyone was dressed up in brightly coloured costume and all the kids where holding banners and dancing around, there was a brass band and quite an armosphere even after the painful hike!. We were then taken to a local families house to have lunch which as usual was 2 courses of soup and grilled fish and was lush. Unfortunately i was feeling a little dizzy and sick form the altitude so couldn't enjoys it as much as i would have liked but Steve got stuck in!. The next part was 550 steep steps downhill-noooo more steps! but to be honest after the Inca Trail it didnt seem too bad, and then back on the boat home. It was a short but sweet trip and we got to tick off Lake Titicaca off our list which was great. It would have been good to go over to the Bolivian side of the lake and stay at
the Isles de Sol but as always time and money is of the essence and we cant do it all (unfortunately).
Our next stop off is going to be Arquipa, home of the Colca Caynon and the Condors- sounds like more hiking to me- help!!!!
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