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Published: November 6th 2005
The Rosario
Right in the square in front of the cathedral. The ladies always twirl their dresses around, which makes walking by kind of hard sometimes.Hi everybody, we’re in Puno! Managed to get out of Puerto Maldonado a day early on a half empty flight. I guess our airline is not one of the better know ones, cheapest though. The flight was good, only a little turbulence as we got to Cuzco. Mike was having a tough time. We went straight to the bus station to buy tickets for the night bus to Puno, and were pleasantly surprised to find a whole mob of bus company touts all trying to sell us cheap last minute tickets going there! So within ten minutes of getting to the bus station, we had half price tickets ($4 each), and got to leave in the afternoon rather than the night.
Puno happens to be having a big festival right now. It’s the anniversary of the appearance of the first Incan out of Lake Titicaca. Everyone is celebrating in typical Peruvian style with endless parades of brass bands and people in strange costumes and flashy dresses. On Friday, the parade started around noon and went well into the night! Right as we were going to sleep, a new parade started up right outside our window.
Yesterday we went on
4000 m ASL and cycling
This is from our bus between Cuzco and Puno. a little trip to an island called Taquille. The very slow local boat to the island costs 20 soles, takes three hours each way, and leaves at “7.40” (i.e. whenever there are enough people onboard, around 8:30 for us). They’re required to provide life jackets and they do, but everyone takes them off as soon as the boat’s out of sight of the dock.
We had a short stop at the Uros islands, which are made entirely of reeds and souvenirs. Fun to walk around on though, very springy. Mike is going to make a similar island in Beaver Lake.
Once on Taquille, we had a bit of a hike to the little town. They’re very well organized there, and have various ways of collecting money from tourists for the benefit of the whole community. You have to pay a small entrance fee, there’s a communally owned restaurant, and if you want to stay overnight, you have to register with the community authorities who assign you a homestay based on a rotation system. We only got to spend 2.5 hours there, but it was very nice. The only warning I have is this: if you go there, never
Andes
Also from the bus. Note the glacier to the left. touch the plant that looks like a hairy orange poppy, it stings like hell! (no lasting damage though)
On the way home from Taquille the wind came up and although we were on a lake, the waves were very impressive, at least 2 feet with whitecaps, so it was an exciting ride. Of course, the boat goes about 2 knots, so we were in no danger. To pass the 3 hour, 5 kilometer trip, Mike and I played the game where you name a geographical location, and the other person has to name another that starts with the last letter of that preceding. Mike won round one with “Essex”, I won round two with “Davenport” (the “T”s were exhausted).
We’ve had a great time in Puno, and would certainly recommend the hostel we stayed in, which is not in the lonely planet. Hospitaje Flores is a few blocks from Calle Lima, about 100 feet from the central market and across the street from a chicken themed restaurant called El Rancho. Clean room with bathroom, and a fairly nice view: 25 soles.
Today we’re off to Copacabana in Bolivia, if there are tickets available. We’re just going to
Puno
The massive street party going on when we arrived show up at the station and hope for more cheap tickets!
Kathleen
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Scroll down! How much is a sole ? (ie Canadian funds ). Great blog . why was Michael having a tough time? xx el AMB