Lake Titicaca

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Had a good, if long (ten hour) bus trip to Puno yesterday, with several stops on the way to visit churches, museums, inca and pre-inca ruins. The first church was in a town of about a thousand people, and it was built by the jesuits in the 16th century. Naturally, to assist with the Christianization of the Quechua, they disassembled the temple that was there to clear the way for their church. This church has the oldest pipe organ in the Americas, although it is quite small. It looks like a really tall piano.

Peru apparently has a law that unfinished buildings pay either lower or no property taxes. This has created a perverse incentive to never make a building look finished, and it appears to be quite common to build a two storey building and leave sections of rebar sticking out of the roof for the eventual third floor. It appears that some municipalities manage this, as we didn´t see many of these in Cuzco. But out in the country between Cuzco and here, it is incredible. Looking at one building like this is unattractive. When you see a whole neighbourhood, it´s frankly hideous. The last community we went through (a city of 250,000 residents) reportedly has 90% of the residents paying no taxes. Infrastrucure is a mess, services are inadequate. Probably the saddest city we´ve been to. It was made worse by a downpour that started as soon as we entered the city.

We´re over 3,800 meters above sea level now, and the acclimatiztion at Cuzco has really helped us. A little shortness of breath but that´s it.

Expect no blogs until Thursday as we´re staying on the lake today and tomorrow.

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Photos

Toque market
Unfortunately, we were short of cash. The folks in this little town between Quito and Puno had wonderful handicrafts.

Making friends with Alpacas
This photo taken shortly before the large alpaca tride to take a chomp of Abbey's hair. The other tourists loved that. Abbey not so much

The 'uni'
This is the washroom for a restaurant we stopped on the way to Puno. It was not uncommon to have shared wash-up spaces at washrooms.

Market on the way to Puno
This was little market set up in a high mountain pass.

Alpaca, all the time
Abbey really wanted a picture with this one and we finally relented.

Sad city of Juliaca
You know your city has an image problem when the tourguide can't think of a good place to stop and look around.

Comments

[Cheryl]

Continue to enjoy reading about your adventures. Hard to believe your trip is half over already. Glad to hear everyone is feeling better and that you're able to eat BIG platters of food! Spring break is finally here-we will go to Brandon to see Kelsi for a few days. It is actually beginning to feel like spring with the warm sun and nicer temps. The snow is melting and we're getting muck and puddles. Take care.