Floating Islands

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Isn't "Floating Islands" some kind of meringue desert?

The ride from Arequipa to Puno was really interesting. The high desert gradually got more and more filled with cactus and grass as we kept getting higher and higher. It has been pretty cloudy the past week, so there were no mountains visible, just very low clouds. And then suddenly you are on the antiplano with herds of llamas and alpacas. We even had to stop a couple of times to allow the alpacas to get off of the road. It's still pretty desert-like, but as we kept getting higher (Puno is at 12,500 feet) there was more water. Soon the countryside looked like Scotland or Ireland or Iceland (in summer)--impossibly green with treeless mountains and rushing streams, except there were llamas among the sheep and Inca agricultural terraces on the sides of the mountains.

The arrival in Puno is pretty dramatic. You crest a hill and there lies Lake Titicaca with with city at your feet. It was a beautiful day at the moment, so the ride down into the city was great. Having never been this high I was a little concerned about altitude adjustment (another 6000 feet higher than AQP). But so long as you don't walk at New York speed, it seems to be OK. Of course, I haven't tried having a wine yet. And I did have a nap for about 2 hours longer than I intended.....

Today was out to Uros--the floating islands. This is one thing I remember from grade school geography...a tribe who lived on Titicaca who constantly remade their island (and homes) out of reeds. It's a little bit touristy, but nontheless, really impressive. The houses really are reeds, and some look like Indian teepees, and some are square with pointed reed roofs. At the first stop, a guide talked about the construction and life on the islands and then we were given a reed that we stripped and ate (tastes like celery with lots of air and about a third the crunch). Walking is a bit like having nine inches of Dr. Sholl foot pads on...lot's of bounce. Other highlights: one island has a hotel (reed teepees with foam mattresses); several of the islands have restaurants (fried trout seemed to be the menu of the day); one island has a telephone booth (run by a solar cell); and a few of the houses have a solar cell on top (I kept forgetting to ask what they use the electricty for). It is a really amazing place.

There was a strike starting on Thursday last week in Cusco protesting a new law that the government is attempting to put through about easing restrictions for tourist accomodations. The strike continued for a couple of days--with no busses, trains, or flights in or out of Cusco, and some rioting in the streets of Cusco. News is a bit hard to get about it, but I do have a bus ticket to Cusco for tomorrow. So, I assume that the strike is over, or at least postponed (this all sounds so Italian--my first time in Italy, I arrived to a porter's strike. No one on the plane could get their luggage. With assurances that we would get the luggage in 2 days, we all left. My luggage found me 12 days later.) .....So with a little trepidation........I'm off to Cusco.

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