Lake Titicaca - The Peruvian side

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Day 76: Saturday 13th September - Travelling across the Altiplano to Puno

After over a week in Cusco and the surrounding area its time to move on. Catch a bus to Puno at 8am, a 7 hour journey awaits..... The journey is across the stunning Altiplano, climbing from 3300m to Puno which lies at 3800m. Puno is the gateway to Lake Titicaca, its main and some would say only attraction. In between admiring the scenery try to fix my broken combination lock. I've a thousand combinations to try and on about the 900th I manage to sort it. After 4 hours of tedium I'm so tempted to let out a celebratory shout but manage to keep my emotions in check! At least it saves me buying another.

Arrive in Puno in the middle of the afternoon. Like the bus journey its hot, at 3800m there is not much cloud cover. Alfredo, a Uruguayan guy who runs the hostel can't be more helpful, and I can book the tour of Lake Titicaca which is the reason I came to Puno through him. Will check prices first though. Wander through the compact centre of Puno, sorting out my bus ticket across to Bolivia for Tuesday and find that I can't beat the price of the tour that Alfredo has offered so will book the tour when I get back to the hostel. First, I climb the steps up to a viewpoint almost 200 metres above Puno which offers up views across the city and the lake. Yet again I'm above 4000m, but that is becoming all too common these days. Manage a conversation in Spanish with the guy who works at the viewpoint before saying my goodbyes as the light fades. It gets cold remarkably quickly at this altitude, the days are hotter than a British summer but the nights are colder than a British winter, and temperatures can drop below freezing.

On my way back to the hostel get some gifts of fruit and biscuits for the family I will be staying with on Amantani island on Lake Titicaca and then return to the hostel book my Lake Titicaca trip. Lake Titicaca is the continent's second biggest lake, and at 165km long and 60km wide spans the border between Peru and Bolivia. It is also one of the highest navigable lakes in the world at 3820m altitude. Grab a Chinese and then spend way too long on the internet trying to upload photos on the world's slowest connection. Finally finish sometime after midnight.

Day 77: Sunday 14th September - The Floating Islands and Amantani

Get picked up for the tour of the Lake at 7.30am. After the minibus has made all its stops around Puno to pick everyone up its off to the port to get on the boat. First destination on the lake is the Uros Islands, otherwise known as the floating islands. These are artificial islands formed by continously laying buoyant reeds on top of a dense soil base. A family will have a plot and they can tie this together with other families 'land' to form a bigger island, and just cut off the connection if they get sick of their neighbours. The life of the islanders is intertwined with the reeds, the build houses from it, the island from it, boats from it and even can eat part of it. We spend around an hour on the islands, learning about their lifestyle - I've never seen anything quite like it before....very interesting.

After the floating islands we have a 3 hour journey to Amantani. Its quite cold sitting on the top of the boat but getting a good tan to compensate. Get to know some of the people on the tour while sailing. Get talking to a Swiss policeman, a couple of girls from Holland and a Norwegian guy. Once we arrive on Amantani where we will be staying the night we get split off into small groups to stay with a family. There's around 20 on the tour so there are about 8 different homestays. I get paired with a Japanese guy, whose name I cannot remember or even pronounce for that matter. He's been travelling for 3 years and plans to do another one so it makes for an interesting conversation.

Our accomodation is in a basic mud hut, but the beds look warm and we do have electricity. The toilet though is very basic and there's no washing facilities. Its certainly a basic lifestyle that the people from Amantani lead. I give my gift to the family, and attempt a few words of Quechua, which is their indigenous language. Spanish is hard enough without trying to master another language! We have lunch, which consists of a vegetable soup, some potatoes and some cheese. There is also a pot with a plant on the table, which I think looks like a table decoration, but is actually muña which when you add hot water to it becomes muña tea. Its not bad, not too disimilar to mint and like coca helps combat the altitude. Sadly the family doesn't join us so its just me and my new roommate. After the meal we meet the rest of the tour group to climb the highest peak on the island, to enjoy the sunset. By the time the sunset arrives at 5.30pm its absolutely freezing, and I can't get off the hill quick enough. We return to our lodgings in darkness for dinner which is soup, vegetables and rice. Although the family are in the same room, the interaction is negligible, language is one factor, but its not the whole story. After dinner there is a party of local dance and music, but I'm tired and can't be bothered to join in so grab an early night to catch up on last night's poor effort.

Day 78: Monday 15th September- Taquille Island

We leave Amantani after breakfast, which is pancakes and Muña tea. Again the family doesn't really join us, instead getting on with everyday life. The experience of staying with a family has been a rather hollow one, and although the family were welcoming, I suspect that the only reason they do these homestays is because their is no better alternative in terms of making a living. They seem to do it somewhat reluctantly, and whilst I wouldn't go as far as saying the tour is exploitative, the people of Amantani can't get much out of it as the whole tour costs 60 pesos (12 pounds) out of which a guide, a boat, a minibus plus the tour agency's profit must be paid for before the islanders see a penny. I for one am glad to leave Amantani.

It takes an hour to arrive to Taquile island, which at 6km long and 1km wide is smaller than Amantani. We walk from the dock up to the main square, which takes around 40 minutes. Taquile feels like a Greek island and the pace of life is certainly very sedate. The people of Taquile observe strange customs whereby married and single men have different coloured hats and only married men and island leaders can wear a pouch for coca leaves. Sit in the square enjoying the sun and watching the world go by before walking to a restaurant which overlooks the lake for lunch. The lake is a brilliant blue, helped no doubt by the strong sun, and a blue sky with hardly a cloud in sight. After an early lunch we board the boat for the three and a half hour journey back to Puno. The sun is strong, and despite the wind its enjoyable sitting up on top of the boat again, soaking up the rays.

Arrive back in Puno at approaching five. After a shower, sort my stuff out for tomorrow - I'm going to be back on Lake Titicaca so only want to carry my small rucksack on to the lake. Have the best pizza of my trip to date for dinner. Leaving the restaurant I am confronted by a hailstorm - very unusual for this time of year in Peru as its the dry season. Decide to avoid it by ducking into the nearest internet cafe for an hour before having an earlyish night. In some respects its a shame to be leaving this hostel as its got a family feel to it, but there's not much to Puno and I want to get to Bolivia.

The curtain draws on my time in Peru after a shade over 3 weeks. After a slow start - the north of the country doesn't offer too much in terms of tourist attractions, or weather at this time of the year, the last 2 weeks have been exceptional. I've stayed in the 2 best cities of my trip to date in Cusco and Arequipa, met some great people in this time. This goes without mentioning the Inca trail, which as I've stated on an earlier post was probably my favourite travel experience of my life to date and also the best afternoon's fun I've had of my trip at Huacachina. I've tried sand boarding and white water rafting for the first time, flown in a tiny 6 seater aircraft, another first for me. The people of Peru have been incredibly friendly much more so than the Ecuadorians.....all in all, I love Peru!

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