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Published: October 10th 2008
Friday 22
Another fairly early start…we left 8am to go to Puno which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The landscape changes with quite fertile land along the way with lot of people farming llama and alpaca. Saw wild vicuna which are like small llamas. We stopped at Sillustani which is an old Incan funeral site. This involved a 15min hike uphill, it really tested how we were faring with the high altitude. Breathing was quite laboured and most of us seem to have pressure in the head but as long as you went along slowly you seem to be OK. Arrived in Puno, a town of about 250000 people. Puno is probably at the highest altitude we will go. Most of us seemed to be suffering varying affects from the altitude so we had an early night.
Saturday 23
Spectacular day...blue sky and sunshine....good day for a boat ride. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, sitting at 3820m (12562ft) above sea level. From the shoreline,the water stretches out almost as far as the eye can see.
Took 1/2 hr boat ride to the floating islands. The Uros originally
built the islands frm many layers of totora reeds that grow in the lake’s shallows to isolate themselves from the rival tribes. As the reeds closest to the water begin to rot more layers are added on top. These reeds are used for making everything on the islands, including the boats which can last up to 12 months. With the exposure to the western world they have become ‘green’….they use the plastic drink bottles to line the inside of the boats and just use reeds on the outside. This way the boats last longer and they don’t need to use as much reed. We spent time mingling with the local families on one of the islands and were able to see inside the houses, see how they live and go about their daily lives. We even managed to paddle a reed boat in our dragon boat shirts! Then we had a 3 hr ride to Taquile Island which is home to another group of native Peruvians. Had a 30-40mins hike uphill to where we were having lunch. It was probably longer for us because Jackie thought she would walk along a little bit and then go back to the boat
but as soon we disembarked and started walking the boat took off and went to meet us around the other side of the island so she had to walk all the way. She did really well considering that most of us were huffing and puffing and having to
stop along the way. She had Malcolm pulling and me pushing in some of the places but otherwise managed extremely well. On this island, the knitting is strictly a male domain and the women do the spinning. Guess what….another place to shop…at least you know that everything is crafted here and not mass produced in some factory.
Had lunch with some of the local people...just fantastic…a really nice quinoa vegetable soup with a fried bread and then a choice of trout or omelette. This was one of the best meals we have had for a while…probably because we were so hungry after walking and also because there was only the two things to choose from so we didn’t have to wait to long for our lunch. After lunch it was another walk down hill to the boat and a 3hr ride back to Puno...managed to see a great sunset as were
coming into Puno. As with all the days this day was packed full so it was another early night...supposed to be an early night but since I have the internet working I thought I would update the travel blog before I forget the things we have already done.
I have good intentions but didn't realise how hard it would be to keep the blog updated.
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Anne Henry
non-member comment
Keep it coming ..
Hi Lesley - note your comment about the hard work in keeping up the blogs - for us reading them, they are worth the effort - excellent. You are the second group of friends that have been over there in the last year, and your comments are adding to what they have told us. With the Oz $ diving back over the last couple of days, how lucky you were to have bought tickets etc at the 'old' rates. Hope the change doesn't affect the rest of your trip too much. Anne says you could come back to work - she needs a holiday :-) Mark and Anne Henry