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Published: August 29th 2006
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Hi Again
a little snippet from what will be effectively the last sight seeing I do in Peru (for now). I would definitely like to come back and see more of it one day.
We arrived in Puno 2 days ago after a 3.5 hour bus trip from Cusco. Our day of sight seeing yesterday consisted of a little ride down to the lake on bike taxis and then we were off to see the Uros Islands. These islands are man made of reeds and float on lake Titicaca which by the way stands for Grey Puma (not that we saw any). The islands last about 10 years and then each community on has to build a new island to live on as they build layer on layer and with too many layers they no longer float.
These people basically live in huts made of reeds, their boats are made from reeds and plastic bottles and they eat reeds. Toilets are over the edge into the water and as a consequence some of the children ususally die before they reach their teens. There is also a lot of pneumonia as they live on the water basically and are
surrounded by it.
We went to one island and bought a couple of souvineers. I am getting quite the reputation as the big spender having bought some beautiful hand made jewellery in Cusco which cost me a shitload so to speak. And a present in there for you Sis!!
We were invited to visit the children at their kindergarten where we were greeted with a chorus of buenos dias and then a song. Following this a song in Japanese as some communities really get into the tourist thing.
There are however other communities who have moved their islands further away as they want to live in peace with no interruptions from tourists to their way of life.
Then the girls put on a little dance for us. We bought pencils and textas and gave them to the teacher who distributed them as gifts to the kids or at least that´s what she told us she would do.
They were all very excited and very cute.
When we left the islands we went to visit a ship which had been transported from England in 2700+ pieces and is currently being restored. I didn´t take any
Used to check the depth of water under the island
The Uros people drop a rock on a piece of string down this hole from time to time to determine the depth of water under the island. photos of this as basically I am not into ships in a big way however the storey was very interesting and the captain was very passionate and very funny. They still need $500k to complete the restoration and then intend to take the ship out on the lake for day trips.
Our next stop was to the ancient burial grounds and I can´t remember what they call them however here are a few pics to tell the story.
The large tombs were usually for the upperclass and they often had symbols which represented their names. This one belonged to Mr Lizard...no joke that is what his name was. These were raided by the spanish as was most of Peru basically and these tombs contained a lot of gold and ceramics which were buried with the bodies.
There are also pictures of the lake beside this burial ground and the most rare of the llama family live on the island. These animals are usually kept in the wild as domesticating them stresses them out. Their wool is soooo expensive a scarf would cost you $700USD. on the black market one fleece would get you $2500USD their wool is
The Kindergarten
They were very cute 10micro or something like that.
I had my picture taken with one and it was beautiful. Most women would die for those eyelashes!
Then we headed back to the hotel for one last night out on the town in Puno. The food is amazing in Peru and quite reasonable as well.
We flew back to Lima today after a little drama that Gary our tour manager sorted out because neither he or I had been confirmed on the flight. Come to think of it it would be handy if I could bring him to Mexico and Cuba as well, not sure that his wife would approve however. I have asked him for a few Spanish tips though so should be OK. Really should have paid more attention in those spanish lessons.
Anyway this will be my last update until I get to NYC. I am back in Lima now and head to NYC late tomorrow night. Arriving just in time for the shops to open!!!
Adios for now
Sim xxx
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