Blogs from Uros Island, Lake Titicaca , Puno, Peru, South America - page 4

the famous floating islands, today just an attraction and theater for the turists, I can't recommend to everyone. But lago Titicaca with its length over 200 km is one of the highest navigable lakes in the world (around 4.000m above the sea level) and is a great turist attraction.... read more

Let´s see...we were at Machu Picchu on a Tuesday and it is now a Monday. The days tend to blend together for us at this point. Where have we been, what have we done since... We spent the next couple of days after visiting Machu Picchu in Cuzco. We relaxed most of the day Wednesday and walked around the city. We made it to the Catherdral--very ornate and beautiful. Steve has some strange fascination to always wanting to see the catacombs in these catherdrals...very dreary down there. The carvings in these catherdrals are mesmerizing. It really makes one think how much time, passion, and skill went into these buildings and its inside. We kept thinking what attending a mass would be like in these cathedrals...beautiful. The city square in Cuzco during the day and night is ... read more

Saturday 3.7.2010 day 262 Floating islands We got up a 6am and had bfast at the hotel then were picked up for our tour. I think the Peruvians deliberately make all the tourists get up early. There were people from all over the world there were New Zealanders. Swedish, English, American, Spanish and Argentineans. Two of the guys were riding around South America on motorbikes. First we went to the Floating where the Iros people live there about 50 of the islands and the people make the islands then selves and separate them if they do not like their neighbours or join up if they want to be new neighbours. So you can never tell how many islands there are. They still live very traditional lives. They have been floating for centaurs and there are no ... read more

And to finish off Puno... Being stuck here hasn't been so bad after all. Yesterday there was a big protest which we managed to get right into the middle of but no violence or danger, just lots of people chanting. It also meant that the usually busy city of Puno was a lot quieter as everything was closed. We had a walk around and just got acclimatised. Today we went super early to the Uros Islands and Taquile Island. The Uros Islands are fantastic, we had a great tour and great explanations of how the reed islands are made and even got a little boat trip in the 'Mercedes Benz' of the reed boats! Although we couldn't help but wonder how much of this is real life and how much is put on for show. But ... read more

Following the ´Gringo Trail´ to Cuzco and the next stop was Puno, on Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian side. We were here to see the ´Floating Islands of Uros´ but enjoyed Puno itself as well. The people are friendly and relatively laid back (especially in comparison to Cuzco) and we enjoyed walking around the town and along the lake side. So off to the floating islands some 30 minutes across the lake on a small boat from Puno port. We cut our way through the reeds and slowly the islands began to reveal themselves in the distance. Our guide gave us some interesting facts to ponder and rounded off with his well rehearsed wise crack about how, although they share the lake with Bolivia, Peru likes to think they own the ´Titi´and Bolivia the ´caca´! The ... read more