Blogs from Uros Island, Lake Titicaca , Puno, Peru, South America - page 6

We arrived at the floating islands of Uros, and what a beautiful site it was. The photo’s do not do it justice. We were greeted by the family from the island we had chosen to visit, then we sat down as you would have sat in school to be lectured about the islands, how the people came to be here, how the islands were constructed and how the communities worked, that sort of stuff, very interesting. We were shown foods that were eaten on the islands, (fish and reeds), some of the reeds we tried, not bad. We were then led off to look around the houses that people lived in on the island we were on, my host was called Cecilia, we were then offered some of the wares made by these people. After we ... read more

Puno - the great lake cityWe travelled in style from Cusco to Puno on a luxury coach, complete with corny tour guide and complimentary fat american tourists. Stopping at ancient Inca ruins along the way, jean managed to keep her blearly eyes open for 40% of the 9 hour journey. Puno looks like a shanty town....most of the buildings haven't been completed due to the exhorbitant tax the govt slaps onto the finished product. the general puno region is also reknowned in peru for being the place that rips off every brand name you can think of (ie Beebok, Abibas, Johnny Rider whisky)....what a great reputation! aside from being 3850m above sea level, the other phenomenal attraction of this town is lake titicaca - and what an incredible body of water it is.Town highlights: The beautiful ... read more

Einenen Tag nach Isla del Sol ging es weiter nach Puno. Am Anfang war ich echt gar nicht begeistert von der Stadt. Spaeter wurde der Eindruck aber besser. Wir besuchten noch am Nachmittag das Coca Museum. Dieses war echt soweit interessant, sehr klein, aber echt ganz nett. Am Abend gingen wir frueh ins Bett, da wir am naechsten Tag um 5.30 Uhr aufstehen mussten. Der naechste Tag war sicher ein Highlight des Titicacasees. Wir besuchten die schwimmenden Inseln (Uros Island). Interessant war, wie die Inseln gemacht werden. Luis, unserer Fuehrer hat uns auch alles sehr gut erklaert. Er war 26 und erzaehlte uns viele interessante Dinge von Peru bzw. Puno. Als naechstes ging es auf die Taquile Island. Sie ist wegen ihre Textilien bekannt. Man erkennt bei den Maenner ob sie verheiratet sind oder nicht. Sind ... read more

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 ... read more

Our trip from Puno to Lake Titicaca with the islands of Uros and Amantani. Lake Titicaca - the highest navigable lake in the world. You will notice from the photographs Uros Islands were floating reed islands and Amantani Island was where we had our home stay. Uros Islands Here people live on floating islands handmade from totora, a type of reed. Everything is made from totora; houses, seats, shelters and even boats. The lower root part of the totora is edible and is used in their cooking. Layers of totora are placed on the floor, which is quite spongy to walk on. Once a month a new layer is put down to replace the lower decaying layers. Every 10 years a new island is made, to replace the one being lived on. The totora roots are ... read more