Blogs from Uros Island, Lake Titicaca , Puno, Peru, South America - page 8

Como estas So, today is our last day in Peru. We are catching a bus this afternoon to Copacabana, Bolivia (side note, the Barry Manilow song is about the beach in Brazil, which we also intend to go to, not this town). We are in a small city called Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca which is pretty popular because of its proximity to the floating islands, of the los uros people. We took a tour to two of the islands yesterday and it was really cool. There are 45 islands and almost 1500 people live on them. What is so unique is that they are entirely artificial, built out of reeds that grow in Lake Titicaca. The people that live on them are descendants of the original inhabitants of the islands. It is bizarre ... read more

After arriving and checking into accomodation, we had a quick two hour snooze and some breakfast. We were both sick with colds, the freezing conditions were doing us no favors. By this time we realised that almost all town and cities in Peru had a central plaza (Plaza de Armes or Plaza Mayor) where the locals hang around and chatted. We soon dicovered the central plaza (Plaza de Armes in the case) and enjoyed the view, as there is always a church in the Plaza, with exquisite architecture (spanish influence). Next we headed in the direction of the lake. Lake Titicaca is the world's highest lake navigable, the waters supposed holy and of the loveliest blue colour. On our way there we encountered the army band performing as the shore of Lake Titicaca. Happily making music ... read more

Our first stop was Sillustani, where many funerary tower, or chullpas, stand. These were constructed by the Colla people, who later became the southeastern arm of the Incas. The closest chullpa to the parking lot has a carving of a lizard, symboling rebirth as lizards regrow their tails. Our guide was very thorough, so much so I tuned him out after a while. The most amazing part of this place is the adjacent lake, Lake Umayo. An island with a flat top sits in the middle, some said a previous alien craft landing site. As we were the only ones there, we were able to enjoy the serenity and beauty of the lake. Next we went to the Uros floating islands in Lake Titicaca. As the islanders' main diet lacks fruit, we bought some for ... read more

Lake Titicaca, where the world began according to legend, is in both Peru and Bolivia. It's the highest navigable lake in the world, and it also has people living on floating beds of reeds. How does this work? They are continually adding fresh reeds to the tops of the islands while the reeds underneath slowly break down. They're actually quite thick and I soon stopped wondering if I might fall through. So, why are they living out there? As the story goes they originally moved there to get away from the Incan Conquistadors, and I suppose found a nice nitch safely within the confounds of the lake. Stevie and I came from Cuzco (where we spent Christmas (sorry, no pics), travelling for 8 hours on a bus to Puno, a city by the lake. From there ... read more

Well Now It has been quite a while. We now reckon we have cycled for something like 8-10 days. Covered around 800km and climbed some 4 or 7 thousand meters. Ill get my stats machine for any that are interested. These trips do tend to be slightly odd. Not the usual experiance that one may expect from folk travelling to these places. If one was to sit back and spend a little consideration as to what the trips actually involved on a real rather than meta level, they'd probably come up with the same reaction as we recieved on arrival to the hostal here last night and that most common from the locals we meet regularly. Which is either 'Why?' or 'Are you nuts?'. For obviously we spend considerable time cycling, alot on the road, or ... read more