Peru.. Lake Titicaca

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Headed East to PUNO, a small town on the edge of LAKE TITICACA with Katie, Dave and Ronald. Booked the first class section of the bus from Cuzco, so had huge seats and loads of room, but it was freezing, so we didn't get much sleep.. arrived at Puno at 5am and slept for the morning!


Visited Sillustani.. An Incan (and pre Incan) burial ground with 12m tall burial chambers on an outcrop of land overlooking Laguna Umyayo. Beautiful but barren scenery on the cold, windy high planes at an altitude of about 4000m. And visited a family's home (adobe built compound) to see how people live in this environment (sparsely!).. we learnt the difference beween llamas and alpacas, and tasted some of the local potatoes, cheese and mud (apparently medicinal.. and not surprisingly, it tasted like mud!).


Took a day trip out to visit the Islands on Lake Titicaca (at more than 3800m altitude, it's the highest navigable lake in the world, straddling the border of Peru and Bolivia.. It's huge!) on a (rare) hot sunny day...


First stop ISLAS FLOTANTES, where the Uros people live on floating islands made of the reeds that grow in the lake.. the islands rot from below and have to be constantly replaced, so it's quite squashy underfoot! They use the reeds for everything.. making the islands, houses, their boats etc.. and they even eat them. The islands are very touristy, as boat loads of people are dropped off at different family's islands, but it's really interesting to see how they live.. Apparently they started living on these man made islands years ago to isolate themselves from the Incas.. though no-one seems to have told them the Incas have gone and they can move back to the land!


And visited ISLA TAQUILE, 2.5 hours out into the lake (still in Peru waters) where this isolated community still lead a very traditional life, farming and weaving. A pretty climb up stone terraces to the village plaza where one of the electoral candidates was having a rally. We watched old women carrying loads of rocks on their backs.. and it was about all we could do to manage the steep climb uphill.. out of puff due to the altitude. Lunch overlooking the lake, which was so calm.. 10 Soles for fresh king fish and trout from the lake.


We did live it up a bit in Puno.. We had private hotel rooms (for $5 each.. with bathroom!) and had a couple of fantastic meals out at a restaurant owned by an entertaining Peruvian who did very accurate impressions of Manuel, the waiter from Faulty Towers.. Bizarre! Tried some of katie's alpaca which tasted a bit like pork ot me.. though none of us were brave enough to order guinnea pig!


So after a whistle stop tour of South Peru, next stop Bolivia........

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Comments

[jillsare]

floating islands
LOVED the photo of the line of stout women in fluorescent coloured jumpers!! How´s my British English in that sentence!? abrazos Jill

[annomous]

dave
wow that dave looks so fit in those pics where did u meet him and how can i get in contact with that sexy hunk of a man

[Taira aka miss yeap synovate's daughter]

Nice photo
There are so much nice photos you have there... How did u do that?? What camera r u using?? Teach me!!

[Katharine]

hi taira
.. good to hear from you on my blog.. how are things in malaysia? the photos are just with a normal Canon digital camera.. but everything is so beautiful it's hard to take bad photos! i'm living in buenos aires now and working back at synovate! so same job, just a different country. say hello to your mum for me.. katharine x