Lake Titikaka

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The last few days have been amazing.

On the 8th we flew LAN airlnes to Julicaca. Still have to work on my fear of flying. I was really scared when I realized we did not have a direct flight to Julicaca. The planes here also make weird noises on take off. Plus Cusco is right in the mountains, so landing here means the planes wings almost touch the mountain sides.

Anyways, we eventually landed at one of the smallest airports I have ever been to at Julicaca. We immediately boarded a private bus to Puno. PUno is right on the coast of Lake Titikaka. The altitude here is about 2 miles high I believe. Our tour guide told us to drink coca tea to help with the altitude. The tea is made from coca leaves which come from the rainforest.

We walked around the town for a little bit, and found a restaurant. By this time, the sun was setting, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. After dinner, we all went to sleep early since we had to be up early the next day.

We met our tour guide the next morning around 7:30. We took a bike taxi down to the port to catch a boat to tour Lake Titikaka. we had a private boat with a tour guide to explain the history of the lake. Our boat moved pretty slow so it took 3 hours to get to Taqile Island. While we were here we toured the island and plaza. The altitude seemed much higher here, and we all seemed to feel it a bit. Our tour guide took us to a nice restaurant amongst many of the houses over looking the lake. IT was beautiful. You could also see the Andes in the distance covered in snow. The menu was trout and omelette with rice and chips (fries). They also served us mint tea, with actual mint floating in your cup. IT tastes really good, and is also suppose to help with the altitude.

After touring the island for a couple of hours we walked down 500 steps to our boat. Next we traveled about an hour to another island called Amantani Island. This is where we had our home stay. Immediately after leaving the boat our home stay family picked us up and brought us to their house. We were picked up by Gladys. The hike up was very exhausting for all of us as we were around 4000 km above sea level at this point.

We eventually arrived at Gladys´house. IT was very primitive, but looked like it was nicer than many on the island. Our room had 4 twin beds and one small window overlooking the lake. There were also many blankets on the bed since there is not heat in any of the rooms. The temperature gets below 32 F at night.

After settling in we met the rest of our group at the soccer field. We all played against the locals for a few minutes. IT was a lot of fun, but my knees started hurting a lot so I had to quit early. After the short game we hiked to the top of the island to see the sacred are of the island, and watched the sun set. The views were amazing. We returned to the town to have a warm drink before super. The room/shop we were in was actually owned by Gladys who were were staying with. As the time approached 7, the homestay familys began picking up our tour memebers. We were the last to leave since Gladys had to wait for everyone to leave. We then returned with our homestay family to have dinner with them. We ate with Gladys, her mother, and her 6 year old niece.


I´m running out of time on my interenet so I will finish the rest later. The home stay was the most incredible experience.

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