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

We woke up today to watch the sunrise on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Our hotel, Sonesta Posada Del Inca Puno, is situated on the shore of Lake Titicaca, South America's highest and largest navigable lake. The breakfast, despite the pretty views, was abysmal. I barely ate. Today was dedicated to a boat journey through Lake Titicaca. We said a goodbye to Dagmar, our tour guide through the Cusco region, last night and hello to Charo, our guide in Puno this morning. Charo is very engaging, funny, and knowledgeable about this area and the unique culture found here. I grabbed a seat at the front of the boat with a nice big open window where the lake breeze could blow in. Lake Titicaca has brackish water which gives the breeze a slightly salty tang. Our boat ... read more

We finally left La Paz and headed to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. In Copacabana we walked past the cathedral and saw a religious procession where they make pretty designs on the ground using petals for the procession to travel over. Later in the day we bumped into some friends from Sucre so spent the afternoon watching the football world cup (a recurring theme) with them. Just before sunset we walked up cerro Calvario for great views over Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. The next morning we were up early to catch a boat to Isla de Sol (Sun Island). We bumped into another couple of friends from the ride and river trip in the line for the boat so spent the day with them. The boat ride was a couple of hours each way, ... read more

We arrived in Cusco the night before after an incredibly full day, in heart, mind and body. Aba took us out for supper and we repacked for the move to Puno. Bed came late. In the morning, we waited for our ride to the tour bus, but it didn't come. With a bit of confusion and rearrangements we still made a bus. The bus took us to a number of archaeological and religious sites on the way to Puno. As you move along the mountain range south, the landscape changes again. Here, the mountains get dryer, the grasses coarse, and grain and llama are king. Alpaca and Llama interspersed with cattle and sheep are everywhere. They are cobbled, or hemmed in by rock walls stacked without mortar or mud. The roadside markets become filled with alpaca ... read more

Hello followers! How's it all going in the sunburnt country these days? Sorry that it has taken a while for me to bring you all up to date. Very hard to catch up a week when everything is still busy. Really want to thank you for reading my blogs too :)! It is great to see the stats and know that I won't have to repeat myself a 100 times when I get home LOL! But seriously, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you are on this journey with me - from kids, to relatives, friends, teamies, workmates & I guess the occasional boss too! So let's get down to the business of telling you all about the Puno region. Ummm... Puno the city itself is nothing really amazing. It has a slightly ... read more

Days 56 -57 we had a fun start to the day when our group left our hotel in a convoy of 2 man peddle powered cyclos for a quick trip down to the port for our tour of Lake Titicaca. We were joined by our guide, John, who is an expert in the history & culture for these regional communities. We started out by slow motor boat in dead calm & warm conditions although the water temperature is a constant cold 9-10 deg. After a short cruise our first stop off was to visit the Uros floating islands. The Uros natives originally moved north to Puno thousands of years ago & were happily settled there until the Spanish arrived & who needed a constant supply of slave labour to mine the rich lodes of silver that ... read more