Puno and Lake Titicaca - 27th to 31st March

---

Puno sits on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, and straddles both Peru and Bolivia. Supposedly, "Titi" means puma whilst "caca" effectively means to go to the toilet and there is a saying around here that its "Titi" in Peru and "caca" in Bolivia. However, having been to both we can definitely say its the other way round. Puno is a bit of a hole, dirty and polluted no-one even goes near the water unless they are in a boat.

A big pile of ´caca´.
Not to say we didn´t have a good time in Puno. We did a half day trip to the Uros Islands (the floating reed islands famous to the lake), which although interesting, can only really be described these days as floating souvenir stalls.

Literally islands made of reeds.

The beauty of Lake Titicaca.
Perhaps the most bizarre thing in Puno was the Yuvari, a gun ship which was built in England and transported in pieces all the way to Lake Titicaca. This journey consisted of sailing to a port now in Chile (then in Peru), being dismantled and then taken by railway to the start of the Andes before being carried by mule over the mountains. The whole process took about 8 years. The only conclusion we could come to is that the Peruvians are bloody crazy - why on earth do you need a gun ship on a lake with no link to the ocean?! The Yuvari is currently being restored and looks pretty impressive - they plan to one day run cruises around the Lake.

The Yavari - surrounded by wild guinea-pigs.
We also went to Sillustani (another ancient Inca site) which consisted of lots of different types of burial mounds overlooking the most beautiful lake we have ever seen. Not a bad place to be buried!

I want my grave to look that impressive!

Strong guys those Incas...

Like we said - the most beautiful lake we have ever seen!

---