Lake Titicaca - Are there really any Flamingos here??

---

Friday 9th September

After a rather luxurious bus ride from Arequipa, we have landed in Puno, on Lake Titicaca. Room is comfortable and has fabulous pillows! Our first job as is the norm is to head in to the main square and get our bearings. For a change we have arrived early afternoon so we have plenty of time to look about what yet again is another lovely city. The streets bustle here with the local women garbed in multilayered dresses and bowler hats. Lots of cobbled streets as you get in closer which really adds lots of character. The cars as usual, are a pain in the arse.

Shane says: Yeah piss cars off all together. Just make pedestrian paths around these beautiful squares.

Quite by chance we hear a big band playing in the distance down the street and it turns out we are privy to an annual folk parade put on by local children of all ages to celebrate their heritage. They are dressed in the most colourful and decorative clothing, and its also a bit of a laugh as you see one or two from each group stuffing around, or not having a clue what they are doing. Some of them are just plain exhausted, so I don’t know how far they have come. The locals love it and I am having so much fun watching all the really little children whose faces light up in awe, with huge smiles as each group passes by.
Shane is getting all sorts of stares from the locals as its become very cold and he is wearing shorts so we nick home to change before eating dinner. The square is lovely by night as they all are and I have also relented and bought a pair of alpaca gloves from one of the lady hawkers. They might come in handy when we get to Antarctica!

Saturday 10th September

We went out to the floating islands of Uros on Lake Titicaca this morning for a look around. The islands are built using layers of totora reeds that grow in the shallows of Lake Titicaca. Indeed the lives of the Uros are totally interwoven with these reeds, which are used to make their homes, boats and the crafts they churn out for we tourists. Whilst the islands have become shockingly commercialised, there is still nothing quite like them anywhere else.
While we are sitting there watching a demonstration of how the islands are made, we are joined by a little local girl of around 5. She smiles and then smiles again, each time moving a little closer. I tell her I am going to take her picture so she smiles sweetly for the camera. When I showed her the picture she was beside herself. So I showed her some more pictures and she became really brave and started pushing the buttons for herself. It was so beautiful.
We came back to Puno for a quick lunch as we had to join an afternoon tour out to Sillustani. We raced into a little restaurant around the corner because it had a chilli on the sign. I am missing spicy on a grand scale. Shane asked for the menu, and the boy says , ‘no menu’. What do you mean no menu???
It turns out it is a fixed price combo of three courses. We have no idea what we are going to get. The soup was delicious; we had a beef and chicken dish and a type of corn meal pudding with sultanas and cinnamon. It was the best meal we’ve had in ages!
Shane says: And to boot it costs us 7 Soles each. About $2.50. How good is that?
Sillustani is an area outside of Puno where there are hundreds of upright funeral tombs that date back to Pre Incan times. They are built on the high ground, surrounded by the beautiful lake Umayo and stand out for miles! The ancient Colla people were a warlike tribe who buried their nobility in these impressive funerary chullpas, made from course stone blocks and reaching up to 12m.

---

Photos

Puno
Childrens folk festival

Puno
Lake Umayo