Puno is Pleasant

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Hello! Sadly, we left Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley... but weve been up to some exciting things since! We had the pleasure of taking the Vistadome train from Aguas Calientes to Cusco and we rode in style... with an Alpaca fashion show and all! Hahaha, the trains attendants strutted their stuff down the aisles with alpaca scarves and sweaters! Kevin made a trip to the loo prior to the fashion show, and made a surprise appearance on the way down the aisle. He always appreciates a chance to bring sexy back! Once we were back in Cusco we made plans for the next leg of our trip...

We arrived in Puno on June 13 after a 9 hour bus ride from Cusco. Thankfully it wasnt 9 hours of straight driving... we stopped at 5 little touristy stops along the way. Some were cheesy, but I think it is a way to spread the wealth of tourism to smaller communities in Peru so we were glad to stretch our legs.

Yesterday we got up bright and early to join our group for a 3 hour boat ride in Lake Titicaca to Amantani Island. We stopped at one of the famous floating Uros Islands that are made of reeds and house about 10 families. The island wasnt more than 10 metres squared, but apparently there are more than 40 of them floating around the lake. The one we saw even had a pet cat... I dont imagine hell go far. They are sort of spongy and have little reed houses around the edge. It was really neat to see, but I cant imagine living on one! Kevin said he would have to make reed boats all day just to stay sane!

After our quick stop we arrived at Amantani Island where we met the families that we would stay with. The Island is the second biggest on the lake and about 5000 Quechua people live there. We were kindly welcomed by a woman named Rosa who became our Peruvian mother for a day. She cooked all of our meals, brought us around the island and set us up in her simple, but wonderful home. We never went hungry and got a chance to try a bunch of potatoes... there are hundreds of different potatoes in Peru. In the evening we walked in the dark (with a headlamp... there is no electricity or running water) to a party with local music and we danced with the locals and other people from our boat.

Today we took a long boat ride back to Puno. We are going to look around the city a bit mor tomorrow and then were off to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon! Well update you when we get there and then soon were back to Canada. Not before we sandboard, but man time flies. Adios and see you soon!

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