Blogs from Puno, Peru, South America - page 10

The bus from Copacabana to Puno was just 3 1/2 hours including the boarder crossing. The route followed along the edge of lake Titicaca. We were expecting Puno to be similar to Copacabana but it is quite a bit bigger (approx 100,000 people). We arrived at 3.30pm and set out on a boat immediately to visit the Floating Islands. The highlight of Puno is the floating reed islands (called the Uros) on the lake which have been home to indiginous people for hundreds of years. Today the people who live on the islands don´t live the hunter gatherer lifestyle of their ancestors. Instead they survive solely from tourism, charging for visits to the islands, offering boat rides on traditional reed boats and selling artisan goods. We only spent one night here and set off early the ... read more

Left the hotel at 7am and caught a Tutu down to the port. We nearly ran over a lady. Bit scarey with all the other traffic around. The boat ride to Tequela Island took about 3 hrs. We apparently had the very slow boat. Hydrofoils can do it in 1/2 hour. We got of and walked to the top of the island to the main square. It is a communal island. The men knit the handicrafts. Most of the island is terraced. Walked across the other side of the island where we had lunch. It was very nice. Quinoea Soup and then trout. Trout was introduced to the lake as the native fish are very small. They are starting to eat the native fish now. After lunch we walked down to the boat and then went ... read more

Now with pictures!!! ________________________________ (Post by Mike) Hi all! I know it has been a while since I last posted. We have been in some locations with dodgy or non-existent Internet connections, and also doing a bit of trekking which by design is sans Wi-Fi. But now that Jess and I are comfortable in Cusco for the next couple of days, I am going to try to get some posts in highlighting some of the most memorable components of our trip. After some incredible experiences in Bolivia - salt flats, silver mines, watching a city festival in Sucre, relaxing in a beautiful little home facing the beach in Copacabana - it was time to cross the border over to our 2nd country, Peru. Our bus stopped at the border and left us to walk over after ... read more

Lake Titikaka from the other side of the border in Peru. Tamani and Taquile keep going at their own pace and very own traditional culture - especially knitting from both the women and men community of the island.... read more

We lovingly left La Paz early in the morning, bound for the town of Copacobana situated on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, the worlds largest high altitude lake. The lake itself is over 8400 sq km, the size of a very small country or a very large city which ever way you look at it. During the 3 hour journey we had views of the lake for 75% of the time and we could see the extent of its vastness. With the 3 hour journey over and done with we pulled into Copacobana at mid day, feeling both ill and tired. Something had made us bot ill, wether it be food or water we hadn't the faintest idea, all we knew was that we needed bed. We quickly had something to eat, the traditional Trucha ... read more