Blogs from Puno, Peru, South America - page 16

So after a beautiful bus ride from Cusco to Puno we were excited to visit Lake Titicaca. Devon was still under the weather and was on day 2 with no food/water! A tough cookie, she still was eager to do an overnight stay with a family on one of the islands on Lake Titicaca. In the end, we opted not to spend the night on one of the Islands given the temperature and Devon´s illness. However, we took a nice, although touristy day tour on a boat yesterday. The tour visited some families on the floating islands and a woman showed us her home. It had a solar panel where she could power one light bulb and her tv. The islands are built on the roots of these long reeds that grow in the water. They ... read more

Before we went out to explore Lake Titicaca we had one night in Puno which sits on the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca. Its a very small town that most travellers just use as a port for the lake. Lake Titicaca is famous because it is the highest lake in the world situated at 3811m above sea level. It is also the biggest lake in South America and is split between Peru and Bolivia. After our wake up call we jumped into our 'Limo´s' to be taken down to the port. This journey ended up being a bit of a race for which our drivers were then breathless from - see the picture. Our first destination once on board was Taquile Island. Here the native´s speak Quechua and the Island is famous for its weaving. It ... read more

Our first impression of Puno left us wondering why we had decided to come here at all. Puno isn't a nice city, but at least we managed to find a nice hostel owned by an old couple who let us order pizza and watch Oliver Twist in the livingroom! The lake The next morning we were off into lake Titicaca. Our first stop was at the floating islands, which were very touristy. Nevertheless it was interesting to see how they build the islands with blocks of roots and strands of reeds from the lake. Next, we were dropped off at Amantani island, where a nice family rented us a room for the night. We joined them for lunch, which was at least 10 varieties of potatoes (yellow, orange, white, defrosted, dehydrated, etc). In the early evening ... read more

Wednesday (Oct. 12th) - Thursday (Oct. 20th) Two weeks with my brother. Many people would groan at that thought but I was actually excited to see him. After 3 months of traveling and meeting new people it was good to see a familiar face and we had some crazy adventures together. Brendon (my brother) met me in Cusco after my Inca Trail trek and after I had sufficiently recovered from the hike we began the next leg of my trip. I should have known this ahead of time since I was with Brendon, but from the beginning nothing really went according to plan (if what we had could even be called a plan.) First stop was Puno in southern Peru. It's not that pretty of a city but the lake shore with the reeds and the ... read more

This is our last morning in Peru! We´ve had a fantastic time and done loads of cool stuff. Yesterday, we were typical tourists and went on a boat tour to the floating islands of Uros where everything is made out of reeds. It was very clean, and even had its own kittens. Let´s go some place like Bolivia... read more