Blogs from Puno, Peru, South America - page 2

Two person taxi choloswere lined up in front of our hotel at 7 AM to pedal 22 of us to the harbor in Puno for our exciting two days on Lake Titicaca, at 12,500 feet, the world’s highest navigable lake. We were deposited at a local lakeside market and instructed to purchase the necessary foods needed for our Amantani host people to make our meals later in the day. One of the things that made me choose Kaypi Peru Tours was their commitment to giving back to the people of Peru. Taxi cholos were chosen instead of busses so that more local people would benefit from the hire rather than one bus driver. In addition, one particular shop was chosen for us to buy food, water and gifts because this store gives a discount to the ... read more

We got up at the ungodly hour of 2:30 AM went down to the hotel lobby to get our box breakfast and coffee while we waited to be picked up at the hotel at 3 AM and driven to the Lima airport. We were 12 groggy travelers leaving for Puno in this group, while another Kaypi group of 10 left later for an 8 AM departure. Someone must have told Kaypi we were the adventurous group giving us the earlier departure. Elias, our new guide from Kaypi Peru, met us at the Puno airport and gave those of us who had had enough coffee plenty of information about the area. Puno is located on a high plateau. The Puno airport has an altitude of 12,300 feet so we were instructed to be sure to drink a ... read more

Von Cusco aus ging es am Abend nach unserer Vinicunca Wanderung mit einem lokalen Nachtbus sechs Stunden nach Puno, einer Stadt auf rund 4.000 Metern Seehöhe am Titicacasee. Im Bus zu schlafen war nicht unbedingt die Offenbarung, aber wir waren nach all den Wanderungen rund um Cusco, Machu Picchu und Vinicunca müde genug um binnen weniger Minuten wegzudösen. Als wir dann um 05:30 Uhr in der (auf den ersten Blick wenig charmanten) Hafenstadt ankamen, konnten wir unseren Augen kaum glauben: Der See in der Morgendämmerung hatte wahrlich eine magische Anziehungskraft. Vom Busbahnhof aus machten wir uns dann mit einem Taxi auf dem Weg zu einem kleinen privaten Bootsanleger, von dort aus mit einem Motorboot durch die Schilflandschaft entlang zu unserer Unterkunft für eine Nacht: einer Strohhütte auf einer Strohinsel mitten im Titicacasee. Der See ist mit ... read more

We wake up early to the sounds of our donkey braying and Mama and PapI chatting about the day ahead. When we surface we meet PapI who had been away the day before. He is a lovely smiley man who ushers us into the main house - a single room where they appear to live with table and chairs, cooking facilities and a bed behind a curtain. He serves us breakfast of fresh sweet bread rolls, jam, boiled egg, potato and tea. Mama arrives and explains she is off to a wedding, we should have guessed as she is wearing here bowler hat rather than the triangular one of the previous day. She is apologetic that she has to leave before seeing us off but PapI will take us to the boat. Hugs and kisses and ... read more

Today we take a public bus from Cusco to Puno, about a nine hour trip. However the bus exceeds expectations. It is a double decker bus with spacious seats that recline to ‘160 degrees’. We have seats up the top near the front so we get a good view of everything passing by. The countryside continues to be big, open and dry with many villages and farmlets along the way. It is warm on the bus so everyone is stripped back to singlets and shorts and a fair amount of napping takes place. There is a toilet on board which is simple but seems to keep fairly clean - perhaps due to a lack of holding tank. Lunch is at a roadside diner - Mike, our guide, knows the traps well enough to take our orders ... read more