Blogs from Puno, Peru, South America - page 6

Bang on time the taxi arrived and whisked us off to the port where we joined a group and were ushered onto a boat. The boat turned out to really nice and comfortable, not the wooden plank seats I'd been expecting. A pan pipe player greeted us followed by an English speaking guide. We soon reached the first floating reed island. As we stepped off the boat the ground was really springy beneath our feet. The sun was shining but it was still quite cold. The bare footed woman in traditional costume gestured us to sit on bales of reeds and proceeded to demonstrate how the islands are made. As the reeds rot from below the island is replenished by adding more reeds to the surface. The reed houses only last about ten months then the ... read more

Lake Titicaca is at an altitude of 3810m and considered the world's largest high-altitude lake. It was a quick stop in Puno, so we wanted to make sure we say the Uros Floating Islands. There we met our new friends from the UK ( that we met in San Pedro de Atacama) and spent the day and dinner with them. So wonderful to see them again. There are about 80 artificial islands made of totora. The islands are built with using layers of the buoyant totora reeds that grow abundantly in the shallows of the lake. We took a small boat to where the islands are are floating. We got off at one island, the Uros people gave us a fascinating demonstration of how they build the islands, homes, boats, and furniture.... read more

Friday 19th December 2014 Cuzco is a splendid city, full of superb architecture. It has many fine precision-made Inca walls, as well as 16th Century Spanish churches. The oldest church in Cuzco is San Blas built in 1562. The cedar wood pulpit is a masterpiece, which took indigenous Indian woodcarvers twenty years to create. It is rated as one of the finest examples of Cuzcan Indian art in the world. Although a Catholic Church, it has many Native American symbols which can clearly be seen in the frescoes, so coca plants, Peruvian fruits and llamas are depicted. url=file:///C:/Users/Vivien/Documents/Blog%2023From%20cathedrals%20to%20floating%20islands.docx#_msocom_1 tolerated these symbols, indeed they encouraged them as part of their strategy to convert the native peoples to Catholicism. The altar, covered in 22 ct gold leaf is Baroque in ... read more

We were up early on Friday morning to catch the bus to Puno. Unfortunately it wasn’t private transportation this time and we had to catch a public bus. The bus, however, was a tourist bus so it wasn’t like we had to share with people transporting chickens like my imagination suggested. It was a very nice coach and we had seats right near the middle door. It turned out that rather than just travelling to Puno, we were doing touristy things along the way. I was relaxing, listening to my iPod, when we arrived at the first stop. It was a church in a small town. I didn’t really get what the attraction was, though. Due to my headphones, I missed any information the tour guide gave us on the bus, and inside the church he ... read more

Today was a rough travel day for me. We took a long bus journey through the Andes. The countryside was beautiful. We drove through several small villages outside of Cusco. An interesting aspect of the villages that we drove through which were in the outlying areas of Cusco was that each village was essentially dedicated to a specific commodity for Cusco. For example, one village that we drove through and briefly stopped at, specialized in Chicharrones (Fried Pork Skin - tastier than pork rinds). We also stopped in a village that specialized in pan (bread). The bread was nicely sweet and fresh from the oven. The first place that we stopped for any length was the village of Andahuaylillas. This village is best known for its beautiful baroque 17th-century church dedicated to Saint Peter the Apostle. ... read more