Blogs from Puno, Peru, South America - page 80

We left Arequipa on Monday 13th headed North for Puno (on the shores of Lake Titicaca.) Bus journey as ever was not exactly luxurious.... 3 hours in, Rachel develops the need for the toilet. 3hours 5mins in, Rach discovers that toilet on bus is locked. 3hours 10mins in, Rach taps on driver's door to ask for the key. 3hours 15mins, no response from Snr Driver and bus pulls over in the middle of nowhere. Rachel gets off and enquires "¿donde esta los baños por favor?" (where are the tolilets?) Driver responds with a wide hand gesture over open pampa. "¡Aqui!" (here!) 3 hours 25mins rachel crouches behind a couple of stones in full view of the bus..... All adds to the experience! Anyway, after said nasty journey, we arrived in Puno which sits on the southern ... read more

Lake Titicaca is situated 3800m above sea level, and is the highest lake in the world upon which proper boats can sail. It straddles the Peru/Bolivia border, and a couple of nights ago we arrived in Puno, on the Peruvian side of the Lake's shore. We had to cross the border on foot, so got off the bus and crossed the bridge leaving Bolivia. Eight seconds within arriving in Peru, we had our passports snatched by policemen "looking for drugs". They were, in fact, looking for money, or bribes, and proceeded to take us into rooms to search us. Before I went in however, I gave my back pack and wallet to Eleni, who hadn't surrendered her passport so easily (they missed her because there were so many of us, but you're not allowed to say ... read more

Three hours from Copacabana, on the other side of Lake Titicaca is Puno. Everybody who comes here makes a visit to the floating islands of Uros on Lake Titicaca. The islands are made of totora reeds, which grows abundandly in the shallow parts of the Lake Titicaca. The reed seems to be quite a versatile plant. The people living on the islands use it for pretty much everything: they use it for the islands, they eat it, they burn it, and they build houses and boats and all sorts of things of it. We took a one day boat cruise on Lake Titicaca visiting the floating islands and Isla Taquile. Visiting the floating islands was an interesting experience but Isla Taquile was less impressive. After seeing Isla del Sol, Isla Taquile was just another island on ... read more

Up early ( as always on this trip! ), and goodbyes to our families, we set off by boat again, another painfully slow 3 hour journey to our next destination, the floating Islands of Uros. A bewildering sight, these man made Islands, made completely of reeds growing out of the Lake, and home to families. Everything is built by reed, the homes, even reed boats. They even eat the reeds, which has no taste whatsoever!!! After a briefing once we got there on how they live, we were given a short ride on an amazing reed boat, which me and made mate helped row across the Lake. I have now officially also rowed across the worlds highest Lake! The Islands are actually anchored by wooden stakes, and they can be moved by boat if the locals ... read more

We left the hotel in Cusco at 8am, and made a 6 hour drive to the town of Puno, which is located on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We stopped on the way for a small excursion to yet another Incan ruin ( starting to get ruined out by now! ), but it was nonetheless interesting, a site the Incas used as a cemetry for their Kings. Our guide informed us that Puno was a bit rough and ready, and compared to Cusco, it was the most pleasant of places, but not too threatening. We had a meeting in the hotel with our new local guide, Percy, who would be taking us to Lake Titicaca over the weekend, so he gave us a prep talk. The same meal club that I was in re-assembled, and we ... read more