Puno Festival and Lake Titicaca

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Puno is one of the largest towns on the shore of Lake Titicaca and every year people come from all over Peru and Bolivia and even Chile to take part in the Festival of the Virgin. It lasts a week followed by a week of Carnival, the largest in Peru. Thousands of people line the streets to watch the parade go by even in the pouring rain. The drums, tubas and trumpets make an unearthly racket all playing vaguely the same tune over and over. At 6.30am on the first Sunday all the contestants go to the stadium where they are judged for which group does the best dance. Regrettably we were not party to this spectacle! We had a sleepless night on our arrival as the partying went on close to our hotel, The Royal Inn, which is by the main square. On Sunday it all kicked off again and we joined the throngs of happy people- quite a few who were well oiled by the evening. However it is a safe crowd, whole families with kids who actually bring their own chairs and sit in the street so that they can get a good view. There were no barricades or loads of police as you would expect at a huge gathering in Europe. Some of the ladies' costumes were quite scanty and I don't think the Virgin would have approved!

Our guide Silverio picked us up at 8.30am and we drove for good half an hour towards the Lake . It was raining and the road was muddy. People were taking their produce to market. Luckily when we reached our destination, it stopped raining and the sun came out. Silverio led us on a hike over the hill passing small mud huts with no windows in which some farmers still live. We went up the hill to where we could see the huge freshwater lake from both sides. It was not an arduous hike but we were still breathless at the top. There is less oxygen in the air due to the altitude. (At least that is our excuse!) At the end of the walk we had a short picnic by the lake and then were driven home.

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