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Published: February 9th 2008
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So in Cusco Jore and I got on a night bus to go Lake Titicaca. We were headed straight to Copacabana, a little resort town on the Bolivian side. However, once the bus got to Puno, a city on Lake Titicaca near the border with Bolivia, we realized that Jore’s carry-on backpack was missing! All of Jore’s most important things were in it, including her passport, camera (with Machu Picchu photos!!), cell phone, and all her money! Since it had obviously been stolen and we couldn’t cross the border without her passport we got off the bus and went to the center of Puno to the
police station. Luckily Jore had a copy of her passport in her large backpack. ‘Our’ policewoman was really nice; she wrote up the report and sorted everything out. Jore got a police memo stating who she was which she could use as ID until she got her new passport (that was excellent because she had a flight booked in a couple of days and wouldn’t have been able to take it without the paper). The whole thing took a couple of hours during which we had breakfast, found accommodation, and did some sightseeing. The police
was nice enough to keep our backpacks while we looked for accommodation but we didn’t pick them up until we were ready to go back to the hotel.
Just as a side note. Having your passport stolen in a foreign country turned out to be less of a hassle than expected (apart from it being expensive). Since Jore had a photocopy of her passport in her big backpack she the police gave her a piece of paper to use as temporary ID and even without a picture on that paper she was able to get on a plane to Lima. Very very cool.
I must say that I quite enjoyed
Puno. We found nice and cheap accommodation near the port and the best bakery chain in Peru - Ricos-Pan. It had such a variety of pastries. Walking along the walkway pier enjoying the view was quite peaceful. Although tourism creates substantial revenue for Puno it is not primarily a tourist town, which was nice. A few days later Kristine and Dries joined us in Puno for New Year’s Eve. Everyone was too afraid of getting robbed that night in the wake of Jore’s predicament so none of us
brought our cameras 😊 We had a very filling New Year’s menu at a nice restaurant in the center. The bar we ended up spending New Year’s in didn’t even do the countdown. So we left right after midnight and after some searching found a small low-key bar with great music and interesting people, so our New Year’s turned out to be fun after all.
During our time in Puno Jore and I also visited some islands on the lake.
First, we spent a few hours on the
Uros Islands. Also referred to as the floating islands, these man-made islands consist of many layers of the
totora reed, which are constantly replenished from the top as they rot from the bottom, so the ground is always soft and springy. The
totora, which grows in the shallow waters of Lake Titicaca, is also used as construction material for the houses as well as food. Although originally green, when dried up the
totora resembles the bamboo. Along with tourism, fishing is the population’s biggest revenue generator.
We also visited
Isla Taquile, three and a half hours away from Puno by boat. Inhabited for thousands of years at 4000 m.a.s.l.,
Taquile is a 7 sq. km island with approximately 2000 inhabitants. As the only Quechua-speaking island on the lake (the other islands speak Aymará, another indigenous South American language), its people have a strong sense of identity and rarely marry non-Taquileños. Although tourism generates revenue the main activities of the Taquileños are agriculture, fishing, and farming. Known as hard-workers, young men often get recruited by Lima to work in labor-intensive industries. After a few years the men return to Taquile financially well-off and ready to start a family. However, before a couple gets married they live together for up to seven years. During this time they must decide whether they are suited for each other. If not, they go their separate ways. However, if they do marry, it is forever; the Taquileños do not believe in divorce. Strong traditionalists, the Taquile people put the community first.
I must say that Taquile was the big surprise of my trip. I loved it!! During noon and 2 pm the island is inundated with tours so we decided to stay overnight. It was the best decision of our trip. We stayed with a local family who made us dinner (an omelet) and
breakfast (pancakes) - surprisingly similar ingredients 😉 An American couple (a Californian and a British expat living in New York) also stayed at the same place so we hung out and played cards. Taquile was surprisingly gringo-free after 2 pm and there wasn’t really that much to do! We walked down to the port (Taquile is quite hilly, we did lots of walking) and dipped our feet into the lake. Dinner was at 6 pm after which ‘our’ family excused themselves and left just as the sun went down. With a quiet island, no running water (thank God for my sanitizer), and no electricity (we had candles) all we could do was talk and play cards in the candlelight. The sound of the rain and thunderstorms joined into our conversation.
The next morning after our pancake breakfast the four of us went on an hour and a half long walk. Taquile is quite rocky and hilly with beautiful views and it reminded me so much of my Dalmatian islands. So that was very nice. Anyway, our not-so-easy-walk ended once we got to an amazingly beautiful sandy
playa . It was a sunny day and we couldn’t resist taking a
Jore and I
On Taquile. swim. The shallow end was quite shallow and went on forever. I did manage to get in deeper and do some swimming. The water was cold deeper in especially on the face. But it was lovely nonetheless. We also sunbathed and got even more sunburnt than we already were from Puno. In the early afternoon we caught the boat back to Puno to spend New Year’s Eve with Dries and Kristine, who were also able to lend Jore some money so she could go to Lima and request a new passport.
On the day of the New Year, the last day that I was allowed to stay in Peru on my tourist visa, I caught a bus to the Bolivian town of Copacabana - my next stop.
*
Spanish Word of the Day:
playa =
beach
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Ivanchica
non-member comment
jao ba su preeeeeelijepe slike titicace! I vidi se kako ste izgorile na suncu hihihihi xx