Highest Lake in the World

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September 22nd 2008

Published: October 3rd 2008

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Winter Trek

Gateway to Cuzco

Seeing this site as we were leaving Cuzco

Hello friends and family. After leaving Cuzco we had been advised to take a certain tour bus to Puno (city next to Lake Titicaca). It left early in the morning, included 5 stops along the way, including a good buffet lunch. We didn't get a chance to pick our seat, and ended up at the back of the bus. It was a bus full of tourists, air-conditioned and very comfortable. We had drinks served along the route, a bathroom was available and a great tour guide name Hugo. He would speak in Spanish and English, as we did have some tourists from other latin countries on the bus. We were very happy about the trip. First we stopped at a very unique church (yeah another church), but it was extremely old with a lot of frescos along the walls. It was impressive. Then we climbed aboard and headed to a huge Inca ruin called the Temple of the Sun God. As you see the photos, they are just walls sticking up, as the roofs were destroyed long ago.

Upon leaving Cuzco, we mostly stayed in the Alto Plano region of Peru. Very, very dry and treeless. Almost gives the impression

Sun God Temple

High up on the Alto Plano heading towards Puno

of a desert environment, but cold, cold at night, mornings and evenings. The sun would come out during the day and it was very pleasant. We definitely used a lot of sunscreen and hats as we were very high up in altitude.

After the stop at the SunTemple, we stopped at a small town and ate a great meal. The food was a lot, and it was good, yum, yum! Then we stopped at a high point on the trip where there were tons of vendors and women and children in native dress waiting to make a buck for a photo. The mountain view was gorgeous. Again we had to put on the blinders and not be tempted to buy one of everything. After this stop, we headed to a museum where there were artifacts of some ancient civilization (about 4,000 years old). It was interesting. The best thing about this trip was being able to get out and walk around, use the bathroom and learn about Peru in that particular region. We were very happy we went on this tour.

As we arrived in Puno, you could see the lake and the islands on it from the

Another view

Inca Sun God Temple..Used to have roofs on these buildings that arched out away from that center wall.

bus. We arrived late in the afternoon. In all honesty, the lake doesn't look any different than any other lake at 12-13,000 ft. The land is very, very barren and dry. Very cold at night, and even during the day it was still pretty cool with the sun shining. Puno is nothing to write home about. Has one very touristy street, no cars allowed. But as you walk down it, with lots of resturants and shops, there are tons of street beggars and vendors that pretty much dog you down the street. You have to be pretty cruel to them to leave you alone. The food was good and pretty reasonalbly priced too. I was still fighting this horrible cough, so we hung for a day and walked around town, down to the water to see the boats. We went to visit a very interesting boat called the Yavari. This boat was commisioned by a Peruvian govenor from a boat yard in England in 1862. It was put on a ship in pieces and brought around the Cape of Good Hope. From the coast it was brought in pieces over land by mules and when the mules suffered from altitude

15,000 ft. passage

Stopped for photo shoots and more things to buy

sickenss, men carried the pieces. It took 6 years from it's conception to it's completion. It was originally used to ship goods between Bolivia and Peru. It fell in disrepair and sat falling apart. For the last 10 years it has been undergoing a restoration.. We took the tour and it was a good one. The boat is looking great. There were other boats during this time that were brought to the lake. Some are being refurbished to be used for tourism in the near future. .

That afternoon we went to All Ways Tours and booked a two day tour to the islands. The first day we went to the floating reed islands called Uros. Then we were going to the island of Amantani to spend the night with a family, then the next day we would go to see a third island called Taquile. I had heard some great things about the home visits, so we were really looking forward to that part of the tour.

We left the next day early in the morning. They came and picked us up at our hotel. We had been told (and had read in our guide books) to

Cute little girl

All dressed up like their mothers.

bring fruit and food for the family, as they depend on tourism to make any extra money. We had read that this All Ways Tours actually gave some of the money directly to the families from their tour charges. We went to the market the day before and bought fruit, rice, noodles, and chocolate. I decided to donate one of my sweatshirts and a fleece shirt that I hardly had used on this trip. They were really grateful for the clothes and food. It made us feel real good about helping in that way.

So first we went to Uros, the floating reed islands. As you will see in the photos, it was a real small community. There are about 3-4 families on each little floating island, and they are so close together, that it seems like one big island. They showed us how they get them to float, how they have to replenish the reeds every so often. They use the reeds for teas and for homes. Very interesting. They really, really live on tourism at this stage. We bought a little reed boat from them, which was kinda pricy, but you feel you need to buy something

First view of Lake Titicaca

Photo taken from the bus, late afternoon.

of their artwork. After our little speil from our tour guide, as we were getting up from our seats, one of the younger guys herded Robin and I into his house to see how he lives. I felt a little awkward at first, but he was very friendly. Very small place with a straw bed for him and his new wife. Then he brought out a mobile that he had made. Here we are traveling with backpacks, and still have more traveling ahead of us, so I had to say "no, thanks", but I did buy a boat from him. It was colored, and it wasn't really what I wanted, so when we left his place to meet his wife and her goods, she had a plain reed boat, so I exchanged it. Then we went for a ride on a big huge, double pontoon reed boat across the little bay. It was really fun. It costs us a little more money (outside of the tour), but we paid it anyhow and enjoyed the ride.

After that we headed to see our families on the island of Amantani. It took about two hours on our slow boat, so we

Street scene in Puno

Pretty nondescript place.

read, took photos, and just hung out. We had about 28 people on our tour. The guide, again, was amazing. Nice, informative and helpful. When we finally reached the island, we had to hike a small hill to meet one of the family who was going to bring us to their home for lunch. Her name is Yenny (we pronounced it like Jenny). She was cute, young (found out she was 22 yrs old). Thankfully they stopped three times walking up the hill., Of course we were breathing ridiculously hard after 15 minutes of climbing. But at least we weren't the only ones feeling the effects of altitude. Finally, and I mean, whew!, we reached the place near her house. It was a very simple living arrangement. The place where we were going to spend the night was nice. All the families in this small pueblo have additional rooms for tourists with beds, sheets, and painted walls. Not like their own homes, but specifically for tourists. There were some interesting little potty pots under each bed (we had a 4 bed room). The bathroom was an outhouse and the kitchen where we ate had a wood burning cook stove in

Small harbor in Puno

Lots and lots of medium sized tour boats.

it, but thank goodness, it also had a chimney for the smoke to escape. The floor in the kitchen was dirt. Our room was built up above one of their rooms, so we had wood floors. The stairs were really rickity and steep. Not easy to negotiate, even during the day, had to walk very carefully. We didn't go out after dark, and used those little piss pots religously. The next morning I told Robin we should empty them, but we didn't...oh, well.

Upon arrival, the plan was to eat lunch with our families, then meet our guide to hike to the top of the nearby mountain. This mountain top had a rock building that was used once a year for a celebration to their god of the land (pachumama). We were going to hike up there to see the sunset over Lake Titicaca. After this we were going to have dinner with our family then dress up like the locals and go to a dance with musicians.

Well, you can imagine the hiking...it was laborious on the one hand, but such an inspiring vista, so we kept trudging upward. Plus who wants to say" I can't do

Yavari Project

Interesting story about this boat..nice refurbishing job

this...I'm going back" NO ONE! There were some mature tourists like us, so we kept up the rear. Our guide would stop every 15 minutes or so and tell us something of the history of the area...mainly letting us breathe. Finally we made it to the top. He suggested if one wants to , they walk counterclockwise around the monument three times and wish for something in your future. So we did that, then we sat and took lots of photos. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately unless you have a really good camera for close-ups and can take dusk photos well, our photos just don't do it justice. It was crowded up there as we were one of three boats on this island. We had to leave pretty quickly for as the sun sunk, it got dark fast. We made it back to the soccer field to meet Yenny and headed back to her house for dinner.

Dinner was (like lunch the day before), potatoes, potatoes, some interesting looking carrots, and a potatoe soup. It was good and filling, but very basic (no pizza here...) After dinner, where the Dad joined us at the table, I taught them to play

Nice teak turning spokes

Don't know what the term would be, but the sailors would turn these spokes to raise the anchor.

a card game called "spoons". It is fast, fun, easy and all ages could play. Robin had brought a pack of cards so it worked out great. There is not much for the people to do in the evenings, no electricity, no TV. Probably not too much reading (no library), so I thought a fun family game would be appreciated., We did have a lot of fun playing, lots of laughs, even the Dad. After that it was time to get dressed for our "dance" with the other tourists and our host families. Robin donned a large poncho and peruvian hat (Yenny knit it and we bought it from her), then they dressed me up in the skirts (3 of them) a blouse, and a long black wrap that they would drape over their heads. I had a hard time keeping the head dress on, finally I just put it around my shoulders as a wrap. As you can see in the photos, it was a really fun time.

We were pretty exhausted after our afternoon hike, then the dance, so we cut out after about an hour there. We headed to our little bedroom and crashed out. Beds

Looking down the boat

From bow to stern view

were a little soft for me, so I didn't sleep all that well. The next morning we at breakfast (pancakes with marmalade), and some more tea. We had a really good time with them and I told Yenny and her sister, Inez, I would be sending some photos and some fleece pants after we left. They really appreciated the warm clothes. We walked back down towards the boat docks with all the other tourists and said our goodbyes to our familes, took pictures and headed to the last stop, the island called Taquile.

The boat ride was about 45 minutes or so. When we got there we had to walk a long path of stone to the town square. Up , and up again. It was interesting to see many of the townspeople helping with this big project. You will see in the photos the women hiking the hill with bags of dirt on their back. They are so strong here and have such big lung capacities. I feel so out of shape sometimes. We arrived to the square and had a little speil from our tour guide about the inhabitants and the islands history. Once again, our guide

Aft section of the boat

was great, very informative in English and Spanish. After about an hour or so hanging out there, we went to a nice lunch and had a gorgeous view of the snow capped Bolivian mountains across the lake. Then it was a hike down the opposite side of the island. The boat ride back was about 3 hours long, and most of us slept through it.

Upon arrival to Puno, we just showered and hung out in our room. We didn't sleep all that great the night before, at least I didn't in a lumpy bed. The next morning we were catching an early bus to Arequipa. We got on a Panorama bus and got the front row seats. It was great....nice views and comfortable seats, reclining. Robin didn't really want to sit right up front, but we did and we both enjoyed it. The last two bus rides we got, we purchased our tickets early enough so we could pick and choose our seats. We went for the front upstairs premium seats and were not disappointed. Anyhow, that was our trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca. Great trip and great memories.

Enjoy the photos. One more segment to