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We took a bus tour from Cuzco
to Puno in order to reach Lake Titicaca (known for being the
highest altitude lake in the world, with the floating islands).
We were on a tourist bus, which meant that it stopped off at 4
places of interest along the way so we could all see the local
sites and be tempted every step of the way to buy the locally
produced handicrafts.
The first stop off was at San
Pedro Church, which looked quite plain from the outside, until
we stepped inside and realised the place was full of gold-plated
pictures and artefacts. Apparently it’s one of the favourite
places for the Cuzco locals to get married and you could see
why.
After a couple more stops and a
lunch stop we arrived into Puno about 18:00. Glad we had
someone waiting for us as it was madness at the bus stop. It
was another cold city at night. After checking into our hotel
we wandered around a bit and had some food.
Next day we bundled into a
minibus with a few others and headed to the harbour. We got on
our boat and meet our guide and the rest of the tour people. A
real mixture of backpackers and holiday makers which was good.
First stop was one of the
floating islands called Uros. Totally made of reeds, hut’s ‘n’
all. It was strange to walk on, very springy! We were told all
about how they made the huts and repaired parts of the island as
well as how they live. Mad to think you can live on something
that if the wind is strong you can be blown around the lake…
Across to another isle on a reed boat and then the longer boat
ride to the main island Amantani where we were all staying for
the night.
We arrived at this isle just
after lunchtime and hiked up to the main square where we where
all introduced to the families we would be staying for the
night. We followed our woman Mama Cecilia back to her house, to
meet her family and we were shown our room. Very basic, no
showers, no lighting and an outside toilet out in the garden.
But what a view across the lake! We also had another couple
from another trip staying with the family in another room.
Jacob and Yoelsega were from Israel. Thanks guys for all the
tips on things to do in Argentina plus your Spanish translation
skills with the family! We all had lunch in the sun in their
courtyard. No surprise we had soup for starters…
Later that afternoon we all got
taken back to meet the other for us all to hike up to the top of
the hill in order to see the sunset over the lake. This was
great to see and a lovely clear night. We hiked back down in
the dark back to our families for dinner. Again soup for
starters and more spuds! Then the fun started!!! Well they
said we all needed to go to a fiesta party they were laying on
especially for the visitors. No problem until the woman bought
us clothes to wear. Nice! Check out the pictures. One thing
it kept us warm as it sure got cold. But what a sky. With No
pollution there were millions of stars to be seen! With NO
street lights we hobbled across to the main hall for our evening
of fun. Well a candle lit hall full of people dressed up. The
music started and away we went doing some local dancing, that
didn’t seem to have any relevance to what the beat of the music
was! I think it’s mainly done to keep us all warm as when we
got back to the family home later, the only heat was the candle
in the room.
After egg rolls for breakfast
we got taken back to the port for another boat ride to another
isle. We arrived hear to do a trek to the top where the main
village was. The sun was damn hot. After a mooch around and
some lunch we hiked back down a ton of steps back to the boat.
A few hours later we arrived back into Puno.
We had a few hours to kill
before a night bus back to Cuzco, so we had some food and got to
the bus station. The bus left about 20:30. It wasn’t full,
that was until we pulled into a town on the way back then it got
packed. The bus drivers over here don’t seem to worry about
passengers as they take all the racing lines on the roads and
overtake where they want. We didn’t sleep much as we were on
the top deck at the front on a bus with NO seatbelts! We
screeched to a halt at about 00:30, only to see out the window a
coach like ours had over turned on the other side of the road
with a cracked windscreen and passengers stood on the road
side. Funnily enough we didn’t sleep that well after that…
Pretty scary stuff…
Anyhow we arrived all ok into
Cuzco about 04:00. Not wanting to spend the next couple of
hours in the bus depot we got a taxi to the main square. We sat
there watching the world go by, with one bar still pumping out
the music until 5am. Soon after we got into our hotel to get
our bags and checked into another hotel, someone recommended for
a well deserved hot shower again! |
