Lake Titicaca (hee hee!)

We had a quiet first few days in Perú, mainly because a large chunk of that time was spent on a bus. When on tierra firma, though, we have enjoyed ourselves. Perú has such a rich culture and history, and an ancient way of life that is still lived and celebrated by many people.

Our time in Perú began in Lima, which is unfortunately nothing to write home about - it´s quite possibly the ugliest major city I´ve ever seen, completely devoid of interesting landmarks or natural beauty to set it apart. There are a few decent colonial buildings that we took some boring pictures of but that´s about it!

Once we´d gotten the lay of the land, we decided the best course of action would be to get the heck out of there.

Had we known what awaited us we might have been less excited, as after 27 hours on a bus we would have gladly been back in Lima rather than spend one more minute in transit.

The first leg of our trip was 19 hours, an amount of time we´ve done a couple times before, so we weren´t too intimidated. However, in Perú, bus operators feel the need to entertain their passengers, and by entertain I mean show blaring constant DVDs for 15 of the 19 hours. We only had 4 hours to try to sleep, which were interrupted by our bus blowing a tire, stranding us on the side of the road for two early-morning hours, prompting the driver to "entertain" us with yet more videos. I was shocked by the graphically violent content (Apocalypto! Some Japanese torture porn?! What!!?) when there were little kids on board (not to mention sleepy gringos who just wanted to read), as well as the obnoxious volume which made it impossible to pay attention to anything else. Once we reached Arequipa, we had an hour´s break before starting our 7 hour trip to Puno. Luckily the DVD player was broken on this bus so we were just treated to yelping folkloric music the whole way. Ay ay ay!

Puno made up for the comute by being slightly more charming than Lima, or at least having one nice walkable high street lined with native people dressed in traditional clothes and bowler hats, giving us the comforting feeling that we weren´t about to be mugged.

Once we´d explored a bit we went in search of a nice meal - 27 hours on a bus will make you desparate for a fresh green vegetable - where we decided to order the famous regional delicacy - guinea pig! Now, Erin and I had two pet guinea pigs when we were little, Nutmeg and Spice ("Cooking suggestions!" says Ben.), so I was a bit nervous to order it and even more alarmed when it showed up:

So lifelike! Despite our attempt to enjoy the culturally significant dish, we were disappointed by the miniscule amount of meat it provided - not really worth killing the cute little guy.

Once we´d gotten fed and recovered from our altitude sickness (apparently going from sea level to almost 4000 meters in one day is bad for you!), it was time to take advantage of our reason for being in Puno - the amazing lake! Lake Titicaca made me giggle throughout high school geography (second only to Djibouti!), but it actually is a gorgeous gigantic lake. The thin air at high altitude makes the lake´s surface sparkle beneath the snow-capped Andes on the Bolivian side. It´s really spectacular.


The best way to enjoy the lake is via the islands, so we embarked on a 2-day adventure. The closest islands to Puno are the Uros, a collection of 40 or so man-made floating islands made of reeds and anchored to the lake floor.


It was amazing to see how the people used the reeds to make their islands, boats, houses, cooking fuel, and even snacks! They also use solar panels to watch TV in their little huts, which I thought was quite impressive. The islanders all used to be fishermen but now that tourism has arrived they live mostly to sell their weaving and show off their islands, replacing their old Aymara language with English, French, etc. - a little too commercialized for my taste but it was a fascinating visit.




Next we headed to Amantani, a real (non-floating) island filled with Quechua speaking farmers who haven´t embraced tourism quite as obviously. We had an amazing experience on the island, spending the night (without electricity or running water!) with a local family, who luckily spoke Spanish and Quechua, so communication was easy. Our hostess cooked traditional meals for us and loaned us traditional clothes to wear to the night´s fiesta. The fiesta definitely exists just to please the tourists but we did enjoy dancing around in a circle to the pan-flute band. The island is worth visiting for the views alone, but the opportunity to stay with a family was really priceless.

The next morning, after saying our goodbyes to our host, we headed over to the other large island, Taquile (where they do not serve tequila, despite the obvious marketing connection). This island was a bit more modern and tourist-friendly than Amantani, so we didn´t stay too long - we basically hiked to the top, had a delicious fresh trout lunch, hiked down, and motored back to Puno.




We are now about to board our penultimate long distance bus, this time to Cuzco, before the unthinkable happens - our return to the USA! There is still more to see and do, though, so we´re trying not to dwell on our return just yet.