April Adventures: Puno

After our day at Machu Picchu, we hung out in Aguas Calientes, JP’s least favorite Peruvian city, for a while and got some pizza before getting on the train to return to Cuzco.  However, the train only takes you about 20km (~13 miles) before it stops, because there were landslides in January that have obstructed the train line, and there is no road in or out.  So we ended up taking the train to a shuttle bus to a tour bus, getting us back to Cuzco around 2 am. We checked back into our hostel, picked up the rest of our luggage, and went to bed.  We got up early and made it to the bus station in time to catch and 8:15 am bus to Puno, where we were going to meet up with our friend Nora.  Nora was a JV in Phoenix when we were support people, in 2006-07, and is now volunteering with the Franciscan Mission Service in Bolivia.  Puno is close to the border with Bolivia so we were able to convince her to come meet up with us.

We all met up at our hostel, and bundled up against the cold and went out to dinner. Puno is high altitude—about 3800 meters or 12,500 feet, and it was a little drizzly when we got in.  The next day we took a tour of Lake Titicaca, of which Puno is a main port.  The lake is huge and we got to do a day tour that included trips to two of the islands.  Lake Titicaca is the highest altitude navigable lake in the whole world.  Here is a picture of the lake:

The tour guide said that the lake is shaped like a puma trying to catch a rabbit (the little part of the lake at the top) and he flipped his poster upside down to give us a better visual.  I think all these puma shapes are a little bit of a stretch, but maybe I am not using my imagination. I can definitely see the rabbit.  Anyway, he was explaining all this to us at our first stop, one of the Islas de los Uros (islands of the Uros people).  The Uros islands are floating islands made out of totora reeds.

According to the stories, the Uros people used to live on the land, but in the 1400s they kept getting caught between the invading Incas and another group who was trying to resist the Incas, and both groups wanted them to pick a side.  They just wanted to be left alone, so they decided to go live in the lake where no one can bother them.  The totora reeds are grown in the shallow parts of the lake and then dried.  (These are the same reeds as the totora boats we saw in Huanchaco.)The islanders have to put down another layer of reeds every two weeks because the island basically starts to rot from the bottom.  The island we visited had six families living on it, and it seemed that they were very dependent on tourism, although they did have solar panels on their houses, which seemed like a great idea!

They also use totora boats to get around from island to island, which are pretty cool looking. This one also had puma-shaped heads:

From there, we got back in our more modern boat and went out to Isla Taquile.  This is a larger, land formed island that maintains a lot of traditional cultures and customs. It also cleared up on the way there so we got to enjoy some great views of the lake:

Once we arrived, we climbed up a steep path to the town center. 

We walked around a little and checked out the town.  The island is famous for its textiles and they had a nice store set up with samples, but we just browsed.  We had a nice lunch of grilled trout (caught from the lake) and enjoyed the fact that the sun came out.  Here we are with Nora:

Then, we had to walk back down the other side of the island to the boat.  It was really pretty:

From there, we had a 2 1/2 hour ride back to the port, and we were able to sit on top of the boat for a little while and enjoy the views.  

We spent Saturday night in Puno as well and then took a bus down to a small town on the lake called Juli.  Juli is called little Rome, supposedly, because it has four huge churches in a very small town overall.  They were built by missionaries in the 1500s.  The churches are now in disrepair but it was still fun to explore.

This is the largest one but I am not sure what it is called.  We walked around a little

and JP tried to make friends with the sheep, who were a little skeptical.  They seemed perfectly happy grazing in the churchyard though.


From there, we put Nora in a car to go back to Bolivia and we hung out for a while before taking another overnight bus to return to Tacna.  We had a great time hanging out and catching up with Nora and you can see her photos and learn more about her work in Bolivia at http://www.norainbolivia.blogspot.com/


Now that it is almost the end of May, we have finally reached the end of our April travel stories.  I will try to catch up on other exciting Tacna events on the blog in the coming days.  In the meantime, JP is leaving tomorrow for Lima where he will meet up with the Brophy Peru trip, arriving tomorrow evening. They will be spending some time in Lima and Pisco before returning to Tacna. You can follow the group's adventures at their blog here, and I will also update here once they are back in Tacna.