Early Monday morning (I think... days are slipping away from me) we headed out of Cusco by bus to Puno, the main Peruvian city on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is considered the largest high altitude lake in the world. Puno is described by almost any traveler or guidebook you'll come across as a one-day town. Most will say that if you can cross over into Boliva the Lake is more interesting on that side, but Boliva requires over a hundred dollar entrance fee per person from the U.S., so we didn't go that route.
We took a Tour Peru bus to Puno, and that ride went well. As soon as you step into the bus station in Puno, you are accosted by people trying to sell tours and directing you to hostels. We booked our bus out for the next day immediately, and found a taxi to the hostel we intended to stay at. The guy who offered us a taxi was actually one of these tour people, but he was an ok guy. He got us a taxi and a good deal at our hostel, so we booked a tour of the Floating Islands with him for what I think was a good price.
The tourist attraction of Lake Titicaca are the Floating Islands. A Peruvian community who resisted the Incan empire created islands out of reeds and reed roots, and continue to live in the middle of the Lake on these handmade islands. We did a three hour tour on Tuesday morning, which involved a visit on one of these islands. Our guide and the president of the island (family elder from what I could gather) described how the islands are created, how homes are built and how the cooking is done. Then the women took people to their homes to show us the homes from the inside (everything is created from the reeds) and then took us to her market to sell us handicrafts. I know some people have complained that they felt they had to buy things during these tours, but we expected this and were happy to purchase these items from the person/community who actually made them.
We then rode on one of the massive reeds boats to another of the islands where there was icecream and beverages for sale. The islands are each pretty small, maybe 10 huts on each with an open area in the middle, but the islands are all sort of tethered together and form a great chain in the Lake between the bay by Puno and the Big Lake.
When we returned to the mainland, we had lunch and then collected our items from storage at our hostel and used the internet to book our next hostel in Arequipa. It was only 1ish and we didn't book a bus out till 6PM. We stopped for a beer and then walked to the bus terminal rather than taking a taxi. We only had about 2 hrs to kill at the bus terminal, so we caught up on reading.
We opted for a less expensive bus for our ride to Arequipa in order to save some money on a short 6 hour trip. We each paid 15 soles, which is about 5 dollars. The bus was a typical coach bus, but with no toilet. The seats were a bit cramped but fine to start. ... Then, someone kept their window open the whole ride. It was FREEZING and everyone else somehow had the sense to wear their heavy coats. Then the guy in front of me reclined into my lap. I tried to recline to compensate, but it just sent my knees further into his seat. We put on our music, curled up together as best we could, and reminded ourselved we only paid five bucks a pop.
We arrived in Arequipa after 1AM, found a legit taxi (thankfully!) and headed to our hostel, which it turns out is out in the suburbs, but is very nice. They provide rides to the city center during set times in the morning, so after breakfast we headed into Arequipa. We found the Museum of the Andes, and took a very good tour of the gallery, which is focused around an Incan mummy, Juanita, who was discovered in 1995 at one of the volancos outside the city. We walked around some more, discovering that our map wasn't entirely accurate or that all the tourist attractions had closed or moved. We settled for lunch and then meandered some more, stumbling upon the Municipal Museum of Arequipa, which was less than a dollar entrance fee. It was random, but there was lots to look at and it killed some time.
We headed back to the plaza, bought some items to make dinner with and headed back to our hostel.
We've booked an overnight trek to Colca Canyon for tomorrow, which leaves around 3:30AM from our hostel, so I need to get to bed soon. We should return by 6 on Friday and will catch a 10PM bus to Ica/Huacacyna (sp?) from there, so it will be a while before I'll write again.
Pictures are tough because computers are slow, but we're loading what we can.
Love,
Meghan & Eric
