Puno & Lake Titicaca

  Puno, Peru
Monday, August 11, 2008

3-mirador above Puno & Lake Titicaca

So after all the Arequipa area fun, I headed to Puno & Lake Titicaca for a very quick stop.  Puno & the Lake were areas that I had heard mixed reviews on, so I was not feeling strongly drawn to the area, but it did feel like something that I should check off the list since I was here.  Unfortunately with my mixed to neutral attitude, I probably shortchanged the area a bit, but did have one full day in and around the lake.

I took a 5 hour bus on a Thursday from Arequipa to Puno, which is at very high altitude (12,000 feet), sits on the lake front and is basically right on the Bolivian border.  I spent that afternoon just sort of bumming around the town, having leisurely coffee, etc.  The town was actually much more interesting than I expected (low expectations can be good sometimes) & it felt very local (i.e. not touristy) - similar to Arequipa in that regard, but Puno was definitely not as affluent.

2-Puno

 

Lake Titicaca & the reed islands

The main traveler attraction to Puno is to visit Lake Titicaca, which is a very large lake similar in scale to one of the American great lakes.  There are a series of islands that many people visit.  First are the floating islands, which are islands made out of reeds.  According to history, the local people that inhabit these islands were trying to flee from the Spanish & decided to move out into the lake & just build islands to live on.  We (myself & a few folks from my hostel) visited the islands for a couple hours with a guide.  Per our guide -- who showed us with a demonstration of model reed houses --

1-floating reed islands in Lake Titicaca

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the islands have a ībaseīof a couple feet a soil mixed with reeds (not sure how it doesnīt disintegrate) and then a few feet of reeds on top.  The reeds need to be replaced/added to every 15 days because the bottom layer does start to disintegrate & become all mushy. It is crazy to walk on, you sort of wonder if you are going to fall through to the lake (no, obviously).  

It is extremely interesting to just realize how adaptable people are and how some traditional ways of life just continue, even if they arguably could be replaced with other ways of life.  Unfortunately, the actual visit to the islands is extremely touristy (perhaps the most touristy thing I have done - & that is saying something) & so I found it hard to enjoy the interesting parts & not just think the whole ītourī was a little crazy.

solar panel on reed islands

1-mirador above Puno & Lake Titicaca

The other main attraction on the lake are the homestays and visits to a couple islands a couple hours out into the lake.  Although a homestay would have been interesting, I didnīt feel much pressure to do this since I had previously had such a fulfilling homestay experience.  I would have like to visit the other islands at least for the day, but with my very short visit -- just 1.5 days -- and a little bit of disorganization (I didnīt make any plans in advance), we ended up just hitting the floating reed islands & then going for a nice afternoon walk to a mirador above the city.  Not bad for a quick stop!

Saturday market in Puno