Puno

Trip Start Jan 17, 2008
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Trip End Feb 01, 2008


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Flag of Peru  ,
Friday, January 25, 2008

Puno is another of the "quick stops" of this trip... a city that it is not considered to be beautiful (I only saw the bus terminal and the short road to the port, but this is what other tourists told me), has as its main attraction the floating islands and Taquile, a big island, with a lot of stone buildings, where one of the finest (and most expensive) textiles are made.

I had travelled from Cusco to Puno on a night bus (+/- 10 pm to 5 am) with part of the group of young Brasilians I met on the Inca Trail.

I could barely sleep on the bus so I really needed a Coffee at the breakfast i took in the bus terminal with my Brazilian friends... mmm... I really miss the Brazilian coffee :(

Because of the different timing and directions (the Brazilians wanted to return to Bolivia in the same day, and the border was closing at 5 pm), we had to say goodbye after breakfast, as they were going to do just a halfday tour (only the floating islands) and I was going to do the full day trip...

So we split... and I started my tour...

The floating islands are all made of a special plant (called "totora") Floating Islands and Taquile
Floating Islands and Taquile
 . They are built by their inhabitants, every year renewing a layer, and they can continue inhabited for 40-50 or up to 70 years, when the islands become too big or too smelly.

The "isleņos" (inhabitants of the islands) build everything from this plant, and they also eat it...
During the presentation we had (made by the guide and the president of one of the islands) they offered us some of these plants to eat (but only for the ones with strong stommacks, as it seems that persons with "regular" stommacks need to go to the bathroom (and fast) in less than 15 minutes after eating it...
We were only 2 curageous from our group of about 20 people... me (of course!!! :o)  ) and a German... we were both fine 15 minutes afterwards, and we continued like this for the rest of the trip...
As the guide was telling us, the isleņos have schools for the basic level on some of the islands, and all the children go there and study. Yet, for higher levels of education, they go to Puno... this is how the islands loose a very important part of their population (80% of their youngs... If I am remembering right)... and it is like this that the population of the islands has kept its number constant, in a long while: 2000 inhabitants.

We were lucky: the day was SUNNY - the first one like this since I had left Sao Paulo...
After visiting 2 of the floating islands, we went to Taquile, where we had to go up some stone stairs to get to the top of the island, where the houses were situated.. Floating Islands and Taquile
Floating Islands and Taquile
 . this reminded me a lot of the Inca Trail and of the challenges of it... and reminded me also that I had survived it :o))))

Joined by our "sufference" :o), I started to make friends with 3 Argentinean tourists from Buenos Aires. One guy (Andres), his sister, and a friend of hers (Clarisa and respectively Carolina... If I remember well).

Adres was almost returning to BsAs - back to work- but the girls were continuing still their trip to the desert region (Chicos, mucho gusto en conocerlos!! Espero q nos quedamos en contacto!!!).

As they told me that Puno was not worth staying longer, immediately after the tour I took my big backpack from the bagagge keeping office of the terminal and took already in the evening a bus to Arequipaaaaa... the white city :o).

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