Puno and Lake Titicaka

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  Puno, Peru
Friday, August 8, 2008

I was somewhat on top of the world when writing the last Machu Picchu entry, but the entry might have been somewhat different had it come after the most horrendous journey back to Cusco. We were slightly concerned that we might have train issues after reading our tickets named "Penelope Mewos" and "Imog Ainsmith", but it turned out that this was the least of our worries as the train was two and a half hours late to leave the station. The main concern was that we didn´t have a hostel booked in Cusco, not that sensible considering it was high season.

 After our late train, we were picked up from the station at the other end by a bus. I´m not sure how long that part of the journet was supposed to take, or how long we were stopped for, I only remember waking up after being stopped for a while with people jumping off the bus and generally looking worried. It turned out there had been an accident in front of us on the road in front of us and a woman had been injured, promting calls of "is there a doctor or medical student on the bus?". Luckily there was already a doctor on the scene as I´m not sure my pitiful first aid knowlege would have served all that well. Fortunately, no fatal injuruies, just a broken leg and some cuts on her face that made things look much worse than they were. Anyhow, what with the wait for the ambulance (that never turned up) we didn´t get back into Cusco until 1 in the morning by which stage Imo and I were somewhat zombie like, not surprising considering we´d been up since 3.30 am and climbed 2 mountains on only 5 hours sleep! Luckily for us there was still space in the hostel where we´d left our bags (our favourite hostel so far in fact). Sleep.

Now for the actual subject of this blog: lake titicaca (puma rock, though if you pronouce it wrong apparently it means Puma Poo, who´d have guessed?). This is a beautiful bright blue lake on the Peruvian-Bolivian border, set at an amazing 3.800 meters of altitude. Brig and I were taking the popular 2 day trip to the islands of Amantani and Taquile, both very beautiful and supposed to be full of inca ruins and terracing. The amazing scenery and beautiful weather can´t be understated, however we did find ourselves a little overwhelmed by touristyness of it all: the whole place revolves around it. En route to Amantani, we made a stop on the floating islands of the Uros, which are these amazing constructions of totora reeds on which litte comunities live: fascinating but befitting their descriptions in the guide book as "floating souveneer stalls", where women and children wait all day for the frequent boats of tourists who they show around their houses before guilting them into buying some massively overpriced weavings. After bing sung to by some very cute Uros island girls, we headed off to Amantani, where we would be staying that night with local families. Waiting to be paired off felt a bit like waiting to find out who your exchange partner would be on school exchanges, however, in this instance, I knew none of the local language: Quechua.

After settling in our house (which had the most amazing views of the lake from the window of our room) we were invited down to lunch,Quinnoa soup, then a plate of boiled potatoes each that would probs have fed a whole Inca army and a massive slab of grilled cheese, followed by yummy muña tea. This was only the beginning of Juanna´s attemts to feed up the hungry English girls: Dinner was more potato soup, followed by a very large plate of chips (I wonder how many potatoes they get through per day?). This was after our climb to visit an Inca temple up on the hillside, where we (very rapidly, it was cold) performed the ritual of walking around the temple 3 times, once for the snake, once for the puma and once for the condor. We were also keen not to be late for the "fiesta" that was taking place later. In fact, Imo and I were feeling pretty shattered by this point so were ready to give the party a miss and retreat to bed when Juliana came bustling into the room armed with local costume that she had wrapped and tightened and tied around us before we really knew what was going on. So, wrapped in massive skirts, blouses, shawls and waist bands, we plodded down to the "party" where we were treated to some local music and dancing before the police came to break up the rave, and the drunk and disorderly´s were sent off home. Or thats what I imagine happened after Brig and I left anyway...

The following day, after the biggest plate of pancakes you have ever seen, we went to visit the next Island, Taquile where we tried on lots of knitted goods (a speciality there) and had lkunch before getting back onto the boat to return to the mainland for our "night" bus (any bus that gets you in at 3.45 in the mornign does not count as a night bus!). 

It might be because of all the recent activity and lack of sleep that I´m feeling a bit worse for wear at the moment. We have now arrived in Arequipa and I have slept for around 28 out of the 36 or so hours we have been here! no doubt sleep catch up for the punishing hours we have been functioning on of late: on counting, there has been one night in the last 2 weeks in which we had over 6 hours sleep! Not good, so now, I´m doing overtime. 

Miss everyone lots, and see you all soon: one week to go today!

love love and BBBB
xx

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