Puno & Lake Titicaca
Trip Start
May 24, 2008
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26
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Trip End
Dec 21, 2008
Puno, Peru
Thursday, August 14, 2008
So in the space of less than 2 hours we arrived at 4000m above sea level and the headache that followed was one for the record books. All of us at dinner were trying to ignore the throbbing altitude headache but it was relentless.
We managed to buy some altitude tablets that allowed us to enjoyed the amazing few days in Puno and Lake Titicaca.
The trip to the lake started with a tuk tuk to the edge of the lake where we purchased rice, flour, sugar and pasta plus some fruit for the family we were to stay with on the edge of Lake Titicaca
Tuk tuk to lake
.The boat trip to the homestay stopped at one of the reed islands - known as Uros Island. We learnt about how they made the islands out of reeds placed 2 metres deep. The reeds are also 100% flouride so the people on the island have very white teeth.
From here we travelled to our homestay village on the edge of the lake where we stayed for one night. The family that we stayed with had 5 children aged between 2 and 16. They definitely kept us entertained despite our lack of Spanish. We had a group dinner in the evening where we were dressed in traditional clothing. For the guys it was ok because all they had to wear was a poncho and a beanie - different story for the ladies. There were at least 5 pieces of clothing involved and they were heavy! After dinner we did some traditional dancing around the camp fire - I know, sounds like a cracking night out!
We went to Taquile Island on the day after the homestay. The island has no roads, just walkways, and according to www.go2peru.com there is no electricity on the island, which we find hard to believe when they cooked our trout to perfection in the electric oven. Anyway, it's a very picturesque island where you can certainly top up on any hand knitted peru-esque head wear you may be missing.
Next stop: Cusco.
