Puno - Peru

Trip Start Oct 30, 2007
1
136
164
Trip End Nov 20, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Peru  ,
Friday, June 12, 2009

Well, we set off for the Peruvian border from Copacabana on the 11th in a small bus, got to the checkpoint and we all got turned away.  Apparently, as is common in Peru, all roads in the country were closed.  Yup, the whole country was at a standstill.  The population has a running strike against the government about the governmentīs exploitation of the Amazon basin, and the allowing of foreign companies to destroy the rainforest for the sake of oil and other natural resources (and to be fair, from the little we were gleaning about the local situation, they did seem to have a fair point).  Mind you, our mental sympathy didnīt get us across the border.  Anything with wheels trying to cross the border was getting pelted with rocks and sticks, so the bus driver wiselt decided to turn us around and try again the next day.  Hey, another day on the shores of Titicaca with awesome trout was just fine with us.

The next day things had calmed down and we got to Puno in Peru, on the western shores of Lake Titicaca without incident Incan funerary towers, Sillustani
Incan funerary towers, Sillustani
 .  From what weīd heard from people, we expected Peru to be more modern and far more touristed thatn laid back Bolivia, not to mention a bit more expensive.  We visited the massive Incan and Colla funerary towers of Sillustani, built using superbly carved stone blocks, some up to 12m tall, which originally housed important Incan leaders.  Interestingly, the restoration of these towers has hit a stone wall (boom! boom!) as they canīt figure out how to rebuild them by fitting the blocks back together.  1-0 to the Incas!

Next day we decided to go to the floating islands of the Uros people on the lake.  While these were billed as incredibly touristy (and would hence normally disqualify us), they did seem very interesting, so we decided rather than go on a tour, to jump on a local boat.  Centuries ago, the Uros people decided to isolate themselves as a defence against the aggressive Incans and Collas by building floating islands from local totora reeds.  Today, several hundred of them still live in this way, eeking out an existence from fishing and tourism.  To be honest, the islands were far less touristy than we expected, and for a few 'soles' the elder of the village told us how they built their reed islands and boats.  The islands, 2m thick, continue to rot from the bottom and new layers are placed on top. They anchor them with reed rops to the bottom of the lake so they donīt float away, and the effect is like walking on a massive trampoline. The elder also paddled us across his waterway in his reed boat to his 'neighbour' who had a mini trout hatchery embedded in the reeds.  Really interesting.
Slideshow Print this entry Puno hotels