Puno 31/3

Arrived 28th left 1st apr.

You could see the Lake as we came into town. It was the first day bus that we caught, so we saw plenty of the countryside as we went along. West of the mountains is all desert, dry and very dusty. Once you crest the peaks ( 4330m, highest point so far ) it starts to turn green. No plants to be seen, just grasses, but green no the less.
The town looked a bit run down as we came in and I gave Jo my usual ' where the hell are you dragging me now ' look. But I must say for a small town it was quite good. The main.... I can only call it mall...... They have paved in about 200m of shops, no traffic to be had at all. It was good to walk around without the threat of being run into by a taxi. I say run into because the cars are so small that all you would get is a nasty bruise, but it would still be nasty.It took Jo approximately 12mins to sniff out the bakery in town, so we found ourselves having coffee and cake on the first afternoon in Puno.
The next day we took a half day trip out to Sillustani.

Veiw of tombs.

It is on another lake about 40mins from Puno, but that could mean that it is within 5km the roads being the way they are. It is a site with some pre Inca burial tombs on it. Its a cool place with great views of the lake that it is on.
The biggest puppy of them all.



A full day tour, of the floating lake and an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca, was what we had planned next. Jo had wanted to spend a night with a local family on one of the islands, but I didn't. It was the over night thing that bothered me, one couple we talked to had said that they stayed overnight with a family that didn't speak Spanish either, just Quechua. So I didn't really fancy the idea. I won and we just did a day trip. It was essentially the same without the overnight stay.

Floating Island.


The floating island was great. They have built houses and everything on to of floating reed islands. Apparently they throw new reeds down every 20 days or so. The floating platform ends up being 1.5 to 2.5m thick and it sags when you walk on it, well it does under my weight. They have a little trap door in the reeds, just for tourists, where they throw a rock tied to a string, just to prove that they float. The rock went down 15m before the string went slack. We even got to ride across on one of the reed boats.


Then we had a long boat ride out to another Island where about 4000 people live. Had lunch there and walked across the Island to our boat, which had gone to the other side of the Island to pick us up. It took a good three hours to get back to Puno.

Our boat is awaiting.

Jo had tried to book a fancy place in Copacabana, but they were full, so we decided to wing it, this from the girl who was reluctant to set foot in Sth America without guards.


Jo got really sick from the food on the Island we think and we had to spend an extra day in Puno, but she was well enough to travel the next day to Bolivia.