23 May: Arequipa to Puno
Happy birthday Mum!
We woke up at 6:45 this morning in order to get the 8.30 bus to
Puno. We
had a huge
panic
attack
when
packing
our bags
before
breakfast:
we
couldn't
find our
camera.
We'd left
it
yesterday
evening in
the
minibus on
the
way back
from the
Colca
Valley
tour...
François
rushed
down to
the hotel
reception
to phone
the
tour
agency,
but there
was no
answer.
The
reception
said
they'd
keep
trying
whilst we
ate
breakfast,
but at
7:45 there
was still
no
answer...
We
couldn't
delay our
departure
to Puno as
there were
no
more
buses
that
day,
so we
resigned
ourselves
to leaving
without
our
camera.
Then,
almost by
miracle,
the
receptionist
managed to
obtain
the
guide's
mobile
number
(François
had fortunately remembered
his name)
and to cut
a long
story
short,
after many
frantic
phone
calls we
managed to
collect
the camera
from the
guide at a
hotel in
town at
8:10,
before
arriving
at the bus
station at
8:20 just
10 minutes
before the
bus
was
due to
leave.
We
were so
lucky
!
Unfortunately Sophie was car sick a
couple of
times on
the long
drive to
Puno...
We
arrived
finally
in
Puno at
an
altitude
of 3810m,
on
the
shores
of
Lake
Titicaca, at
14:45 and
took a
taxi
directly
to our
hotel,
Camino
Real. We
were
pleasantly
surprised
with
our
quadruple
room as it
turned out
to be two
nice
connecting
rooms.
After
meeting a
guide for
the 2 day
Taquile
tour we'd
booked
for
the
next
day,
we
walked
into
the
city
for a
look
around.
There's
not
much
to
see
except
for
the
beautifully
carved
facade of
the
cathedral.
We found a pleasant restaurant with a comforting wood
fire for
dinner.
Jenny ate
trout
from
Lake
Titicaca
which was
delicious
and the
girls
moaned
about
their
vegetable
soup
starter...
It
would be such
a
treat if
they could
eat a meal
without
making a
fuss...
 |
| The cathedral
in
Puno |
24 May: Ouros Islands and Taquile
We were picked up from our hotel at 6:35am for our 2 day / 1night
tour of
the
floating
Ou
ros
Islands
and
Taquile.
It was
already
8:00 by
the
time
we'd
collected
other
participants
from their
hotels,
driven to
the
port
and
set
off in
a
boat. It
was a 30
min ride
to our
first
stop
which
was
Sushi
Maya, one
of the
Ou
ros
Islands,
inhabited
by 22
people
and
much
smaller
than our
garden at
home
!
There are
about 50
islands
that
make
up
the Ou
ros
group
and
they're
all
floating
islands;
they're
made
out
of
reeds
and
roots
of
reeds.
The
floating
islands
are
spectacular
and quite
like no
other
island
we've seen
before.
The guide
with the
help
of
the
inhabitants
demonstrated
how the
islands
are built
from the
reeds
and
maintained.
It's
fascinating
and hard
work! We
bought a
P
eruvian
mural embroidery
as a
souvenir before
taking an
impressive
reed boat
across to
a
neighbouring
floating
island.
The
boat,
we
were
told
took
10
men, 3
months to
make. A
lot of
work considering the
boat only
lasts 1
year and 3
months!
We then had a 2.5 hour journey to Taquile Island: a 7
kilometre
long
island
inhabited
by 2000
people.
There's
not a
road,
a
car, a
motorbike
or a
bicycle on
the
island. All
the
inhabitants
wear
traditional
Taquile
island
dress: the
ladies wear
colourful
full
skirts and
black
capes over
their
heads
and
the
men
wear
black
trousers
with a
bolero
type
jacket
and
a
knitted
hat.
The
village
is
situated
near the
summit of
the
island
so
we had
to
walk
up 140
metres between
3810m and
3950m in
order to
reach
it.
We
were
surprised
how well
we managed
the hike,
without
getting
breathless.
We
ate in a
local
restaurant
with our
guide
before
being
accompanied
by our
host,
Jesus, to
his house
where we
were to
stay
for
the
night.
The
accommodation
was very
rudimentary;
the toilet
was
situated at
the end
of the
garden
with a
bucket of
water
serving as
a flush,
there was no shower, no
running
water or
mains
electricity,
no
heating,
but there
were a few
electric lights
thanks to
a solar
panel.
The tour agency had abandoned us; we had no guide for the
afternoon,
nor the
next
day...
Edgar,
Jesus' 10 year old son, kindly
took us
for a walk
around the
island to
visit some
ruins of
pre-Inca
ceremonial
sites, but
unfortunately
we were
not able
to get any more
information
about the
sites. We
saw
a
sheep
grazing
in
a field
with
sunglasses
on! The
kids found
it
hilarious!
Then back
at the
house, the
girls
played tag
in the
courtyard with
both of
Jesus'
children
until it
was too
dark to
see. We
were served
dinner at
18:30. We
were all
dressed
up
in a
couple
of
fleeces
to
brace
the
cold.
Then
we
all
dressed up
to go to
bed:
pyjamas,
fleece
jumper,
fleece
jacket,
socks,
gloves
and
a
woolly
bonnet!
The
temperate
in the
bedroom at
4 in the
morning
was
a
chilly
10
degrees!
 |
 |
 |
| Sushi Maya, a
floating
island |
The welcome
committee
as
we
prepared
to
land
at
Sushi
Maya |
The reed boat
ride
between
islands |
 |
 |
 |
| Taquile
island |
A musician in
traditional
Taquile
dress |
The B&B |
 |
 |
 |
| Gaelle and our
young
guide
Edgar |
Following
Edgar
along
the
island's
paths |
What a cool
sheep! |
25 May: Taquile to Puno
We woke up at about 6 in the morning after a good, very quiet
nights
sleep. We
had
pancakes
for
breakfast before setting off for a
walk to
the north
west of
the island
to a
golden sand beach. We
walked
along
small
stone
paths and
the scenery on the way was
lovely;
hundreds
of stone
terraces
for
agriculture and beautiful
views of
the lake
and
surrounding
mountains
in Peru and Bolivia. We
stayed on
the beach
for almost
an hour
soaking up
the sun, but
still dressed
in our
fleeces!
The water
was far
too chilly for
a swim: 9
degrees!
We walked back via the other side of the island to the main
village.
The stone
path was
being
repaired
by the inhabitants so we
saw many
locals on
our
travels.
We had a
quick look around the
artisan
building
selling
Peruvian
knitwear,
before returning to
Jesus'
house for
lunch. We
had, yet
again to
fight with the agency
to get the
lunch
included
despite
them
having confirmed 4 times
already
that ALL
meals were
included...
We are
vaccinated against
Peruvian
agencies
for life
and would
recommend
all travellers to
avoid them
like the
plague,
especially
Grantour
in Lima. Book all
tours via
local
agencies,
the
national travel
agents charge
anything
from 50%
to 1200%
more per
tour:
that's not a typo, we paid twelve
times more
for the
Taquile
excursion
than we would have
paid with
a local
agency... And
the icing
on the
cake
is that
the
agencies don't
keep their
word...
They tell you lunch
is
included
and then
try to
charge you
for it...! With the amount we
paid we
should
have had a
5*
Michelin lunch served on silver
platters!
After lunch we walked down the 560 steps to the main port and
waited
over an
hour for
the boat
to pick us
up... We stayed up on
the top
deck of
the boat,
soaking up
the sun
for the return journey which
was very
pleasant
and
watched
the
sunset
over Puno
before we
arrived in
the port
at 17:45. Back at the
hotel we
took a
shower,
did the
kids
homework and popped out for a pizza.
 |
 |
 |
| The terraces
of
Taquile
Island |
The beach at
the
peninsula |
The girls on
the
boat |
BACK
| 
