Puno and Lake Titicaca (Southern Peru Part 2)

One of the highlights for many Peru visitors is a trip to Machu Picchu, the iconic Lost Inca City and UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was also on our itinerary, but we were in no great rush to get there. So from the Colca Canyon we headed to Puno first, a town on Lake Titicaca.

There were two practical reasons for this choice: i) Transport links were more sensible taking the detour via Puno and ii) We had lined up a trek to Machu Picchu for a few days later and prior to embarking on this trip wanted to acclimatise to the altitude a bit more. A couple of nights in Puno at 3800m above sea level really would help with that.

The journey to Puno was an interesting one: With the month of March being almost (but not quite) the end of the rainy season in this part of Peru, we found ourselves travelling through rain turning into sleet at some point just before nightfall. A few lorries and a buses got stuck ahead of us and it looked for a while like we would have to spend the night in our minibus at 4300m... not a very exciting prospect. But somehow we managed to get through... it was a tight one! The snow rapidly changed back into rain once we descended again.

Puno is not a very touristic place but it has some interesting stuff to offer. To start with, it is one of the few places in Peru where they speak Aymara although it seems the locals prefer that their children speak Spanish... which is a little sad! Puno is also called the "folkloric capital of Peru" as they have a big tradition of dancing: they have between 250 and 350 dances with specific dresses and masks to represent characters in ancient stories. We enjoyed a good performance, which included morenadas and other dances with live music, in "Los Balcones de Puno". The show was worth it, the food was ok but a little boring for our high standards! ;o)

The following day we visited Lake Titicaca. It is the highest navegable lake in the world (at 3812m apparently!) and also the biggest lake in South America. The name is thought to mean "rock puma" as the shape of the lake when looked on a map and turned 180 degrees looks like a puma chasing a rabbit (though when they made up the name, would they have had a map to check this shape?!). It is shared between the countries of Peru and Bolivia. The Peruvians think they own 60% and the Bolivians think they own 60%... in truth, there is no physical barrier in the lake which means this is all just talk and they share it all.

So, we hopped on a boat which took us to the Uros floating islands. They are literally man-made islands built from reeds, which we were told the Uru people originally created with a defensive purpose.

The local houses and the kamisaraki welcome!

Apparently they traded with other tribes in the area but kind of liked the idea of independence and not paying taxes to the Incas, so they chose a lifestyle which involved spending a great deal of time floating on the lake, sort of as a get-away-from-it-all. They have houses (also made of reed) and even small veggie patches and animals on those islands. But nowadays, of course, it feels a bit as if the main purpose of the continued existance of the islands is to attract tourists other than anything else.

They call this a Mercedes-Benz.

A small local

Men doing some maintenance on the island. They need to do this every few days.

On the way back to our hostal, we stopped at the local market where we noticed the incredible variety of fruits and vegetables that doesn't even make it to the "western" supermarkets. We sampled granadillas and "ice-cream beans" or pacay for the first time. Both were really delicious!

Granadilla: The outside cover is a little like an eggshell, it is hard and cracks under pressure. The inside is super sweet pulp and seeds.

A hungry boy with a new fruit!

An open Pacay or ice-cream bean fruit

One eats the white flesh which is sweet. The beans however can be toasted and are eaten in many other parts of latin america such as in Mexico.

An interesting geek fact: The rivers in Peru drain into the Atlantic, Pacific or Lake Titicaca. Titicaca has no connection to either ocean, only to two smaller lakes in Bolivia, which don't connect to an ocean either. So the water that drains from the Andes into Lake Titicaca eventually evaporates as opposed to flow towards the Atlantic or Pacific.

Next stop was Cusco and the blog post will be published shortly!