Lake Titicaca

Up early again!!!! Arrgh, are we having a holiday??......

At least I had a very good night's sleep though which made up for the previous night

 

Picked up at 7.30am for the transfer to Puno Pier, which is about 15 min walk away from our hotel.

There we boarded our boat, yes, we were the only ones on the boat apart from the captain and tour guide.

 Felt like rock stars!!!

At least we could sit where we wanted to, when we wanted to! and move around the boat at our leisure!

We sailed out of the bay through some channels of reed out to the Uros Isalnds which are located only 5 km from the shore.

It took approx 45 mins and we had to pass through a tollway, albeit one on water....

 

 

 

The Uros reed islands are inhabited by Indians who practice traditional living.

We got off on one of the islands and spent about 1 hour with a family. The man (father) told us how the islands are constructed using the reeds. He then showed us around his patch, saw inside their houses, their outdoor kitchen and were shown some of their handicraft work.

He then took us for a short ride on a boat, also made of reeds - amazing! 

 

 We boarded the boat again and headed out through more reeds out into Puno Bay towards Taquile Island.

The boat ride was very slow, but leisurely and took 2 and 1/2 hours. All I could think of during the cruise out was Rod Stewart's song - "Sailing"! The last 30 mins or so after we passed through the heads were a bit bumpy, but neither of us was seasick.

 

 

 

We arrived at Taquile Island just before 12 noon. The island is only 7km long and about 1.5km wide. There are approx 1200 inhabitants. They self-govern and speak Quechua only. We hiked up to the main square and had lunch overlooking the lake. Looking across the lake towards Bolivia, it was a truly magnificent vista.

We had quinoa soup, then fresh trout and chips. Even in Peru the seagulls know when it is fish and chips time! After lunch we strolled for 45 mins around to another port where we were picked up by the boat.

 

The trip back was less bumpy initially as we had the wind behind us. A thunderstorm rolled in over Puno and we had a lightning show to spice things up. The wind increased and although it was a little choppy, we still had a comfortable trip back into Port. We got in at 5pm, so it was a long day.

Minor panic back at the hotel as we could not find our train tickets for the next stage of our trip to Cuzco, but a few phone calls to the local tourist operator and a couple of hours later, we had a faxed copy of the tickets. Phew!!