We are now here in Puno a town right on Lake Titicaca.
A few days ago we did an all day bus trip from Cuzco to get here to Puno. We stopped at various Inca sites and Spanish colonial churches. One church was incredibly elaborate with massive priceless religious paintings and the ceiling covered in paintings and murals too. There was lots of gold on the alter and walls. This place was in the middle of nowhere which made it more amazing. It had been built right on top of an Inca temple that the Spanish had destroyed which you see a lot of here.
We stopped at a touristy lunch stop that had the usual pan flutes playing in the background (which drives you crazy after a while!) and a cute little baby alpaca next to some market stalls. Of course I decided to go over and pat it as it looked so cute and fluffy and it turned around and spat right in my face!! I got a huge shock and luckily only got a few strands of grass in my face and hair and no alpaca saliva luckily!. I had disturbed it as it was happily munching on the grass.
We have just come back from two days visiting islands on Lake Titicaca, it was a two day overnight trip and we stayed on one of the islands last night.
We visited the Uros Islands which are artificial floating artificial islands made from reeds. The islands were a bit touristy but interesting
to see how people live there and how the islands were constructed. The whole place was a bit damp though as the water seeped through the reeds at times.
We stayed over night at another island called Amantani island. It is mainly farming and rural with no cars which was a nice change. We did a home stay and stayed with
a local family there who cooked for us and provided basic accommodation. There were 15 in our tour group and each couple or small group were assigned to one family on the island. The group was mainly Americans as usual and it was also a nice change to have some Canadians and an Aussie too!
It was all very basic and rustic but comfortable. There is no electricity on the island so we ate by candlelight.
As we speak very little Spanish it was a little hard to communicate with the family but we managed somehow with smiles and hand gestures and the daughter of the family could speak some English as she was learning it at school. We found we could play, sing a few songs and have a laugh with the cheeky son of the family who is 9 years old and that made it easier too!
It was very rural with sheep and donkeys wandering around the terraced fields of maize, quinoa, corn and potatoes. The kitchen the family cooked in was just a basic clay fire stove but they still managed to provide delicious local food by candle light. It was mainly quinoa and vegetable soup and then rice, vegetables and lots of different varieties of potatoes and okra. The toilet was outside way down in the garden. The people in the village seem to be happy without all the modern equipment and gadgets we take for granted and when we did a walk to a local Inca hill temple the local people smiled and greeted us. As there was no electricity there was not much to do after dinner so we were in bed asleep, under nice warm blankets by 8.00pm!! It was so quiet and dark it was easy to fall asleep even for a nocturnal person like myself! It would be hard for us to live without the Internet, TV, music, lighting, electricity, tap water etc. now but was a nice change to get back to basics for a while!
As we left early the next morning after pancakes cooked on the stove, the villagers got our group to all dress up in their local costumes for a group photo which was funny. Dave was in a brown poncho and hat and I was in a green full skirt, white blouse and black shawl. We did not blend in very well though and our walking boots did not improve the look!
We visited and did a walk across another island called Taquile which was also very scenic. The dry rural landscape reminded me a bit of Greece. The island was covered in Eucalyptus trees as are most of the places we have been to here in Peru. We found out that they were brought over from Australia in the 18th century and are used for firewood mainly. It is like a familiar Australian landscape at times and when you can smell the Eucalyptus leaves it feels like we are on a bush walk back in Australia! It is strange to see them everywhere. They are hardy and adaptable.
We then we had a slow three hour boat trip back across lake Titicaca which looked lovely as the sky and lake were so blue with the mountains in the distance, some snow covered. It is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world at an altitude of 3,800m (12,500ft) above sea level.
We are back in Puno now in our luxurious hotel, which is a bit of a contrast to where we were staying last night! We are off to Bolivia tomorrow on a three hour bus trip round the lake over the border to a place called Copacabana, not to be confused with the one in Rio!
Off to dinner now for some alpaca loin (it is a bit like beef), chips and veg and Peruvian red wine which is what we had a few nights ago and was delicious! The local trout is lovely too.
So will say adios for now,
Love to everyone from Diana and Dave
XXX
--
Diana Ellem
http://www.ellem.com/
+61410584296
--
Diana Ellem
http://www.ellem.com/
+61410584296
