Trip to Puno

At 9:30 pm a group of about 16 of us left on the overnight bus to Puno. The bus station was chaotic, with so many families trying to reach Puno, whether it was for the weekend’s festival there, or to catch a connecting bus to destinations such as Arequipa, or La Paz, Bolivia. I was almost left behind because the agency that arranged our trip had forgotten to give me my tickets, but all worked out!

The trip was incredible. We arrived in Puno at around 5am in the morning and checked into our hostel to drop off our stuff then have a quick breakfast. We left that morning at 6:45 to board a boat visiting the islands of Uros and Taquile on Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca is one of the world’s seven natural wonders of the world. It is the highest navegable lake in the world. Cusco is almost 11,000 ft above sea level, and Puno and Lake Titicaca are over 3,000ft higher, so don’t forget to bring your oxygen tanks if you plan to visit, and wear plenty of sunscreen!

I have always wanted to visit the island of Uros. Uros is a collection of small, floating islands made by the people from the reeds growing in the lake. They are an Aymara speaking people who have managed to maintain their customs and traditional way of life, but have also introduced some modern technology with electricity, phones, and satellites.
The men on the island do all the reed work, in crafts, building boats, laying more reeds, or building new islands. The women cook and sew. Their blankets either document daily life on Uros or are a collection of Incan symbols.

I was looking at some of their artwork when I turned around and saw a huge, vulture-like bird sitting on a bench feasting on a dead animal. It was a condor! The people of Uros have domesticated the animals, but they are still large, powerful creatures. At one point it attacked one of the girls in our group, but the guide was able to calm it down.

Lake Titicaca is beautiful! It is so large and majestic. It took us 2.5-3 hours to arrive at the little island of Taquile on the Peruvian side. I felt like I was on the ocean! You could not see the shore on the horizon and the water was a deep blue.

Taquile
2000 people live on the calm and peaceful island, and like Uros, the people have kept their traditional way of life. It was a difficult 20-30 minute hike uphill to the center of town, but with breathtaking views of the lake and the quiet island. One of the tourists from another group said he felt like he was in the shire, as we walked by green pastures, small farms and herds of sheep, and quaint, stone homes. Stone archways, marked the main path to let us know we were headed in the right direction.

You can spot a single man on the island because his hat only has red and white stripes, while married men have more colorful hats, and officials will where a bunt cap on top.
Young girls wear black covers with red tassels on the ends, while women wear more colorful caps, but as they grow older they begin to wear less color.

Festival
When we returned to Puno, the festivities had begun. It was all one huge party, as a parade of men and women danced and a band of trumpets, trombones, pipes and drums followed them circling the center of town. They started early in the evening and played until 1am, dancing the same steps and playing the same energetic melody. Huge foam wars broke out and you couldn’t make it across town without being soaked from head to toe in white foam. My friends and I were so covered in white foam that people in the crowd were pointing, we waved back and everyone laughed.

A friend of mine from the school decided to join in the wars and we ran into a fun, sweet family of girls who had the same goal in mind. We then went up and down the streets, and if any guy attacked us, we all went after him. In those few days of festival grandparents and parents became kids again, and it was all one enormous game. I had a blast! At one point, I even danced with the family in the parade!

The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to snag good seats in the stadium, because a large crowd was already lining up outside before the dance competitions had begun. All of the same dancers that danced the night away were now dressed in full regalia, with elaborate costumes and masks for the occasion. The competition went all day, but we watched only five hours in the stadium, and left to find the dancing still continuing outside, in another parade around the center of town. The celebration was everywhere! We returned to the hostel and found it playing on the television, and heard it in the radio as we traveled thirty minutes outside of town to visit the ruins at Sullistani.

The drive to the ruins was incredible. The landscape and people changed so dramatically just outside of town. Green, open pastures and rolling hills where herds of sheep, llama, alpaca and vicuña were tended by people wearing a more traditional style, and living in quaint homes built from the surrounding rock. It was that day that I saw my first llama and alpaca!

I am beginning to experience how varied the culture and land are in Peru; in just a short drive you can reach the countryside, or by boat you can visit the tranquil islands of Taquile and Uros, where you will find people living traditional lifestyles and speaking languages hundreds of years old. Even in Cusco, you can experience the diversity as you walk down the narrow, ancient streets and hear Spanish and Quechua conversations transpire, or you step inside a modern bank and discover that the walls are Incan.

It´s been a little difficult to post, but tomorrow I will be uploading a lot of photos, so you can have a chance to see the people and landscape. After tomorrow, I will be out of reach for about a week, because I will be taking my Spanish classes in a small village just outside of Cusco where there isn´t even a local store to buy water!

I´ll see you tomorrow!
Katie