Tag Archives: Puno

Peru, South America

Lago Titicaca

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We found that travel in Peru seems to be set up for the ease of tourists. No day was this more apparent than the day we went out on Lake Titicaca. We arrived in Puno from Chivay via the most uncomfortable van ever (aka 4M bus.) At one point another passenger asked if there was the ability to stop for a washroom break, and the navigator said that it wasn’t possible because it wasn’t safe to stop. It was late, dark and we were travelling as a 2 van convoy that couldn’t be separated.

I don’t know if this was some huge exaggeration, or if we were driving in the most sketchy part of Peru. It seemed fine. Our driver arranged for safe taxis and we were literally whisked in one door of the station and told to go with a woman who whisked us through the building to the back door and into a taxi. I honestly couldn’t tell you what the station looked like one bit.

At 7am in the morning we asked at the front desk if there was a possibility to go out onto the Lake. The clerk panicked! She started making phone calls, and said the boat was leaving but would wait for us. A taxi arrived out of nowhere and literally 11 minutes later we were seated on a boat for a full day tour on Lake Titicaca–the world’s highest navigable lake. (FYI: There are lakes at higher altitude, but they are too shallow to be navigated by every type of watercraft.) The lake is huge. I can only compare it to being on the Ocean or being on the Great Lakes. It took us 1 hour to get to the first set of Islands from Puno, and 2.5 more hours from there to get to Taquile.

lake titicaca mapOur tour guide Vladimir was awesome! He spoke English, Spanish, Quechua and Aymara, and knew a ton of stuff about a ton of stuff. He was a fountain of information and not in a boring way. There were people on the boat from Israel, India, USA, Ireland, Columbia, Peru, Australia, Iran, Italy, England, Holland, Germany and Canada. We ended up chatting with Rolf a guy from Australia who had been volunteering with some tribes in Ecuador, and a kid named Bryce from Indiana. Side note: Bryce’s brother was travelling in Peru last year and ended up getting bitten by a monkey. He had to go home for Rabies shots and completely missed Machu Picchu. Boo-urns!

The first site we visited was the Uros Islands. The Uros Islands are man-made floating islands. Each one is home to 2 to 10 families. Pretty much everything is made from the Totora reeds. Walking on the island is like walking on a spongy mattress. I did feel very set up as a tourist (obviously, that’s why we were there!), but it was pretty interesting just to see people living a completely different way than we every could/would here. The Uros people make money by inviting tourists to the islands, showing them how the islands are built, inviting people into their homes, and just being hospitable. The home we were invited into was smaller than the computer room in my house for a family of 5. There was one totora reed double-sized mattress on the floor, and a few hooks in the wall with miscellaneous clothing on them. That’s all.

We visited a second floating Island, which would be the equivalent of main street I suppose. There was a coffee shop, a general store, and a post office where we got our passports stamped. A few random facts for you: Each island has its own president. If a husband and wife separate, they simply cut the island in half; if they reconcile they reattach the island. Gardens with grains and flowers grow on the islands. Bathroom facilities are on smaller islands behind the main living areas. And, the dead aren’t buried on any floating islands, they are buried in special cemeteries on the main land.

Peru, South America

30 More Days!

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It almost doesn’t seem real yet because Jon’s been the one doing all the research and planning for this trip. I can’t even picture the complete itinerary, but he could tell you times and numbers for all the flights and busses we’ve got to take.

We’re pretty organized this time around as we’ve already got the bulk of our travel supplies. We’ve gone to get the appropriate vaccines and pills, and now just have to wait. (ps: my arm hurt like a mofo for more than 2 weeks after the travel shots!)So here’s the major attractions that I can remember from the plans we’ve got:

We fly from Vancouver to Lima and then to Arequipa. Then there is a tour of Colca Canyon, which thanks to Wikipedia I now know Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but not as vertical. This is where we hope to ease into the altitude while we see the Andean Condor. Nothing like jumping to 3300m right away. (FYI: We live at 377m, and people start feeling altitude sickness above 2400m)After Colca Canyon, we’re off to Puno and Lake Titicaca. At 3800m,

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It looks bloody cold, yet all warnings say wear loads of sun screen to prevent sun burn. Apparently high altitude = no sun protection from the atmosphere. I suppose I should add sunscreen to the list of stuff we still need.From Puno we’re flying to Cusco. Cusco looks amazing. I’m looking forward to just wandering around and taking tons of pictures and checking out all the beautiful buildings. Cusco is at 3310m altitude. Let’s just hope we’re acclimatized by now and not feeling like death.

The next obvious place to visit from Cusco is Machu Picchu. You can’t really go to Peru and not visit Machu Picchu. That’d be like going to Paris and skipping the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower. After all the turmoil Peru has been going through from horrific mudslides this winter, I’m relieved that we’re able to get to Machu Picchu at all. We’re not doing the 4-day Inca Trail trek as we only have 16 days for the entire trip.  Once we’ve finished our tour of Machu Picchu and Cusco, we fly back to Lima for 2 more crazy days packed full of plans. They’re going to be insane, but we’re going to try to visit Islas Ballestas and the next day Chan Chan. (Bonus: Cusco, Machu Picchu and Chan Chan are 3 more UNESCO World Heritage Site to cross off my list!)

The tour of Islas Ballestas will take us along the coast on a boat. Hopefully we’ll see all sorts of birds (penguins, pelicans, flamingos) and dolphins, sea lions etc. Most of the travel books warn that it is stinky and that we’ll probably get pooped on.

From Islas Ballestas it is back to Lima for a flight to Trujillo which is adjacent to Chan Chan. I’ve read a bit about Chan Chan, and it seems like it’ll be worth the visit.We had a choice of flying the Nazca Lines or visiting Chan Chan. It was a tough decision, but ultimately, I didn’t really want to fly over Nazca and feel like vomiting for the entire flight. (Almost every review, blog, article about the flying the Nazca lines includes vomiting.)

So that’s a little recap of the Peruvian leg of the journey. We’ll have 2 days in Mexico City visiting Teotihuacan. And then home.