Puno & Lake Titicaca

me on Uros Island
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I took the bus from Cusco to Puno.  It was a long trip - 7 hours.   Refreshments & juice were served at noon  and I saw two movies in Spanish: Cable Guy  & Rambo.  Can someone tell me how Cable Guy ended?  I fell asleep. The person next to me on the bus, who I think is from Australia, told me Puno was like a seaside resort.

After getting off the bus, I realized that I left my hat on the bus.  Oh, well.  When I arrived at the Hotel, I couldn´t find my toiletry bag.  Don´t know what happened to it; maybe it´s stlll in the hotel in Cusco.  So I canceled my 2 day/1 night stay on the islands.  Instead, I spent the first day getting new toiletries.  There's not much else to do in Puno anyway.  I walked the pedestrian walkway a few times and sat on the Cathedral steps watching the world go by.  What else is there to do in Puno?

bithplace of Andean civilization

Double decker reed boat, Uros Islands
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The following day, I took the full day tour of the islands in Lake Titicaca.  I was a little worried when our boat left the harbor and it stopped.  We were told that the water past the harbor is shallow and full of reeds which wound up in the propeller.  Once that was cleared, we made it to two of the 20 floating Uros Islands.  These were amazing islands.  We were given a demonstration how they made the islands which lasts only 20-25 years.  Yes, the islands are made of reeds only.  Their homes, boats, and schools are also made of reeds.    No, you don't sink down into the water unless you're near the edge.  They even have electricity on these islands, thanks to solar panels.

Cooking on Uros Island
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From Uros, we went to Taquile Island for a mini-Inca Trail.  This is a natural island. What?  More trekking up a hill?   I'm not sure what the purpose of visiting this island.  We climbed 533 steps (no, I didn't count them) to the town on the top of the island.  Then we had lunch which was trout from the lake.  Then we walked down the other side of the island to the harbor.  This last stretch reminded me of Santorini Island in Greece because of the climb from the town to the harbor and the atmosphere of the village.

Uros village
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The boat ride back to Puno was three hours long.  Looking at a map of the islands in the lake, we only touched one small section of the lake.  The lake is at an elevation of more than 3,800 meters (12,540 feet) and covers an area more than 3000 square miles.  It is 109 miles long and 31 miles wide.  According to Andean beliefs, Lake Titicaca is the birthplace of civilization because the Andean god brought the sun, moon, and stars out of the lake into their places in the sky.