Once we had enough of ruins, we decided to check out another nearby attraction in Peru – the world’s (supposedly) highest navigable lake, just a short 8-hour bus ride from Cusco.
Along with our bus tickets, we booked a hotel for 2 nights in Puno and a day trip out on the lake. Every morning a massive armada of tour boats leaves the harbor, each one doing basically the same tour. Moments after our transfer to the docks, we were ushered into the last 4 seats aboard one of these boats and were immediately on our way.
The boats are not all that pleasant – ours smelled strongly of diesel on the inside, so the kids and I tried to stay out on deck as much as possible, checking out the views and trying not to freeze.
Danielle opted to stay inside the boat, soaking up all the diesel fumes. At least it was warm in there.
Our first stop was at one of the famous floating islands called Uros, where small family groups live on big floating rafts made of the reeds that grow in the shallows. I’ve heard some of the larger islands are very touristy, but we stopped at a very small one.
The sensation of walking on this “island” was really strange – kind of like walking on a gigantic sponge. The residents were very friendly, showing us some of their food
as well as some handicrafts that bore striking resemblances to others we had seen in Cusco.
The kids and I joined many of our fellow passengers for relaxing little canoe ride around the island.
As we left the uros the gray skies began to break up, and the weather was gorgeous day by the time we reached our next stop – Taquile Island, where we got to do some hiking.
It was a bit of a workout climbing the winding paths to the top of the island, but the scenery was nice.
The air was filled with the smell of eucalyptus trees, and local children kept offering us bits of muña, a minty herb that grows all over the island – I think it’s supposed to help with altitude sickness – Titicaca is even higher up than Cusco.
The view from the top of the island was pretty spectacular – we could see all the way to Bolivia (even though you can’t really tell from the pictures)
After a tasty trout lunch at the top of the island, it was time to go back down to our boats. The way down was much steeper than the way up, and much harder, too. Forget Bonaire, this was the real 1,000 steps!
Our legs were shaking by the time we reached the bottom, and were all pretty tired on the long ride back to the Puno docks.
As we approached the harbor, our weather luck ran out and we found ourselves scrambling to our waiting taxis in a downpour laced with sleet. By the time we got back to the hotel we were wet and very hungry, but also to exhausted to go out in the rain again for dinner.
I guess you could say it was an “experience”. We had fun!
{ 4 comments }
I like the smiles!
Y’all look so happy.
This last pic. with the four of y’all is the best one yet. Did the m^uno mint help. THE Uros are soft like the euro dollar !??
Very neat experience! I love that island but wonder what makes someone want to spend a lifetime on a giant floating sponge. Great last picture. Heck all of them were but that one is really good of y’all together. Good times.
Comments on this entry are closed.