At the end of the REI Tour, we bid a sad farewell to our new friends and our guides. We took a little comfort in the fact that we will see our fellow travelers in the near future, but we wished that they could have come with us on the last little jaunt.
We had planned, in advance, to make our own add-on to the tour, and after scouring the internet and the Lonely Planet guidebook, we chose Lake Titicaca as our extra activity. It would seem that the best way to get to Puno (the main town by the lake on the Peru side) was to take a tourist bus which was a 10-hour trip. This bus ride passes over a 14,000 foot pass and includes five stops along the way. Four stops are for sightseeing and one is for a buffet lunch.
The first stop on the trip was at the Sistine Chapel of the Andes. They did not allow photos on the inside, but it was the most gold-laden place I have ever seen in my entire life. If you google andahuaylillas church for images, you can see just what I am talking about.
The ruins at Raqchi constituted our second stop. Part of the Inca trail passes right by this Incan settlement.
Here is a view from the bus window near the pass at Abra La Raya. At the top of the pass sits, as we had come to expect, great opportunities to purchase items. This time I subjected myself to the locals and bought a flute. Not the panpipes, but a recorder-shaped object. It comes with a piece of paper with some instructions, but getting a sound out of it has proven tricky. This high landscape is called the altiplano - high plains.
Our last sightseeing stop before we reached Puno was some sort of museum in Pukara. I think this is where they make the bulls that we saw on so many rooftops (for good luck). However, what I liked the best were the very cute little vicunas. Most are wild and much smaller than the alpacas and llamas we saw elsewhere.
Puno and Lake Titicaca sit at 12,500 feet, and the days are clear and cold, the nights are just cold. We booked a tour - also 10 hours - to visit two places.
Not too far from shore sit the Uros Islands. This cluster of man-made islands have been around for over 400 years when the Uru people sought refuge from other tribes came out on the lake and built these floating lands out of the reeds that grow so copiously in the lake. The people who live her constantly replenish the reeds, otherwise their "land" would slowly disappear.
Each island is a little community. The tours rotate which islands they visit, so your tourist dollars get evenly spread around. They sell handcrafts (surprise!), but we were happier to pay our money to get a ride in one of the boats.
The women from our island rowed, and you can see here how the big sister in the stocking hat is holding onto her 8-month-old brother so he will not topple into the drink. A few minutes later, the mom continued to row while she nursed the boy.
After the Uros Islands, we sat in the boat for 2 1/2 hours until we got to Taquile Island. Apparently this island reminds people of a Greek island. This island is home to get another subgroup of people with their own traditions. After disembarking, we walked about 45 minutes (slowly) up the hill to a large plaza on the island where we could visit shops with textiles. On this island, the men take part in the knitting of the hats.
We got a great view of the snow-capped mountains of northern Bolivia from the top of the island. You have to look under the luscious cumulous clouds.
This is the plaza at the top. From here we went to a restaurant for lunch for some delicious trout before we walked down the other side of the island to our waiting boat for the return 2 1/2 hour boat ride back to Puno.
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