Titicaca

Yes, that's right. There is a lake here called titicaca. And anyone who ever stayed at either of my apartments in the city knows that my wifi connection was called 'kakapoopie', so you can imagine how amazing (and immature) this is!

On my first day in puno, I finished walking through town in about 20 minutes, so I decided to walk over to the port and take the 30 minute ferry ride over to Los Uros islands. There are many islands to visit on lake titicaca, and I visited two: Los Uros and Taquile.

Los Uros are these man-made, floating islands made entirely from the reeds that grow in the lake. Because these reeds are soaking in water, they do rot over time, so the island is constantly replenished by adding new layers of reeds on top. It is really remarkable. For the equivalent of about $4 I was given the ferry ride and a tour and presentation of the island, how it's built and maintained. I learned that titicaca means the land of the puma and their boats all have pumas at the head.

What I found really great is that all the islands have this system worked out where the ferries will visit 2 islands per day on a rotation, so that all the tourism is evenly distributed amongst the islands.

Of course there were souvenirs for sale, and I couldn't resist some of the great handicrafts. I actually purchased a mobile. As in over the crib mobile. For babies. For the babies I am not even close to having yet. I just kept imagining how special and unique it would be over a crib. So yeah.

Taquile however, was a different experience. It is an actual island and getting there took over 3 hours from Puno port. Not fun. The island is essentially one large mountain. Once we arrived we were slammed with nothing but steep climbs to get to the center of town. Everyone kept asking how much more, and where we were going. I really didn't understand what was the point of being there anymore. I had been picturing a village, and read that their textiles and handicrafts are really something special. But the locals were completely avoiding us.

I was so exhausted and out of breath, and there was literally nothing to see. Ok, a beautiful view of hills and the lake, but what was the point of this? Just hiking? Eventually I got tired of seeing nothing and being tired, so i just descended back down.

And then i found a problem. Where was my ferry? In fact where was everyone who was on my ferry? I came to find out that the point of climbing this island was to descend on the other end of it, where my ferry would be waiting. Shit. I had to bribe one of the private boats to take me over there. That cost more than the entire ferry ride. We spent 6 hours traveling just to hike an exhausting 2 hours?

I really did not enjoy it one bit.

Since we returned late, around 7, and by then it was dark, I picked up some roasted chicken and brought it back to my hostel. (Puno is a little weird at night.) That chicken made up for the entire day, it is out of this world. We know Peruvian chicken in the city, Pio Pio is amazing, but this was even better. And $3 for the entire meal. Actually it was enough for 2 meals.

I may not eat anything else for the rest if this trip. It's a great way to warm up after a long, cold day on lake titicaca or Puno. It's also a great way to stay on a budget. Pollos.