Puno & Lake Titicaca

Puno is a great little town, on a pedestrianised street lots of little restaurants can be found selling cheap set (but quite good) menus.

We were in one little cafe first, which was great especially as they were playing the movie 'Salt' on a flat screen (Free cinema). It was then we noticed their colourful menu options - We didn't dare try 'Bacon Cake'.

Later in one of the little restaurants we heard loud banging to find it was a heavy yet brief hail storm. It had been sunny all day, and the hail lasted only a few minutes.

We polished the night off in a cool cocktail bar complete with floor cushions and a graffiti wall.

The main tourist attraction here is of course Lake Titicaca and island hopping. We set off on a 2 day trip across the lake.

First stop was Uros.

A community that lives entirely on floating reed island they build on the lake.

They were incredible. They had even built shops and bars on one of them.

Each little island has its own president for the 10 or so homes. If anyone has a fall out with their neighbour then they simply face the doors away from each other or in a major bust up the islander can be banished to go a find another island to take him in.

The folk seemed very gentle and to have a very peaceful way of life.

They developed many ways of entertaining or selling things to the flocking tourist, here the president's wife demonstrates how they build the islands.

I would have loved to stay on one of them until I realised that the toilet was an old island that no one lived on anymore.

The locals even sung us songs in many different languages as we left. My one wonder here is how they were so big? The woman especially were very fat, surely there is little more than fish and chicken you can feast on from a reed island? (Maybe there was a McDonald's round the corner - it would not surprise me).

Next stop was an island called 'Amantani', where we were to sleep that night in a local family's home.

The accommodation was basic but very lovely. The family (a man, his wife and their young son) cooked our meals over a wood fire in the dining room whilst frequently breast-feeding the baby at the same time.

The bathroom was, well, more than basic. A toilet at the end of the garden with a bucket of water to flush it and a tap with a bowl at the top of the garden.

The island is very isolated and most here live very contentedly off the land, and by trading what is left. Textiles are a big source of income, not just for tourists. Their skills in embroidery are unsurpassed by any others we have seen.

That evening we walked up the hill, through the small holdings to the sun temple to watch the sunset.

No real reason why this picture is in here apart from this weird tourist made me and the locals laugh. Our initial thought was that it was a Halloween costume until we saw him wearing it the next day also! His trousers had zips in them from hip to ankle so he could get them on! Kenny thought he looked like a rather camp Guy Fawkes!

Sunset - well worth it.

That evening our host mother dressed us up in local dress. Kenny wore a poncho and a hat, she went all out on me.

We were taken to the local village hall where we joined all the other tourists. Two bands played folk music.

While we were encouraged (dragged up) to dance by the local girls. We lasted till about 9.30pm - party animals!

The following day we said goodbye to our host family........

.............. and headed back down to the bay to catch our boat.

Once again we sailed off across the lake this time to another island 'Taquile'.

The day was perfect, it felt like we were on the Mediterranean.

Again this island was build around a wonderfully close community with local values and ways of life.

The men and women were all dressed in what looked liked costumes. We discovered later that much of their clothing has meaning; usually whether someone is married or single, young or old. The hats the chaps wear are only red all over if they are married. If they are single they are red at the base and white at the end. Being a good weaver is paramount to this community, it is the source of most of their wealth. The hats the men wear are made through years of practice as the better the weave the more chance you have of landing a good marriage.

Here they work the land by hand from ploughing to sowing to harvesting. Most of their methods for life are very old fashioned. Even their legal system. Recently a sheep was stolen from a flock. They found it, dead, near a man's house. He had taken it while drunk. The whole town was gathered in the main square to decided his fate. He had to pay the farmer double the price of the sheep and walk round the square carrying it on his back like the albatross to show his shame. The one interesting, modern twist here (very surprising due to the deep set Catholicism in S America) is that they allow 2 people to live together for a year before they get married. However once they have lived with more than 2 others they are deemed to be not the best marriage material.

A great island with an amazing way of life - much of it makes a lot of sense.

We departed back across lake Titicaca to Puno for the night, before heading over to La Paz the following day. Unfortunately, while the islands may have been perfect places, their food was not, and both Kenny & I suffered from (what we now describe as) 'Titicaca Tummy' all that night!