Puno, Lake Titicaca, Luquina Peninsula back to Puno
We had an early start to catch the Puno Limosines to the Titicaca ferry that would take us to the Uros Islands to visit the Floating Island and Reed People, to the Isle Taquile (this name I could remember –pronounced same as Tequila), and then on to our homestay with an Aymara family on the Luqina Peninsula http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aymara_people
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| Limosines in Puno |
I did mention being picked up in limosines in my last blog, and actually I was as disappointed as you will be when you look at the photos of our limos. Now I don’t know why the driver was smiling in the photo, because when he took one look at us, and the size of Tony, I could already hear him groaning. The grunting started when we finally got up to a good speed to dodge the loco traffic and across some of the busiest roads leading to the Puno marina on the banks of Lake Titicaca. (Loco is one of those universal words understood in most languages - meaning CRAZY). The lake looked just beautiful. Not until we were actually cruising that you could see that it was already toxic and littered close to the shores of Puno. There were signs rectification was taking place, maybe a little too late, whereby Acquifers were in place within the marina area. As we travelled into deeper waters the quality appeared much better and the water clearer.
The Lake Titicaca (Titi Qaqa) is the highest freshwater lake in the world at 3820 mtrs above sea level (by comparison Mt Kosciusko is only 2228 above) and covers 8500 sq kms and at the deepest point is about 280mtrs deep. The lake also lies across the border between Peru and Bolivia, and it is believed to be here that the Inca people began according to our local guide Alejuandro. Over the years the size of the Lake has been reduced due to a number of factors ie. normal evaporation, increase in population and increased water use, and reclamation for land development to increase agriculture output.
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| Aymara women on Floating Reed Islands |
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This little girl was eating reeds –
her nan said it is used to clean teeth. |
The boat ride to Uros Islands (Floating Islands) would take around 45 minutes and we disembarked jumping straight onto an island made of reeds. Almost loosing our footing because we didn’t expect soft ground we were then invited to sit with a family unit while they explained how the islands came into being, their existence on the islands and how they use the reeds for every day life. The women make beautiful craft and weaving, whilst the men fish and do what men do, or most men want to do – cruise around the islands on their boats. Well he had a chance to see each of those. In the photo you can see Puno in the background. Everything here is made of reeds, even their boats.
Old world meets new technology.
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| Steep stairs at Taquile |
After spending a couple of hours there we headed back on the boat to Taquile Island for lunch. No cars here. No one told us we would have to walk over the top of the island to get there. This was good hiking practice for our follow travellers who were going up the Inca Trail, but for us it was just a painful workout for our legs, our butts, calves !!! This time I was the one grunting. Tony was still feeling the Altitude and thankfully Cocoa Tea was on the menu. We followed the usual path taken by the locals and mules. If only those mules were here now, the children must have ridden them to school. Along the way we found the most novel use for an old pair old “Thongs” (ooops flip flops).
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| Hinged Thongs |
Just before sunset we arrived at Luquina Peninsula ready to meet our Homestay families. We were loaded up with goodies that we had purchased the day before, things such as rice, pasta, sugar, fresh fruit, vegetable oil and spices. These are things that aren’t generally available unless they travel to Puno which is around 2-3 hours drive. The Aymara people on this peninsula (population of 2600) still use a barter system, whereby each household trades their goods with their neighbours. For example, Antonyo, the father is a fisherman. For his catch he would trade eggs with his neighbour who has chooks and so on.
As we reached the jetty we were greeted like royalty. Seriously !! There was a marching band that followed us all the way up to the Community Hall – yes another big climb up a big hill.
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| Resident Band |
Here we were introduced to our host family, except we were a bit surprised when we saw our Homestay Mother - Meliza. She looked very, very, very young, perhaps because the Aymara people are also small in stature and hold their age well. Next came a soccer challenge with the locals. Tony decided against playing after the last game in Paracas – good decision! Unfortunately, Adam, one of the UK travellers sprained his ankle – so that was the end of a good game (I think the locals were winning when this happened). Also, unfortunately for Adam, he was going to be on the 3-day Hike on the Inca Trail up to Machu Picchu. The sprained ankle counted out Adam for the next little event that was planned for us Touristas – dressing up in traditional dress and traditional dancing with our new found families. Some of the group were still feeling the effects of altitude, but it didn’t stop anyone from dancing. We were also given an explanation of the particular dress of the locals and how to identify if someone is married, single etc. As you can see from the photo below, these gents (who look familiar) were carrying extra large bags and colourful bags used for carrying Cocoa leaves !!
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| The 3 Amigos - Tony, Johnny and Adam |
After all this activity we were taken by our Home-stay mum to their house which consisted of all separate little buildings for the kitchen and dining, the living areas, the beds consisted of mattresses on a concrete slab. And, you guessed it, the Alpaca blankets on the bed. We were also very surprised to learn that Meliza was actually was the daughter of the family and NOT the mother.
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| Meliza, Freddy, Antonyo, Benjamin and Tony |
Up until this time we had been learning Spanish, but our arrival on the Peninsula changed all that. The Aymara people speak another language Aymaran, no similarity at all to Spanish and we had been given a ‘cheat sheet’ consisting of about 20 words so we were a little anxious about communicating with these folks when we were invited into the kitchen/dining room for dinner. We met Antonyo (Papa), Irma (Mumi), Frankie (18 yrs), Benjamin (16 yrs), and (Meliza (13 yrs).
Picture this: all sitting at the dinner table, just nodding heads and smiling at each other, with the teenagers giggling. At this stage we hadn’t said anything because of the language barrier, still nodding heads and smiling at each other, much like those little puppy dogs you see in the back of cars. Tony breaks the ice by saying something in Spanish. Turns out the teenagers knew what he said and giggled more. During broken conversation we found out the boys were learning Spanish at school/college, after that we had a good laugh and found out more about the family and their activities. The next morning Irma had left for Puno to sell her crafts at the markets and she would be gone the whole weekend. The boys of the family were up around 4.30am to go trout (Troucha) fishing. That was to be our lunch, the cooking left up to Meliza – very nice and delicious, and Meliza was a very good little cook – silly me thinking she was the mum !! With Irma gone, all the family sorted the fish, then it was our turn to help out around the farm. We helped the boys tether and move new born lambs, only days old, and their mothers into pastures.
Afterwards, Antonyo took me and Tony onto Lake Titicaca to get bait fish from the nets then to re-hook them onto more lines to catch the bigger fish. All this done in a row boat going out about 300 mtrs into the Lake. (He did do a little grunting until he got up to pace – El Grande style). After lunch it was back to Puno on the boat (about 2 hours) and back to Pukura hostel with those blankets.
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| Moto-Taxi Rank in Puno |
Our next destination is to be Cusco by bus. It would be a 7hr journey stopping only briefly to get some snacks for the trip, loo stops, and lunch stop driving through bustling cities and little villages along the way. One of those we were to stop was Juliaca, but thankfully at the suggestion of the driver, he knew the city would be busy for Sunday markets. We detoured and stopped further along. We were told that Juliaca is well known for its corruption, black markets and drug activities which in turn brings open street violence, more crime and corruption. Juliaca is probably also one of the most dirty cities we’ve seen on our travels, and is on the edge of Lake Titicaca. Driving through we could truly understand why the late is toxic in parts. There is rubbish everywhere you look. The photo is not a true reflection of the grot because it is much worse in places. Just out of Juliaca we passed a van and truck just up further being searched for contraband by the Policia.
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| The search is on ... |
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| Outskirts of Juliaca |
Cusco was to be a drop in altitude from Puno. During the trip we stopped at some Inca ruins just off the side of the road. Adams ankle had been treated by his girlfriend, Hannah who was a 5th year medical student and elite hockey player. Hannah also happened to have an assortment of medication and sports bandages in her suitcase. Nicola, her med school buddy also had an assortment of drugs and other medication. We felt much better knowing we were in good hands should we come down with some mean disease. Being the lad, Adam decided to climb up to the top of the ruins and found he couldn’t get down – I’m fearing he's caught Tony’s fear of heights affliction - after some coaxing he managed to get down OK. I think he was actually testing the ankle injury to see if the Inca Traill was do-able.
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| Chill Out space inside Cusco Plaza II |
Continuing on the journey we reached the Cusco Plaza II where we were to stay for 3 days to enjoy the sites, walk the historic town, more ruins, markets and just chill out until we leave for the Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo then to Machu Picchu.
We were getting excited, very excited, but we knew we had a lot of climbing to do. Just walking the streets around Cusco would be the test because the streets are so steep in parts that it is a killer for your calves and upper legs. By comparison to some of the climbs we've done in the past weeks and the pain we've endured the Red Arrow is a breeze and I could see us doing the jog up there. http://www.cairnsattractions.com.au/a_red-arrow-walk.php
Another test for us came on the second day in Cusco, we were given a choice of optional activities, 3 of them ie. to take a scenic tour in a bus around the city, take a 4 hour horse ride along trails around the ruins, or Quad-biking up the slopes of South Cusco. Us being the slow paced, quiet and reserved folks that we are decided on the Quad bikes. It was fun but also very scary because we were taken up into the highlands behind South Cusco, over rough dirt roads, barking wild dogs chasing us, and just literally trying to keep balance on the quad going over steep climbs. Even getting there was a little strange because only Tony and I went quadding, and we were picked up from the hostel in a car by 2 men, one called Elvis, don't know the other name, and a women called Mary. We just seemed to be driving out of Cusco and wondering where we were being taken - onto narrow dirt roads with huge ravines along side, then we came to a sign that read "intrusos prohibido. los que están atrapados robando serán quemadas" which translated means - "Trespassers prohibited - Those caught stealing will be burned." OMG !! Who were these people? Just me and Tony and 3 of them !!
Turned out they were really nice, and were there to give us safety tips on the quads, and were our guides for the day. Elvis even knew quite a lot about Australia and it's history which was comforting. We were also the guinea pigs (not the Cuy variety Tony has been consuming) because the Quads were very new, big, red and shiny and still on a trial run. We were happy to help out. The one I used had only 30kms on the clock, but was given a workout especially when it conked out on me a couple of times. After traversing over the Andes and through creeks and trying to avoid those dogs, forget the red and shiny, they were only dusty/muddy.
We had a lot more to do in Cusco over the next couple of days with time to relax our muscles before heading off into the Sacred Valley and Ollantaytambo, before reaching Machu Picchu.
More about that later.....
Cheers
Liz and Tony
