Puno, Peru: Floating Islands, Lake Titicaca, and Ruins

This weekend, some friends from school and I took the seven-hour bus ride to Puno, which is in the south of Peru, about two hours by land from the Bolivian border.  The non-land border, which is much closer, runs right through Lake Titcaca, which is the main attraction of this area.  Since Americans have to pay a $140 entrance fee for Bolivia, I didn't go, but there was plenty to see and do around Puno.  When we got there on Friday, we explored the city a bit, but it was rainy and we had been on a bus all day, so we basically ate and went to sleep.  Saturday morning, we got up bright and early to tour some of the islands in Lake Titicaca.  This is Joao (Brazil), Bastien (Switzerland), and I on the boat on the way to our first island.

Here is a shot of our first island!  This island, Amanecer (which means 'sunrise' in Spanish), is one of a group of about 56 floating islands in Lake Titicaca called Uros.  Yes, you heard me right: floating.  These islands, each of which houses two to eleven families depending on size, are built on big blocks of earth and reeds, layered and layered, and are then anchored to each other or to one of the stone islands in the lakes.  Whenever people want to move their house, they literally just pick up anchor and float around.  It was incredible to be standing on this thing and know that it was movable!

Also cool were the 'taxis' that are used to transport people from one island to the other.  Made of reeds and wood, they really are works of art.

After Amanecer, we visited one more island where it was possible to buy souvenirs (I was more interested in the great shot of a whole group of Uros islands, as you can see above), and then we were off on a two-hour boat ride to our next island.  The boat ride itself was also cool, especially if you think about that it was on the highest lake in the world (3850m, or roughly 12,000ft), and the biggest lake in South America (for all you Michiganders out there, no, it's not bigger than Lake Michigan).

Here are the three of us on the 5 km by 2 km island of Taquille.  This island, which is solid stone, houses about 900 inhabitants, most of whom are either farmers or artisans.  The 2.5-km walk to the town center was steep, but the views of Lake Titicaca on the walk made it well-worth it.  In the picture above, the left half of the lake belongs to Peru, and the right half belongs to Bolivia.  Nifty!

We had lunch on this island, and then walked down to the southern port, where Joao and I and two Venezuelan fellows went swimming in Lake Titicaca!  It was really cold (think Lake Michigan in early June), but really clean; unfortunately, I don't have pictures, as they are on Joao's camera, but I thought it was still worth mentioning :-)  We then took the two-hour boat ride back to Puno, where it was time for dinner and some great views of the city by night from our hotel.

Sunday was day of ruins, with the first stop being Chucuito, a city about twenty minutes from Puno whose main attraction is a pre-Incan fertility temple.  Apparently, in the ancient world, 'fertility temple' meant 'let's carve a bunch of penises', but it any case, it was interesting to see.  Also interesting was the fact that our guide was a girl who couldn't have been more than eight years old...but she sure knew what she was talking about!

The next stop on the Sunday of ruins was Sillustani, an Incan cemetery on the shores of Lake Titicaca about 40 km north of Puno.  Unfortunately, just as we got there, it started thundering and lightning and hailing, which made the walk up to the ruins a bit chilly, but it was still worth it!  The Incans buried their dead in giant towers here, and, as is standard for Incan ruins, the stonework was absolutely amazing (and even though it was stormy, the lake was still pretty).  After this, we headed back to the hotel to wait for our 9:30pm overnight bus back to Cusco.  Puno and Lake Titicaca were both very interesting, and the floating islands were incredible...what a great way to spend my last weekend abroad!