Sur Perú y Lago Titicaca

Southern Peru

New Year’s Day started with a big…ugh. Champagne plus a late night does not make for a great travel day, which we had planned January 1^st to be. We took a flight from Santiago to Arica, Chile’s northern-most city. From there we got ripped off by a guy who drove us across the border to Tacna, Peru. From what I’d read it shouldn’t have cost what it did, but I really had no interest in going into Arica to try and find a taxi that would do it for cheaper. Sometimes it’s just more convenient to pay a little more. Northern Chile/southern Peru is desert. Seriously, there’s nothing else there, except these free-standing ‘rooms’ in the middle of nowhere once you cross into Peru. Tacna is a very poor town on the side of a mountain; still desert. It was really great for me to drive through the city because it reminded me so much more of Ecuador than Chile ever had. Peru has more of a Latino culture as well; to me, it seems as though Chile is trying to be the next metropolitan area, which is not something I bargained for, nor wanted when I decided to go to South America. I want culture! And now, well, I’ve definitely got that.

The driver dropped us off at Terminal Central so we could get a night bus to Puno. We shortly found out that we had been dropped off at the wrong terminal for Puno. Okay, no problem. That’s easily fixable. Just get a taxi and ask him to drive us to the ‘other’ terminal. Terminal de Puno works really well, too. There are plenty of buses heading to Puno, except you need Peruvian Soles to pay for the tickets. I had enough for one ticket…it was back to Terminal Central to use the ATM, maybe even get a little food. We figured we had three hours to burn. Jaja, boy, were we wrong. After we got more money and ate pollo frito at a small eatery (I don’t even know if this is the proper definition), which had me second guessing if eating there was a smart idea (I kept my immodium handy because you never know), we went to find a taxi to return to Terminal Collosuyo (i.e. de Puno). Well, Kristen and I have the greatest luck when we travel together. We actually got the same taxi driver who took us to Collosuyo the first time. “Senoritas!” while laughing at us and probably questioning what the loca gringas were doing. Yeah, I had wondered the same thing a while back. We laughed and joked a little and meeting up with him again, and watched him shake his head as he got back into his car after dropping us back off at Collosuyo. Now, tickets for night buses sell out quickly because really, who wants to spend all day on a bus?! Jaja, apparently we did; we couldn’t get a ticket on any of the bus lines heading to Puno that night. We did get them for the following morning, and the man who sold them to us was very insistent that we be back at the terminal by 7:30 en la mañana. No later.  I’m pretty sure he told us five or six times. I wanted to say “We got it”, but I wasn’t sure how to get my point across in Spanish and really, who wants to be rude to someone who’s only trying to help you?

Our next task was to find a hostel for the night. But first, another taxi. We didn’t find any taxi, we found the greatest taxi driver in Peru, if not all of South America! It took me the whole taxi ride to the bus terminal for buses to Chile to get the driver to understand that we had just come from Chile and needed a hostel for the night. Finally! He saw the light and we headed back towards the bus terminal in search of a relatively safe hostel, all the time laughing our butts off. We were so tired, sleep deprived, and afraid of spending the night in the bathroom after that delicious dinner that we were cracking up to the point where we were asked if we were crazy. But in a good way, of course. I didn’t catch his name, but our driver has a son or daughter (I kind of wasn’t paying attention and Kristen was, well, I’m not sure really); anyway, he has an offspring in Atlanta, and Kristen thinks that because of this he had a softness for the loca sleep-deprived gringas (who were also very chatty, by the way). We were brought to a hostel, our bags carried to our room, and with an hasta mañana, he promised to come back at 7am to pick us up and bring us to the bus terminal. What a great guy! I didn’t sleep very well that night, with all the barking dogs and roosters crowing, but I was very happy because in my sleepy haze I thought I was back on San Cristóbal. There cannot be a better way to fall asleep, until of course, you wake up and realize your nowhere near where you really want to be.

The view along the farm animal bus

We got to the Collosuyo terminal and on the bus without a problem. It did take us a few minutes to realize where our bags were going though. Come on, I’m really new at the whole ‘travel really far by bus’ thing. This was no gringa tourist bus either, oh no. This was a “smells like farm animal” full of indigenous people bus. It was great. I was told I slept practically the whole way. I have one thing to say about that (it’s now an ongoing joke that every time we’re in transit I pass out): when a bus (or a boat, car, ect) is rocking slightly, you’d fall asleep too. Besides, no one wants to see me awake on a 9-hour bus ride. I get stir crazy real easy after about 2 hours (people can attest to that).

El Baño along the road

Puno on Lago Titicaca

We reached Puno relatively easy and quickly found a hostel for the night and booked our two-day tour for the following morning. Puno is a major tourist area because of Lake Titicaca (pronounced Titihaha, I’m not sure which one is funnier, jeje). We enjoyed a quick walk around the Plaza de Armas, saw a church (Kristen has started the tradition of visiting the largest church in every city we visit), and went back to the hostel for possibly our last shower in three days.

Catedral in Plaza de Armas

That morning Kristen and I got picked up from our hostel, met up with a group of 18-20 people, and got on a boat in Lago Titicaca. Located between Bolivia and Peru, Lake Titicaca is situated at a very high altitude, at over 3800 meters above sea level. It is the highest navigable lake in the world. The lake is a sacred place for the Inca civilization, as the Incan mythology says that the first Inca king, Manco Capac, was born here. According to the Incan mythology, this is the place where the world was created from, when the god Viracocha came out of the lake and created the sun, the stars and the first people.

Our first stop were the floating islands of Isla Uros, a group of 44 or so artificial islands made of floating reeds (totora, a reed that abounds in the shallows of the lake). Their original purpose was defense, and they could be moved if a threat arose. Many of the islands contain watchtowers largely constructed of reeds.

Isla Uros

An indigenous explaining to us how
the islands are made 

The islands are tied down to the bottom of the lake so that they don't drift away to, say, Bolivia, which also borders the lake. The indigenous people wear really bright colors and they are really friendly.

We spent one-ish hour there and then had a 3-hr boat ride (or siesta, as I prefer to call it) to Isla Amantani, populated by Quechua speakers. I believe there are about 5,000 people on the island. Because there aren't any hotels or restaurants we are assigned to a family, with whom we spend the night with. They feed you lunch, dinner, and breakfast the following morning. After lunch we went on a walk to the top of the island, about 4200m. There are two mountain peaks, called Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth), and ancient ruins on the top of both peaks. The hillsides that rise up from the lake are terraced and planted with wheat, potatoes, and vegetables. Most of the small fields are worked by hand. Long stone fences divide the fields, and cattle and sheep graze on the hillsides. First we hiked up to Pachamama (4200m), and then hiked to Pachatata (only 4150m!). It was really beautiful. You can only walk around one side of the ancient ruins, and you have to do it three times or it's considered disrespectful to Pachamama and Pachatata. Well, we couldn't figure out which way to go (left or right) because the guide told us to go left in english but right in spanish. I figured it would be better to listen to his native language, and since everyone seemed to go the same way we must have guessed right! Afterwards we had dinner (the food was really good) and I'm pretty sure I passed out by 9pm, jaja. 

Isla Amantani

It was good because we had to get up early for desayuno and be at the dock at 7am to go to Isla Taquile (sounds just like the liquor).

Taquile is a narrow, long, and hilly island. It was used as a prison during the Spanish Colony and into the 20th century. In 1970 it became property of the Taquile people, who have inhabited the island since. Just as with the other islands, life on Taquile is still largely unchanged by mainland modernities. There are no cars on the island and no hotels and a few small stores sell basic goods. Most families use candles or flashlights powered by batteries or hand-cranks. Small solar panels have recently been installed on some homes. Here we hung out and had lunch at this beautiful vista spot before we got back in the boat and I took another 3 hour siesta. I asked the guide if it was the same dialect of the tribe in Ecuador and he said no, but that they can all understand each other's dialect. So I learned a little more, jeje. I almost used my quechua, but I thought that might be rude (there’s really only one word that I know, and it pertains to a certain body part).

We took the night bus from Puno to Cuzco last night, and after walking around the city for a few hours are now safe and sound in our hotel.