Puno & Lago Titicaca

PUNO & LAGO TITICACA

Last weekend my friend Nicole and I took at 3 day, 3 night trip to visit the city of Puno and Lake Titicaca. 

We began our trip early on Friday morning, arriving at the bus terminal at around 7am. We took a "tourist bus" to travel from Cusco to Puno that stopped at various tourist sites along the way. 

We stopped at a Pre-Inkan archaeological site called Raqchi and saw the ruins of an ancient temple of worship. The remaining walls and ruins of the temple were incredibly tall, much taller than any other Inkan ruins I had seen. In addition to the temple, there was a series of remnants of other buildings and structures. The entire site was incredibly peaceful and surrounded by beautiful scenery. There were fields lined with rows of corn and various vegetables and a couple of shepherds working with their sheep. We walked along a small trail next to a lovely little pond and were able to enjoy the tranquility of the day. 

Our next stop was a place known as La Raya. It is the highest point on the road between Cusco and Puno with an elevation of 14,222 feet! We had a stunning panoramic view of the beautiful mountains that still towered over us even with being at such a high point on the road. Many of the mountains that surrounded us exceeded 17,000 feet above sea level. When our guide first told us that the snowy mountain behind me in the picture below was over 17,000 feet tall, I did not believe him! I couldn't fathom that it could be so tall. It was crazy to think that we were already at an elevation that was taller than many mountains in Colorado and the massive peaks surrounding us were breathtaking.

We also stopped at a few other small towns to visit a couple museums and the main plazas of the towns. They were not the most exciting stops along the way, but it at least broke up the journey and gave us something to do. Around lunch time we went to a restaurant with a buffet style lunch and live traditional music. The food was good and satisfying and it had a fun atmosphere.
After leaving Cusco at 7am we arrived at the bus station in Puno around 5pm on Friday evening. The journey took nearly the entire day but it was definitely worth it. The scenery was beautiful and definitely changed dramatically as we left the green mountains of Cusco and climbed up to the Altiplano, which is a very flat expanse of land at a very high altitude. There were various hills, fields, and lakes along the way and we passed various llama and alpaca farms. Some herds were huge and must have had at least 100, if not more, animals grazing on the land.

Nicole and I stayed the night in Puno at a decently nice hotel. We had arranged our entire trip through a travel agency, which made everything very convenient as there was always someone waiting for us to take us to the next location. Puno itself doesn't have anything too special to offer... except a movie theater! After exploring the streets for a little while and finding a polleria (restaurant that serves chicken!), we decided to go see a movie. We saw the new Tarzan 3D movie and while the movie itself wasn't the best movie I've ever seen in my life, it was a fun, relaxing way to spend the evening.

On Saturday morning, our adventure on Lake Titicaca began! We were picked up at our hotel and arrived at the dock around 8:30am. We headed out onto the lake on a small boat with about 15 other people all in their 20s. It was really fun because by the end of the trip, we were all friends and enjoyed spending time together. It was also interesting because everyone was from different countries all over the world. There were people from Chile, Switzerland, France, Uruguay, Canada, the UK, and Denmark, among others. The boat went at a painfully slow speed for the entire trip but we were able to enjoy the journey around the lake.

Our first stop with our boat group was at the floating islands of Uros. These islands are incredible because they are constructed by the people of Uros from the reeds than grow around the lake. There are somewhere around 70 different islands like the one in the photo below. The inhabitants of the islands have to apply a new layer of dried reeds to the top of the island every week because the water underneath the island is constantly eating away at the material. Our guide said that the reed layers are around 2 or 3 meters thick. 

We also took a quick ride around the islands and the reed beds on a canoe type boat made of more dried reeds. It was wonderfully peaceful to glide through the water and listen only to the quiet splashing of the boat as it was propelled by a man using a very, very long wooden pole. The weather was perfect and it was an absolutely wonderful ride.

After finishing our stay on the floating islands, we hopped back on our boat and headed off to the island of Amantani. Upon arriving on the island, we were all divided up and introduced to our host families on the island. Nicole and I followed our host sister as she led us towards her home. . 

We meandered through various small fields of different types of vegetables and up and down little hills before arriving at our house. It was a very modest home built from mud bricks but it was very comfortable and sufficient. For lunch, our host mom served us quinoa soup followed by toasted cheese with a meager portion of potatoes, and a slice each of tomato and cucumber. She did all the cooking in a small room with a real wood fire oven.

After eating, we met up again with our tour group and set out to hike up to the top of the mountain called Pachatata. At the top of the mountain, we had an amazing 360 degree view of the lake encompassed by towering mountains.

This pyramid shaped island is called Taquile and we visited it on the second day of our lake tour expedition.

After the hike we returned home to eat dinner with our host family. We had a creamy soup followed by a tiny plate of rice with a handful of chopped, sauteed vegetables. Nicole and I were sitting in our room when our host sister entered with a pile of clothes in her arms. She proceeded to dress us up in the traditional clothing of the community. We wore big skirts, colorful blouses, and decorated shawls. We went to a dance that evening with the other tourists and their hosts. We danced and laughed and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during the experience.

The next morning, we each ate a small pancake with a bit of jelly (are you picking up on the common theme of all the meals our family served us? *hint hint* we had to buy some snacks during the day) and headed off to the island of Taquile.

On Taquile we climbed to the top of the peak of the hill as well. We had another beautiful view of the landscape of the island outlined by the intense blue of the lake.

Our time on Taquile concluded with a delicious lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake. We had trout that was so incredibly fresh and tasted absolutely amazing! Maybe I was just extra hungry but I think it was some of the best fish I have had. I really appreciated the fact that they served us the fish on a fish-shaped plate, too. I think that really added to the experience.

After lunch we had a three hour boat ride back to Puno. We arrived in Puno around 4pm and hung out with three other girls we met on the tour. At 9:30pm we were back at the bus terminal getting ready to get on the overnight bus back home to Cusco. The bus we took was called a BusCama (BedBus), but I would have called it a Bus-with-chairs-that-recline-slightly-farther-than-normal. However, we were exhausted and I actually was able to get more sleep than I expected. It wasn't the best night of sleep I've ever had in my entire life but it definitely was worth it and I was able to get some sleep. We were back in Cusco by about 5:00am and home by 5:45, just in time to sleep at my house for about an hour before going to work for the day. It was an absolutely wonderful, amazing, incredible trip! It is so fun to get to see different parts of the world and experience different cultures. The things I saw on this trip were unlike anything I've every seen in any other place in the world. What an experience!

¡CARNAVAL! Sunday, 2 March 2014

¡CARNAVAL CUSQUENO!

Last Sunday morning, I went to mass in the main Cathedral of Cusco at 7:30 in the morning. It was the first time I had been inside the Cathedral and it was beautiful. The colonial Spanish architecture was extremely elaborate, with every last corner decorated with intricate carvings and massive paintings. The entire Cathedral was packed during the service, and there were even people standing in the aisles and along the walls. Fortunately, we arrived early and had a place to sit. My favorite part was an immense organ that stood in the back of the church and produced a deep sound that would resound throughout the church. As far as church goes, I definitely prefer going to a more contemporary Christian church as opposed to a Catholic mass, but it was a worthwhile cultural experience and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to go.

Upon leaving the Cathedral, which is prominently located in the Plaza de Armas, I noticed that barricades were set up around the Plaza in preparation for a parade to celebrate Carnaval. Towards the end of February and beginning of March, Carnaval is celebrated in Peru and there were a big celebrations all around the country on Sunday. Carnaval is a time of celebration prior to Lent, forty days of discipline leading up to Easter. After mass, I stayed in the Plaza de Armas to watch the parade and participate in the festivities. 

The Carnaval festival in the Plaza de Armas consisted of a parade of sorts with traditional dances from many different regions all around Cusco. I had a seat on the steps outside of the Cathedral and a stunning view of the dances. 

Many of the dancers dress in elaborate tradition costumes, including colorful skirts and funny masks.

There were a TON of people at the festival, and the amount of people only increased as the day went on. The dancing exhibition and performances went on for hours. I sat and watched for about an hour and a half. When I grew tired of watching the dancers, I watched the people in the crowd, which was quite entertaining given that one of the most popular Carnvaval activities is playing with water. This involves squirt guns, water balloons, buckets of water, water bottles, and any other form of transporting and throwing water onto whoever might get in the way. Additionally, they also play with other things like foam or shaving cream, flour, and confetti. Fortunately, I was safe from most of the action in my seat in the crowd but had a perfect view to watch innocent spectators get doused by water.

It was a super nice, warm day in Cusco so it was pleasant to sit and watch ... for a while. Then the sun grew hot and was beating down on my neck so I decided to get up and walk around the Plaza for a bit of change of perspective. The crowd was massive and there were people milling around everywhere.

As I mentioned, no one is safe from the water games... myself included. When I first got up after watching the parade, I had walked for no more than 3 minutes when I was sprayed with foam. As I progressed, random people (usually boys...) proceeded to squirt the foam at me or spray me with water. I walked just one lap around the Plaza and by the time I was finished, I was nearly drenched and covered with foam. I ended up purchasing my own can of foam in order to defend myself and sought vengeance with a passion! 

I was thankful that the weather was so nice because it actually felt nice to cool off with a bit (or a bucketful) of water. The foam saturated my clothes (which happened to be my church clothes since I went to the Carnaval straight from church...) and made my hair feel clammy and sticky. It still was absolutely worth it and I had a really good time.

 One thing I found really interesting about the water games was that there people people of all ages who were playing. Of course there were many, many children, which is to be expected, but there were also parents, adults, grandparents, and people of literally all ages who played! I think it is a ton of fun that everyone likes to participate and have such child-like fun. No one (or at least most people) gets mad when they get sprayed in the face with foam or dumped on by a bucket of water because everyone realizes that that is a risk you have to take if you go to the festival.  

After leaving the festival (although it was nowhere near to being over), my host family and I went out to dinner at a restaurant close to our house. We all had "Puchero," which is a traditional meal that is eaten around Carnaval. It consists of pork, corn, rice, sweet potatoes, potatoes, squash, yucca, and more! It was a ton of food and very tasty!

Overall it was a really fun day and I am so thankful that I have been blessed with the opportunity to live in Peru and experience this wonderful, colorful culture!