Puno & Lake Titicaca (21-23/May/06)

Arequipa, Peru

Followed through with our plan and got the bus to the Peruvian border, and from there round lake Titicaca for a few hours to Puno. Goodbye Bolivia!

Peru is a million more times geared up for tourism. By the first evening we’d had ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime) and cuy (guinea pig), to the tune of “authentic” Inca descendants belting out the inevitable El Condor bloody Pasa.

The next day we wend for a bit of island hopping to see the natives of the lake. Quite a bit like a human zoo in fact, we’ve decided ethno-tourism isn’t our thing (especially in the package holiday style). Still, the first stop was really worth it, the floating islands. Basically some time ago a band of Indians felt the heat from the expanding Inca empire and, having nowhere to run, literally dived into the lake. There they made huge reed rafts, more like small islands, and have been living on them ever since. We visited a couple of these floating islands and discovered how these people live (mostly fishing and tourism). The second island was a let down though. This is a real, proper island which didn’t seem to offer much more than a bunch of blokes dressed up in floppy hats and regional clothes much like ancient Spanish farmers (as it was imposed on them by an Andalucian bigwig). The whole thing felt a bit like Disneyworld, plus there were loads of other tourists (at least on the floating islands we had been spread out a bit).

One more day in Puno, the morning productively spent bargaining for alpaca objects d’art. In the afternoon we headed for some ruins called Sillustani. This is a huge burial ground of pre-Inca (Colla) and Inca people who made big towers to bury their dead. It’s quite impressive, and the setting is beautiful.