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I left Arequipa early on Friday, on a 6 hour bus ride to Puno. At first we passed mountains with cacti, quite bleak, then vicuña country. Next came lakes with ducks and some pale flamingoes (apparently the flamingoes I saw at the coast would have flown there from these lakes to feast on crab larvae, which give them their pink colouring). Then mining towns, and people in traditional dress tending alpaca, cattle and sheep, there was also a field of black ostritches, which are indigenous but nbow rare in the wild. The bus stopped in Juliaca, a dusty sprawl of a town in a brick-making area, where the streets were full of tricycle taxis. It was a rough road from there to Puno, passing more cattle and a few pigs. Puno is a busy redbrick town on a steep hillside overlooking Lake Titicaca. I arrived quite late in the afternoon, so didn´t have much time to explore, but it´s not a very interesting or attractive place. However, it has lots of restaurants serving trout from the lake, and I had a dish of trout with a honey and Dijon mustard sauce - sounds an odd combination but it was delicious. This was accompanied by coca tea (which was also swerved on the bus), to combat the effects of the 3800m altitude. I had a bad night, waking several times feeling light-headed and unable to breathe properly, very unpleasant.
A minibus arrived at 6.45 to take me to the lake. I went on a 10 hour boat trip, stopping first at the floating islands of Uros, where we were given a very well-rehearsed demonstration of how the islands are construced by tying together big clumps of tortora reed roots and anchoring them to the bottom of the lake. This layer is a metre deep, and on top are piled 2 metres of cut reeds. The reeds are also used to build the houses and traditional boats, for fuel, andf the roots are eaten (quite tasty and very nutritious).Then came the dancing and singing (the visitors had to sing a song from their own country - I was out of my comfort zone here!), and the hard sell of craft products. A little girl from the island, about 5 years old, sang Frere Jaque, Alouette, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star very competently - she must have heard them dozens of times! About an hour and a half further out into the lake, we visited Taquile island, which was very beautiful and seemed much more authentic. (Some cynics among our group wondered whether the Uros people actually lived on their islands any more.) Getting off the boat was my worst nightmare, we had to clamber across 7 other boats and I asked someone to hold my hand each time and tried not to look down at the gap. It was a very steep climb up to the tiny restaurant, where we were again treated to a display of dancing - and we had to join in (even further out of my comfort zone!). Lucnh was lovel- traditional quinoa soup and very fresh fried trout. Then a walk with beautiful views, and down 562 steps to rejoin the boat. My knees were fine during and after all this, thankfully.
On the islands, hats signify marital status. On Uros, married women wear bowler hats, while on Taquile married men wera red hats like nightcaps, which they knit themselves (they are made of incredibly fine yarn with tiny stitches and an intricate pattern), and single men have red and white hats. The married men also have a shoulder bag decorated with pompoms, in which they carry coca leaves. Rather than shaking hands, they exchange coca leaves with each other. At a wedding, the bride´s godfather cuts off her long hair, and it is woven into a belt with sheeps wool, and the husband wears this thereafter.
The residents of Taquile live by 3 rules - do not lie, do not steal, and do not be lazy. They don´t have police, and they apparently don´t use beasts of burder, carrying heavy loads (sometimes including tourists!) up and down the stony paths.
We arrived back in Puno as the sun set and a full moon rose over the lake.
I set off early the next morning for an 8 hour trip to Cusco, on a bus that was mainly used by locals, and which had no air conditioning for the first 6 hours. The baggage handler was the driver´s son, about 9 years old! I was entertained by the variety of vendors that met the boat at every stop - mandarins and fried trout in Juliaca, elsewhere plastic bags of mate tea, plastic cups of lurid jelly, and queso con papas (this looked nice - a fried slice from a round cheese, accompanied by cooked potatoes). The scenery on this journey was much greener and more agricultural than I had seen anywhere else. We passed purple and white potatoes spread out to dry, people harvesting maize, the remains of small fields of amaranth or quinoa and grains like rye or barley; people schooling horses or tending herds of alpaca, cattle and sheep. In several places people were gathered on the riverbanks doing their laundry, and on one occasion cleaning tricycle taxis. We passed a few areas where adobe bricks were being made and left to dry in the sun. The most exciting wildlife was black ibis, which I saw several times.
The Peruvian passengers were carrying all sorts of luggage, including a rough wooden bench, which travelled in the passenger accommodation, and a bag of 4 chickens, which unfortunately travelled in the hold and did not survive.
I´m going to stop now and write about Cusco (and upload lots more photos) next time, as it´s nearly time for my Spanish lesson.
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