Day 6 (Monday) started when we were woken up from a very comfortable sleep in our overnight bus when it reached Puno. We arrived in Puno at 5:15 am.
We took a cab to our hotel. Since it was really early, we were not able to check in but we left our luggage with the hotel. We quickly freshened up and were ready for our day tour of Lake Titicaca.
Our bus took us to the harbor where we boarded a boat. Our tour had two parts - a visit of the floating island of Uros and then a visit of the natural island of Taquile.
Lake Titicaca is more like a sea - 185 km by 65 km and 5 km deep. It is the world's highest navigable lake at 3800 meters. It is situated between Peru and Bolivia.
We had booked the tour with a speedboat option and it looked more like an aircraft inside than a boat. We were at the Uros floating island in 30 minutes.
The floating island was an amazing experience, probably on par with the majestic Machu Picchu. Slaves of the Incan times escaped to this lake about 700 years ago and started living in boats. Then they evolved over time and started building (yes, building) islands from weeds and other natural bamboo like plants found in the lake. We were given a demonstration of the building process and then shown products built by the ten families living on the Uros floating island (there are other islands like it too). In Incan religion, laziness is a sin so beggary is not encouraged and everyone works hard to earn a living. Tourists that visit their island are their main source of income so we bought a little hand made boat from a family and they let us take a picture with them. We also took a serene boat ride in a very sturdy boat made by the island people. The experience is one of the best we've had not just in Peru but anywhere.
Then we went to the natural island of Taquile after a 30-minute speedboat ride. We hiked from one side of the island to the other and then had lunch there. Lunch was made from things that are available at the island - fish, quinoa, rice (after trading their products with the mainland), vegetables and herbal tea. People living on this island grow different crops including potatoes and quinoa.
After lunch we headed back to Puno city and were dropped off at our hotel. We checked-in to our room and took showers. Now we are going to have dinner and after that it'll be bed time since it's another 5 am early morning start for our Colca Canyon tour.
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying reading the updates :)
We took a cab to our hotel. Since it was really early, we were not able to check in but we left our luggage with the hotel. We quickly freshened up and were ready for our day tour of Lake Titicaca.
Our bus took us to the harbor where we boarded a boat. Our tour had two parts - a visit of the floating island of Uros and then a visit of the natural island of Taquile.
Lake Titicaca is more like a sea - 185 km by 65 km and 5 km deep. It is the world's highest navigable lake at 3800 meters. It is situated between Peru and Bolivia.
We had booked the tour with a speedboat option and it looked more like an aircraft inside than a boat. We were at the Uros floating island in 30 minutes.
The floating island was an amazing experience, probably on par with the majestic Machu Picchu. Slaves of the Incan times escaped to this lake about 700 years ago and started living in boats. Then they evolved over time and started building (yes, building) islands from weeds and other natural bamboo like plants found in the lake. We were given a demonstration of the building process and then shown products built by the ten families living on the Uros floating island (there are other islands like it too). In Incan religion, laziness is a sin so beggary is not encouraged and everyone works hard to earn a living. Tourists that visit their island are their main source of income so we bought a little hand made boat from a family and they let us take a picture with them. We also took a serene boat ride in a very sturdy boat made by the island people. The experience is one of the best we've had not just in Peru but anywhere.
Then we went to the natural island of Taquile after a 30-minute speedboat ride. We hiked from one side of the island to the other and then had lunch there. Lunch was made from things that are available at the island - fish, quinoa, rice (after trading their products with the mainland), vegetables and herbal tea. People living on this island grow different crops including potatoes and quinoa.
After lunch we headed back to Puno city and were dropped off at our hotel. We checked-in to our room and took showers. Now we are going to have dinner and after that it'll be bed time since it's another 5 am early morning start for our Colca Canyon tour.
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying reading the updates :)
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