Puno

3^rd Nov – Day 22 

We arrived in the early morning at the Gran Puno Inn, a comfortable Hotel/Hostel with great beds and hot showers. It´s much colder here in Puno, 3800m (asl), and you can certainly notice the altitude a lot more. After a well needed nap we wandered to the Plaza De Armas to see the start of the celebrations. The festival is to celebrate the Life of the first Inka, and is also known as the day of the dead.

The costumes and music are amazingly special to see. The music is a varied mix of traditional, pan pipe and usual band parade with thumping bass drums.  

We then ventured further into town, coming across a large food market. Seeing skinned cows heads on tarpaulin, behind the meat sections was something else! They don´t seem to refrigerate any of their meats, especially on the markets and their work surfaces are often the lids of buckets, nice.

Walking even further we found another clothes market. Puno´s cold so it was time to get a coat. I found a beautiful Alpaca coat, and Leroy was tempted by a scarf that matched his hat! Dinner was pretty standard, though it was great that we were up top because another parade happened, and we could stand and watch from the balcony.

 

                                                        One of many art shops they have;

 4^th Nov – Day 23

Today we went to go and see the larger than life white statue of the first Inca Manco Capac. He sits on top of a hill pointing out to, and over-looking the grand lake Titikaka. It was quite a walk up the hill, especially with the lack of air, but at the top the views panned out across the highest lake in the world, and the entire town of Puno. 

Beautiful.

 
















 We came down for a coca tea, and to get our breath back. After the tea we stumbled across a free art exhibition, mainly large collage paintings and photography. The work was based on how strong and important the role of the Peruvian woman was. It depicted her undergoing the many different roles she has to fill in life. 

We tried to go to the Coca Museum but as it was shut we had a little flick through our guide and saw that you could do day trips out to the floating island Uros. We walked down to the Harbor and got on board a boat. I wasn´t that happy that the boat was petrol run, as some of the people that still live on their floating islands, about 4 hours away, still use the lakes water! 

 

 













As time has moved on, less people actually live on Uros, but it was nice to see the island still intact, and we were grateful for the Peruvian people to help give us an insight of how life was for them, and how it still is for others on different islands on the lake. (These Islands are private so as to not disturb them) We hope to get out and stay with some families on the other islands, but we plan to do so from the Bolivian side. 

When we got onto the island it was quite surreal. Springing onto the many layers of floating reeds made for some bouncy walking. It was great fun to see how the people have managed to find so many uses for the reeds, a very resourceful and vital material. The guide was only Spanish speaking, so thanks to the help of some smaller scaled props we got the gist of how the islands, huts and boats were made. The first layer of the island is a very light floating earth and onto this they laid many layers of reeds. Over time new reeds grow keeping the island locked together. They then use rope and large wooden supports hammered into the island, to tie other parts together.

We then got onboard one of the authentic reed boats, most of them are in the style of dragons and other water spirits. Before we left three of the women from the island sang to us, they even had a second translated version of ‘Bring back my bonny to me´ We went to another island to have a wander around, then headed back to the mainland. Close to shore our boat stopped working! We had just enough fuel to get back, but as we were only about 15 minutes away we could laugh about it.

 







  














Back to the steets, there was more dancing and parading, with many couples swirling around the square. Leroy and I needed to get to the other side, so in the end we decided the only way to get across was to pair up and dance like they did to the other side. This got lots of smiles from the locals, phew. We checked into a recommended bar, Kamikazi; a groovy little rock shack with music on request, Kyuss and Autolux over a few games was pretty great. With the altitude its advisable not to drink, smoke or eat too much, or you suffer the consiquences, boo!



Puno´s funniest milkshake shop.

       










5th Nov - Day 24

Out in the streets we saw a collection of dancing groups and bands. The sound filled the streets in every direction. As the festival went on the age groups got older and the costumes more elaborate. Seeing the young children dressed in traditional dress up, cowboy costumes and animal wear was so cute, they seem to have more rhythm than English children, and probably even adults!



The teenagers had a collection of more traditional ´day of the dead´ wear; crazy demon masks, devil costumes and some boys dressed as scary women with pink wigs.. odd, but great fun to watch.  Some of our favorites had to be the smaller boys dressed as condors with feathered masks, and the venga boy inspired bell outfits. 



 

The parade also had a great group of horses and another massive group of men playing pan pipes. We chilled out for the rest of the day, as Leroy was feeling the altitude.














6th Nov - Day 25

Today I went out with Cindy and Rhianna to see ´The Gates of the Gods´. It was great to have a girl day, and to explore beyond the guide book. We kind of knew where to go, so got in a cab and headed to Llave. We then asked around and found another guy who knew where the gates were, he took us to Santiago to explore. It took us nearly 2 hours to get there, on the journey the views of the lakes from this side were really open, making the land look even more vast.



We hunted around for a while, but couldn´t find it.. I climbed up the biggest hill to see what the rock face had in store. I got so high up and along the climb the biggest owl flew straight over my head. He had the biggest yellow eyes I´d ever seen. After a further drive we found the gates.


There were many women and children selling crystals and other hand made bits. it makes me feel bad that I can´t give my money to everyone tryng to sell something to me. It´s apparant that for some this is their only way to make a living making tourism a positive thing, but some really do push to sell, making you feel like a walking ATM. 


Our tickets are now booked for Cusco. I had a love for dusty old Puno, it´s a bit dirty but totally a warm-hearted place. The people are so friendly, and most willing to help you, and the lake is a stunning highlight, but it´s time to move on..