Puno

After 26 hours of bus travel, I finally arrived to my first destination in Peru: Puno! I say that like I have an actual plan for Peru (which I don’t). Puno is a city nestled along the shores of Lake Titicaca, the lake seated at the highest altitude in the world and let’s just say, the inability to breathe properly reminds you of the difference in elevation. Being as exhausted as I was, I need a day to just say phhh and relax. I wandered through the streets, in and out of markets and eventually back to my hostel to watch Netflix.

When I woke up the next morning, the woman working at my hostel asked if I would like to spend a night or two on and island in the middle of the lake with a Quechua family – how could I possibly say no? What she didn’t tell me was that this trip to see a pre-Incan society was actually a tour with thirty other people.

Our first stop was on a floating island made out of totoro (basically reeds). The island is home to twenty five people of all ages and about five homes. We received a demonstration on how the island was built, a boat ride on a boat also made out of totoro and then were shown the inside of these families’ houses. This would have been an amazing experience if tourism hadn’t completely destroyed the authenticity of it. From the get go, it was obvious that we, as tourists, were supposed to treat the inhabitants of the islands like circus acts or zoo animals. Any time one of the children would run past, the guide would scream look at the child so wild and indigenous without shoes. While some people loved it, myself and the two other people my age hated it.

The boat ride to the next island was three hours and of course I laid out in the sunshine, braving the wind and the cold from the high altitude. Upon arrival we were greeted by our Quechua family and taken home to eat lunch; we had quinoa soup, veggies, and fried cheese. Afterwards, we were taken to the sacred temples on the island; one for father earth and another for mother moon. The trek to get to the temples stole the air from my lungs as the elevation got higher and higher. Then back to the plaza to enjoy a te macho, which was basically a warm mojito, then dinner.

After dinner we were dressed up in full Quechua swag, colorful skirts and boldly embroidered shirts included. We went to a dance for all of the tourists on the island, everyone wearing their fancy Quechua clothing.

The next morning, we said our goodbyes and moved onto the next island and another beautiful trek to the top. We ate lunch and watched a demonstration on how to make soap (I can’t explain this one). Then made our way back to Puno where I quickly hopped on a bus to Cusco.

I have my reservations made on the Salkantay Trail, which is a six day/five night trek to see Macchu Picchu. I am incredibly excited and I’m sure my next blogpost will be very exciting.

Besitos.