Puno / Lake Titicaca - Land of the Aymaras and Quechua

Puno Slide Show

The picture to the left is of Noah and Jennifer on a boat made out of reeds near the Islas Flotantes (Floating Islands) on Lake Titicaca. Noah is wearing his new hat and Jennifer is wearing her new sweater, both made out of hand-woven Alpaca Wool. To give you an idea of the cost of living in Peru, Noah's hat was the equivalent of $1.67 and Jennifer's sweater was the equivalent of $9.00.
To get to Puno, we took a tour bus from Cusco to Puno. It stopped 4 times along the way to look at ancient ruins and a small town museum. We had an excellent tour guide who had a passion for the ancient ruins even if it was 3 too many stops for Noah who would have appreciated the ruins more when they were first built. But then again, they wouldn't be ruins, would they?!
Puno is a town of roughly 100,000 people at an elevation of 12,500 feet above sea level. You don't really come to visit Puno, as it is not a very pretty city. You come to Puno because it is a great access point to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world and the largest lake in South America. In addition to visiting islands on the lake, we saw a few celebrations in town, an old ship that is being restored, and stayed at a hotel with a TV - the first TV on this trip. We watched CNN for awhile to catch up on USA and world matters. Who is running for President and more importantly Vice President?
In Puno, we also bumped into Ryan, from Chicago, who we had previously met at Machu Picchu. His travels started in St Louis and between planes, trains, and boats, he wanted to travel through the United States, Central America and all the way to the Southern tip of South America. His trip hit a roadblock in Guatemala when someone stole his shoes. Just buy new ones, right? Not exactly - he couldn't find size 12's in Guatemala, so he had to fly to Miami to buy new shoes and resume his trip with a flight to Peru. Part of the fun of this adventure is meeting people traveling from all over the world and hearing their stories. They are all unique and all worthy taking the time to listen to.
Back to Lake Titicaca. We took a boat tour to 2 different islands. The first was to a floating island made entirely of reeds. The Aymaras still live on these islands and use reeds from the lake to build the islands, their boats and their houses. They even use the reeds for food and firewood. A visit to these islands was one of the more unique experiences we have had so far on this trip.
The next island that we visited was Isla Taquile, a 2-1/2 boat ride from the floating islands. No, Scott Rudin, they do not make Tequila on the island. Taquile Island has been inhabited for thousands of years and currently has a population of approximately 2,000 people. The Quechua people live on this island and due to the relationship that our guide has with the people on this island, we were able to meet families, eat lunch with them, and get a first-hand view of their customs and livelihood. Our guide was incredible. He spoke Spanish, Aymara, Quechua, and English fluently.
With the help of our guide, we not only visited some beautiful places, but left with a greater understanding of the Aymara and Quechua cultures. To see a slide show of Puno, click on the following link ==> Puno Slide Show.