Lago Titicaca y Puno: Glorioso

Ok i know i said the next post would be what we did two weekends ago, but what we did this weekend was so awesome I have to tell everything! 13 of us ProPeruanos went to Puno, a fairly large city in the south of Perú, very close to the Bolivian and Chile Boarder. Puno is located on Lake Titicaca, the worlds highest navigable lake.

Our adventure began at 9pm on friday night, when we made our way to the bus station to catch a 7 hour bus to Puno. We got a good deal on the bus, but too good. The bus was, as described by my dear friend Corey, a "janky piece a shit." All true. It smelt reaaaaaal bad, sounded like it was gonna fall apart, and some lady came in trying to sell us bread at 1230am, when we were trying our hardests to sleep. It was worse that that time we spent 16 hours in the Lima airport. When we got there we went to eat b-fast in the only restaurant the bus terminal had. The had one pan to make all of our omelets and pancakes. I ordered a hamburger. Then we were suposed to meet with a woman named Estephany to be our tour guide and receive tickets for the bus ride back. That never happened. Some man with a list of 13 people from Cusco found us as we were waiting for Estephany and told us to follow him to our bus. Sketchy? Yep. We finally got a confermation from Estephany saying it was ok. So we piled onto the bus and went to the boat. Our boat was very small and very... leaky. One thing about Perú is that the wet season is a legit wet season, and it was no difference for Puno. So we set out into the mist of this foggy gross lake, really apprehensive and a REALLY tired. Our tour guide who was not Estaphany was talking about the formation of the lake, the islands, and the people. It was very informative, but a little dry.

After about 40 min i decided to go on top of the boat and see if there was anything worth seeing. Wow, was there. We were heading into the floating islands. These are islands made of blocks of dirt tied together with layers unpin layers on reeds on top. When the reads decay, the add more to the top. The reeds can also act as a food that helps to brush teeth (a mix of a corn husk and celery in taste) The houses on these islands were all made from reeds, and some of the boats were as well. It was so amazing. It was really unbelievable. No other place in the world has these human made reed islands. No other. As amazing as these islands were, I was a little sad about teh communitys living on them. Their entire life revolves around the tourists who come to the islands. The dress up and make their crafts and make their children sing songs, all day everyday. Their LIFE is tourism. I don't even know if they would choose to live on these islands if it wasn't for the tourism.

The islas flotando.

Moving on, after the floating islands we made our want to the island we were to stay the night on. It was about a 2 hour boat ride. We all snoozed for a little bit, some the whole time. When i could nap no longe i went to the top of the boat again, and was amazed. The sky had cleared, the clouds were gone, the sun was out, it was warmer, and we were in the world's highest navigable lake. Shoot. It was gorgeous. You could see the curve of the earth. You could see across the lake were the was bad weather. You could see the mountains, even the snow capped ones. Increíble.

I wish you could all see how glorious this lake really was.

Once on the island, we were still in awe from the lake. We were in more awe from where we woudl be staying the night. We were staying with homestay families. Every 3-6people to a house family. They fed us lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next day. It was very fun getting to know them. At one point Spencer, Kelsey and I were helping our host sister Soña peel the potatoes for our papas fritas (and these were literally the BEST papas fritas i have ever had.) Throughout the day we chilled with our family, stuck our feet in the lake (AMAZING) and, explored. We went to the town center and learned about the traditional dress. We went for a hike up the mountain and saw basically 180˚ of the lake. The sight was amazing and NON of my pictures do it justice. You just gotta go ;-) After dinner our families dressed us in traditional clothes, which was ridiculously amazing. We were still delirious from our no sleep, so whenever we look at one another, we burst our laughing. They thought Andy and I were a Senor and a Senora couple, so i got a married lady's had, a black shall, and a carrier "When asked what the carrier was for, our host mom replied "para sus bebé." Nice. We all made our way in the pitch dark (not alot of electricity on the island at all) to another house were we "danced" with the locals. This was ridiculous for 3 reasons. 1) You can't dance in that stuff. You just can't. 2) The band could not keep a beat for the life of them and 3) It was raining. I still had a blast, but it was... loco.

My friend Kelsey and I, with Spencer in the background. They thought Kelsey and Spencer were married too...

The next day we woke up early, had fried corn dough for b-fast (best of my life) and headed off to another island for more hiking, eating, and exploring. It was once again amazing. i really can't begin to describe to you all the islands of lake Titicaca. For our three hour bus ride back to Puno, It was sunny and HOT. A group of us sat on the roof, soaking in the sun and talking about the day, the lake, and everything. The friends I have here already mean everything to us, and its been three 1/2 weeks. Cómo marvolosa.

We were all excited to go to Puno and expierence one of the biggest Peruvian festivals every, but Pacha Mama decided it would be awesome to start hailing on us. We sat in the boat, ran to a bus, sat in the bus, ran to the café, and ate really great food as the sky opened at the festival came back to life. People and parades EVERYWHERE. Street vendors. Costumes. Music. Peruvian flute bands. Best tamales of my life. It was a festival to say the least.
Each parade was a different town from either bolivia, peru, or chile. They were grande y gran.


and there was a differnt one every 20 minutes or so

This weekend was amazing (minus the bus rides). Thats all i can say to sum it up. Thanks for reading :-)