This past weekend we went to Puno and Lake Titicaca. We visited some islands there, and stayed with families. We actually were only in the city of Puno for about 20 minutes because we ran out of time.
We left last Friday at 7:30a.m. Well we were supposed to leave at 7:30a.m. Everything here seems to run on Peru time though, so it's okay when things are 30 minutes or so late. It's kind of funny, because in the US I am always running late, or so it seems, but here I'm always early, or on time. Works perfect. Anyway, we took two Sprinters, aka big vans, and probably left around 8:15a.m. It was about a 6 hour drive to wherever we went. I should probably ask someone what the names were of all of the islands that we went to. We stopped once for a bathroom break in a middle of a field after 3 hours, where there were small buildings, and then we stopped for food after 6 hours at a mall. From the mall it was another 1 and a half hours until we got to our destination.
This still amazes me. We see it almost everyday, but I am still amazed by how high up we are. Puno is actually 600 meters higher than Cusco, I think. Not sure feet. So it kind of took a toll on everyone.
This was our van. We all seemed to have a good time. We all slept most of the time, but right near the end we wrote a story, where each person added a sentence, by only reading the sentence before.
This was where we stayed the first night. We went out on the water and fished with nets. That was fun. We were supposed to get up the next morning and help get the fish out of the nets, by some of us didn't make it. It was beautiful there. No car horns, or people yelling, just the wind and the birds. It was really lovely.
This man was making flour from quinoa. It is a type of grain that is used for a lot of things here. After making the flour, they made it in to little cookie type things. I think I was allergic to them though, because my whole mouth and throat started itching that night.
This is how they cooked the cookie things. The pot on top of the stove has hay and water in it, and they steamed the cookies to cook them.
This was taken off of the boat. Sorry for the water spots, they were on the window.
This is one of the islands that we got to visit. It is made of a bamboo, straw material. It is called Uros. They are floating islands.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Uro_Islands is a link that explains a little about them.
This was from the last place we stayed. We got to dress up in the normal dress of the ladies, and then we went out dancing, it was a lot of fun, but by then we were all exhausted.
This is our group, minus a few. Some got sick and didn't go dancing with us.
This was from the last place we spent the night. Two of the girls went down near the water and had a Bible study, so I went with them. It was really beautiful to sit and watch the sunrise there.
We then took a boat to another island, and took a small hike up to the top of the island, and had lunch at the top. This was the view from the top. Afterwords, we hiked down the other side, and some people went swimming. I put my feet in, but it was FREEEZING!!! Probably not as cold as the water in Norway, but it was pretty cold.
I am amazed by all of the flowers here. Everything actually is so beautiful. The sky, the clouds, the mountains. It is all quite amazing.
Then we left the island and headed towards Puno. It took probably a good 2 and a half to 3 hours. It was supposed to only take 1, I think. So we ran a bit late, but what else it new. Haha.
This is the first thing we saw when we got to Puno. I don't know why, but I just thought this was such a cool picture. I mean these are real people, but it turned out to be a good picture.
So that brought us to the close of our journey. Well kind of. This was around 5:00p.m., I think. They gave us 20 minutes to get some snacks, because we would not be stopping for dinner, and it was a 6 hour drive back to Cusco. We all grabbed as much junk food as we saw fit, and headed out. About 45 minutes in, the first van broke down. I was in the second van, so we saw it smoking and pulled over. All 23 of us students piled out of both vans and hung out on the side of the road. After about another 45 minutes they said another van was coming, but the second van would be leaving with whoever wanted to be on it. So we started on our way again. After about 4 hours, we were stopped because of a landslide. It had already happened, and they were trying to clear the road, so traffic was moving quite slowly, and it was down to one lane. I think we were there for about 30 minutes or so. Just enough time for the people who needed to go to the bathroom to find a spot on the side of the road. We finally arrived to Cusco around 12:30a.m. or so.
All in all, it was a great experience. We got to see some beautiful sites of this country, and experience things I don't think I will ever experience again. :)
Missing home, but hoping everyone is well.
Love to all,
Emily
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