Day 5- Titicaca here we come!

Tonight I am simply going to explain the fun pictures. Early day tomorrow on the lake. I’m sure I will have much more to share from the lake.

Woke up with a slight headache from the altitude, but ready to go higher. Arid but beautiful drive up some windy and roads with steep drop-offs. Snow on the mountains and volcanos and many wild pack animals and birds along the way.

You will see that we decided to pay the toll as they must be very strict on toll skipping here.

Turns out we are on the Volcano highway. Three in clear view. You can see me standing in front of all three when we stopped for lunch. I did not have cuy yet; but this is what they look like before they are cooked.

And for dessert, the famous cheese ice cream with cinnamon. Yum!!

Now off to the reason the town is called the “white city”. The only
Quarry of sillar (volcanic petrified ash) is here. 26 families are allowed to harvest the white stone for the construction of the white buildings. All by hand. The stone is strong and heavy, but lighter than cement as it is porous. Note the demonstration. Many carvings from the stone, so I had to play on them; you know me. The female on a burrow is the traditional mill woman. Go Peru!!

Yikes! This is high. It’s in meters. The air is getting thin. Time to stop again for coca tea; but this time with all of the other herbs added that “will help” with the altitude. You will see the names in the short video. In case it doesn’t work, we have oxygen. See Luis doing a demo with our guide. Hope I don’t need it. But I have my canister, just in case.

Look at the cute llamas, alpacas, and vicunas. They are everywhere as we are driving through a preserve for the vicuñas.
They are on the ground and on the road as you can see. Adorable.

And again, here are some working women that spoke with us in their native language. The two women are explaining that they are washing the potatoes for the alpaca to eat. The woman with the baby is a new mother and brought her baby to work with her. Lovely.

And lastly, just arrived at Puna which sits on the rim of Lake Titicaca. Wow! It’s cold and the air is thin. Was informed that tonight will be hard to sleep, but the hotel has oxygen if you need it and look at my snack bag; expanding so much it might burst. lol.

I think I will skip the snack and try to get some sleep for an early morning.

Fascinating day.Read more