Puno and the Lake Titicaca by Mel

Hello from the Lake Titicaca.
We are still in Peru, in the south, in the city called Puno, right near the Lake Titicaca.
We came here from Arequipa, by bus. It took for ever!!!! When we got at the bus station, we got told the bus will leave 30 minutes later than planned, then once in the bus, it took forever to leave Arequipa as the traffic was horrendous. Once we were truly one the way, the Aircon in the bus wasn’t working, so it was really hot in there. Then we stopped on the road, because I don’t know, accident, roadwork, traffic jam… Something anyway that made us stop for maybe 45 minutes. Anyhow, we arrived early evening, got straight to our new place and after a quick dinner, straight to bed.
The next day (Saturday 15/11/25), we went in our regular search for food! We had nothing to cook, so breakfast out and shopping. Then back to our place to catch up on blog. As we did a lot a tour lately, we had no time to write about our adventures, so we caught on that for a bit, then went out in town.
Puno is located on the shore of the Lake Titicaca. This lake is the highest navigable lake in the world, and the largest freshwater lake in South America. It is located between Peru and Bolivia. The origin of the name is still being debated. I don’t care where it came from, I like the name!
There are several islands on the lake and we will visit a couple in a few days. Andrew is excited to be on a boat!
The town is lovely. There is a large square with the cathedral on one of its sides. In both Ecuador and Peru, lots of the cities and towns have a big square place with the important buildings on it and decoration and greenery. There are several squares like that in Puno. While we were walking on one of this place, we saw what we thought was a wedding coming out of the church on that place. They were dancing in front of the church with a band playing live. Then just around 30 minutes later, we saw a funeral coming in that same church with music being played as well. We came back that way later in the day and we saw a party in front of that same church, which we didn’t know what it was: a young lady (16 maybe) in pretty dress surrounded by people dancing around her. So either Peruvian people party a lot for a lot of reasons, or it was a special day that day? We’ll never know!
We walk to the lake, where some souvenirs shops can be found and some small restaurants. There is a walkway which would have been very lovely when new, but it is getting old and need some TLC.
The next day, we did some well needed laundry while the kids did some schoolwork. Not having a washing machine is getting old! I’m not a big fan of hand washing clothes! This is something to be grateful for when we go home!
After that, we went to visit the cathedral, then walk to a viewpoint. It was what feel like a thousand steps to get there! It had a statue of a condor and a wonderful view of the town and the lake. The view was worth it but it was hard!!!
The afternoon was dedicated to more blogging, and we are almost caught up!
Board games evening and night night!
On the 17th of November, we did a tour on the Lake Titikaka (I’m not sure what is the proper writing: with c or k as I saw it written both way). A van picked us up in the morning with other tourists as usual. Direction the lake, we climb on a boat and sail (well it was a motor but sail sound better!) toward some floating islands. 500 years ago, when the Inka were getting closer to this area, the Uros people living here, to avoid the Incas, decided to create floating islands out of the Totora reeds and roots (a plant that grows everywhere in the lake). Everything is made out of this plant: the islands, the houses, the mattress they sleep on. They even eat the plant and make tea out of it! Today they are still people living this way. Each island has around 5 families living on it. Each month a different family is in charge of the island. Today it seems that they live from tourists coming to visit the islands and float on their traditional boats. Those boats are visually striking. They often have heads of puma decoration on it and are very colourful. They are also made of the Totora reeds. It was interesting to see how they live and to see their craft: they do a lot of fabrics and souvenirs (made of the reeds) for people to buy. This was the highlight of the tour.
After that we went to one of the natural islands of the lake, Amantani island, for a small trek to the centre of the village. Nothing extraordinary there, outside of the fact that it is hard to breath!!! Just walking for a few minutes uphill was hard! We went back for lunch and the kids got a few minutes to put their feet in the cold water of the lake.
We got back at the end of the afternoon and started packing again, as we are on the move again tomorrow, nice and early!
We are going to Cusco! Getting close to Machu Picchu!!!
See you there!!
MelLæs mere