Floating islands and soaring birds

We arrived late at night to Puno which is in Peru. The border crossing was the fastest I think Ive ever encountered in South America. We were literally given fifteen minutes by our bus company to get out passports and visas stamped. Not a mean feat when there is a whole bus load of travellers! But we did it, albeit running around like headless chickens in the rain as the Bolivian and Peruvian border control offices were quite a distance from each other.

My hotel in Puno (yes this is the second hotel in a row Ive stayed at. Dont judge me) had kindly arranged a transfer from the bus terminal to the hotel which given the lateness of our arrival was much appreciated. The hotel itself was nothing to write home about but they bent over backwards to help me with tour advice and booking future bus tickets for me so gracias San Antonio Suites.

The next morning, I was picked up early and taken to the port in Puno where a boat was waiting for to take us to the floating islands of Uros which are in Lake Titicaca - yes the funny named lake I told you about in my previous blog. Interestingly I found out that the name Lake Titicaca actually means grey puma in Quechua which is the ancient language the locals speak. Not so amusing anymore. 


There are a total of sixty three floating islands on Lake Titicaca and of these roughly two thousands inhabitants live on the island of Uros which is on the River Willy (yes that really is its name) where we visited. 

Our tour boat - Willy Expeditions :D

Uros, like the rest of the floating islands, are made of Tortora reeds which grow in the lake. This reed is also used to produce the houses and boats. The islands tend to last twenty years but the people of Uros have to lay new reeds on top roughly three times a month. All of which sounds like a bit of a palava if you ask me, give me a house of bricks and mortar any day... 

The island we visited with two modes of river transport, traditional and modern!

Each island has its own President. Damian (not a name I was expecting!) was the President of the island we visited. He showed us how he hunts ducks and birds for everyone. With the actual rifle he uses. He scared half our group as we didn't realise his rifle has live ammo in it!!

Armed and dangerous

Euphoria after having shot an already dead chicken...

The islands felt weird to walk on - very spongy. There were also numerous pigs and chickens wandering around everywhere which, in addition to the damp, gave a rather off-putting scent. 


We were invited into the hut of Luzmilla who was one of the inhabitants on the island. Luzmilla was lovely, explaining all about her island and her upbringing. Everything was going well until she started showing us all the artisan items she had made to sell, and she realised I had no money with me to buy anything (arriving late the night before I hadn't had time to change my Bolivianos or withdrew any Peruvian Soles out). To say she froze me out was an understatement. It would seem, unless you are buying items from the island, the locals don't want to know. Charming. 

Luzmilla, albeit captured with her eyes shut. 

Trying to sell us some of her wares...

Feeling the wrath of the community after not purchasing anything...

The second island we visited was called Tupirmarka and was interestingly more civilised than the first, with its own stalls selling artisan items and a telephone booth to make those emergency calls back to the mainland...

How cute is this sign?

I didn't check to see if it actually worked...

Despite this blip, the trip to the islands were interesting, albeit a little voyeuristic for my liking. The locals also acted like it was Disney World, dancing and singing on command for everyone which I personally found a little sad. 


That evening we caught the bus to Arequipa which is roughly six hours from Puno. We chose to go with a bus company called Cruz del Sur which unbeknownst to us just happens to be one of the top notch bus companies in Peru. Alleluja! Not only was the bus modern, the staff were the most security concious ever. In addition to having our luggage swiped with a metal detector (?!) we were also filmed by camcorder before boarding. At first I thought it was a training video being made, until one of the other travellers said its to identify us should there be an accident! nice. 


The journey to Arequipa was beatifically scenic. Reminding me, once again, a lot of Bariloche in Argentina. It would have been a perfect journey had it not have been for the guy next to us passing wind the entire time. Foul. 


Arriving in Arequipa, we had been warned about rogue taxi drivers picking tourists up and then mugging them. I was therefore slightly apprehensive about stepping into any taxi that didn't have a sign on its roof. Eventually we found one and set off to the hostel, only to discover that it had moved since my guide book had been written. Cue an extra twenty five minutes circling the town before we eventually found it. Phew. The hostel (Arequipay Backpackers) was worth the find, as it was welcoming and clean and had everything a traveller needs. It was even in its own private, gated road!


The next day we explored the town, which is a lovely mix of colonial and traditional architecture. One of the nicest places Id visited in Peru to date. 

So many taxis in this city!

The Cathedral

Looking through the side gate of the Cathedral 

We walked through Arequipa´s Plaza de Armas (which every Latin town seems to have) and visited the Casa del Moral, a large ancestral house which contained lots of beautiful colonial art. After a delicious lunch of alpaca burger and chips, we visited the Santa Catalina Monastery. I couldn't believe how big this monastery was, it went on forever and would have been quite easy to get lost had there not have been signs pointing you in the right direction. 

Casa del Moral 

One of the rooms in Casa Moral - like being in England!!

Obligatory JC painting, albeit slightly hung wonky.

This is taken in the Monastery

A "street" in the monastery

Pretty doorway

Where the nuns did the washing!

Peruvian child

Visiting Arequipa, couldn't be done without also visiting Colca Canyon which is about two hours away. It is the canyon (obviously) of the Colca River and is apparently twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA. The main attraction of the Canyon is the Andean Condor bird which lives there. 


Our excursion began at the ungodly time of 2:30am when we were picked up by the tour bus. Predictably we all fell asleep until our first stop which was 4,900 metres above sea level in snow capped mountains! It was freezing, but enjoyable scrambling around in the snow taking pictures. 

Snow!

Our chauffeurs await...

Rather amusingly two of my fellow travellers - Rory and James - were wearing similar llama print jumpers to me so of course we had to capture the Kodak moment!

Jumper brothers from other mothers...

After driving down many winding, often landslide hit roads we eventually reached the town of Chivay where we ate breakfast before setting off to the Canyon itself. The scenery was stunning. There were masses of terraces which had been cut into the hills by the Incas which made for some great pics. 

We imagined the small square of water in the middle of the pic was an Incan swimming pool...

We were dropped off half way through the canyon, stopping to pap at a girl who was posing with a hawk and a llama, and then started walking towards the Cruz del Condor area where the Condor birds are known to circulate.

We gave her some pesos for this pic

We must have been there not even twenty minutes before we saw our first bird soaring beneath us in the canyon. It was HUGE! We couldn't believe our luck at having seen one so quickly - I had been warned that sometimes you can go hours without seeing any. It was then that we turned around and glanced back at the field behind us to see the locals had just carted a dead donkey into the middle of the field to act as a lure. Eeeeewww (aawwww)

Cruising on by...

Drop the dead donkey

Mr Condor in all his glory