Disneyworld in Peru

Disney would be proud of Puno Peru…. sort of. We arrived down at the pier in Puno at 8:30 a.m. to set off to see Lake Titicaca, famous for being the highest navigable waterway in the world. So off we ventured to the pier where there where hundreds of boats waiting to take the next batch of tourist to Uros, the famous reed floating islands on Lake Titicaca. Off we went with 16 other tourists armed with warm clothes and our cameras. As they pushed and poled the boat away from the pier….we thought that was not a good sign and we were wondering if we had to row our way to the islands but they soon started the engine with a big puff of blue, black and white smoke, nope the boat wasn’t named Sleepy or Dopey but it could have been name Smoky. Mark and Cheryl climbed up onto the roof of the boat to get a better view of the traffic jam of boats heading to the reed islands. As all the boats formed a single file though the canal, it looked like they were being pulled on an underwater cable. As we headed toward the islands yup we passed through a ticket booth where the first mate threw a roll of coins at what we guess was the toll collector, of course dressed in traditional Peruvian attire. We have paid the toll and now we really have entered Disney World.
There where over 50 floating reed islands complete with men, women and children beckoning you to come to their island. As each boat pulled up to their respective reed island we were greeted with a big smile and a little song from the women (We sort of were waiting for them to break out into the song “IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL”). We were led to a seat made of reeds to learn about the people and how to make a reed island, it was good thing that there wasn’t a test as we know for sure we would have wet feet trying. After our lesson we were separated into small groups and shown by an island family their home and of course some of their local treasures of which were all available for a “good price”. Cheryl wandered around and looked into some of the homes that were not on our tour looking to find their food stash or even their cooking stuff, but no luck. It appears that they don’t live there; they probably have a place on the mainland and just commute to the island to entertain the tourists. For $5 US a person you could get a ride in the luxury reed boats (they called it Mercedes Benz as it has 2 pontoons) but being cheap we opted to stay put and wait for our “Smoky” boat. We hopped on “Smoky”, and headed to another island called Taquile, this time the island was made of rocks but had 500 steps to climb in order to get to the town square…okay this is the training part of the trip for our hike up to Machu Picchu. As we climbed up the 500 steps to the top of the hill to see the ceremonial dances, have a great local fish lunch (apparently some of the trout in Lake Titicaca came from Canada around 80 years ago) and of course look at more “most buy” souvenirs we met up with 2 Kiwis (Karen and Harry) who hopped on our old boat “Smokey” and we struck up a friendship instantly with plans to meet up in Cusco Peru and New Zealand when we get over there. As we left Lake Titicaca what can we was say, it was a must see, an opportunity to try to understand their way of life and to realize that it was the Spanish who drove them off the main land and to build the floating islands. As for building a floating reed island, maybe, but we think we will stick to floating on our boats instead.
So what do you do in Puno besides visiting islands in Lake Titicaca? Being sailors you go and visit an old steamship called Yavari built in 1862. This beautifully restored steamship, was brought in pieces over land from Arica Chile by donkey and man power which took 6 years to do and then reassembled on the Lake were it sailed around for over 150 years and now it is a B&B. The brass is so shiny you can see yourself and you can tell that tender loving hands have been hard at work. Now that Mark has his new watch cap (with Yavari ensign on the front) he said his life is complete!
Next on your Puno tour, you go to some pre-Inka and Inka graves, rather funeral towers, in Silluastani and listen to the ancient spirits in the winds. The towers were built on high ground, so that the spirits would be closer to heaven. You could almost hear them talk to you, but we are not sure what they are saying as we don’t speak their language. The towers were a minimum of 500 years old and still in amazing shape. On the way back we stopped at a local farmstead and had a tour of their home, plus had the opportunity to try several local dishes: fried corn, fresh made cheese and potatoes dipped in a clay ‘Ketchup’ made from silt at the bottom of the river (Heinz you don’t not need to worry!). It was amazing how warm the adobe homes were, but we would still love a good electric heater!
And just for fun you go and watch a local Alpaca wool spin-off. What is a spin-off, well you start off by taking a handful of Coca leaves (the leaves you and the locals chew to prevent altitude sickness) and start chewing, and then you take your pile of Alpaca wool and wrap it around your arm and then test your wooden spinner. The rules are simple; you must spin the raw wool into a thin tread in 20 minutes. The winner is the one with the right thickness and the most tread on their spinner. Simple? Yes….well we picked our favorite right from start and we think she won but Mark had had so much excitement watching we had to leave before the winner was crowned. Between chewing and spinning the contestants worked up a thirst so they all received a free bottle of coke which by the way, originally had Coca leaves it, but Coke stopped using the leaves a number of years ago as the leaves have .4% cocaine in them. This tidbit was learned at the Coca museum in Puno where we had the opportunity to learn all the things Coca is good for besides a cocaine buzz like altitude sickness, circulation and stomach problems.
In Puno we stayed at Vargas Inn the first three nights, as Edison’s cousin owned it. That was a mistake, it was not clean and it was cold. They ran out of diesel, so we couldn’t even have a hot shower. Mark and Deb couldn’t even get towels. We tried 3 heaters the first night, the first didn’t work, the second went up in smoke, but the third was just right! All for 70 Soles a night, $25US. Next we moved to Posada Luna Azul, which was lovely and only 80 Soles a night $27 a night. We had a clean, large room with a heater, hot showers, rooms cleaned each day and Raul to help us plan our days.
Puno has some exceptional restaurants and as we did not have cooking in either hotel, we tried many of them. We had pizza (of course) and the fixed menus, often including Alpaca. But most memorable was the restaurant Colours. Colours had a beautiful Greek salad, were they made their own feta and an amazing beef dish with mushrooms and a balsamic vinegar sauce. We ate there twice, Deb, Cheryl and Karen all ordered the beef the second time, on Cheryl’s suggestion.
Mark determined the price of the restaurants by the price of ‘the girls’ wine! And then it was obvious that a bottle was cheaper than buying by the glass, so we bought by the bottle. Someone had to do it!
Cheryl was sick, so Deb and I followed Mark to the Dreyer museum, not our best plan. The sign for the museum was only visible if you walked backwards, so we climbed hill and dale before we made it. It did mean that we said “hello’ to the 9th Inka King whose statue overlooks the city. The highlight of the museum would be the mommies, preserved in the fetal position (which Cheryl says is because they are so stooped from carrying too much weight) but experts says is because they are waiting to be reborn in the next life. We also got to see a display of pottery from various pre-Inka Indians showing a variety of patterns and styles used by different tribes.
Well it time to head to the next adventure, Cusco. This time we are taking a tour type bus for 10 hours with 5 tourist stops along the way to Cusco… yes to see more Inka ruins and a few churches.