Journey to Puno – Inka Express
Another early start, 6,30am taxi, this time one when I was not feeling well. We booked the Inka Express to travel from Cusco to Puno. This was a journey of 10 hours with some tourist stops along the way . We had decided to use this bus rather than the regular bus to break the journey up. The bus was comfortable with drinks service and toilets but feeling ill made the whole journey uncomfortable. We stopped for lunch which Barrie had and I did manage a bit of bland rice but did not want to have too much. En route we also stopped at a high point 4300 meters where we could see snow covered mountains. The bus and Inka tours were good it was just unfortunate I was not able to really enjoy it.
Day 33 & 34 – Puno – Halloween
We arrived in Puno, on lake Titicaca at the bus station and got a taxi to our hotel. I had booked a reasonable quality hotel as we had heard there was not much to do at Puno and it was a basic place. As we drove in the taxi we could see the town was as had been expected a bit run down. Our hotel was the Royal Inn, which we had booked only for 2 nights as we were not sure of our next plans, had a welcoming and bright reception. We were given our key 419/SP4, it was not initially clear why it had 2 numbers but the lady said it would have SP4 on the door. When we arrived at our double room we soon realised it was a suite with sitting area, dining area, massive double bed and the biggest Jacuzzi bath we had ever seen. It was a bit dated but clean and spacious. Within a few minutes we made a decision to book an extra night !!
The Jacuzzi bath beckoned but it took a long time to work out how to fill it up and even longer to fill as it was so big. (No bubble bath this time Geoff and Karen!). After relaxing we decided to go to the restaurant for dinner to avoid having to look around the town. We were their only customers but the meal was tasty and the wine delicious. We were going to retire but then decided to pop out for a short walk and bit of fresh air, Barrie tested the temperature and decided to go get out coats. We walked down the street to find a carnival of activity for Halloween. It was like Purim in Israel, children and adults were all dressed up and there was dancing and music on the streets. We ambled around taking in the atmosphere and also popped into a tour office to find out about trips for the next few days. After a pleasant and relaxing evening we retired to our comfortable bed in our suite.
lost phone
The next morning we woke and got dressed and Barrie looked for his phone but could not find it, we went down for breakfast but Barrie quickly returned to the room to look for his phone. After methodically emptying everything out and searching in all bags we had to come to the conclusion after more than an hours, it was gone. We know that he had it the previous evening in the room and he did not intentionally take it out with him but it was possible that when he went to get his coat he did pick it up and put it in a pocket. The next hour was spent contacting organisations as needed to inform them and make sure finances were secure. Barrie was obviously feeling a bit down and I decided we needed to get out, so we put on coats and headed down towards the lake. It was a good decision as we were able to sit by the side of the lake watching birds and generally unwinding. After a lunch at a local restaurant we headed back towards our hotel to find ourselves in the local market that was full of colour and interesting produce. We had been told about the number of different varieties of potatoes, 4000, but this was the first time we were able to see first hand stalls full of different spuds!
Day trip
On Friday we joined a group tour of the floating Islands of Uros and Tequile island. This was a well organised and interesting day trip. We boarded our boat with mainly Spanish speakers and headed off first to Uros floating Islands. The Uros are a group of people who live on over 80 Islands of differing sizes that have been built out of reeds and a community of people, approx 2,500 live on these islands observing their own traditions and language. They even have junior school on the Islands. It was really interesting to see the islands and learn about the people who live there.
After the floating Islands we went on our boat to the Island of Taquile which was 1hr 20mins boat ride away. Here we were to have lunch in a local restaurant but no where on the tour information did it mention the climb to the top of the Island to get to the village. If I had an island I would put my village on the shore! The climb was very step and as we were already at high altitude every step was hard work. The main village square is at 3950m above sea level. It is had to explain the impact of altitude on you but this would have been a difficult climb in Derbyshire so here it was hell… We did finally made it and were able to look round the village and the knitted crafts, all done by men before being treated to a delicious lunch in the local restaurant. The residents of the island are know as Taquileños, speak their own language Puno Quechua. The whole island is run on a community basis and even has different dress codes for married and single people.
After our visit to Tequila, coming down was much easier than going up. we headed back to Puno and were dropped at our hotel. As it was our last night in Puno we found an excellent quality restaurant and enjoyed a nice meal and night out before out next journey.