Panting in Puno

Friday, September 19, 2014
Puno, Peru
Yesterday we left Magda's and flew to Puno, Peru. It is on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world and the largest in South America. The only problem is, we are at 12,300 feet and there is no oxygen up here. This is the highest we've ever been, and I think it will be the last time we go this high.

We flew into Juliaca, the closest airport and then took about an hour drive to Puno, arriving about 10:00 p.m. We walked to the main street a couple blocks away, ate, and huffed and puffed back to our room. We didn't sleep much - the altitude. This morning I took some medicine and we drank several cups of coca tea and we are better. Still walking around is done very very slowly. Yes coca tea is made from coca leaves, but it is only a dangerous drug when the coca leaves are processed into cocaine. Coca tea for some reason helps with the effects of altitude.













 
The most interesting thing here is the lake and the floating islands. We're going there tomorrow so more about that later. Today we walked partway down to the port and took a mototaxi the rest of the way, and another back to the hotel. Of course from the port everything is up hill which is even harder to do than downhill.  
 



 
For lunch we had alpaca steak and lake trout - very good. Marrrrgarita, they do serve cuy (guinnea pig) here in many of the restaurants, but we haven't had any yet. Here is the closest I will probably get to a cuy in Peru.
 



































 
Puno was founded in the 1600s because silver was discovered nearby. After the silver dried up, the only reason Puno thrives today is because of the lake and tourism. The guide book says "Few colonial buildings remain, but the streets are merrily claustrophobic and the markets filled with local women garbed in many-layered dresses and bowler hats. Even though it is winter, and we are very high in the mountains, still in the daytime it's nice out. We wore a couple of layers, but soon we had ditched the scarves and jackets. It's cooler at night and on the Lake tomorrow it will be cooler because of the breeze.
 
 
 

 




















 

 
Most of the people here are altiplano indians, the remnants of the Incas, although the original indiginous people were Aymara speaking Uros. Due to intermarriage there are few pure blooded Uros left, so here we hear Spanish, Aymara and Quechua spoken.  
 
 
 
 
















 
Lake Titicaca is on the border between Peru and Bolivia. We asked about tours that take might take us to Bolivia - a new stamp for my passport - but we were told that the US and Bolivia, for some reason, are having a spat, so if US citizens want to go to Bolivia, we must get a visa and stay overnight at least one night, and the visa is $250 each. Forget that. 

Yesterday before leaving for the airport, we stopped in a little coffee place in Miraflores. Look at the beautiful design they made with the cream.

Other Entries

Comments

2025-02-08

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank