World Peru Puno Juliaca

Kathy and Melissa's Trip of a Lifetime!

Peru - Puno and Lake Titicaca Sep 8, 2004

We made it to Puno and spent one night celebrating Adrienne`s birthday. The next morning we got up very early and took bike taxis to the port where we were to board a boat for a three hour ride. The bike taxis were hysterical. They move in and out of traffic where there appears to be no regulatory signs asking for traffic to stop or yield the right of way. It`s all out with everyone honking horns to warn others what they plan to do next. Hysterical and frightening all in the same ride. Melissa and I had a near miss, but we arrived last at the harbor unscathed.

We boarded our boat and took a three hour ride to our first island on Lake Titicaca for lunch. They offered an omelette or fried chicken, that was the extent of the menu. After lunch we went for a short walk back to our boat and headed off to another island for our homestay.

Melissa and I were assigned to a family of a mother and father and their four daughters. The oldest daughter was 29 and married and leaved in another home. At the house where we stayed were the three other daughters (27, 19 photographed, and 14 year old). They spoke a little spanish so that helped, but not much. We spent the majority of the time staring at each other saying nothing. They were very nice and spent a lot of time making our dinner on a stove which required one of the daughters to keep feeding it with dry leaves. There was no electricity or running water.

That evening they dressed us all up in local attire and we made our way to the festival. They had two local bands which took turns playing songs that lasted a minimum of 15 minutes a piece. It was killer to say the least. I was exhausted after about an hour of dancing.

We got up early the next morning and headed off in our boat to the floating reed islands. Amazing!! They estimate there are about 60 reed islands with about 800 residents total. That appears to be declining every year as the young people got to Puno for an education and don`t want to return.

We spent another evening in Puno and then headed off for about 9 hours in either a bus or ferry and we have now arrived in La Paz, Bolivia for a couple of days of rest. Our tour guide, Simon, goes back home to Cusco now and we get a new tour guide for the remainder of the trip. That gives us time to get our laundry done, update our website, and rest to get ready for the next adventure.

Hope all is well at home, we are having a blast!!!