Apr 28, 2010 - Highest Lake in the World

We arrived in Puno which is the main town on the Peruvian lakeside of Lake Titicaca which is a pretty small town but the mainland where everyone from the islands gets their supplies. We only spent a night here but that was long enough to experience a Peruvian bikini wax – the oddest experience of my life – enough said!! The only other main experience from here was the taxi/tuc tuc ride from the hotel to the harbour area which was great fun – our driver was a lunatic, and we won the race! Lake Titicaca straddles both Peru and Bolivia and is...

Apr 18, 2010 - Amantani Island

Explored Lake Titikaka. Stopped at Taquile Island for a couple of hours and then went to Amantani Island for a home stay. Stayed with a local family in their home no electricity or gas. They cook with a wood fire. They spoke a little English and Spanish. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Mar 2, 2010 - Islas Flotantes and Isla Taquile

Today I did a day trip to some of the islands of the Titicaca lake. Well until 5am I was sure I would not go there because I felt terrible ill. But after some load of aspirine I could finally go there. First we visited to Floating islands located very close to Puno. They are built only by using Totora - a plant growing on the shores of the lake. The people there has a very simple life, but I was kind of shocked how touristical this is - not my style. After two hours more boatride we arrived to the island of Taquile, thats a natural island...

Mar 1, 2010 - Puno

Puno, what to say about it.... This city is on the shores of the Ticicaca lake and its called the cultural capital of Peru. They tend to have a lot of parties here during the year.... At 3800 meters its quiet difficult to breath, you need to get used to it. And its very cold, especially during the night, whereas during the day the sun is so intense it burns you. But, except the nice view to the lake, the city is quiet boring I think. So I went for a trip to Sillustani. This place on the shores of the Umayo lake was used by the tribe of the...

Feb 28, 2010 - Travelling to Puno

After many days in Cuzco I decided to go to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. You can do that by taking a bus service that takes you around eight hours, but takes several stops along the way there. So you can combine your trip with seeing some interesting places. In Andahuaylillas you can visit a very nice decorated church from the jesuits. Its often compared with the sixtin chapel at the vatican, and indeed it is full with paintings, painted walls and roof and lot of golden decoration. You can also see the difference between artwork...

Feb 23, 2010 - Coucher de soleil sur le Lac Titicaca

Cuzco-Puno, on le fait en bus version touristique. Le bus est censé partir à 8h, faire quatre arrêts dans des sites historiques pour nous déposer à Puno à 17h. Nous: arrivée à l'agence à 7h. Le bus: arrivée à l'agence à 8h30. Après les mauvaises excuses pour justifier ce retard, on constate que le bus ne correspond pas du tout à la photo du prospectus. Une demie heure de négociations suffit pour avoir un dédommagement discrètement dans un coin du bureau, seulement pour nous 4 et 2 Australiens. Une église dorée, un site incas, des sculptures...

Feb 4, 2010 - Largo Titikaka - Home Stay

After an interesting few days in Cusco, I was hoping for a relaxing few days in Puno and on Lake Titicaca. However on a GAP tour, relaxing isn’t the norm. We left for Puno on Tuesday, taking a night bus in the day on a 6 and a half hour journey. Compared to a normal day bus, night buses are luxury; reclining seats, waitress service, a toilet on board etc… Arriving in Puno I was taken aback by the beauty of the lake. Crystal clear waters stretching for miles, surrounded by the Andes and snowy peaked mountains. Puno itself is small, it is a...

Dec 20, 2009 - Champions of the Inca Trail

Hola mi amigos! Como estas? We are now one week in to our travels, and we have picked up a little more Spanish than when we left. Hand gestures often come in handy, and occasionally you just point to something on the menu and hope it isn´t guinea pig. Or dog. (We just came from a restaurant that actually had dog on the menu. I didn´t eat the wontons.) Anywho, we had 24 hours in transit and finally arrived in Cusco last Saturday. No one will be surpirsed to know that even though we had an entire year to prep for this trip, I did not finish...

Oct 3, 2009 - Arequipa to Puno

October 3rd, 2009. We awoke just before 6am to the terrifying sound of gunfire and the rumble of what sounded like tanks on the cobbled streets of Arequipa. We lay awake for several minutes listening to the gunfire getting louder and louder and hence closer and closer until the door of our hostel rattled, forcing us to jump out of our beds and hide in our little bathroom. After waiting for the sound to pass, we eventually ventured out and onto the terrace to see the dust that had filled the morning air. After the morning haze had lifted...

Oct 1, 2009 - Lake Titicaca, Puno, Peru

We took a tour from Cusco down to Puno, which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Along the way we stopped at a few places but highlights were a church in a little village called Andahuaylillas, which although it looked like nothing special from the outside, it was the most amazingly decorative and ornate church I've ever seen on the inside! It was originally an Inca temple but when the Spanish came along they turned it into the most amazing church, with the help of a lot of gold leaf, to help convert people to Catholicism. I wish I could...

Sep 30, 2009 - Lake Titicaca

Today we have devoted the full day cruising and visiting islands on Lake Titicaca. I have always wanted to visit the lake because of its cute name, and we eventually found out that it means Cat Stone. Also, the idea of visiting the floating islands - people living on man-made islands made by straws, always sounds very interesting to me. The day started very early and we have got picked up at our hotel at 6.45. However, due to the thinness of the curtain, I managed to wake up more than an hour before that and started packing our day bags...

Sep 29, 2009 - Arriving at Puno at 3860m above sea level

We have today made our way to Puno. The majority of the day has been spent reading and sleeping on the bus. We got up at quarter past six in the morning and put all our stuff into our bags. One hour later we were finished packing, fully dressed and had eaten our breakfast. We caught a taxi to the bus terminal in Cusco and arrived there shortly before quarter to seven. We managed to share a taxi with two other people that were traveling to Puno as well. To our great amazement, no one of them seemed to speak any Spanish and the taxi driver...