Climb up to Puno and Titicaca

Laguna Lagunillas, 4413 m, along road up to Puno andLake Titicaca.

On the road, again, pretty much recurring theme, lost time in Lima, must keep moving, Patagonia is my goal, not southern Peru. Headed out of Arequipa early, tried to miss some of the traffic, did not happen. After finally getting out of town, the climbing began, again. It was the 22nd of November, and I already felt like I was running out of time, I unfortunately would not have as much time as I might have liked around Lake Titicaca, simply no time, again. I already had to miss canyon country north and west of Arequipa, Colca and Cotahuasi Canyons, the deepest canyons in world; Colca Canyon is 10,440 feet (3182 m) deep. The climb this day would take us from just over 7,000 feet elevation in Arequipa to over 12,000 feet along the shores of Lake Titicaca, a huge lake high in the Andes. We climbed and climbed, and eventually into the altiplano, just beautiful landscape, even if stark and apparently lifeless. The road wandered up, and down, though mostly up, into the Andes, extinct volcanoes coming into view along the horizon, it was a beautiful drive, and the van again handled the gain in altitude like a pro.

Made it first into Juliaca, then headed east towards Puno. I stopped at a place called Sillustani, site of ancient burial towers overlooking Lake Umayo. This location to camp, turned out to be the first of many, and I mean many, places recommened on the app, iOverlander, just great, and an amazingling useful tool to help you find a place to camp, wild or in a campground. Sillustani was great, even if you are camping in a parking lot, at over 12,000 feet in elevation I might add (as I stuffed another wad of coca leaves into my mouth), as they have 24-hour security and a locked gate. Plus, Lake Umayo is very nice, and, there was a smaller lake, and wetland, along the road into Sillustani just below the ruins and the small village of vendors, a bar, etc., a lake where I saw my first flamingos, cool. I rarely felt safe camping in Peru, and never "wild camped", or just pulled off the road somewhere and stayed for the night. While in Peru, I was either in a hotel or hostel, in a place like Sillustani, or in a national park like Paracas. And as it turned out, even in Sillustani, I was harrassed by some strange dude at 8:30 pm, very annoying. The burial towers at Sillustani are old, some are believed to pre-date the Inca Empire, though the Colla people who built the towers did coincide with early periods of Inca dominance in Peru. I enjoyed two nights there, really loved sleeping in my van and not in a hotel. I explored parts of the shore of Lake Titicaca for a day, even went for a swim, short swim, interesting place. Then after two nights at Sillustani, I headed down the lake to Puno, big place scattered along the shore of Lake Titicaca, a medium-sized city at 12,556 feet (3,827 m) elevation. I managed to wander around town, narrow, really narrow one-way streets, to find Hotel Qelqatani, recommended by Fodor'sTravel Peru, one of the few places recommended that I could afford. Place family run, father, then son, very nice people, and really worked hard to make arrangements to cram my van into their off-street parking facility (when I left, backed into and crunched a rain gutter, sorry). Room was great, shower felt wonderful, and was a pretty short walk down to the lake, and even shorter walk to the main square (yes, another Plaza de Armas), with lots of shops and restaurants. Checked in, showered and headed for the plaza, needed a beer, or course, and something to eat. And very quickly, noticed the strangest thing, at least for me. They LOVE pizza in Puno, swear every other restaurant, and there were many restaurants, Puno all about tourism and Titicaca, served Pizza. What about trout, fish from the lake? Or maybe an alpaca burger? Seemed like all they want to eat in Puno is pizza, just strange to me, very strange (though did have pizza one of the two nights I was there, was excellent, very good pizza).

Titicaca is a huge, cold lake, one of the largest lakes in world based on surface area, but it is not that deep considering its size. The mean depth is only 25 feet (7.5 m), which is not deep. But, it is considered to be one of, if not the highest elevation lake which is navigable, at an altitude of 12,500 feet (3810 m). And it is cold, I swam it, I know; water temperatures stay very close to 38 degrees F all year around.

I had one full day in Puno, and I spent it as a total tourist, something I generally prefer not to do, and after what happened to me in Peru, cannot afford to do. I paid the S/.100 for an all-day trip out on the lake, first to the Islas Los Uros, and then to Taquile Island. Lunch was included for the S/.100, and it turned out to be fantastic. I got picked up early, and off for the docks, with about a thousand of other tourist heading out for 1/2 day, full-day cruises, or even overnight homestays on islands in Lake Titicaca. My group was small fortunately, and pretty fun, and included a woman from Mexico, an older couple from Australia, a mother-daughter from Paris, a fun British couple, a young woman from Columbia, and me, along with our guide. This seemed like a pretty typical mix of tourists, though we were missing someone from Holland, or maybe Germany. I met many, many people from the Netherlands, and many from Germany as well. We loaded onto our boat, which looked exactly like the other 127 boats all lashed together in one big raft in the harbor in Puno, and off we went. I always like a good boat ride, and it was nice to spend some time out on Titicaca, it was a nice day, sun, few clouds, no wind at that point, and while still a bit chilly as the boat chugged along, I enjoyed hanging out on the roof deck of the boat with a few of our party. It took an hour or so to get out to the Islas Los Uros, the series of floating islands found along part of the southern edge of Titicaca. The floating islands are made of totora reeds which grow only along the shallow south-western part of the lake. Who knows how long it takes to "make" an island, as they are surprising large, large enough for up to three families, and usually about 3 m think. We learned that the islands typically last up to 25 years, depending on how they are built, wind and waves and storms, etc. We visited only one island, for about an hour or so, which included a short ride on one of their traditional boats, also made of reeds (plus these days, a few hundred plastic bottles for added boyancy). The families do not get any money from the tour operators, they instead hope to sell you something, stuff which pretty much looks like all the stuff I have seen for sale to tourist all over Peru, from Lima to Cusco to Puno and Islas Los Uros. I bought something, felt like I had to, support these folks, their willingless to let us visit, and to keep their traditional way of life alive. Individual islands, families, only get visitors one day every two weeks, but, think they get four or five groups of tourist each day, and based on the size of the boats, you might have as many as 20 tourist in any one group. If everyone who visits buys something, then they are doing ok. Was an interesting place, even with the solar panels sticking up from at least one of the reed huts on the island.

We then headed off to Taquile Island, another place in Titicaca where the traditional culture has surived, in part because of tourism. They charge everyone who lands on the island S/.8, which is not much, but if you get a 300-400 tourist visiting on many days, they are making some real cash. And, you are not allowed to take their picture, unless they give you special permission. Their traditional dress is cool, very colorful, including guys who wear hats with balls on the end of a tassle. The traditional dress is not only colorful and interesting, but it is also informative. For example, married men where their hat different from unmarried men. We really did not spend much time here, walked up the hill to the central plaza, wandered through their craft shop, lots of woven, knitted things, before heading down to small outdoor patio for lunch. And lunch, it was great, grilled trout from the lake, rice, some veges, all washed down with a warm Cusquena. We all sat there in row, overlooking the lake, was a very enjoyable lunch. Then, if was back down to the boat for the long ride back to Puno. It was a long day, but enjoyable. I am not one for those touristy things, but guess it was worth it, would have never walked on a floating island otherwise. Plus, the people in the group were very nice, enjoyed the day. In many ways, this was my last day in Peru, at least as a tourist, as the next day, the two-day run for the border would begin. Enough of Peru, had been there entirely way too long, time to get into Chile, need another stamp in my passport.

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