A Lake with Altitude

A Lake with Altitude
Puno, Peru

Puno, Peru

Leaving Cusco we had pre-booked a taxi to take us to the bus station to continue our journey to Puno, unfortunately our pre-booked taxi decided not to turn up and so our nice relaxed morning turned into a stressful wait in the road to hail a passing taxi, with a 15 minute fast and furious style journey through the streets of Cusco which got us to the bus station with just minutes to spare.

We had done our research on Peruvian buses and blog after blog recommended that Cruz del Sur were head and shoulders above the rest and for just a few dollars more we could book seats that reclined, with a free lunch and a personal seat back tv. The service was incredible, the driver and all the staff were breathalysed before being allowed on the bus and a video camera was thrust into our faces as evidence as to who was on the bus, I am assuming in case something bad happens. The journey was only about 5 hours to Puno through several smaller towns which were great to see; it was a shame the journey was not longer as this bus was so comfy, until the toilet decided to overflow and slosh pee down the aisle for the final hour.

In Puno we had pre-booked our accommodation and were delighted to find that it was a lovely little hostel just a few flat blocks walk from the main square. Puno is at an even higher altitude than Cusco, at just over 3,800 meters elevation. We had a third floor room here and thankfully the owners were thoughtful enough to put a sofa outside our room as after climbing three flights of stairs we had to collapse on the sofa before we could even think about the possibility of being able to work a key and open a door. You would think that after a week we would have started to adapt to altitude, but no, whilst we felt fine when we were not moving the second we had to carry anything or climb a single stair we were reduced to oxygen gasping messes.

The main attraction in Puno is the amazing Lake Titicaca, which lays partially here in Peru and there is an invisible line which places the other half in Bolivia. By volume of water it is the largest lake in South America and is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3, 812 meters. The drive into Puno down the hillside to the lake was absolutely beautiful and we could see several viewpoints and four large concrete statues of a Puma, a snake, a condor and an Inca. The Puma, Snake and Condor are all totems of Incan culture representing the earth the underworld and the sky. The Condor is the sky as it is the only bird strong enough to fly up to the heavens and is the master of the wind, clouds and sky. The Puma is the earth as it is strong and patient and the Snake is the Underworld which represents the greatness of construction as it is considered to be reborn each time it sheds its skin.

We managed to get our hostel to book us a taxi to drive us around the 4 different viewpoints rather than booking a tour so we could just do them in our own time. Our taxi driver was absolutely lovely although I think he thought we were a bit strange, he joined us on the walks to each of the sites which he found hysterical during the climb up about 200 stairs to the Condor which very nearly killed Tim and I. The views from each of these sights was absolutely fantastic and well worth the effort, although up close the Condor looked a bit more like a raggy chicken than an elegant condor, but lack of oxygen could well have clouded my opinion.

The following day we opted to join a tour to head over to the Uros Islands. Lake Titicaca has a population of people who live entirely on floating islands made of the Totora reeds that grow on the lake. Originally the reason for them building and living on such islands was so that they could move if a threat arose, most island still have a watch tower, however life on these island has now become more of a tourist attraction. We had read terrible reviews about visiting these island and nearly didn’t bother going, but they were absolutely incredible. Yes they are touristy as that is how they now survive, but to walk around a floating island made entirely of folded and layered reeds was awesome. Each tour boat goes to a different island each day and the family on the island will demonstrate how the island is made, how they make their various woven produce that they sell, how they hunt and then you are given a tour of their small huts and given some of their traditional clothes to wear for a photo. Walking around these islands is something of a skill as we soon discovered as we hobbled around like a pair of drunks, but it seems it is a steep learning curve as we watched a little toddler wonder around and fall flat on her face every 3 steps, you couldn’t help but laugh. After our introduction to the island we could pay a little more for a boat trip across the lake on one of the tradition reed boats which was well worth the few pound that it cost and afterwards we were rewarded with a hot cup of coca tea.

Coca Tea is drunk like water or Earl Grey here in Peru, it is made using dried coca leaves which you just steep in water. It is not the most delicious tea in the world but you don’t drink it for its flavour you drink it to help with the altitude or possibly for the nice little buzz that it gives you. The reason that you get a small buzz from coca tea is that the Alkaloids in the leaves are actually the base for making cocaine. The amount of alkaloid that you get in a cup of tea is minimal but coca leaves are illegal in the US and pretty much everywhere else outside of Peru & Boliva. It is quite funny how normal it is to see everyone walking around with their bag of coca leaves ready to chew or to make tea, apparently to ease altitude sickness. As it happens according to Wikipedia, no study has ever been undertaken to determine the effectiveness of coca tea on altitude, so it seems quite possible that all us innocent travellers are just dosing ourselves up on low levels of cocaine just for the sheer fun of it, you’ve gotta love South America.

Our final day in Puno, we had one last trip planned to visit the Sullistani funeral towers. These pre Inca ruins are on the shores of Lake Umayo. The tombs are built above the ground in tower like structures called Chullpas and were built by the Colla people who were conquered by the Incas in the 15^th Century. This site is considered to be the best and most well preserved Colla burial site with many different styles of Chullpa showing their progression from using rough uneven stones to perfectly cut and shaped blocks. The towers were built to hold several groups of people, most likely the elite of the society. The bodies were not intentionally mummified but the dry air and enclosed tombs meant that the bodies survived centuries. The only opening to the tombs face to the east, which is where the sun is reborn by Pachamama (Mother Earth) each day. The highlight of this tour was definitely getting to meet the cutest member of the cameloid family yet, a baby vicuna. It was quite lucky that by this point my Spanish knowledge had started to flood back as our guide kept forgetting to do the English translation or only translated about 10% of what he told the Spanish speakers, ha ha gotta love a multilingual tour.

Our time in Puno was over and like old people we were tucked up in bed by 7pm to avoid the cold, next it was onwards to Arequipa and thankfully down to just 2300 meters altitude for a bit of R&R.

Arequipa here we come!