After a few days of elementary recovering in Cusco, I'm back on the road to Puno and the Titicaca Lake. As soon as I arrived at the hostel I here a familiar voice: Alexa and Miron who did the Inca Trail with me are there too! It's nice to spend one more night with them. The next day we say goodbye to each other again, they are off to Bolivia while I'm going to visit the floating islands on the lake, islands made of dried reeds that float on the water and form a village where families live year round. There are more than 40 small islands, each with two to four families on them. The history says that these islands were invented about 500 years ago by the Aymara population to flee from the Incas who were invading the surroundings of the lake.
Because as fascinating and amazing architects as the Incas were, they weren't very nice when it came to colonize other civilizations that existed before them (they only arrived in 1400 and lasted about a hundred years until the Spanish came along...). The Incas spoke quechua, language still used nowadays by their descendants in Peru and Bolivia, but a lot of pre-Inca cultures by the Titicaca and in Bolivia were Aymara and spoke Aymara, language that subsists nowadays by their descendants around the lake and in Bolivia.
So here I go for three good hours on the highest sailable lake of the world, we are indeed at 3800 meters above sea level, the nights are freezing cold and during the day the sun is very hot and burns the skin in a heartbeat.
Coming back, after buying my bus ticket for the next day to Arequipa, I buy a few breads and watermelon in the street, for less than a euro. And to my biggest surprise this is the best bread I have ever eaten abroad. It is so good that I relate it here and ate all six of them at once, planning on buying more in the next morning, but I unfortunately will never find the selling lady again and their delicious taste will have to stay only a good memory. But at least I can enjoy a night for the price of a ten bed dorm but alone in it, as the hostel mysteriously emptied during the day!
An Inka tomb in front of a majestic scenery
The next day I have to go very early to visit Inca and Pre-Inca tomb ruins near by. Actually the Incas completely copied the tombs of the pre-Incas and with no shame made their own in the exact same site but making them the Inca way: bigger and better, making the ancient ones looking quite bad in comparison. The site is absolutely beautiful, above a big river, and I am lucky to be absolutely alone there to enjoy its peaceful quiet.
Last challenge to be able to leave Puno: going back to Puno from the archeological site ! I have to wait for an hypothetic bus that has no time schedule and the guardian tells me that he has no clue how long it could take for it to come. I wait a half hour, partly in the company of a sheep who came for cuddles, and I jump in the first taxi to show itself around. It costs me only 4 soles, same price as the bus so it's fine. What you need to know is that in Peru you need to talk the price of your taxi before getting on it and that you aren't always alone in it, the goal of the driver being to get as much money as possible for his ride. So I start in this taxi on my own and soon comes a young man up front, then a lady in traditional clothing and hat, with her long black braids and her colorful fabric around her shoulders, then a young lady, so we get a bit closer in the back and finally the driver gets out to open the trunk to a young man... Picturesque, I tell you !
After that I have to take a minibus for thirty minutes to Puno, squished in between five women in traditional clothing and a lot of Peruvian men. I have rarely felt so foreign!
I go fetch my backpack, take a 3 soles taxi, alone this time, and here I am leaving Puno, but I will see it again in about three weeks when will come the time to cross the Bolivian border.
(Still experiencing difficulties with my internet, I cannot provide more pictures nor better quality... Sorry!)
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