Finally the time came to leave Lima (temporarily) to go and explore Bolivia. I had a flight booked to San Francisco en route to the Philippines from Lima at the end of March and Bolivia was one of the countries that was very high in my list to see. Seeing as I had been up and down Peru in a random squiggly way there was little that I hadn't seen yet so I reluctantly booked a 23hr bus from Lima straight down to Puno, the town on the Peruvian side of lake Titicaca towards the border to Bolivia.
After a surprisingly comfortable and even more surprisingly timely bus journey to Puno I arrived 23hrs after I set off from hot Lima. I checked into the aptly named 'cozy' hostel and feeling a bit disorientated I went for a wander around the small town of Puno. Puno is a traditional little town with the standard 'plaza de Armani's' complete with church, small town square and official town buildings. There were numerous tour agencies for arranging visiting the islands on the lake, a big supermarket (and surprisingly modern cinema) and a big local market.
I booked a day trip to the famous Reed floating Uro islands and Taquille island through the hostel for $19 to leave the next day. Taquile island is inhabited by roughly 2000 people and is less visited than the floating islands. I had heard the floating islands were a must see but very touristy so seeing a slightly less visited island sounded good. Taquile island Is about 45km offshore from Puno highest point of the island is 4050m. The islanders mainly speak Quechua and Spanish. There was a group of us going from the hostel and we got picked up from the hostel and brought the ten minutes drive down to the dock. It was a cold and rainy morning but thankfully after the three hour boat ride to Taquile it had slightly brightened up. We traipsed up the steep hill up to the main square of the island. It was difficult to get my head around the fact that the lake is the highest navigable lake in the world and therefore I decided that the reason I was struggling up the hill was the altitude and not my lack of fitness! The main square was very basic but had lovely (slightly rainy) views over the lake. We then had a beautiful thirty minute walk to a local families house over looking the lake for our traditional lunch of quinoa soup and bread, fresh rainbow trout from the lake and Muña tea which is thought to be good for digestion. I haven't looked up the evidence base for this but they use this leaf instead of coca leaves as they do not grow on the island. I wasn't overly keen on the Muña...think I'll stick to my coffee! We stopped along the way for our guide, Juan to show us the Cantata flower, the national flower of Peru.
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| Rainy plaza de Armais, Taquile |
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| Traditional island meal |
After lunch we watched the family show us how to make soap with the Chukjo plant as well as how they weave their intricate belts and clothes. One belt takes a woman two months to weave! After lunch we set off the two hour journey to the floating reed islands, thankfully the sun was now shining so we were able to sit on the roof of the boat and enjoy the views and the sun (my nose is getting progressively redder...factor 50 all the way)! The reed islands were very impressive, we spent about forty minutes on the small island that has three small huts that house fifteen people. Thomas, the president of the island took us out on a large reed boat, cutting us reeds from the lake, peeling them back and giving us them to eat! Right! We dubiously took a munch of one and was surprised to really like it....tasting like cucumber/melon! After a brief demonstration of how they make the islands and the crafts they make we set back on the boat before more rain came and had a quiet night before setting off the next morning with three English girls from my hostel to make our way to Bolivia! The whole day cost $17 including our massive lunch and I really enjoyed seeing Taquile island.
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| Uros islands |
At 7am the next morning we took a bus to make our way to Bolivia, the twelfth country on my trip and unfortunately the last on my South American adventure! The bus would take us the whole way over the Peruvian/Bolivian border to La Paz. After three hours on the bus we crossed the wet border, queuing to get our exit stamp from Peru and then walking a few hundreds yards to the Bolivian immigration office. The bus company titicaca gave us all the forms to fill in for entry to Bolivia so it was straight forward once we got there. The Bolivian immigration office was hilarious, with balloons, bunting and flags littered all over the tiny office. A lot different to the Peruvian office with its white walls and strict officers hushing us whenever we talked in line....it was like being back in school. After entering Bolivia we had an hour in the small town called Copacabana on Lake Titicaca, I had decided to skip it due to time. On reflection I was a bit gutted that I wasn't hanging around for a night. Yes it was very touristy with burger and pizza restaurants lining the streets by the lake. However we walked up away from the lake and found the most beautiful mosaic church with a huge courtyard. We kept on walking and found the local market, and a big hall with numerous food stalls manned by local women offering extremely cheap fresh lake trout! Unfortunately we were running out of time so we regretfully headed buck to our bus for the four hour bus journey to La Paz. This included a very interesting journey across the lake where we had to get off the bus and take a small passenger boat across the lake for 2 Bolivianos (about 30c) with the bus coming behind us in a ramshackle wooden structured boat. The drive from lake titicaca to La Paz was stunning with winding roads around the lake and then snow covered mountains as we entered La Paz from above. The sheer size of La Paz surprised us and we got to the busy city centre at 5pm (skipping an hour ahead for the time difference)! The day we arrived was international Women's day and it was good to see a big parade taking place through the city (much to our taxi drivers frustration). We checked into Wild rover hostel (yep it's a party hostel) but it was an easy option for leaving no our luggage for the salt flat tour we we're hoping to plan!
Next Stop: La Paz - Uyuni, Bolivia
Stayed: Cozy Hostel, Puno. $10 for dorm
Food/drinks: cooked in the hostel. Fresh rainbow trout and Quinoa soup on Taquile island
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