Puno is a city that has grown from its location as Peru´s city at the one end of Lake Titicaca. Traditionally a centre for agriculture, along with some mining activity, it is a main tourist attraction on the gringo trail which is mostly young backpackers along with the occasional should know better elder like myself. Still it is on the list and demands to be crossed off. The downtown mainfare is Lima Calle a lively pedestrian walkway of restaurants, souvenir and assorted nefarious clip joints. Street touts are everywhere. The restaurants are great to superb which is the main cause of our budget dysfunction. Its also rare to sit down here to eat without being entertain by buskers and I have to say the level of muscianship is a joy to listen to. Many youger troubadours are just playing guitar with a pan flute hooked up like a Dylan harmonica and playing with skill and passion. The larger bands have drums, guitars and a variety of flutes and a small stringed instruments that produce a full rich sound. Like the great cooks and fashion designs here the music stands on its own. We managed a couple of side trips here taking the boat ride out to the reed islands which was very disappointing because of the atmosphere in which they were being presented and then on out to the island of Taquile. Regardless you have to do the islands even if it is totally Disney. They will tell you they are living there but there was not a chance. The cooking areas were definitly not being used and I had a hard time keeping a straight face as an indian named Hector wearing a fedora and flashing a couple of gold teeth delivered his hard sell trying to guilt us into buying his wife´s tourist bling bling. The visit to Taquile made the whole trip worthwhile as we landed there for the end of St.James feast enjoying our own lunch after the somewhat strenous uphill climb followed by a then knee crunching down hill hike back to the boats. The boats I might add carrying 24 passengers each were comfortable but as watercraft totally sucked. The rudders are so short that control is a battle and our helmsman (cell phone glued to ear) kept over steering just avoiding two close collisions one of which was only avoided by the girls and I all yelling at him. One other interesting trip was an afternoon run out to Sillustani a pre-Inca ruin of burial Chullpas located on Lake Umayo. We had a great guide on this trip and also visited a local family who showed us their home in a walled compound of stone with adobe structures inside. We got to see the cooking methods and all the ingredients as well. One big highlight of the trip was a visit to the Yavari one of the worlds oldest iron ships and definitely the one on the highest lake in the world.
It has been lovingly restored by some brits and is fully functional.Finally after a week in Puno we elected to head for Cusco. We took the Inka Express bus because it offered 4 stops at archelogical sites. Unfortunately this turned out to be a cattle run with not only minimal time at each site but also where you jostled with the crowds from other buses. We arrived in Cusco as the evening dusk set in. Each bus station has its own stop and we were picked up and transfered by the Hostal that the girls had arranged.We had a full week to relax and explore before our Lares Valley trek.
to be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment