Tag 40-42 - Puno

On Sunday morning we drove from Arequipa to Puno by bus. Besides looking for a hostel and eating, we didn't do much else. The first impression was, as most people had already announced, rather unpleasant. It stinks and is very dirty, but we are the only tourists, which is a nice change.

On the next day, we took a trip to the floating islands of Uros in Lake Titicaca. During the boat ride, there was a surface of dense seaweed on both sides of the boat, so it felt like driving on a road to the islands. There were even some traffic signs along the way.

Eventually, we arrived at a large open water area, where there were hundreds of small islands with around ten cottages each.

The islands are made of the seaweed that grows everywhere on the water, and their top layer is constantly renewed so that they don't sink, as the grass slowly dissolves from below.

In addition, the islands are anchored to the bottom to prevent them from drifting away during high tide and suddenly ending up in Bolivia or somewhere else. When walking on the grass-covered ground of the floating islands, they feel much firmer than I initially expected, although some of them sway slightly with the waves.

In the evening, we went to a cute cinema that we discovered yesterday. There are many small mini-rooms, each with a sofa and a large TV, that can only fit a few people. For less than one euro, you could choose a movie there, we should have something like that at home too.

On Monday morning, we continued to Copacabana, crossing the border to Bolivia. At first, I thought that the five of us would always need two taxis, but we managed to fit all of our five large and four small backpacks into one taxi.

Peru was really beautiful and I can't imagine much about Bolivia yet. All I have heard so far is that the people are supposed to be unfriendly and that the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca is much more beautiful. We'll see what awaits us.

~Lenja