Altiplano from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca

The trip from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca takes about 5 hours by bus, through some pretty dramatic geography. The Altiplano: the High Plains.  The kind of place you see on a National Geographic special.  I wanted to take two days for the trip, spending the night half way, but Stuart wanted to do it in one day.  We agreed that being able to stop along the way for some of the highlight would be great. A little investigation revealed a tour that would take about 8 hours and make four stops.  I instantly said, "No way!".  We bought the tickets the next day.  About 20 people boarded the bus, and I was prepared for the worst.  It was a good choice!  Our guide spoke spanish and very good english, gave us just enough history and explanation of the geography and sociology to make it interesting.  We stopped at four important ruins, and had a delicious lunch stop (included in the price!).  The last stop was for a museum of great importance and well-regarded among archeologists.

You know I'm interested in the history and sociology, but I'm also interested in the clothing.  Hats are vital in this part of the world, because of the intensity of the sun.  The women in the Altiplano wear this fabulous flat hat, made of wool, which I cautiously captured in the top photo.

The Altiplano was as dramatic as place as I've ever seen!  Dry, dry, dry.  We saw large herds of alpacas and vicunas, the only animals that can survive in the dryness, on the only festuca (grass) that will grow at that altitude and arid place.











  In the 8 hour trip, we passed precious few villages, and they were tiny.  Out here, there is no electricity, and the fuel for cooking was dried dung.  We saw women gathering the dried pies as we passed.
































We stopped, briefly at the high pass between Cuzco and Lake Titicaca.  Thankfully, we didn't stay but a few minutes. At more than 2 miles above sea level, we were again gasping for breath.  But, was the view spectacular!
















A Wari-era figurine.  The Waris lived in the area before the Incas, and apparently greatly influenced the Incas engineering and building skills.




















The town where the roof-top bulls began.  I'm writing this from memory now, as I'm in Mexico without my Peru notes, so this may get an update.  Probably not.




We arrived in Puno, the big town on the north shore of Lake Titicaca, and important in Incan history.  It's cold here.  We found a great hostel, but they had room for us for only one night.  The next day, needing a break from travel, we spent the day walking down to the lakeshore, and finding another hostel close by.

Of the two islands close to Puno, we decided to travel to Isla Taquile.  We walked to the ferry landing, and bought a round-trip ticket from a man who spoke very little spanish, and was dressed in what we knew to be the clothes of a married man from Taquile.  This is going to be good!  The loading system is great:  the boats tie up next to the pier, side by side.  See the photo with Stuart in the foreground.  I didn't figure out how the passengers were allotted, but we watched as people were directed to the correct boat.  You simply step across the stern of the boats until you get to the correct one!  Watch your step with the heavy load.  Each boat holds about 30 people.  As the boats fill, the inner one pulls away from the pier, and the first mates all help shift the boats to the pier.  There is a tremendous community effort here.  Impressive.  While there are some tourists, most of the people we traveled with were locals, heading back to the island.  More about the island in the next post.






This is the crocheted ornamentation above the captains chair in our boat.  It went all the way around  the interior of the cabin.  You know I want to make this to hang from the headliner of my car!