Puno

The morning after the trek we woke up before dawn to meet our bus to Puno. It was easier, although more expensive to get on the tourist bus and sleep all day. The bus made a few stops including an old 16th century church that is considered the ¨Sistine Chapel¨of the Americas.
Every surface was painted and sculpted. It was funny though because it was a mish mash of iconography; Incan stones and symbols, Islamic stars because of the spanish moorish influence, arabic tiles, italian tiles, paintings of saints peter and paul and Jesuit teachings.

Another stop was at Raqchi, an Incan site that has a huge 3 story structure that served as some sort of temple. There were large 10 foot in diameter columns and a complex of monastery buildings and round granaries. Otherwise the trip was nondescript. As we descened from Cuzco to Puno, the landscape changed from more rugged dry mountains to the harsh sunbleached highland plain. Puno is a Peruvian city on the north shore of Lake Titicaca, one of the highest lakes in the world. The elevation of Puno is around 12,500 feet. It was very cold with the chill off the lake. Our first day in Puno we went on the typical island tour. It was fun. We ran into some travellers we met on our trek and bus rides. The first stop was to the floating islands of Uros. The ¨native¨ people, who are very adjusted to tourism and commercialism, still live on islands made out of about 2 meters of reeds. Their houses and everything is made out of the reeds. Although it was touristy, this was neat to see. The second stop in the day was to Isla Taquille. This was less cool. We basically climbed up to the top, had lunch and walked down. The views though were pretty. The water is so clear and blue. It was like being out on the mediterranean except that the sun is blistering at this altitude.