Peru: Colourful like a Rainbow-4

Peru Travel Notes-4

Peru: Colourful like a Rainbow-4

PUNO

The bus departs from Cusco at 10.30 pm and arrive in Puno at 7 am on the next day. After checking in our hotel we have breakfast at hotel and go sightseeing without a break and delay.

Titicaca is a lake located on the border between Bolivia and Peru. While Quechua is spoken in Peruvian side, Aymara is spoken in Bolivian side. It is the biggest fresh water lake in South America, not counting Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. With its 8300 square kilometers, the Lake lies approximately 3.820 meters above sea level and it is the highest and commercially navigable lake in the World. It is put under protection with the title of Titicaca National Reserve in 1978.

Titicaca

We go to the floating island on Lake Titicaca, where Uros lived, by a tourist boat. Residents of the island, made from a kind of reed called totora, welcome us with their colourful clothes. They tell us about their lives on the island, accompanied with theatrical presentations and songs. And then we visit their houses. To see around the island, we get on a gondola which they call “Mercedes”.

It is believed that Inti, Sun God of the Incas, was born in this island. It is also narrated that Manco Capac, first known Inca king, and his wife are put by Inti on a rock, in the shape of cat’s head, on the island.

Amazing view of the Lake makes us calmer and peaceful, and also relieves our tiredness.

After returning, we start to walk around center of Puno. As typical as the other main squares in Peru, the main square of Puno is also called “Plaza de Armas”. Puno seems small but lovely to us, still preserving its locality.

Plaza de Armas, Puno

We have dinner at Mojsa Restaurant, with its Main Square view.