Puno

Crossing the border from Bolivia to Peru, the signs of rioting remained evident. Many of the shops were closed and the road was covered in parts by large rocks and the remnants of fires. Luckily for us however, the upcoming Peruvian elections had resulted in a short break in protests and we made it to Puno uninterrupted.

Although Puno was only really a brief stop on the way to Arequipa, we decided that we may as well check out the floating islands of the Uros people whilst there. The Islas del Uros are made of totora reeds and literally float on Lake Titicaca. Originally, it is believed that the Uros people reached Lake Titicaca from the Amazon and settled on the shores of the lake before coming under increasing pressure and attack from the expanding Inca empire. In order to avoid the Inca, the Uros people took to the lakes and have continued living there to date. Unfortunately however, it is difficult to view the islands today as anything other than a bit of a tourist gimic. There was little to no evidence of the fishing industry which is supposedly the main stay of the Uros tribespeople and far too much evidence of the islands being nothing more than a floating market where the local people sold pretty much all of the same dross available at every other market in South America. On the bright side however, it was a lovely day and Crystal and I got a solid hour of soaking up the rays before taking our boat back to the main land.

As there was little else to do in Puno - although the band accompanied election parades were entertaining - we booked our bus to Arequipa and continued on our merry way.