The last weekend in March, was my last weekend that I had had open. The rest of my time in Perú I had something happening each weekend. One of the places I hadn’t visited was Puno which is home to Lake Titicaca. I decided that if I wanted to go, this was the time to do it. I began researching how to go about having a Lake Titicaca experience and stumbled across a company called Peru Hop. Peru Hop does tour packages all over Peru for a very affordable price. I got some of my friends on board with the idea of going and we ended up booking a weekend tour the day before we left for $89 USD. That included everything minus our first breakfast and last dinner.
We met at the Peru Hop terminal the next day around 9 to get on an overnight bus to Puno. We were shocked when we climbed on the bus and saw how nice the interior was! The bus had semi-beds, meaning they reclined pretty far as well as had a leg rest. There were chargers for your phone and when they started the bus, air conditioning kicked on. Air conditioning might seem like a pretty basic thing to be in a vehicle, but for anyone who has left the United States knows that AC is a hard commodity to find.
I slept okay that night, I wouldn’t say I slept bad, but I didn’t sleep great either. I slept as one would on a bus. We arrived in Puno around 6:00 in the morning and had breakfast at the hostel the bus dropped us off at. We waited for our tour van until around 7:45. We drove around Puno, picking up various people at different hostels. We then arrived at the dock and got onto a small passenger boat and set out for our first stop, Uros.
We drove for about 45 minutes until we reached our first stop at the Uros floating islands. These islands were incredible. They are made out of reed that the people pile up on the island to remain afloat. They also have built little huts on the island that they live in. They explained to us a little about their culture on the islands, how they live, and gave us a little tour.
After we got back on the boat for a 4 hour bus ride to the next island called Taquile. Once we arrived to the island we were met by our host family for the night. M’Kala, Cara, and I followed our host mom for the night up the island to her home. This was a very different experience from what I had imagined. I still don’t know how I felt about it. Our host mom didn’t really talk with us much. I’m not sure if she was just tired, but she wasn’t very talkative. She was nice, but didn’t seem interested in talking with us.
Once we arrived, she showed us to our room which had a very nice view of the Lake. After we got settled we went downstairs for lunch. We had two potatoes, choclo (corn on the cob), cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, and quinoa soup. This is a common meal eaten on the island. It was very simple, but really good. After our lunch we took our third nap of the day (overnight buses can be a killer).
After we woke up, we met the rest of our tour group in the plaza to hike up to the top of the island to the Pachamama temple (mother earth). The pathways on the island our crazy steep which made this short little hike to the top of the island a brutal one. Plus hiking at 13,000 feet doesn’t help. Once we got to the top of the island we had a beautiful 360 view of the lake and were also able to see Bolivia in the distance. We took some pictures and enjoyed the view for a while before heading back down for dinner.
Once we got back from the hike, our host mom was nowhere to be found. It was also very dark. We ended up going back to our room and waited for almost an hour when we heard a knock on the door. We opened it up to find a little boy greeting us. We had no idea who he was, but he showed us to another part of the house where we found the kitchen and a small dining table. We soon found out that he was our host mom’s son. We spent most of the dinner talking with her VERY talkative son. Complete opposite from his mother. After dinner, the island threw a party for all the tourists on the island. Our host mom dressed us up in traditional clothing and took us to the island’s “rec center” for the dance. It was quite a sight to see all of us gringos dressed up in flowing dresses and ponchos. The dance consisted of all of us holding hands and going around in a circle with an occasional twirl. Our host mom was pretty tired and went and sat down, so Cara and I decided to do some freestyle to the live band playing. Shortly after busting some moves, our host mom got back up and danced with us again. Clearly freestyle isn’t as welcome. Although it was a fun experience, we didn’t stay for very long. It had been a long day.
The next morning, we had to be down at the dock at 7 AM. We woke up and ate breakfast that our host mom had left out for us; however, she was nowhere to be seen. We decided to head down to the dock so we weren’t late. As we were walking, we noticed that everyone was walking with their host families. We kind of felt bad that we had ditched our host mom; however, we hadn’t even seen her that morning. She ended up showing up at the dock about 10 minutes after we arrived. We went and said goodbye and thanks for hosting us. It was kind of an awkward goodbye.
We then headed out to Amantaní island which took about an hour to get to. In the morning we did a little hike to the top of the island where we saw some ruins and the old port and then all met in the plaza. Once everyone made it to the plaza, we walked to the other side of the island where we had some amazing trout at a restaurant by the shore. After we ate some locals taught us about some customs on the island. Knitting is a very popular job for men on the island. Boys are taught to knit around the age of 6. The men handcraft beautiful colorful hats that signify martial and social status on the island. The local described it as a real-life Tinder. Depending on the way the hat is worn determines if the person is single, taken, or engaged. Once they are married, then the hat is switched out for a different hat. The local also did a demonstration of how they make their own shampoo on the island from a cactus.
It was 4 hours back to Puno, but we spent most of it on top of the boat talking and enjoying the sun. Once we got dropped back off at the hostel we all rested in the lobby for a while. We met some people who were also studying Spanish in Cusco at another institute and one of them was currently living in Utah! It’s crazy how small of a world it is. We decided to all go out and explore the city and get some dinner. We ate at this cute little restaurant that was a blast from the past. Once I walked through the doors it felt like you had been transported to your grandma’s house in the 70s.
After dinner, we went and bought some snacks and got some ice cream. We met back at the hostel and waited for about an hour for Peru Hop to pick us up. The bus was super full and because there was only three of us, I ended up having to sit by a stranger for the first part of the trip. None of us really slept at all the way back. We got back to Cusco around 5 AM where they arranged taxis to take us to our accommodations. I took a power nap before having to get up for the day two hours later.
For being a last-minute trip, everything went smoothly. If you’re looking to get out of Cusco for a weekend, Puno is the place to go. I would especially recommend going with Peru Hop. $89 USD is a great deal for everything that was included. They also are very organized and make sure you get where you need to go.
¡Tengas un buen día!
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