PUNO: island hopping at 4.000 meters high

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I used a turist bus to go from Cuzco to Puno. The advantage of these buses is that they stop 3 or 4 times on the 400 km way for a guided visit to places like the Wiracocha temple and the Andahuaylillas church, plus a stop for lunch (buffet) on a nice location.

The drive itself was ok and the bus arrived ontime; what I missed completely was that Puno was celebrating "La Candelaria" and that my hotel reservation was not confirmed. It was Monday February 10th.

With the help of the bus agency and the tour guide I was finally able to find a hotel, not before walking around Puno for almost one hour. The whole city was closed for the big parade and taxis were of no help as they could not reach the city center. Good that I had a backpack and no trolley with me.

After check-in I dropped my stuff in the hotel and went out for dinner and some photos. I did't get very far and stayed with a group of very friendly Puno guys talking about the celebration, taking photos and drinking beer. It was midnight already and the parade seen to last for at least another 8 hours, I didn't wait to see its end.

On Tuesday I had booked a Lake boat tour to visit the Uros floating islands. The tour started at 6:30am and everybody in the van seem to have a headache.

After visiting Uros floating island we went to the Taquile island where we had lunch and spent the afternoon with a walk. The sunny view was very pretty; easy to forget we were at 4.000 meters above the sea level.

 

The tour was relaxing and the food was good. Just what everybody needed to recover from the celebrations the day before.