Today, Friday, we've 35 kilometers to reach Puno, it won't take long. We ride along the bay of Puno. We arrive early, around 10:30 in the morning. We should have a warmshower.
In fact, it's more like a good hotel plan than a warmshower. In the back of a hotel, a small shabby room is available to "campers" for free. You then have to pay 5 soles for the shower (about 1.20 euros). We take two nights of this good deal, and go off in search of an excursion to visit some of the Lake Titicaca islands. After a little negotiation (we are becoming stronger at this game), we pay a day trip to our hotel to visit the Uros islands,
and Taquile island on Saturday.
On Saturday, we get up early, the taxi takes us at 7AM to take us to the port. Very quickly, we arrive on the islands of Uros. These are floating islands, made of reeds. The guide explains us the construction of these islands, which is quite interesting. The very touristy side is rather heavy. the
women who makes us visit are jaded, and the guide forces them to do some
things that are not natural, such as showing us their clothes, or
singing. In short, a little discomfort settles, and despite the surprise of these islands, we are happy to head to Taquile.
After two hours by boat, we arrive there. It's very beautiful with its terraces. To get to the top of the island, the guide offers a kind of "nose tip" to better support altitude and lack of oxygen. We've became a little proud on this subject, we're the only ones of our boat not to want it. But nothing serious, we're the first at the top. With our more than two months at high altitude, we feel much less the effects, but we must recognize that we had to catch our breath, while when we ride at 4000m, we have no problem. The height gain makes the island even more beautiful. The weather is nice, it doesn't detract from the charm of its small houses, and its paths beautiful and brand new. We eat a good trout, before taking the boat. The weather is bad and when we arrive in Puno, it rains and it's night time.
