Thursday, April 23, 2015

4th Post - Lake Titicaca and the Floating Islands

The wonders continue! This is a lot of photos for one post, but we have just seen and done so much it's hard to cut things out!
Wednesday we retraced our steps from Colca Canyon toward Arequipa over the high pass and then took the turn-off to Puno and Lake Titicaca. This time we stopped up at 16,000 feet elevation for photos. It's incredible to be able to drive to that elevation. There was new snow on all the high mountains from the night before so the drive to Lake Titicaca was spectacular!
Before arriving in Puno, we visited ancient Incan and pre-Incan tombs in Sillustani.
Thursday was a most colorful days, as we took a boat out to the floating islands of Uros and visited the people there. It's remarkable how they build their islands using compact blocks of reed roots, then place many layers of reeds on top of that. Their whole life is out in the middle of the lake.

New snow on the high Andes. This massif is the continental divide between the Amazon drainage going to the Atlantic, and the Colca drainage going to the Pacific. 

Our hardy group at 16,000 feet above sea level!

Mountain Panorama from the top of the pass

Volcano Sabancaya continues to spew steam.

Dave's watch shows the elevation...... 16,040 feet above sea level!

Picnic at a glorious spot above Lake Lagunillas

Lots of Tuk Tuks (moto-taxis) in Juliaca

Shepherd lady with her herd of alpaca

Ancient Incan tomb at Sillustani

Wendi above a beautiful vista at Sillustani

Valeta gets to hold a baby vicuna.

Heading out of Puno harbor for Lake Titicaca

Arriving at the Floating Islands

Our guide, Zulema, explains the culture of the islands

How cute is that?

The people display their handicraft (extremely high quality!)

The locals learned each of our names and clapped for each one to welcome us.

The ladies on the island wanted to keep Valeta as one of their own!

Vaughn, Lora, and Breann didn't do too badly either!

Our ride on the "Mercedes Benz" boat made of reeds and plastic bottles!

Bidding us farewell from the island

Walter, the artist, rows us over to the other side.

Later we arrive on Taquile Island for a very different cultural experience. 
The people here are Quechua, and descendants of the Incas.

View of Lake Titicaca and Bolivia from Taquile Island

One of the island Elders

Paul demonstrates the hair outfit used in the island festivals.

After a wonderful lunch we get a display of local dance.

The dancers say good bye before we exit through the gate and head down to the boat.

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