Highest Lake in the World

 Amantani * Taquile

We woke early this morning for a 6:45 a.m. breakfast. Charlie did not have a good night, and after breakfast Sydney’s stomach began to bother her. It’s probably a good thing we are headed home from Peru today. Eric of course stayed back at the hotel in Puno last night and other than a quick call, we really didn’t know how he was feeling. Breakfast was a decent pancake and scrambled egg.

Our only stop today with the guide was Taquille Island. From what I can figure this island's sole purpose is to provide a sort of “living museum” of how these people live. The islanders dress in traditional clothing each day and wait for the tourists to arrive. Since our schedule is a bit rushed today, we arrived early - before tourists or locals were moving about. After a 30-minute walk straight up the island, Sydney’s stomach was really bothering her, so we stopped at the Plaza de Armas for several minutes to drink a Coca Cola. A few tourists wandered into the Plaza and 1 restaurant was opened.

We took a leisurely pace to the top of the island then headed down 500 steps to catch up with our boat. I’m not sure we had the proper Taquille Island experience. The regular tourists wander in about noon (after their visit to Uros), have lunch, shop and then go home in the afternoon. Since we had to leave by 10:00 we missed the “Tacquile Island Show”.

Our 2 1/2 hour boat ride back to Puno was uneventful, except Sydney slept most of the time, only to throw up just after we got in the transfer van. Lucky for us (and the driver), she grabbed a plastic bag to throw up in and very little made it onto the floor of the car. Charlie was great at helping out and even cleaned up the floor of the van as best he could. After reuniting with Eric and some showers at the hotel - we are ready for the long journey home. Time to feel better and do some laundry and regroup for Part II of our sabbatical.

Lake Titicaca - Uros and Amantani

 Puno * Uros * Amantani

Eric woke up this morning still not feeling well, so he decided to stay at the hotels while Lara, Sydney, and Charlie had their adventure on Lake Titicaca. They packed their overnight bags as they would not be returning until tomorrow.

The day started early again, 7:30, with a quick ride to the Puno port and a transfer to our boat. We had the boat completely to ourselves - it seemed excessive - 3 Maxfields, a guide, and a boat driver. We traveled the short 30 minutes to the Uros community. I don’t know what we were expecting, but it was very clear that this community was entirely set up as a “show” to the tourists. There was an entrance fee and then we were assigned to a floating reed island to visit. Since our guide new that we were LDS, he was able to arrange our visit to the Island where a few members lived. Charlie did a great job communicating with them in Spanish and we learned that they had 5 children, 3 of whom had been missionaries. Even some of their handy work showed pictures of the temples. We took a selfie with them and gave them a small token of our appreciation. It would have been nice to do more.

After a ride on their boat across the channel, we jumped back in our own boat for the 2 1/2 hour boat ride to the island of Amantani. This island is specifically designed for travelers to visit a host family and experience the authentic culture. Our host family ran a small bed and breakfast service and could have as many as 24 guests. There were only 7 of us though at the time - us and another family from Columbia.

It’s a good thing Eric didn’t come, the conditions were very basic and although appeared clean, not really sure if it was. He would not have appreciated that being sick. After Charlie jumped in Lake Titicaca, we climbed the 20 minutes up the hill to our hotel for the night. The town was extremely sleepy and we felt like we were the only ones around. We wandered accidentally into the kitchen and watched for a few minutes while our lunch was being prepared. Probably a good thing we were able to eat in a dining area as the kitchen wasn’t very clean. We had a fried fish fillet with rice and some vegetables. It was more than we could eat.

After lunch we walked to the Plaza de Armas and watched a handful of locals wander around. We passed the time playing "wordle" on our phones. After our rest, we started the slow hike to the top of the island to watch the sunset. Slow because we were tired, and the elevation peaked at 13,500 feet. From the top of the Island, we could see the high peaks of the Bolivian mountains and a beautiful 360* view around us. The sunset was stunning.

Dinner was potato soup and a potato omelet. With nothing much to do, we were in bed by 8:30. Sydney and I shared a full-size bed, and Charlie slept next to us in a twin. It was a good thing we decided to be in a room together as Charlie had a hard night with a bad head cold. In the middle of the night, we were up fixing him a hot drink and trying to make him comfortable. Sydney and I slept pretty good on our bed that had about 4 heavy wool blankets and a comforter. In fact, we had to get rid of 3 of the blankets because it was too warm.

Drive from Cusco to Lake Titicaca

 Raqchi* Andahuaylillas Church * Museum Pucara

Today we reached the highest elevation of our trip - 14,310 ft according to our phones, 4335 meters according to the local sign.