How can you forget studying about Lake Titicaca in school? When we planned our trip to Peru for our 25th anniversary, I knew I wanted to check out Lake Titicaca. We landed at night and easily caught a shared van ride to Puno for 15 soles each, about $5. It took about 1.5 hours and they dropped us off right at our hotel.
The next morning we walked to the docks where we got a round trip boat ride to Taquile, with a stop at Uros, for 46 soles each, about $15. It took us about 15 min to get to Uros.
We enjoyed seeing the reed islands and soon boarded the boat for Taquile. That ride took about 2 more hours. We talked with some of the people in our tour and dozed a little.
We weren’t prepared for the altitude adjustment here. Taquile is 12, 959 with the high point of the island being 13,287. We didn’t realize the headache, lack of appetite and fever like symptoms were altitude sickness!
We enjoyed a nice trout lunch with quinoa soup for 20 soles each, with our group. Then said our good-byes. We chose to do a homestay for one night, so we could see the glorious night sky from the island. Celso, the owner of our homestay, drew us a map and showed us how to follow the green arrows spray painted on rocks to get back. We set our things down in our room and head out to walk to the “high point” of the island.
he meals were delicious but we weren’t very hungry due to the altitude. They served us coca tea and some with mint as well, as he heard me coughing.
We were so exhausted an not feeling well that I forgot to look at the night sky, but as soon as I remembered I talked myself into leaving my nice warm bed and ran outside. What a beautiful sight. It’s the only place I regretted not bringing my Canon 7D along for the trip. But I know even if I’d brought it, it wouldn’t have truly been able to capture the night sky.
Later that night there was a crazy storm, with lightning and HAIL! We thought we might be washed away to drown in the lake, but we woke up the next morning to piles of hail and a shining sun. We had a little trouble getting our boat ride back arranged as our original tour guide had a full boat, but Celso got it figured out for us and we had back to Puno. We had lunch at the docks, walked around town, grabbed our bags and then waited for our overnight bus to Cusco at the bus station. We used Busbud to book our tickets with Cruz del Sur to take the overnight bus to Cusco. It was a great trip. The worst part is the speed bumps that wake you up at every town. 🙂