Introduction
This excursion will allow us to get to know Lake Titicaca´s two most interesting islands. First we will visit the Uros Islands (3812 meters), located 6 km. north of Puno´s bay. These floating island contain one of the world’s most peculiar lifestyles; the inhabitants of the floating islands continually add a vegetal material called, Totora or reeds, which maintain the islands floating; the reeds are also used to construct their houses and boats that they use to navigate the lake. In Lake Titicaca there exist more than 40 floating islands whose inhabitants are descendents of the most ancient peoples in the Americas, “The Uros.” We will then visit Taquile Island, the largest island in Lake Titicaca, located 35 kilometres north of Puno. Taquile has a wonderful cultural appeal; its population, composed of 1600 inhabitants, still conserves its ancient cultural traditions. Thus, arriving on Taquile we have the sensation of being in a place where time has stopped. The majority of the inhabitants are dedicated to textileria and they use one of the world’s best hand-woven techniques
Itinerary
Our excursion begins at 6:50 am. Our transportation will pick us up from the hotel and take us to Lake Titicaca´s port, from there a motor boat will take us to our first stop, the Uros Islands. We will see their homes and boats, as well as the population. We will visit two islands that make up a larger archipelago and then continue on to Taquile, carefully navigating the lake for about 2 and a half hours. There are to ways to enter the island, the first is to climb 533 steps in order to arrive at the entrance arch; from there you descend into the Plaza. The second entrance into the town is via a sloping hillside, which will guide us into the town; this option takes about an hour. We will then cross part of the island, visiting its archaeological sites and witnessing its marvellous natural scenery. After eating lunch we will return to Puno via boat. In the port our transportation will be waiting to take us to our hotel. |
Versión en español
