Salt Lakes and Lake Titicaca

Get Weaving and Salt Lakes

We had a free day so took a tour with two other people from the group. Initially we visited another weaving place, interesting but we didn't buy anything. Despite the lady telling us the bone they used for weaving was from the last tourist who didn't make any purchases! We did buy some chocolate at the second stop though.

We then visited an Inka ruin at Moray. This was a community with three circular terraces used for farming each one with a different temperature due to its position and then a change from the top to the bottom of each terrace. They apparently then learnt which crops did better in each area.

The final stop was the salt mines, at Salineras de Maras, this was pre-Inka (from the 12th century) and is still be used today to produce salt. Very impressive to see and hear how it operates as a co-operative with all the families sharing the profits.

The food is reight good

After the trip we had tea as a group. Peruvian food has been the best of the trip so far. "Proper gourmet" as Karen says. It may be the guide picks the best places for us but the occasional meal we've sorted ourselves has been good as well.

As we were crossing the road on the green man, several cars turning left just cut across us and our guide said it's the law of the biggest goes first in the city. He also described the zebra crossings without lights as purely for decoration. Maybe their equivalent to our fancy street art.

Puno

The next morning was an early start for a 7-hour bus ride to Puno and Lake Titicaca. It went surprisingly quickly with a lot of sleeping and when awake great views of the Andes. We're going to have walk round the town once our guide returns.

He has been generally brilliant and has gone way beyond the expected today. One person on the tour had been misinformed over visa requirements to Boliva for a US citizen so came without a visa. Juber has been sorting this and has just taken the chap to an embassy to finalise it.

The visa is sorted so we had a look round the town it's nice with plenty of Christmas decorations. Juber mentioned that February is the time to be here as bands and dancing competitions means the place is crazy. We've had a brief look at Lake Titicaca but apparently best not go there in the evening as it's only drunks who want to hug you and if you don't hug them then they fight you! I think he is exaggerating but his actions when telling us this when fantastic.