Puno

I decided it was time to head to Lake Titicaca and caught a tourist bus from Cusco to Puno. These bus tours are pretty lame, as in, you are packed onto a bus with 50 other people and you stop briefly at a few sites along the way with a guide. Still, I enjoyed the amazing scenery along the way and I didn’t regret opting out of the overnight bus.

A couple of places we stopped at...

Raqchi and the temple of Viracocha (god of creation)

La Raya - 4500m altitude...ouch

The following day from Puno, I headed to the Amaru Maru gateway. This place is off the mainstream tourist radar and I haven’t been able to find much info online about this [EDIT: opps, google "Aramu Muru" if you are interested, my bad ;-)  ]. I caught up with a local shaman via a contact in Australia who was kind enough to take me out there for the day.

The gateway

He explained to me the local legends around this site. It is said that the ancients used this gateway to access other dimensions. When we arrive he takes me through the various positions in order to use the gate and I went into a deep meditation.

He also explained some of the local mythology about how there were once huge galactic scale wars on earth. So big the weapons could take off the tops of mountains. He shows me a hole in the rock behind the gateway where it is said one such weapon was used. The rock appears to have been exposed to very high heat as there is crystallization, and unnatural ‘machine like’ formations within.

The whole site reminds of something from outback Australia with the intriguing rock formations. Overall it was amazingly beautiful and I enjoyed climbing the rocks and hanging out for the day :-)

Some pics...

I'm in there, somewhere ;-)

The following day I decided to once again jump on the blatant tourist bandwagon and visited the floating reed islands in the morning. 

These people have lived on these islands for hundreds of years, avoiding the rule of the Inca's and Spanish. During this time they have lived on a simple diet of fish, reeds, maca and vegetables and as a result they usually live to around 85. I wondered if this would remain the case now that the influx of tourists has allowed them to add many westernized foods into their diet? Interestingly enough, I found out that they do not use any toothpaste, rather consuming reeds keeps their teeth healthy. We tried some of this and it was rather bland and crunchy...but tolerable ;-)

Model of a small reed island

They explained that the reed islands where made by digging up the reed roots, joining them together with rope, then layering reeds on top. Each island needs to be replaced every 20 years.

In the afternoon I head out to Sillustani which is an ancient, pre-incan burial site containing an array of burial 'towers'.

This is the most beautiful site (certainly a nice place to be buried) and I enjoyed hanging around in the amazing energy from this flat-topped mountain in the lagoon.

The guide told us that the locals report seeing many ufo's around here ;-)

On the way back to town we stopped in at a local house.

Adobe/stone house - complete with llama ;-)

Local cuisine - quinoa, corn, clay, potatoes, cheese etc

The guinea pig hilton

For anyone staying in Puno I definitely recommend Kusillo’s Posada. This is a family run hotel, inexpensive and run by the most warm, friendly and helpful people. I was greeted at breakfast with a kiss on the cheek and lots of concerned mumsie questions for day such as, ‘what tour was I doing’ and ‘did I have sunscreen and appropriate footwear, a jumper etc’. If you stay, prepare to be spoilt with a fresh home cooked breakfast, mmmm :-)