23rd March
Left border at 10am and headed for Puno which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We stopped for breakfast with our first sightings of the Lake. Puno was founded in1668 with an altitude of 3860m. Along the way we passed rock walls with inca king carvings. Arrived at around 1pm checked into hotel and headed out to see the sights. Had lunch in the pedestrian walk then 4 of us hired a cab and our first stop was Huajsapata Park which has a huge statue of the first inca, Manco Capac, looking out over Lake Titicaca. Had great views of the Lake and township. We then headed to our second stop which was Yavari the oldest steamship on the lake. Trying to explain this to our cab driver was hilarious. We drew a picture of a boat with steam coming out as our Spanish is limited. We knew alto meant old and barco meant boat but we couldn't find a word for steam. He took us to the port and there the two steamships were. Built in England in 1862 took 6 years to transport. We visited the markets at the port and tried to haggle prices. They won. we paid the prices they asked . Beautiful hand knitted hats and handicrafts. Back to the taxi heading for the Funerary Towers of Sillustani. These towers stand up to 12 m and house remains of the nobility of the Colla people. After about 20 min driving we asked the driver how much further and he said 40 mins. We decided to turn around as we had meeting at 6pm. Our meeting was about the next two days on Lake Titicaca, then we all went for tea at Ekekos. Early night and packed day pack for the next two days on the lake visiting the islands.