17 / 18-9-2010: Day 7-8, Isla Taquile, Lake Titicaca

The sapphire blue of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, overlooking Cordillera Real of Bolivia.

An Inca ruin on the island.

The amazing Inca terrancing against the blue of Lake titicaca.

One of the archs on the island where the air was magically clear.

Our room, with a surprisingly comfy bed and hay covering the red soil of the island.

A local with his cow passing through one of the many archs just before sunset.

The beautiful sunset overlooking another island.

A rainbow colored sky!

Our host family cooking our dinner. The stuff in the blue bag is for burning the fire. By the way, it´s cow´s poop! But it didn´t stink and is supposed to be really good for cooking. According to our host lady, the cow here only eats grass and corn´s leaves and it is very natural.

Our candlelight dinner at our room: Fresh water trout from Lake Titicaca and mate de muña just picked from the fields. It was amazingly good!

Me at a rocky beach in the island.

Another cup of mate de muña. Absolutely loved it!

The signature arch in Isla Taquile.

On our way back to Puno, a local man was knitting in the boat. One of the greatest traditions of Isla Taquile is that the men are responsible for doing knitwork, from hats to gloves to scarfs. The hat this man´s wearing signifies that he is single by the white top part. Married men would wear one entirely red.

After 2 more hours of boating, other travelers and I arrived in Isla Taquile, a nature island with native inhabitants that have been living here since very ancient time. Their lives seem quite separated from the rest of the world, and indeed you would feel like you were in a different world in this island, so were in the floating islands. Two other travelers from Germany and France and I were greeted by the locals, who are our host family and we stayed with them. We had to climb a steep and stiff hill which contained about 500 stairs! At 3800m above sea level and carrying our heavy backpacks, it was not easy. Our host picked a herb called ´muña´ on the way and showed us how to smell it. It´s supposed to give us more energy and help us cope with the altitude. Nonetheless it works, it smells really great, similar to mint. Later we had mate de muña, which is the herb´s infusion tea, and it was so refreshing! We watched sunset at a hill, and we got to see the limitless horizon of Lake Titicaca, which suddenly seemed like a sea. It was so beautiful and peaceful. In the morning, I woke up at 5am to catch the sunset. I walked down to the plaza where there´s a mirador and the sun came out from the cloud in the middle of it. The weather was bitterly cold, but the air was as fresh as ever. It was so beautiful to see the sun coming out from a fairytale land. Being in Isla Taquile was an unique experience, and it was especially worthwhile after visiting super touristy Cusco and the Sacred Valley. It was a breath of fresh air, literally and metaphorically!

17-9-2010: Day 7, Puno - Los Uros, Lake Titicaca

Overnight busing and arrived in Puno at 5am, just around dawn and able to see the beautiful sunrise.

The sun was rising over Lake Titicaca which grows totora reeds.

The sun had risen with a hut made by totora reeds at the pier.


The fairytale-like floating islands made by totora reeds in Lake Titicaca.

Everything´s made by totora reeds, houses, boats, the islands themselves.

The President of this floating island gave us an introduction on how the islands are built. Here was a miniture of the islands.

They even gave us totora reeds for a snack! According to the Presdient, this is their major fruit.

A beautiful view of the fairytale islands and surroundings.

After almost a week in Cusco and the Sacred Valley area, I finally moved to another spot in Perú, Puno and Lake Titicaca. I took an overnight bus to Puno at 10pm, arrived in Puno at 5:00am. It was a comfortable ride, though a bit too short for sleeping. But it was fine, except someone (I suspected the guy who sat next to me) stole my bottle of water. Silly, silly. I went to the pier by motortaxi, and en route I stopped by and bought some fruits for my soon host family in Isla Taquile. Dawn was absolutely stunning, especially the air and sky was unusually clear. We hopped on the boat at around 7am, and started sailing around 7:45am. Our first stop was Los Uros, which are some man-made floating islands in Lake Titicaca that have been in the region for a long long time. When we arrived one of the islands, the local women greeted us warmly by waving their arms and said in Aymará, "Welcome!" When I first stepped on the island, it felt so funny as the ground is very springy! As I toured around the island, I accidentally stepped on a rotten part and I fell into the water! Thankfully it was just my legs and I managed to climb right back on the firm part. But it was such an unique experience! While we were back on the boat, the local men kept chewing coca leaves as if eating chips! So I digged out my bag of coca leaves and imitated them. One of them gave me some ´yota´ which is made by the ashes of natural plants such as quinoa and acts as a catalyst to release the effective properties of coca leaves. It is a very great tradition of the Andina cultures, and we shall respect that rather than fixating it as a drug, becuase it is not.

15-9-2010: Day 5, Machu Picchu

The breathtakingly beautiful dawn on the trek to Machu Picchu. It´s this beautiful in photo, but when it´s 3-dimensional, OH-MY-GOD!

Early in the morning, Machu Picchu was filled with morning fog in the midst of the cloud forest.

The Hut of the Caretake of the Funerary Rock where you can overlook the postcard perfect view of Machu Picchu.

This is my favorite picture of Machu Picchu!

A llama eating grass near the Royal Palace.

Another white llama standing in the midst of the terrance overlooking the stunning view.

Me ´flying´in Machu Picchu!

At around 10am, I was on my way to climb Wayna Picchu (the Young Peak), which is the peak on the right side.

Within the ruins, you can see up close the incredible architecture.

Inside the Royal Palace.

A view of the Royal Palace with Wayna Picchu as the backdrop.

A maze-like ruin.

Almost at the end of the Wayna Picchu trek and onto its ruins.

On the side of Wayna Picchu, Machu Picchu (the Old Peak) suddenly looks so different! On the left side it´s the road for buses to Machu Picchu. The hiking trek is somewhere in the middle.

A dandelion like plant with the Inca terrancing and road to Machu Picchu as the backdrop.

Inside the Inca Tunnel on the way up to the top of Wayna Picchu.

A friendly lizard on the top of Wayna Picchu.

A steep steep climb down from the top of Wayna Picchu.

Back to Machu Picchu, this is the Temple of the Sun.

Inca´s window overlooking the ruins.

Another view of Machu Picchu when the sun came out.

The entire Royal Palace.

My last hike of the day ... Puente Inca (Inca´s bridge). It´s notoriously dangerous, and no one´s allowed in there as someone fell from there before.

After much anticipation, my trip to one of the highlights of all South America travels arrived: Machu Picchu. Initially I had booked the Inca Trail in hope of getting a greater experience out of it. Well, this is Perú, and my travel agency forgot to reconfirm my place and so I couldn´t do it. And it took them weeks to refund me the whole amount ... well, that´s another story. Anyway, instead of being upset about it (I have learned a lot of tolerance of how things work here already!), I was happy to save some money by not doing the Inca Trail because it was criminally overpriced. Now that I had already been to Machu Picchu, I am soooo glad that I didn´t do it. For starters, there could be some annoying people that I would encounter in the trek and the worst would be that I had no way to get out! Secondly, there were tons of walking and trekking to do within Machu Picchu, and it´s enough to wear you out. Plus, once you have seen the grandeur of Machu Picchu, those tiny ruins around the Inca Trail would seem worthless to see.

I woke up at 3am trying to get to Puente Ruinas (Ruins Bridge) where only 400 people per day can trek up to Machu Picchu. I was on the front of the line, and all other independent travelers and alternative Inca Trail trekkers were there waiting the gate to open at 5am. It actually opened at 4:45am, and it took about an hour to hike up there. It was still dark in the beginning, so we all had flashlights with us. It was a steep climb, but it wasn´t technically difficult. About half way through, the light started changing, and it was such a beautiful sight. A few minutes before we arrived on the top, the sky was literally in different hues of blues serenaded by smoky clouds and cone shaped peaks. It was absolutely breathtaking!

As I stepped into the ruins, it was so exciting that I simply can´t describe. You see Machu Picchu all the time in photos, especially they are everywhere in Perú. But being in it was another story. I was completely allured by the mystery and grandeur of the site and the stunning surrounding. It was like a dream being in Machu Picchu, suddenly felt like I was so small surrounded by crafted architecture and majestic nature. I was amazed by all the artistic stonework that the Incas had done, and wondered how they did it up high in the mountain! There were thousands types of birds and butterflies flying around the ruins as if Machu Picchu were their home!

At 10am, I climbed up the backdrop mountain of Machu Picchu, Wayna Picchu. There are only a limit of 200 people going up there each day, and we got signed up before entering Machu Picchu in early morning. It looked really steep and high, and everyone was a bit shocked at first. But once we were on the trek, it wasn´t so technically difficult and only took about 45 minutes. Once we climbed up to the top, the view was definitely worth the trek. Machu Picchu doesn´t look the same from this side of the world, and one can see the full view of Machu Picchu. After trekking up and down this super hilly peak, I wearily did a final tour of the great ruins before heading back to boring Aguas Calientes and took the train back to Ollantaytambo.

13-9-2010: Day 3, the Sacred Valley

On the hike to the salineras, I passed by the beautiful Río Urubamba and the stunning scenery.

The salt in the saltpans ... well, I sneaked a taste, and it´s not all that salty!

The amazing terrancing of the saltpans once used by the Incas, today still being cultivated.

Literally thousands of saltpans up in the mountain, what a majestic view!

Crossing the suspension bridge of Arco Iris on the way to the saltpans.

In the morning, one can see a snowy Andean peak behind the Ollantaytambo ruins.