South America,  Travel,  Peru

Puno

July 25, 2021 /

In the morning, arrive at Puno - a city in southeastern Peru, known as the city of Peruvian folk culture. Unexpectedly, the altitude here is higher than Cusco, 3,800 meters, the temperature is still low, and the temperature difference between day and night is huge. Now winter is the coldest time here. It was around freezing when we got here in the morning, but the sun was strong and it became very warm at noon.

Puno is next to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, with Peru on one side and Bolivia on the other. There are more than 100 Uros Uros floating islands in Lake Titicaca. The indigenous Uru people still live on these artificial islands. Many of them can’t even speak Spanish, but they speak Quechua (the native language of the Andes in South America). A native language of their own. It is unbelievable that these floating islands, the houses they live in, and the means of transportation (boats with two ends upturned) are all made of reeds that grow in the lake. Because the water in the lake is very shallow, the bottom part of each floating island will be fixed in the river bed. The tour guide said that it will not float and float to Bolivia. The dense roots of reeds are spread on the island as the top layer, but the underwater part will slowly The rot sinks and must be replaced periodically or more reeds laid on top before the reed house is placed on it. The Ulu people make their living from fishing, weaving and tourism. Since everything on the island is built of reeds, how do they make a fire to cook? It is said that their stoves were built on stones to protect the reeds. But after visiting around, it is obvious that their traditional life has been completely commercialized. As soon as the local children on the island pull you to buy their handicrafts, the little girl in their reed boat sings a song and then sings to the tourists. Ask for money, and in the end charge blatantly and randomly. Obviously, when I reported to the group before, I said that all the expenses were included, and I also paid for the tour tickets when I went to the island. Now they have to charge the boat fee for the reed boat after getting off the boat. The problem is that before boarding the boat, the tour guide directly let everyone board. No mention of the ticket. In addition to me, there are two French tourists in the whole group, and the rest are local Peruvian tourists. Those two Frenchmen were very serious. They insisted that it was unreasonable and ignorant to charge randomly. They didn't pay the boat ticket, and the tour guide knew that he was unreasonable, so he didn't have the nerve to ask us for money.

After visiting Uros Floating Island, take a boat to Amantani, another big island. At noon, I had lunch at the local villager's house. In the afternoon, I found that only the two Frenchmen and I would stay at the villager's house on the island tonight. The rest of the local tourists returned to the city after lunch at noon. The island mainly grows barley, quinoa, potatoes and other plants, and the main animals are sheep. In the afternoon, a local village guide took the three of us to climb the mountain to the two temples Pachamama (Mother Earth) and Pachatata (Father Earth) on the top of the island. The temple is only open every year in January when the local worship and deities are celebrated, but we mainly come to watch the sunset. I thought that after I left Cusco, I wouldn’t need to climb the mountain anymore, but I didn’t expect to climb a lot today. The top of the island is 4,000 meters above sea level. The sunset scenery is really beautiful, and the snow-capped mountains of Bolivia can be seen on the other side.

The next morning, after breakfast at the local people's home on the island, I was assigned to help with farm work: peeling large dried beans. At the beginning, I peeled slowly by myself, and then yesterday the French couple and a family of five from Quebec, Canada also joined. There are many people and strength, and two large bags of beans were peeled in two hours. The Canadian couple took their three sons (ages 5, 8, and 12) to travel around the world for a year. They first went to Greece, Egypt, Tanzania and other African countries, and then Colombia, Ecuador and South America. In Peru, they taught at home while traveling and home schooling last year. They will return to Canada in August, and then the children will go back to school. I believe that this year's global travel experience will have a great impact on the future lives of the three children.

When I returned to Puno City at night, I happened to meet locals dressed in costumes singing and dancing on the square in front of the church in the city center. Although the temperature was very low at night, their enthusiastic dance made many people stop and watch.

Due to their geographical location and climate, Puno's food is quite special, which is different from the food eaten in other places in Peru. On the morning when I first arrived in Puno, a local friend took me to the market to eat thimpo de carachi y trucha, which was a plate of very delicious steamed fish from two local Titicaca lakes, boiled large potatoes and chuño, and a bowl of fish soup. Chuño is a potato processed by the Quechua and Aymara indigenous peoples of Peru and Bolivia. After five days of processing, those bitter, freeze-proof potatoes are left outside at night, exposed to extremely low temperatures, and then exposed to the strong sun at high altitude the next day. This traditional processing method first originated in the Inca Empire, which can preserve potatoes for a long time and make them contain higher nutritional value. Generally, the process of freezing and exposing to the sun begins in June and July every year in winter. Chuño generally has two types: white and black. On the day I lived on the island, I basically ate potatoes and rice, and I also ate a large fried round cheese for the first time. Back in Puno City, I tasted the dessert alfajores crema de oro, which is different from the alfajores sandwich caramel biscuits in the traditional bakery. This is three pieces of fried sweet and crispy. Salchipapa sausage and chips are fast food snacks that can be seen all over the street since the first day I went to Ecuador, and I found it everywhere in Peru. The junk food that I have always disdain to eat is finally out of curiosity, I don’t understand why it is so popular, so I decided to try it. Various sauces can be squeezed on salchipapa: ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, tapenade, hot sauce, etc., and then eaten with a toothpick. After trying it, I still don't understand why it is so popular. api hot corn juice, there are two kinds of purple and white, I have never seen it in other cities in Peru, it may be Puno, drink it when the weather is cold here. Generally drink this api hot drink, and eat it with an oversized hollow empanada. In addition to the sandwich breakfast common in Peru, two other common breakfasts in Puno are mazamorra de quinua and pesque. Mazamorra de quinua is quinoa cooked with cinnamon and other spices, sugar, and milk, and shredded cheese can also be added on top. Pesque is porridge cooked with crushed quinoa. The taste of the two types of quinoa porridge is average. Among all the foods I eat in Puno, chairo should be considered more to my taste. This is a special stew in the Bolivian Andes region of Peru. The soup is very thick and contains potatoes, chuño, carrots, celery, soybeans, barley, lamb or beef. . Inca Kola is a sweet, bubblegum-flavored soda you can find everywhere in Peru, but it's so sweet that you can't drink half of it. A common snack in street shops is popcorn, but because there are too many varieties of Peruvian corn, some of the popcorn popped out are huge and taste good.

  • thimpo de carachi y trucha
  • alfajores crema de oro
  • salchipapa
  • api
  • empanada
  • mazamorra de quinua
  • pesque
  • the chair
  • Inca Kola

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