A high lake, a bus journey and the center of the world

Once again, I find myself internetless.
I am currently near Cusco on the third interamerican scout Moot, aka. a scout camp where young adults from all over the Amaricas (and a few coutries outside the Americas) to not be leaders for once. It started last Friday.
Anyway, I'll tell you about it next week, when I get back.

What I want to tell you about today is what I did in the days after I left Lima and before the camp started.
First, a week ago on Sunday, we (aka. me and some other Finnish people going to Moot) flew from Lima to Juliaca, from where we took the taxi (which are ridiculously cheap here) to Puno, which is very close by there. Puno is on the coast of lake Titicaca. Titicaca is not only one of the biggest lakes in South America, it is also the highest lake in the world, in the middle of the Andes mountains. The surface of Titicaca is about 3800 meters above sea level. By which I mean a lot. So we went to Puno to see Titicaca.

Here's a photo of Puno, from the harbor.

On Monday we took a tourist tour boat out onto the lake. Our first stop was on the Uros islands, which are floating islands about a half an hour (in the boat we were in) out of Puno.
What's a floating island, you ask?
Well, in this case they were basically a two-meter-thick layer reed (which is an aquatic plant here) roots and stems tied together so they float, and form a kind of an island people can live on. I personally would probably call it a raft instead of an island, though, but they want to call it an island, so who am I to argue with people about what they live on.

The people there make pretty much everything there from the reeds, from the ground they stand on to the houses to the boats they use. They also eat a part of it. We also got to taste a little bit, and it tasted basically like nothing.

From Uros our way continued farther out onto the lake (which, for the record, is huge). We went to Taquili island, which was an actual island. There first we had to climb up to the main square.
"It's 3940 meters above sea level, so 140 meters above the lake surface," the guide told us. "The climb takes the locals about 15 minutes. But you're not from this altitude. You will have 30-40 minutes."
I would have been a little insulted if I hadn't completely believed he was right.
I almost made it to the top before completely breaking down and having to sit down and cry a bit and breath because there simply wasn't enough oxygen to keep going. But I did make it all the way up. It took me about the 40 minutes. Turns out I do not do well that high up.
And it was worth it. Not only was there lunch waiting at the top, the views were absolutely gorgeous. Also, the walk down was significantly easier.
Here's some pictures:

 This is from the hike up.

This is the main square. (You can clearly see that the colors are way more muted in this photo taken with my phone than in the photos taken with the proper camera.)

And this is the view from the main square.

One more thing I want to say about Puno: they clearly think it's ok to not have heating indoors, despite the fact that the temperature is about ten degrees during the day, zero during the night. It was very, very cold.

On Tuesday we moved on, taking a bus from Puno to Cusco. It took seven and a half hours through the mountains. It was good. It was nice and warm in the bus.
Here's some photos, taken through the bus window:

I spent the following two days in Cusco.

Cusco is definitely the best place I've been so far since leaving Finland. It's so nice. It's cold during the nights, but it's nice.

Here's the main square, which, like apparently literally all other main squares in Peru, is called Plaza de Armas.

Cusco, or Qosqo (literally meaning "the navel of the world", which is hilarious, if you've seen Emperor's New Groove), is a very old city. It used to be a big city already in the Incan times, which is when there were Inca palaces around the main square, where now is only churches and KFCs. (Ok, one KFC.)
Even though the Spanish (stupid Europeans) destroyed a lot of what the Incas had built here, some things are still left.

Like this wall. Which, if you ask me, is an unusually beautiful wall. It also holds one of the most famous tourist attractions in the city: a twelve-angled stone, as a part of the wall. Its shape is also used in the logo of the Moot I'm currently on. Why is a stone in a wall a tourist attraction, you ask? We took a walking tour around the center, and the guide told us it's because a local beer company liked the shaped, decided to use it in their logo, and was very good at marketing.
I don't know. I still think it's an unusually beautiful wall.
The guide also told us that the layout of the center is still the same as it used to be in the Incan times.

That's why it's filled with these tiny streets (also seen in the picture with the wall)

and staircases (since the city is in the middle of mountains and there's a lot of hills around here). The walkways are so small and pedestrian-friendly, because were built way before cars. So It's really nice to walk around. Unless a car happens to be wanting to use the same road as you are, because there are some cars driving these tiny one-car-wide roads too. Not much, but some.

And, well, the stairs are a pain, because even though Cusco is almost a half a kilometer lower than Puno, it's still almost 3,5 km above sea level, and about one flight of stairs will get you out of breath and your heart hammering. But they're really pretty, and better than having that steep a road. And I love how the center is for real great to walk around, and incredibly difficult for cars. That's how it should be.

And apparently nowadays the historic center of Cusco is a Unesco world heritage site, so no one can decide to make the center more car-friendly. It will forever stay as it is.

Probably not forever. Things generally don't last forever.

 Despite the fact that climbing hills is heavy, we climbed some way up a hill (mountain?) right next to the center, just to get an amazing view of the city. It was definitely worth it. Especially since this spot is almost in the north-western end of the city, so you can see almost all of Cusco from there. The older part is at the front here, you can actually see Plaza de Armas almost at the front if you look at the picture big enough, and the newer parts stretch on to the left and back.

So yeah, I really like Cusco (despite the fact that according to the walking tour guide half of the half a million people living here live off of tourism, which means there are a lot of tourists here). I have another four full days here after the camp before I fly back to Finland. I'm looking forwards to it.

~matu