Puno: Juli

The next phase of our Puno trip involved a jaunt out to one of my favorite places on the South side of Lake Titicaca, Juli. Juli is one of the older towns in the area, and historically was a center for the Aymara indigenous people. A bit of info about the Aymara. Anyway, I like Juli because when I was a missionary, my good buddy GLUCH was assigned to Juli and it was much better than where I was, the illustrious town of Desaquadero. AS you undoubtedly know by now, Desaquadero es a terrible place. But Juli on the other hand, has narrow streets and is relatively trash free, therefore, it became my favorite place in the Zone when I was there. In Juli, there are four really old churches which are interesting to look at, and I enjoyed visiting each of them. They were built late 1500's early 1600's. Here are pictures of the four of them:






The first one is supposedly haunted. They are all pretty cool, and when I was a missionary, I got to go into the haunted one and inside it is AWESOME, very much like the forest temple in The Legend of Zelda. Too bad it's falling apart. Now there are lame sheets of tin all over it, and it certainly ruins the effect. Also, it isn't open to the public, Gluch and I were really lucky that we happened to go check it out when some University students were inside checking it out for renovation purposes.

The fifth church that I really dig in Juli is this one:


Surprise, it's a LDS church.

Juli also has a pretty decent beach, for what you can get on Lake Titicaca. We didn't have time to make it down to the beach, but when I was a missionary, we checked it out and it was pretty great.
We had a nice little walk around Juli, we took empanadas and ate them at some random spot in between two of the churches. There was also a nice lookout which Joe and I went up to alone because Malu and Carolina were lame. There we had a bromance photo session because there wasn't much else to do. You can see the fruits of that session in this fabulous video:


To wrap this up, I must relate one quick tale. When we were in Puno trying to find the departure point for the buses to Juli, I warned my companions of the ridiculous disorder and wildness of the place where the buses left. In my time, there were four different buses that would go to Ilave, Juli, Yunguyo, and Desaguadero respectively, and it was a battle royal to get on one. First you had to fight a bunch of crazy locals, in addition, you had to worry about the sheep and other livestock that was tied up and thrown on the roof, and finally, they were really ghetto vehicles and people got crammed in there like fish in a barrel. Imagine my surprise when we waltzed up to a perfectly clean and organized terminal. It even had a name, Terminal Sonal. I couldn't believe it when we calmly got on the bus in it's assigned place and sat in a pretty decent little bus. The whole time my group asked me if this was the same place. I guess 6 years makes a difference. However, when we were coming back from Juli to Puno, we had to contest with a mob to get on the bus, and I very nearly came to serious blows with a drunk guy who wouldn't let Malu get to her seat next to me, so I felt better about the whole trip ;).

Puno: Los Uros

Puno is an interesting place. It is built on the edge of the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, and even more peculiar is that it is a really steep part of the cost. To walk around in Puno is to walk up and down a lot of steep streets. This is even more challenging because it is located at a lofty 13,000 feet above sea level. Anyway, we (we being Joe, Carolina, Malu, and myself), got to Puno we stayed at Malu's grandpa's house, which is conveniently located close to the Plaza de Armas. Our first little excursion in Puno was to Los Uros, floating reed islands that people live on. I have mentioned them before here and here. Los Uros... Not much to add about them. They are fun to see, but I am tired of riding out to see them. Here are some photos of the event:






This I thought was curious, they finally got some solar power out there on the islands. For this reason, this particular time while we were listening to the spiel about Los Uros, we also got to listen to Sponge Bob that the kids were watching in the hut, not exactly conducive to the ambient if you know what I mean. Alas, times are changing

Candelaria, Really fast.

I know I'm way behind on posts, so for now, here's a small video about the Candelaria that can give you an idea of what it's like. Also, I'm there around the 5 minutes and 35 seconds marks, so you know, there is that special bonus. I promise soon you'll have updates.