Up At The Lake

  Puno, Peru
Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Floating Islands

A 6 hour bus ride from Cuzco took us to the town of Puno, lying at an altitude of 3860m on the edge of Lake Titicaca.  Lake Titicaca was our main reason for heading to Puno.  At 3815 metres it is the highest navigable lake in the world and covers 8400 sq. kilometres making it the second largest lake in South America.  It is believed by the Inca's that Maco Capac the first Inca rose from the waters of Lake Titicaca so the lake is held with great regard by the local population.  But enough of the stats and history.  On the Monday morning we took what I can only describe as bicycle tuk tuks through the Puno city streets to the port, from where we boarded our boat that would take us onto Lake Titicaca.

Women Of Isla Tupiri

After half an hour on the lake we reached our first stop which was the floating islands.  These islands were completely made of reed and inhabited by Uros Indians.  It was really fascinating to see their ingenuity and how they´d built up these communities floating on the lakes with everything made from reeds, from houses, communal kitchens, tables, chairs to even boats.  And apparently once the islands get unstable after years of decay on the reeds, they simply abandon the island and set up a new island elsewhere.  In the last 2 years the island we visited had managed to buy solar panels so have just started to enjoy the delights of television (not necessarily a good thing).  We also learn´t that although the lake is full of fish, the islanders only fish for what they need and don't fish on a commercial basis.  What they don't have, they barter for on the mainland with what they have caught or produced.  Apparently there is also oil in the lake and mining potential in the mountains that surround the lake and in other areas of Peru, and the government understandably wants to take advantage of this to boost their economy but the people wont let them because they regard the lakes and mountains as sacred places under Inca philosophies.  All very interesting stuff indeed.

Edge Of Island

Reed Houses

Reed Boats

After our floating island stop we cruised for another two and a half hours before we reached the Island of Amanti where we would be staying the night in a home-stay.  On the island we met our new momma for the night called Bonita - this was another Inca thing, our guide explained to us, that Inca's would call everyone their momma´s or poppa´s or brothers or sisters even though they are not directly related.  When the Spanish invaded areas of Peru they would ask the natives questions like "where is your wife", to which they would reply, "my sister is my wife", which sounded rather incestuous but in fact it was not and the Spanish did not understand this culture.  Anyway we eventually made our way to our accommodation for the night, very very basic but it was what I was expecting.  While waiting for lunch we played some sort of volleyball game with Bonitas young children, Yanet and Ronaldo, and also some sort of hand slapping game which worked a bit like snap. 

Homestay

After lunch ( a delicious soup and then native potatoes and yams with fried cheese) we had a wander about before heading to the traditional 4pm game of soccer on the local footy pitch.  This happens everyday apparently and I was looking forward to flexing my football muscles against some tricky locals but it disappointingly just turned out be just a bunch of gringo tourists playing against each other.  I had a game nonetheless and at 4000m the game is very hard indeed and I was completely out of breath after just a couple of quick 10 metere dashes.  Luckily the game only lasted 10 minutes as we conceded a goal (not my fault) and it was winner stays on so our team got chucked of the pitch.

Traditional Peruvians

We sat down for dinner later that evening with more of the family this time and had another delicious soup with pasta, rice and potatoes as a main meal - really really simple but good nutritious food.  We also managed to have a 20 minute conversation in Spanish with the granddaddy of the family, which was the most Spanish we´d spoken for a while.  When we arrived we were armed with some Quechuan phrases by our tour guide but we hardly had to use them as everyone spoke very good Spanish.  After dinner we were all provided with ponchos and hats and escorted to the village hall for traditional dancing and stuff.  The dancing was good for me as it consisted of two types, 1) holding your partners hands and swinging them back and forth, which my momma led me very well in doing, and 2) hold the hands of the people to the left and right of you and semi-run round in a circle or figure eight.  If only all dancing was like this.

Me And Mamma

The following morning we had a pancake breakfast made for us by our mamma and then we said our goodbyes to the family and was back on our boat for the 3 hour return trip to Puno.  Back in Puno we didn´t do to much except kill time till the next days transfer to Bolivia, but we did have a meal at the restaurant near our hotel where we were treated to yet another traditional Peruvian music and dance show (I was getting a little tired of these by this stage) which was only livened up by the pan pipe band interrupting the usual traditional music for a trio of Beatles songs and the obvious fact that the dancing girls skirts were getting shorter and shorter with each song.  I was gutted when we had to leave when they reached belt width.  And that was the end of Peru, nice country, very interesting history, generally nice people but the highlight was by far and away the Inca trail - do it if you can!!

Looking Cool