Iles flotant

  Puno, Peru
Friday, February 23, 2007

Leaving Aztectown behind me, I headed further south towards Lake Titicaca. Before I get into that a couple of housekeeping things. Firstly, as has been pointed out to me, Quito is not the world's highest capital - that's La Paz in Bolivia. Secondly, yes, I didn't have a great time at Machu Pichu - there you go - end of story - it's not the world's greatest ruin - great scenery, but for me that's it - sorry to those of you who think differently - you're all wrong!!

Anyway, on to Lake Titicaca, but first the most spectacular rail journey

Great Train Journeys

I've ever taken. It's 10 hours from Cusco to Puno (the city on the shores of the lake) and it crosses through some of the most spectacular Andean scenery. Admittedly, it's also a bit of a tourist train, but recognising that 10 hours is a long time, we were entertained throughout with Peruvian music, lessons in bartending and a couple more fashion shows.

Making a Pisco Sour

As for the lake itself, there are a couple of things that make it highly unusual. Firstly it's height. At around 3,800 metres above sea-level, it's the world's highest navigable lake - I'm not quite sure what that means exactly, as what's a non-navigable lake? Secondly, it has a community who live on floating islands made of reeds.

The floating islands

This is as odd as it sounds - about 1,000 people live on 50 or so of these little islands, made entirely of reeds. The community's been there for as long as anyone can remember, and despite the big city attractions, it's size is remaining pretty constant - the attractions of the simple life if fishing, making reed boats and fleecing tourists seem to call the kids back after university.

From these floating islands, onto one of the larger real islands in the middle of the lake - not much to report from there, except great views and a severs case of heart failure after having to walk up to the top of these very long stairs at 4,000 metres

A long way up at 4,000 metres

- finally figured out what altitude meant!! Talking of which, the altitude experience is quite odd - I've now been at altitude for a week or so and it still takes some getting used to. It's not been uncommon to see tourists with oxygen masks and about 5% of tourists actually fly back to Lima within a few hours of arriving as it hits them very badly.

As for illness, well, after 4 months of pretty good health, I've finally succumbed to my first dose of the runs. This might have had something to do with the Peruvian speciality of Guinea Pig I had for dinner last night.........

One final thing on Lake Titicaca is the name and it's origin. There are two theories - one is the translation of the name to Great Puma, on the basis that if you squint at it's outline, it kinda looks like a cat. The other, which I prefer relates to its position between Peru and Bolivia. So, you split the name to get Titi, which refers to the beauty of Peru and Caca which refers to the crapness of Bolivia.......

And, so, on from Peru and a minor detour out of South America to Belize for a little bit more diving. This was a very late addition to the schedule, but so many people have told me that Belize is one of the best dive spots in the world, it would have been a shame not to take the opportunity .

Rob

PS It had to happen. The day after we lose to PSV, I meet a Dutch family. Within 5 minutes, the father enquires if I like football - not really thinking, I admit to being an Arsenal fan - of course, they come from bloody Eindhoven!!! And to make matters worse, I end up being with them for the next 3 days on various tours - never heard the end of it!!