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Back to Titicaca
Entry 41 of 54 | show all | print this entry |
When somewhere is this good then a return trip is worthwhile.
What is it about a place that pulls you back to check that if it really is as good as you remembered? Every so often I say that no place is worth revisiting because it rarely measures up to your initial memories, places are like people, you learn that no-one is perfect, we all have our faults that show with time, it is the same with towns, villages and cities. So why did I come back to Titicaca especially when I knew that it would be oh so cold at night? The reason was one of disbelief, nowhere could be that special.
Well Titicaca is that special for me.
The cold is getting into my old bones and I must away very soon but it was worth the second visit and one day I will return yet again.
Yesterday a boat ride took me to Uros and one other of the many floating islands on this huge lake. The boat like myself was feeling the passing of time, when just a few hundred yards off the jetty the engine spluttered, the "engineer" tinkered, the engine stopped and we drifted peacefully fora while. With the aid of a pair of rusty pliers, wire and a rag to act as a bandage the problem was solved and we were underway once again through green algae and tall reeds that were the habitat of some unusual bright blue beaked waterfowl.
The first sight was of two large reed craft, their stems high in the air decorated as heads wearing crown like halos, then straw like dwellings were seen peeping over the reeds and a small craft slowly crossed our path towing what must have been a fifty yard train of newly cut reeds, no doubt to become the new floor of one of the sinking islands.
When we cautiously stepped onto Uros, (it felt like a child`s bouncy castle ),there were half a dozen vendors wearing traditional costume awaiting our custom. Their display of hand crafts laid out on blankets were mainly of Alpaca wool woven and embroidered in brilliant colours with indigenous patterns and emblems of Inca and pre-Inca style.The huts were small, neat, dry and clean, there was a small school house and even a look-out tower that stood all of fifteen feet high!
After a while we were taken to a second island that was a little larger, it housed about twenty people of which only one was not wearing traditional clothing; he wore his supporters football outfit! Apart from the ten or so houses there were six or seven pyramid shaped huts that served as bedrooms for those tourists who were bold enough to brave the ten to twenty degree drop in temperature that occurs as night falls. I was not game for that degree of coldness.
Three larger huts served as outlets, one food shop, one tearoom type place for us tourists and the third was a small restaurant complete with a menu board leaning against the reed doorpost.In my ignorance of Spanish I thought the one item on the rather sparse board read "esgargo" but was informed by sign language that it was a local fish, (they call it trout!). Together with a young Japanese lady, who had as much English as I have Japanese, we tried speaking to the "football dressed" chef, who spoke only Spanish which was of no use to either of us. The chef called to his kitchen hand and they took us to a whole in the reed floor of the island where there were several catfish looking creatures swimming quite happily. Within five minutes one poor "trout" was served to us on a bed of rice with potatoes, salad and several vegetables that I didn`t recognize, it was all on one large plate topped by two forks. It was a very good meal eaten in pleasant company where sign language and gestures really counted.
There were only eight of us tourists on the trip that took up most of the afternoon starting at midday. The cost just 1.50 pounds for the boat and a silly two pounds for the meal and two cokes that was shared between Siashoo and myself.
As we all went our separate ways on returning to Puno I knew exactly why I feel the way I do about Titicaca
Keep on wombeling you travelers, there is so much to be seen. Take care so that you can!
Latest Comments (1)
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love it (reply)
Mar 9, 2007 07:45 EST by womblekisses
Love it and you .... hope you can face yet another trip to this enigmatic lake next year ... pack your thermals.
Hugs ... Myumi will teach you Japanese!
abracos from Foz.
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