Lake Titicaca

A slow boat on Lake Titicaca, but with nice sunny weather, who can complain? 3810 meters above sea level, the lake is 165 x 60 kilometers, that’s something like 90 x 38 miles in dimension. (Guestimate -- I still don’t have the conversions down.) Peru owns about 60% and Bolivia the rest.

A 2 day/1night tour costs about $19 or $20, including the boat passage to two islands, overnight accomodations, and 3 meals. Leaving Puno, the boats glide through channels cut through the reedgrass which is growing everywhere near shore. After 20 minutes, we arrive at the Uros Islands. Families live on these floating islands constructed on a base of the rootblocks of the reedgrass, tied together, and anchored to the lake bottom with eucalyptus poles. They then layer several feet of the dry reedgrass on top, and there you go, your very own island real estate. It takes between 8 months and a year to build an island.

Speculation was rampant among the group as to whether the people actually stayed there, or went home to the city somewhere at night, after working "the job". About 10 to 15 families live on each of the 40 islands, and eagerly receive the tourist boats passing everyday with handshakes and wares for sale, the usual handwoven alpaca blankets, hats, and also carved gourds and little knicknacks of woven grass. They also build these huge boats out of the grass, and hauled us tourists across the water to another grass island for $3 each. Not a bad business model, really, except the boats only last about 2 months until they become too waterlogged, and begin to rot. I wouldn’t have really believed it without having seen it myself. They subsist on the lake trout and small garden patches they’ve created on the islands, and go to town once a week to trade and buy vegetables, toilet paper I assume, and other necessities.

The tour continued on to two of the major islands on the Lake, each with about 2-3,000 inhabitants, preserving the Quechua (old Andean) language, and living simple, agrarian lives. These people are definitely for real. Electricity is only just beginning to arrive to some parts of these islands, in the form of solar panels. The family I stayed with did not have any, but provided candles, and did have a wood floor in the guesthouse, so we were living high on the hog. Simple vegetable and quinoa meals, but very tasty, and our group of 8 went on a hike up the hill to some of the old ruins, and for magnificent views of the ancient, agricultural steppes and the lake and islands beyond.

It was very scenic and peaceful on the islands. These people work very hard, and are just able to produce what they need, weeding the potato field in order to feed the cattle and sheep. Hardworking, but laughing and smiling. I don’t know if they realize how special a place they have, being so isolated by location from the rest of the “modern” world.

Ladies young and old sit along the walking trail waiting for us tourists to pass by, patiently knitting another hat, pair of gloves, alpaca sweater, etc. Their skilled hands do not stop moving--they are spooling the wool as they walk by on the trail. The prices are almost ridiculously cheap for what you are getting, and the soft, gentle plea to purchase is nonetheless persistent. Although bargaining is culturally acceptable here, it would seem almost heartless to do so--I’d rather pay them an extra buck because I know they‘ll use it better than I will. The real issue for the traveler is how much luggage you can get on the plane with, and sadly, that doesn’t leave nearly enough room....