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Published: October 17th 2009
Today was spent on the lake.
We left at 8 and walked down to the private pier by the hotel. And I do mean down, it was loads of stairs! Fifteen minute boat ride took us to the Uros Islands, aka the Floating Islands. They are inhabited by the Uros Indians. In pre-Incan times, they were forced off the land and started living on reed house boats in the southern part of the lake. In the late 1930s/early 1940s there was a drought that forced them back on to the shore. After the drought ended, they came up with the idea of building floating lakes out of the reeds of the lake. Walking on one of them is like walking on a waterbed. Mauricio (our guide) says there are about 40 islands, and before the boat heads out, they have to check with the harbor patrol and find out which islands they can visit that day. We went to 2 islands. On the first, we got a demonstration of how they make the island out of reeds and then we were dressed in native clothes and had our pictures taken. After that, the ladies of the Island sang for us, first in their own language and then singing "twinkle, twinke, little star" in English. After changing out of our native vestments, we looked around at the stuff the folks were selling. Then some of our folks took a ride in one of the reed boats to a second island. We only had a short visit on the 2nd island, and then we got back on our boat for a trip to Taquile Island.
The ride to Taquile Island was a litte over an hour. It was really cool being on the lake. As we neared Taquile Island we could actually see the mountains of Bolivia in the distance. Our first stop on the island was to meet some local people. They are known as some of the best weavers in the world. The women do the actual weaving, making belts and shawls and bags, while the men knit hats. It was interesting to watch the men knitting with the four needle technique. After another song and dance demonstration we again had the chance to purchase some stuff. I got myself a really nice pair of gloves.
Our second stop was for lunch. We had to walk up way high to get to the place, but it was fun. We had quinona soup with vegetables, then lake trout with rice and vegetables and potatoes. We also had bread that was very similar to pita bread.
We are on our own for dinner tonight so a few of us are going to meet later to eat. Tomorrow morning we see some more ruins then fly to Lima via Arequipa. Tomorrow night is our farewell dinner and Monday, while most people head home, 9 of us head to Quito and then on to the Galapagos. I probably won´t blog tomorrow, and may not get a chance until we get to the Finch Bay Hilton on Wednesday.
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haviva Horvitz
non-member comment
What kind of boats?
What kinds of boats did you travel in for the longer rides? How large? How smooth a ride? Lots of pictures? (Like I have to ask . . . .)