Day 39 – Lake Titicaca, Los Uros Floating Islands and Tequile Island

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Well, it is finally here….. Our last full day in South America of our grand adventure. Yes, we do want to return home to America and Pollock Pines, but no, we also would like to continue seeing all of the amazing things South America has to offer! Lake Titicaca, which lies at about 11,300’, is the highest navigable body of water in the world. We will need to do some cross-checking with respect to Lake Tahoe when we get home, but the lake is huge, and probably second only to Russia’s Lake Baikal in size, and is bordered and shared by Peru, Bolivia and Chile, and the borders run right through the lake as in Tahoe. It is a pretty crappy morning, with the temperature sitting at about 40 degrees F, rain and fog, so we are prepped for foul weather and our little tour boat awaits us at 0700. Anyone remember “Gilligan’s Island?” Yup, we are on the S.S. Minnow (not to be confused with the S.S. Scurvy). Once we clear the inland area around Puno, we hit high waves, heavy gusts of wind and heavier rain. As our boat tops out at about eight knots, this is a two-hour torture ride out to Tequile Island, but well worth the pain and misery of the raucous ride. This small island of 2,000 people represents the pre-Incan culture of South America and Peru, founded in about 1,000 B.C., and little changed here by modern day society and technology in 2012. Their only contact with today’s world is the small boat we came on, and that is infrequent. Strangely enough these folks still dress in the Spanish fashion of the 15^th Century today. Every article of hand-made clothing has a social meaning or rank reflected in it, and after a 600’ climb to almost 12,000’ we are personally greeted (and we DOmean a hand shake, bow and greeting of “Good Morning” in pre-Incan for every member of our little eight-person crew) by the island’s head authority figure, and a village chieftain. We then experienced the opportunity to actually tour and touch the stones of a structure built in 1,000 B.C. that still stands (albeit remnants) today. As you look at the photos of the people we met on Taquile Island, it is important to remember this is an extremely closed society (they are losing their children to modern Puno in some respects and their culture is slowly dying) that has minimal contact with outside life in 2012 Peru, except special tourist visits arranged by their Tribal Chieftain, so we felt blessed to be able to come here. The rock carvings in the photos are 3,000 years old and still remain today!



Then we headed out to Los Uros Islands, a community of 52 floating islands (usually each “island” contains one extended family unit consisting of multiple small housing units) that are simply amazing. They have existed in the same fashion for centuries of time, and are again, and extremely closed culture where outsiders are absolutely NOT welcome except as visitors. Although friendly and gregarious with outsiders, no outsider inter-marries within this society. These folks live on man-made islands of peat and reeds (life expectancy of an “island” is 25-30-years and are completely built from reeds that grow in the shallow waters of Titicaca) in thatched huts with all of the modern day appliances (well, okay, a radio and T.V. run off a 12-volt solar panel in some cases, as well as a hole cut through the reeds right into the lake for “personal business”). Until 1983, their method of burial was to wrap the deceased in a sheath of cloth, tie a heavy rock to the remains, and drop them into the lake they spent their life on…. NOT too good for the Puno drinking water system. These folks are shy-but-friendly, and they do have a lot of exposure to Puno and outside culture, but are completely self-sufficient. This is the community of the famous Thor Heyerdahl“Kon Tiki reed boat” project of the 1940’s, where a professor proved that a boat constructed of reeds from this village, could and did sail across the Pacific Ocean. Steve had a chance to serve in the galleys as an oarsman, which proved to be one Hell of a lot harder than paddling a canoe in Yellowstone!

We returned to our hotel at 1800, burned out but happy for all that we have experienced in our last day in South America. We did a final pack check of our six tons of luggage for tomorrow’s flight and are just kicking back and relaxing. The weather has shifted from absolutely awful to absolutely beautiful, and as we write this blog tonight at 2200 there are HUGE sheets of lightning and thunder storms pounding the city of Puno tonight, although about an hour ago, Steve was out shooting photos of the city lights of Puno at night and a local fireworks show! How are those folks who live on islands made of reeds faring tonight? Time for bed!

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