Lake Titicaca - The best lake in all of the South American Andeas

The last week has consisted of early starts. It´s a pitty none of us read our tour ticket correctly, otherwise we might have avoided another pre dawn awakening for an excursion in the rain and cold. Have I mentioned it´s the rainy season here, which contray to other countries means it wet and cold, not wet and hot. So after an extended wait we finally got a mini bus to the Puno harbour for a day excusion to some of the islands of Lake Titicaca. Apparently the world´s highest navigable lake at about 3800m, although I read somewhere this is a lie and just another tourist trap, but they didn´t mention what was the world´s highest navigable lake.

So our adventure began with a 3hr boat ride to Taquile Island, one of the many islands on the Peruvian side of the lake. We got dropped off about 40mins walk from the main plaza. Feeling nice and fresh after our Inca Trail expedition we hammered the 40mins, well I think we did, but I didn´t have a watch so I´m just guessing. The island like many of the others, is pretty much just agriculture and weaving. We saw plenty of the agriculture side of it. I was disappointed not to see any llamas or alpacas. Once we arrived in the main square, we got to sit around for about 20mins and be harrassed by little girls trying to sell us stuff. In the end we fed them peanuts and corn, and that seemed to satisfy them. Our guide explained to us some of the customs of the island.

Whether they still maintain their reasonably traditional way of life for the tourists or heaven forbid they actually like it and don´t want to become the next america it was interesting. The men all were hats that look like pointy beanies and this signifies their maritial status. Then depending on how they were the top pointy bit explains if they are looking for love or currently courting. There are all sort of other things like waist bands that tell you if they are of age to leave the island etc. The women also have certain clothing that indicates their maritial status. Our favourite though was these pom poms that are worn on a cloak type thing. If they are showing the blue ones (I may have mixed them up) then the is something wrong and they are not happy. Steer clear I think is the idea. If they showing the yellow ones then everything is dandy and they are having the time of their life... almost.

After this we headed down to the port of Isla Tauile and headed to the famous floating islands. These are todo loco. They are about 2-3m thick of reids that they have just chopped off and put more reids on. When we arrived at the island it started to rain (suprise its the rainy season) and our 5 sol ponchos once again came to the rescue. The locals were more than happy to have us in their houses till the rain subsided. Our host was Idla, and she was 36yr old. She got a raw deal though, because she was showing us this weaving that she and her daughter had done. It was obvious that the idea was we buy some, but because we were heading for Bolivia the next day we had literally counted everything and were down to our last 10 sols. But her son Harley kept us entertained and we got some photos with the little devil. He was quite taken with our plastic brightly coloured ´rain be gone´ ponchos and I´m worried that some of the photos may be a bit suss.

The houses on the islands are also made out the reid and were suprisingly dry and warm (altought they have had how many of hundreds of years to perfect them). The next floating island we went to was the tourist island. It had a restuarant, telephone with international capabilities, a mini market and a lodge. Although apparenlty its possible to pay something like 15 sols and you can stay with a family on the islands for a night. If we had more time it certainly would have been interesting.

Our time in Peru ended with another bus ride over the border. But that is another story/blog...

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