What does navigable mean?

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Tahlei

We spent the last couple of days on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. Can someone tell me what navigable means? How big a boat do you have to put on a lake for it to be navigable? Is navigable even a word? Even if we're not sure about the lake's claim to fame, we are sure of some things. It is very high - 3,811 metres, it's beautiful, and the people are lovely.

We finally arrived in Puno after a horror bus ride from Arequipa. We went with Civa which we thought was a decent company, but we learnt the hard way that looks can be deceiving. It left an hour late from the terminal with all the local people stamping their feet and banging the windows yelling "vamos!". When it finally left it gave us false hope, as the bus stopped again a few kilometres down the road to wait for passengers they'd left behind at the terminal to catch up in a taxi. The six hour journey was almost unbearable thanks to the lack of air conditioning and unopenable windows. It's hard enough breathing in such an enclosed environment, but when you’ve also got the stench of rancid piss to contend with , you’re counting down the minutes until you can escape. At least the view helped take our minds of it, though we should have been sitting on the right hand side of the bus.

We arrived in Puno after dark and were unimpressed at first sight. Exacerbating this feeling was the overpriced accommodation. We finally found something decent and cheap but it was fully booked, so we ended up next door at Hotel Inti. The promised 24 hour hot water was a white lie and the pillows were like slabs of concrete, but it was OK. We dumped our bags in the room and went in search of dinner, not expecting much. However, this is where Puno makes up for any of its shortcomings. The food is the cheapest we’ve had yet, with plenty of variety on the set menus and they usually come with a hot tea which is a nice touch. We also found some of the best street food so far - salteñas, which can best be described as a South American samosa. We have since seen them sold as salteñas bolivianas, so we’re looking forward to having many more over the coming weeks.

Puno is not exactly a tourist destination itself, rather it is a jumping off point for visiting the islands of Lake Titicaca. The next day we set aside solely for planning our excursion on the lake, but as we walked around the town we came to appreciate Puno for other things. The Plaza de Armas is quite attractive and it’s a very lively place. That night we encountered what seemed like our seventh straight parade - Peruvian people don’t appear to let an opportunity slip for a party; every town we visit we seem to see some sort of music and dancing in the streets.

Most people visit the islands on a tour organised through an agency, but from the information we were given by the very helpful iPeru information office, we discovered it was incredibly easy to organise an overnight stay on the islands yourself. At the port there is one community boat ticket office where they sell you your round trip ticket, visiting the floating islands of Los Uros, staying the night on Amantaní and visiting Taquile the next day before returning to Puno. This is exactly what the tour agencies “organise” for you, but at a higher price. It became apparent very early on that we’d made the right decision as when we were walking to the port in the morning we were passed by a convoy of trici-taxis loaded with gringos heading off for their tour on their chartered boat. We, on the other hand, were squished onto a boat with a couple of dozen locals and all their monthly supplies. This is not a bad thing; it’s a more authentic experience. Apart from us there were ten other tourists on the boat, all after the less “packaged tour” kind of thing.

First stop was Los Uros, which are famous floating islands not far from Puno. They originally began building the islands to create a safe haven from the marauding Incas. Nowadays, they have been invaded by tourists and it’s a bit tacky, but still interesting. We landed at one of the 60-odd islands, which each house about five families. We were given a little presentation explaining how the islands, the houses and the boats are all built from reeds, then came the moment for the women to flog us their artesania. We were given the option of visiting another of the floating islands, but as they are all very similar everyone agreed to push on to Amantaní.

Being away from the watchful eyes of the coastguard the captain let us climb onto the roof of the boat, where we stretched out over baskets and packages and dozed in the sun for the three hour journey. This turned out to be a silly idea - at that altitude and with the sun beating down and reflecting off the water we both got severely sunburnt despite the multiple applications of sunscreen.

There are no hotels or hostels on the island - when you arrive at the port the captain assigns each couple or group to one of the waiting women, who take you back to their home. The priceis fixed and includes three meals - lunch and dinner on the first day and breakfast on the second. It’s a well established community-based tourism scheme, but it feels like you’re doing something a bit out of the ordinary. We were assigned to Julia, who was dressed in the typical outfit of the island, with a full red skirt and a black mantel over her head. She led us up the hill, through dry fields and eucalypt trees, over low stone walls and passed small herds of sheep. We saw ahead a very cute little house with flowering vines covering the walls, and were delighted when Julia suddenly turned in through its gate. It was the nicest house we saw on the island. The room was basic, but then so is everywhere we stay. The toilet was a mud brick outhouse in the field next to the house, but it was spotlessly clean.

After making ourselves comfortable in the room we went down to the kitchen for lunch, which is a seperate little mud brick building. We were introduced to Agustín, Julia’s husband, and we talked about life on the island over lunch. Lunch consisted of potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes, with a tasty fried cheese that was similar to haloumi. They don’t really eat meat on the island - there are no cows, or chickens. We also were given muña tea, which is a tasty plant that helps with the altitude. Julia and Agustín take in one or two visitors per week, but they want more. Their community is one of the lesser visited on the island, which is just the way we like it.

After lunch Agustín took us for a walk half way up the hill and showed us the path to follow to the top. It didn’t look like such a big hill, but at that altitude it was a difficult climb. A young boy followed us for a while, playing his pan flute- I don’t know how he had the breath for that. Finally we reached the top which is crowned by a ruin. There we saw some of the other people from our boat, including the crazy Chilean guy Ronny Rooms (Ronaldo Salas) who was in the throws of a Tibetan water bowl ceremony.

There were very few people up there when we arrived, as we expected given the small number of people staying in our village. But as sunset approached hoards of gringos from the other side of the island started swarming the hilltop like an aggitated ants nest. That’s where all the tour groups were staying. It was quite ridiculous - there were probably 50 or 60 people up there - totally ruining the beauty of the sunset. Adding to the farce was Ronny Rooms, blowing on his sea shell ritualistically as the sun set.

Agustín met us at the bottom of the hill to lead us back to the house, which was necessary as we would never have found our way. We arrived back just as it was getting dark - and it gets proper dark there. When we emerged from our room for dinner the darkness was absolute, and of course the stars were amazing. It’s a shame it was so cold outside because I would have liked to stay out and stargaze a bit longer.

The next day dawned sunny, as it is most days, which is why the bitterly cold lake doesn’t freeze over. It was a bit windier than the day before so we were anticipating a rockier ride on the boat that day. By the time we’d got up Julia had already been to visit her mother in another community and come back. After a breakfast of pancakes, bread and tea we briefly met Esther, Julia and Agustin’s younger daughter who had been visiting her sister on the other side of the island. She greeted us with a kiss on the cheek and implored us to come back soon. They are so genuinely happy to have people there to stay with them; I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so welcome.

We said our farewells to Agustin at the port and boarded the much emptier boat, as this time it wasn’t full of the locals and their supplies, just us twelve tourists. This allowed us to stretch out comfortably at the back of the boat, and get even more sun, which we definitely didn’t need. It was only an hour to the next port of call, the island of Taquile. The boat docked at the cute little harbor at the base of 500-odd steps up to the village, which is inconveniently situated at the top of the hill. It was another tough climb but we did it pretty well. On this island everyone wears traditional dress, even the men, which you don’t see too often. And the women walk around spinning wool on little spindles. It’s a really beautiful island, a bit more fertile than Amantani, and only having one village made it seem more complete with more people walking around and more going on.

After a couple of hours wandering around and enjoying the views - both of the scenery and the people - we headed back down to the port. While we were waiting for the rest of our group to arrive Kyle was thrown a rope from an incoming boat and expected to know what to do with it. The boat was laden with more supplies, which even the three year old little girl had to help carry up the steps, even though she could barely get herself up them. We watched in amazement as one guy strapped two huge gas bottles to his back and proceeded up the hill. He had another two trips to make after that as well. They certainly know how to carry stuff.

Another three hour boat trip back to Puno passed uneventfully. We arrived back and went straight to the bus station to buy some tickets to Cuzco for the next day. We really enjoyed our experience in Puno and on the islands of Lake Titicaca, and would highly recommend organising a trip to the islands directly at the port. You’ll appreciate it as much as those who are hosting you.

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Comments

[Liliana]

Be carefuel with UFOS, I was told Titicaca is a very magic place, and sometimes it is visited by them. have good time. Liliana