Lake Titicaca, Lake Taqauile and Uros Islands – 23 April 2011

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We had great fun riding in a TukTuk to the jetty to catch our boat which was going to be our transport for the next 2 days. Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It sits 3,800 m above sea level, making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. By volume of water, it is also the largest lake in South America.
Five major rivers systems feed into Lake Titicaca. In order of their relative flow volumes these are Ramis, Coata, Ilave, Huancané, and Suchez. More than 20 other smaller streams empty into Titicaca, and the lake has 41 islands, some of which are densely populated.
Since 2000 Lake Titicaca has experienced constantly receding water levels. Between April and November 2009 alone the water level has sunk by 81 cm and has now reached the lowest level since 1949. This drop is caused by shortened raining seasons and the melting of glaciers feeding the tributaries of the lake. In the Puno Harbour side, we saw lots of bubbles coming to the surface of the water. We found out that this was the Government attempting to put a bit more life into this very polluted side of the Lake and was pumping oxygen through it. Punos black and grey water used to be emptied into the Lake – this practice has almost been eliminated.
Lake Titicaca holds large populations of water birds and was designated as a Ramsar Site on August 26, 1998.
It was a beautiful clear sunny day and we were able to move around the boat, including sitting up on the roof of the boat.
After 1 1/2hours, we stopped to visit one of the Uros islands. Uros people harvest totora, an aquatic plant (floating reed) used to make their floating islands, a group of 42 or so artificial islands. These islands have become a major tourist attraction and we saw many boats docked at the various islands. We stopped at 2 of the islands, learning how they made and maintained their islands. They continually replenish the reeds on the top surface of their islands and re-thatch their roofs every 3-6 month. They also made their local textiles etc which they sold to tourists.

We then went to a island as we were going to stay with the local community for 1 night. We were met by the 8 families that were accommodating us all (2 people per family). Tom’s and my family consisted of Quano the wife and Charles (who was the President of the Island). They had had 9 children who had all left home.

After settling into our rooms which were very basic but with plenty of blankets on the bed, they served us a lunch of soup and a vegetarian casserole with rice. We also had local herb tea which wasn’t too bad. After lunch we went down into one of their small paddocks and helped dig up a large quantity of potatoes. Other members of the group helped with milking, or went out into a boat for some fishing, or moved the animals to new feeding spots.

We then re-met with all the group and the locals were setting up a volleyball court for a locals vs visitors competition on the beach. We formed our teams and wow, were the local women fantastic at volleyball. We learned later that there is a volleyball competition between the islands and Puno and our competitors were pretty successful. We all rotated our players and the locals beat us 5 times.

The sun was setting and it became bitterly cold. We all went back to our homes to rug up. The families then dressed us up in their traditional clothing (see the photos). In addition to great fun, the clothes were warm. All of the group came to our host’s place for dinner. We pealed the potatoes and cut up all the vegetables for dinner. We then had to wait while the locals cooked our veggy soup (they love soup here) and vegetable casserole and rice main course. This again was washed down with herb tea. At 9.30pm we all went to bed. This was an experience in itself. The blankets of our bed were VERY heavy, ands obviously weaved by the locals. They didn’t even fall around our shoulders and necks because of their stiffness. They were however very warm. We sletp well even though when I turned over during the night I woke up because of the effort to turn !!!!

The next morning we had their homemade bread which was deep fried – I couldn’t eat it and had some fruit we had with us, once back on the boat. We then walked down to the jetty, farewelled our “families” and for the next 3 1/3 hours we cruised around Lake Titicaca again to our lunch spot.
Our lunch was on Taquile Island which is on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca 45 km offshore from Puno. About 1,700 people live on the island, which is 5.5 by 1.6 km in size (maximum measurements), with an area of 5.72 km². The highest point of the island is 4050 meters above sea level so this answered why we felt out of breath with small climbs.
Taquile, whose Quechua name some believe was Intika, was part of the Inca Empire and has a number of Inca ruins. After the Spanish invasion, the Spanish forbade traditional dress, the islanders adopted the Spanish peasant clothing. They are known for maintaining that as traditional dress today. They combine this with finely made Andean-style garments and accessories (ponchos, belts, mantles, coca-leaf purses, and others).
Taquileños run their society based on community collectivism and on the Inca moral code ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla, (Quechua for "do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy"). We saw much of Taquileños’ fine handwoven textiles and clothing, which are regarded as among the highest-quality handcrafts in Peru. Knitting is exclusively performed by males, starting at age eight. The women exclusively make yarn and weave. Each week, the leaders of the community meet and make decisions such as how many handicrafts should be supplied by each family and how these items will be priced for sale. There was no bartering on this island.
We then walked to our restaurant off from the main square. Lunch was amazing – vegetable soup followed by local trout and lime, rice, salad. The drinks were even cold (which is unusual in South America). We then learned about their local dress and how a new couple must live together for 3 years before getting married. Before they marry, the wife must make the husband a thick, woven belt which has motifs that represent what they want to gave and do during their married life. It’s their life plane. Hats that the community wear tells if they are are single *boys have red and white hats), married (women have black veils) or community leaders (wear multi coloured hats).
After the lunch we walked down 533 Inca stairs to the jetty. The town was very organised re stone paths and gates and the whole island was terraced. We enjoyed our time on the island. We then had a very relaxing 4 hours on the boat to go back to Puno. On reflection, the home stay was an experience but more gains for the locals as they were paid to house us and we also bought them a gift of rice, pasta and oil. At least tourism is helping them develop their housing and infrastructure facilities. We saw a lot of ‘work-in-progress’ projects. Our room had a partly excavated small room off our bedroom which was obviously the first step for an on suit bathroom. They still had the ‘drop-toillets’. They did have power and running water though. So it was back to Puno for another night.

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Photos

Lisa and Tom in Tuk Tuk
We all went in 2s to catch boat on Lake Titikaka