Island Hopping and Other Adventures above the Tree Line (Almost)

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I am not sure why such landscapes - barren, windswept plains, sometimes guarded by sweeps of mountains, all various shades of browns, golds, and muted greens; endless sky above - make my heart swell so. It's not like I grew up in such an environment. But I felt the tug in the steppes of Mongolia and I felt it this time in the Peruvian altiplano. Of course, these types of places are tough, difficult on human inhabitants. Actually, very like Mongolia, while the high plain is hauntingly beautiful, the few towns eeking an existence out of the hardscrabble environment are astoundingly ugly. (In the case of Juliaca, the largest town/city, was one of the most aggressively - proudly? - ugly urban centers I have ever seen. All buildings are in various degress of incompletion as to avoid being taxed, roads rutted and chaotic...) People in the altiplano are more concerned about survival than aesthetics, but they are surrounded by severe beauty nonetheless.

I saw much of this from my bus window as I made my way from Cuzco to Puno, the main Peruvian port on Lake Titikaka - "the highest navigable lake in the world" and an expansive, wet mirage in the middle of the ultra-dry altiplano. Like the other towns I saw, Puno would never win a beauty context, but I liked its rough port city/border town energy. But mostly it was a convenient launching point for seeing the lake and environs.

North of the city, on a tongue of altiplano that extends into Titikaka, Sillustani, I visited the empty chullpas (tower shaped tombs) of the Colla and their successors, the Inka. I thought I might be "ruined out" by all the Inka sites I had clambered about in the Cuzco area, but I wasn't - I could have spent hours roaming Sillustani, watching the sun set over the lake...

But the main reason I had come to Titikaka was to see the lake and its islands. I ventured out on a two day, one night circuit of the Peruvian side of the lake (Titikaka - or "stone-grey puma" in Aymara - is shared by Peru and Bolivia). We saw, first, the Disneyland-esque Islas Flotantes de Uros, famous floating reed islands that have, alas, been all but commercialized as a tourist destination. You only get a faint glimpse of what the islanders' life used to be like in their spongy world. Still, it was the first Aymara-speaking community I got to experience. Next came the more "real" Isla Amantani, a three hour trip in an excruciatingly slow boat. No roads, no motorized vehicles, it was as peaceful as one can imagine. Amantani also required another linguistic shift - to Quechua (this was the first time I heard the language being spoken on a regular basis, as a living means of communication). I spent the night with a quiet family, in a mudbrick compound overlooking Titikaka. The next day it was to Taquile, famous for its weaving and textiles. Actually, I must say the men of Taquile, in their black vests, white shirts, brightly colored waistbands and jaunty woven hats, are the best dressed guys I've seen in Peru. And the women weren't too shabby either!

Both Amantani and Taquile felt far removed the bustle of Puno and the desolation of the surrounding altiplano, tranquil spots to end my stay in Peru.

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Comments

[Ami]

your message was as tranquil
as the scenery you describe. a nice tone on which to end this, or any, trip. one question - remind me how you found the family with whom you stayed? looking forward to welcoming you back to DC!