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Published: July 13th 2006
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Lake Titicaca stands at 3810 meters above sea level and is the highest navigable lake in the entire world. Being 165km in length, 72km wide and its deepest point at 284m, this monstrous lake is a wonder to behold.
Acting as a giant thermal regulator, the solar energy attained during the cloudless days is released during the evening and makes living in this inhospitable plateau possible. Straddling the Altiplano, a flat expanse of land between the Royal Mountains in Bolivia and the Peruvian Andes, the lake covers an astonishing 8560km squared and contains 896,000,000 cubic litres of water.
The now fresh water lake was formed when the techtonic plate which runs from Alaska to Antartica and is responsible for the Andes and the Rockies first clashed into the landmass and trapped this huge expanse of water inland. Over time, the Saline water turned to freshwater and the Andes grew so high and wide that it has left this lake some 238km from its home in the Pacific Ocean.
Legends have it that in ancient times, the Sun God sent massive waves from the ocean to punish the people of this once beautiful valley. After the event, 500 years
of darkness ensued after which the first rays of Sun appeared from the eyes of a Puma standing on the horizon of the lake. The name therefore literally translates as Titi (Puma) Caca (Rock).
With two days to explore the lake, we travelled from our base in Puno by Marcelo (the slowest boat in the Southern Hemisphere) to Taquille Islands, named after the leader of the Spanish invasion in the area. There we sampled some dubious food and sat in the main plaza admiring just how spanish the local costumes were and listened to a impressively chauvanistic speach from our guide Lucho about the way it is right to grab women without need for their opinion.
From there we boarded our asthmatic boat to the neighbouring island of Amantani where we were to spend the night in a homestay with a local family. On arrival we were greeted by around 20 women all in traditional dress and all either sewing hats or spinning yarn on the sunny dock.
In groups of 2 we were allocated a family and Claire and I being first out of the freshly knitted hat, began our walk up the picturesque hill with
Amelia, a young chirpy looking girl who continued to knit in silence as we walked. Although we were provided with a list of expressions in Quechua we were pleased to find that Amelia also spoke Castellano. That said, the conversation was still very limited and for an hour or so we uncomfortably sat in the bedroom we had been escorted to, not knowing if we should try to make conversation.
The homestays are an arrangement where tour groups are taken to the island and allowed to stay in one of 8 communities on a rotational basis. The families generally take in 2 pairs of tourists per week during the high season which provides them with much needed additional income and also provides the likes of us with a unique insight into life on an island in this remarkable lake.
Before sun down we took an exhausting but worthwhile hike up the steep hillside to watch sunset from the islands peak and on the way we passed hundreds of terraces and plots separated by dry stone walls where the islands inhabitants worked tirelessly all day.
Interestingly, the farmers who having found that once a plot of land has
Old Peruvian man...in funky hat!
He was knitting a hat when this photo was taken...It is traditional in this region for the men to do all the knitting. reaped a good crop it requires around two years of rest before re-use, have resorted to leaving potatoes strewn across the ground during the freezing evenings and by doing so, earn extra income by making natural freeze dried potatoes.
After watching the beautiful sunset, our guide explained that the pre-Inca temple at the top which is still used by locals to make sacrificial offerings to Pachamama was actually built some 5000 years before Christ. The accuracy of this date was all to do with the precessional movement of the earth, something Claire and I had already known about and related to the two entrances to this temple which would at the time of construction have been alligned to the sunrise at summer and winter solstices.
For those who dont know about precession, it is the term used for the natural wobble in the earths´ axis as it hurtles around the sun. Like the wobble of a spinning top only on a planetary scale. Each wobble takes 72 years and the full cycle to bring solar allignment back to the precise point it started, takes an astonishing 26,000 years.
By working out the angle at which the solstice
sunrise is out of allignment it is a fairly simple calculation to establish how many wobbles of 72 years have passed since the construction of the temple. In this case, 5000 BC but in other cases such as the Pyramids and particularly the Sphinx at Giza in Egypt, this calculation puts the age of construction to be far older than orthadox Egyptologists would ever accept. This is a point which intruigues Claire and I greatly and one that we are keen to investigate at the many ancient sites we will visit on our journey.
After braving the cold descent after Sunset, we sat down with our nominated family in their stone outhouse kitchen and ate a delicious meal of rice and vegetables cooked on a wood stove. During the meal it was impossible not to appreciate just how simple life needs to be and the experience is definately one we won´t forget.
After dinner Claire and I were taken back to our rooms and dressed from head to toe in traditional clothing. Mine a simple but Eastwoodesque Poncho and Claire a full multilayered skirt and what seemed about 12 Giant belts! Sweating and chuckling we walked up that
wretched hill again and to the local community centre where the local band "The Waykys" (Brothers) rattled out some local pan pipe hits.
Dressed like this, it would be rude not to dance but having joined the dancefloor with Amelia, it was not long before we realised that not only did each song last about 15 minutes which was gruelling at this altitude but also that Amelia was partially insane! Every song was greeted by a high pitched whoop and a crazy swing of the legs and then Amelia would start whipping our circular dance so we ended up losing our grip and flying across the dancefloor!... Needless to say, about 5 songs in we were completely spent and wheezed our way down the hill and to bed!
In the morning, after orange pancakes we said goodbye to our family and boarded Marcelo for a lethargic chug back toward Puno and to the floating Islands of the Uros people. Now it´s not everyday that you decide to build a town on some straw but for the Uros people they felt it was the only safe place to be, having been exciled from the mainland by the Aymaras who
ruled the region prior to the Incas. With their being a large Reed bed in this corner of Lake Titicaca, the Uros people noticed that once the roots of the reeds had decomposed and become bouyant, they were able to tie the huge chunks of roots together and lay a further metre of fresh reeds on top to create a fully stable floating island.
Although a remarkable sight and strange sensation to stand on, it is clear that today, it is sadly tourism which keeps these islands afloat. After gaining an explanation on the islands construction, we travelled across the river "Willy" which runs as a life source between the islands on a beautifully crafted reedboat. The boats which at the prow are adorned with intricate woven Puma heads are strikingly similar to those found in Egypt at Giza. Some historians suspect an ancient link between the many lost civilisations dotted around the world and the discovery of cocaine on the mummies found in Egypt can only add weight to the argument of Trans-Atlantic contact.
Having spent two days experiencing life on this impossibly high lake, we left Puno the next day on our way to Bolivia and
its´capital La Paz. The border crossing near Copacabana (Not Barry´s favourite beach this time) marked the end of our time in Peru and it was easy to reflect on what an incredibly varied and beautiful country it is. Having long wanted to visit Peru because of its fascinating history and spectacular topography, it has lived up to every one of our dreams... Without ruling out the possibility of returning in the future, for now we will say Salud Peru!
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Carolina
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HELLO HELLO!!!
Heya guys!!!! seems to me that u're having loads of fun!!! cant believe its been almost a month already since i picked u up at barranco to go have lunch haha....anyways i just wanted to say hi and i hope u're ok and safe, i love readin your blog u're good writters haha...anyhoo i gotta go finish my model now I finish uni on wed finally!! then a month off....hope to hear from you soon. Miss ya loads xx