Lago Titikaka

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Greetings people!

This is Josh now. I thought I should give my hand a try at this whole travel blogging stuff. Moreover, I thought maybe I should put up some pictures of our adventures through Peru. As you have all read about these adventures, I am sure you'd like to see from friggin' pictures.

So, without further ado, I present to you Lake Titicaca!!!!

Now, a little bit about Lake Titicaca to refresh your memories....
Lake Titicaca is supposedly the birth place of Manco Capac, the first Inca (Inca, by the way simply means King... the Incas acquired the name Incas when Manco Capac decided that his people were quite royal and great and deserved to be called Incas as well... well the men at least, women can’t be kings... seriously, that’s what they thought).

Anyhow, Manco Capac was the son of the Sun, the primary deity. The Sun decided that his (yes they thought of the sun as masculine) people were falling away, and they needed some one to show them the proper way of life (sounds a little biblical huh?). So, the Sun placed his son, Manco Capac, and his Daughter too, Ocalla Huaca, to lead the peoples of the Andes to a proper way of life. After a bit of wandering north from Lake Titicaca, the Sun showed his children where to start their kingdom... this place just so happened to be Cusco...the naval of the world, or so they believed. Anyways to make a long story short, the Inca and his Coya (Coya means queen...Manco married his sister, actually most Incas, the kings that is, married their siblings...they wanted to keep their blood line pure. Kind of like the Targaryens) rounded up/ conquered/ converted the peoples of the Andes, and paved the way for a new, better way of life.

The Incas' mottos: Work hard, don't steal, don't lie. In fact this was their greeting, how the said hello to one another. They also followed a golden rule of sorts, treat people well and you shall receive goodness in return. Mean while, they conquered and killed heathen tribes, sacrificed young children to volcanoes, etc...

I digress, back to Lake Titicaca. In our Journey on Lake Titicaca we went to three key locales, Uros (the Floating Islands), Amantani (the Island of Traditional Quechua Indians), and Tequile (the Island of traditional Amaryan Indians). Quechuas and Amaryans hate each other by the way. Anyhow... on our trip we briefly visited Uros. Then, we spent the night on the island of Amantani. The next day, we briefly visited Tequlie, and then we return to the shit hole that is Puno, only to leave for Arequipa about an hour after our arrival.

Yeah... so that’s about it....

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Photos

Tour Boat
This a tour boat. It is very similar to the one we rode on. You can sit up top or in the bottom compartment. Up top is much colder; with my thermometer I record a low temp of 40 degrees farenhiet. And, I am proud to say that of all the passengers on our boat (about 15) I was the only one who braved the cold for the full four hour ride to Amantani. Ahh to be a Minnesota boy...

The Lake
Well... it is a little marshy at times, especially near the shore

An Uros Island
This is one of the many floating islands of Uros. The area of Uros is made up of about 20 or 30 some floating islands. The islands themselves are made entirely out of reeds. The are about 12 ft tall, that is they go down into the water about 12 ft. Notice the funny reed boat too.

Solar Power
And here is a traditional Quechua solar plane. Perhaps another gift from the Sun god?

Food
The diet on Uros consists almost entirely of small fish and reeds (yes, they eat the reeds as well; they taste awful though).

Am I sinking?
It was a little unnerving at first when I walked on the reeds becaue my feet sunk down anout eight inches in the reeds.

The Open Water
Our boat was ridiculously slow. All the other tour boats kept passing us.
Also, in this picture you can see why Caitlin believes Titicaca is an ocean. People from the Pacific northwest just don't a propper lake if it bit them in the butt.

The Village on Amantani
This is a view of the small village on Amantani where we stayed the night with a Quechua family and ate very bizzare food. Small huh?

The Top of Amantani
Amantanit is a mountain of sorts with two peaks. Ellie and I climbed up both of them. At the top of one we found this cool funneral pyre looking mound of stones. There were other wierd stone structures too. oh, and also the total elevation at the top was about 15,000ft!! crazy!!

Terracing
Oh how they love their farm terraces. Some how they mange to grow crops in soil that is comprised almost entirely of rocks.... geniuses....

A rock wall at sunset
On Amantani they separate their fields/ terraces with these neat little rok walls.

Comments

[irthewalrus]

Them Islands...
Them uros Islands... they got Engines? Can they race? Do they board eachother and look for dry land like on Waterworld?