Lake Titicaca
Wednesday, June 7th, 2006
6th June 2006
OK….Lets start with some facts!
Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world and spans the border between Peru and Bolivia (next stop); with approximately 55% of the lake sitting in Peru and yep you guessed it 45% sitting iin Bolivia. The Lake is a cool 8,200 square kms and is approximately 3,800m above sea level.
We booked an overnight trip to three of the Islands situated in the Peruvian side of the lake; Uros, Amantani and Taquil.
First stop Uros. Now we have never seen anything quite like Uros before! It is one of the few floating Islands situated on the lake. The inhabitants have lived on the Isaland for thousands of years and use the reed that grows in the lake for everything….they eat it (a little like a mild celery taste)…..they float on it …..there boats are made of it and their houses too. When you get onto the Island the surface is kind of bouncy due to the layers of reed keep the houses afloat and we understand they have to replace the top layer of reeds at least three times a month (five times in the rainy season). What was the first inhabitant thinking when he thought “I know I´ll go and live on some floating reeds in themiddle of the lake?”
Uros is tiny….there are only eight families living on the island and they eat the fish and drink the water provided by the lake.
Now picture the floating island with its houses made of reeds and add to the equation a solar panel outside each house!…even more bizrre…..the panels were apparently a gift from the ex president Fuji Mori (not sure if I have spelt that right).
The second Island – Amantani was somewhat larger and was where we stayed overnight with a local family. Communication was somewhat difficult as we speak “solo poco espanol” and the Islanders tend to speak Quechua as their first language. We were left slightly unstuck when the guide told us we should give our gifts after lunch…..what gift? No-one had said anything about gift? Well we scrambled together Chris,s Nike baseball cap (here was my perfect opportunity to get him to ditch the Windies cricket hat…but no amount of persuasion!), a pack of Oreo cookies, a banana, and 10 soles! I will admit the banana was a somewhat bizarre choice of gift but I had read in the guidebook days before that fruit was always welcome.
The evening saw us at the local Fiesta ….decked out in local garb! Honestly you will love the photos when they arrive but for the time being picture Chris in a Poncho and a Llama hat with me in an embroidered blouse and a full on hip transforming skirt (seriously they dont just add inches they add metres!) The skirt was held in place by a large waist band tied so tightly it hurt to breathe! To top of the ensemble I had a head scarf come shawl thing going on.
Now most of you know that dresses arent really my thing and only brought out if needs must! Well once Chris had finished wetting himself we proceeded down to the dance…..the dancing was pretty much primary school disco stuff where you grabbed a guys hands and shimmied forwards then back and then later everyone in a big circle being swung round at almightly speeds.
The third Island Taquil was a little less friendly but the views were “awesome” ( a little American we have picked up on the way). The men and women wear different hats to depict whether they are married or single! Now this should be adopted in some kind of form or another back home….how much easier would the dating game be! Although tradition on the island holds that when a lad sees a girl he fancies he trows a stone at her! I guess the more bruises you have the prettier you are deemed to be!
Tomorrow we are bidding farewell to Peru. We have seem the most amazing scenery here and have had to pinch ourselves at times when we were getting a little complacent and taking the sights for granted. The people we have met have on the whole been friendly, welcoming and helpful.
26/5/2006
It all started at 5.30am on Monday morning! We arrived to catch the bus from Cusco to km82 and the ... 
Chris and Charl