Lake Titicaca
This lake is quite beautiful and I am enjoying my stay. Copacabana in Bolivia was pretty boring and it was Bolivia so… Copacabana had a few gringo (and folks from other Latin American countries) hippies selling jewelry and other art. I saw the same in La Paz. I am not quite sure why someone would choose to sell their products in Bolivia given the prices are much lower. Actually, I know exactly why they are there – cheap living and drugs. Even stranger than the economic nonsense is that they make the same products that the indigenous artisans make. So, they are basically stealing the local product designs and screwing over the poor by competing against them. That’s free market for you, but I wonder if any of this dawns on them? Probably not their intention if they could think straight. The other odd thing is the number of rat nest hairdos – I’m sorry, but dreadlocks on white men look absolutely ridiculous… and grotesque.
As I reported before, I went to Isla del Sol and had my first good experience on Lake Titicaca. Seeing the snow-capped mountains along the eastern side of the lake is quite spectacular. Further north in Puno, Peru, these mountains cannot be seen, but the lake is no less beautiful. I went out to the Uros Islands which are famous because they are floating islands. About 500 years ago, a group of Aymara-speaking locals fled the Inca and built islands out of the tortora reed which grows abundantly around the shallows of the lake. Today there are thirty islands with a couple of thousand Aymara residents. An extended family lives on each island. We learned that the islands are replaced every thirty-five years or so. They are made cutting large blocks of the reed roots from where they grow and towing those blocks to the island location. When cut from the growing area, the blocks float. The blocks are tied together and then they are anchored into the bottom of the lake which is shallow in the Uros area. Reeds which are up to eight meters in length are then laid on top of this foundation. The islands are soft and spongy because of this thick layer of reed. The reed is replaced regularly because rain causes the reed to rot. The families then build reed huts on top of the anchored floating island. The islands also have a pond in the middle where farmed trout are kept. They successfully cook with open fires. Successfully in that they do not burn the whole island down!!! They also build boats out of the reed some of which are quite elaborate such as Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki.
Modern ways have been accepted by these people. A lot of their buildings are now made out of corrugated steel which lasts a lot longer than reed. They also have modern boats with engines. Solar power for TVs and lights is also common. The tours to the islands are often ridiculed by the travel books, but I disagree with their assessment that the place is too touristy. The first island that my boat visited is called Pachamama. The family here lived quite traditionally and they are doing well with the tourists in that the tourists by their beautiful textiles which the Uros people are famous for. They taught us about how they live and we seemed to share some good laughs. I did not feel like they were putting on a show for us or we were making their lives horrible or changing their lives in a bad way. The second island we went to was very touristy, but that is because it is an island of commerce and not for a family. It has a small “hotel” of reed huts, post office, food market, restaurant and a pay phone. Even though this island matched up more with the guide book criticism, I still thought it would be a great place to stay overnight. Overnights include fishing with the families that manage the island and other interacting with them plus the huts are pretty cool looking. Although there were a number of boats docked at this island, that only lasts a few hours of the day and then the islands are empty again.
Puno is the separation point of the Aymara and Quechua indian groups. Quechua is basically what the Inca spoke and their short hundred years of existance did not give them enough time to convert the Aymara speakers from the Tiwanaku culture area centered around Lake Titicaca and spreading down into Bolivia where most of today’s Aymara people still live. The Aymara around the lake are an interesting people. They manage to live at 3800+ meters in elevation. They have larger lungs and thorax than the rest of us and they have two extra liters of blood which is quite a lot considering the average person has less than five liters of blood. They call their blood “sangre negra” or black blood. It keeps them warm and able to work at these high altitudes.
Lake Titicaca is the center of the Tiwanaku culture which was the top culture in South America for 2700 years. The lake is also the supposed birthplace of the advanced Inca culture. Other cultures also lived around this lake. By the way, have you ever been taught about the Tiwanakus? Considering they were so advanced and managed to survive almost three thousand years, it seems like we should all know about them. I went to Sillustani near Puno which is the highest cemetary in South America at over 4000 meters. It is a unique cemetary in that it contains burial structures from three different cultures, two of which were pre-Inca. All three used rock to build cylindrical buildings called chullpas above ground. The Incas, being th ultimate masters of stonework made chullpas which are smaller in diameter at the bottom than at the top and the rock which is carved with rounded edges on the outside fit together perfectly… no mortar needed. The chullpas are quite impressive with some of them twelve meters in height. Unfortunately, lightning strikes have caused some of them to literally explode so that only portions are still standing together.
I met an amazing woman on the tour to Sillustani. Isabella is a Swede who has emigrated to Ireland. She is a pharmacist who is looking at attending medical school soon. We had some great conversation throughout the day and walked out to the edge of the site which overlooks a large lake with a huge flat-topped island in the middle. The scenery is spectacular at Sillustani and I could have stayed all day especially talking with Isabella. When we got away from the main area, the silence of the countryside was fantastic. When we got back to the bus at the designated time, everyone else was already loaded up waiting to leave. I guess they did not find it all that spectacular. I know a lot of people have a hard time getting around at this altitude, but I am fully acclimated again after the hike on Isla del Sol. I look forward to seeing Isabella again in Cusco where she is living with a family and studying Spanish.
On Isla del Sol, I also met another very interesting woman. Katherin is from Italy, but she speaks German! She also looks like she is Sweden rather than your classic Italian-featured woman. She is only twenty, but I learned as much from her about life as anyone else can teach me. We went out for dinner in Puno after taking the bus together from Copacabana. She is volunteering with an Italian organization in Bolivia and working with deaf children. The children are deaf due to the doctors that have treated them. It is one of the saddest stories I have ever heard especially since multiple children from a single family have been affected. Katherin told me that with her limited training in medicine, she knows more than the doctors in a remote area of Bolivia. No, I was not surprised to hear that this is true in Bolivia! She brought pictures of the children and it was quite touching to hear about their lives and situations and Katherin’s experience with them. She is headed back for another three months after doing a little touring. I gave her some money knowing she will do something directly and good for the children with it and I look forward to hearing about that when she gets back to them. The world will be a better place with Isabella and Katherin being doctors or nurses in the future.
Yesterday I visited a town called Chucuito which contains a pre-Inca (maybe) site which was supposedly a fertility temple. It has stone carvings which look like mushrooms. But they’re not! I went there because I had led myself (probably with help from travel guides and pictures without real scale) to believe that the sculptures were up to three meters in height. I was disappointed to find the small site to only have sculptures up to one meter in height. They were still large (!), but I was kind of underwhelmed. The highlight of the drive to Chucuito was seeing the locals working with the tortora reeds – harvesting, drying and making bedding from them. The views of the lake on a crystal blue-skied day were fabulous.
Today I am off to Llachon for a stay on the lake with a local family and then I paddle the following three days between islands on Lake Titicaca. The indigenous people, scenery, paddling and wildlife should be quite good. I have been waiting for three months to finally do this activity so I am exceited. By the way, if you come to Lake Titicaca I recommend Juan Carlos Lllerena Manrique (jucasama3@hotmail.com) for guide services. His English is excellent having lived in Chicago for a number of years. His knowledge of the area is unsurpassed. Also, if I could do it over again I would have stayed a night on Uros floating islands and the lodge can be contacted at www.kamasarakilodge.com. I’m in a hurry and hope this posting made some sense.
Tags: peru, south america, Travel
vagabondrick
I read some travel blog authors who rave about their visit to lake titicaca… it must be really nice place. anyway, thanks for sharing! 🙂