6/6/15: Lake Titicaca from Peru

I woke up at another ungodly hour today (about 5:50 am) to shower since there was no water last night. The breakfast was good, and I waited nervously again to ensure that the tour I had booked yesterday would be honored. Luckily, I was!

We arrived at the port of Puno, where we were put on a boat towards the first of the two islands that we would explore today in the Lake Titicaca, or highest navigable lake in the world. Honestly, it's beautiful! The part near the city of Puno has a lot of algae in the water and it not as pretty, but the part that is closer to the islands is truly gorgeous when the water is clear.

Our first stop was the Uros islands - these are nearest to Puno. When we arrived to just one of about 100 islands in the group that makes up Uros, we met the community president. The island we saw had only 5 families, so it was really small but this president did a great job in explaining the process of building the island. Essentially, the ground is made of two parts and is about 2 meters deep. The bottom is packed soil that contains roots of reeds. They are anchored by reeds that are growing on the bottom of the lake (this area of Titicaca is rather shallow) so they don't float away. On top of this soil block are layers and layers of alternating horizontal and vertical reeds, piled on top of each other. This provides a softer ground to stand on. He had an adorable little model that got a chuckle out of all the tourists.

The inhabitants of the island then took us on a boat tour, which was nice and peaceful. Two of the little toddler-age girls insisted on coming along, and the whole time they were climbing all around the two-deck boat and talking to each other and the people who could speak Spanish. They were absolutely adorable.

The problem for today was that I had only about 55 soles left, and since I’m leaving for Bolivia tomorrow (they use the Boliviano), I didn’t want to take out any more money. I set aside what I needed to pay for my hostel, but I got on the boat before I realized it was 10 soles. After paying that, I was left with about 11.5 soles, which I thought could last me. More on this later.

We walked around the island a little, though it was tiny – about half the size of a basketball court. There was barely anything on it – 6 houses, a little ancestor’s teepee thing, a restroom, a lookout perch, and a little outdoor kitchen. The center was empty/filled with water and not for people to walk in. It was so interesting to see their lives, where children take little boats as taxis to school and the adults jump in the Lake for bathing and washing. They have so little and yet they can have a good time. It’s truly fascinating.

We then got back on the boat to head towards the other destination for the day, Taquile Island. This one is a lot larger than the Uros island that we saw – it has about 2000 inhabitants, and its textile art was named a UNESCO World Heritage product in 2005. What makes it unique is that inhabitants traditionally wear their special clothes to signify their marital/relationship status. For example, married men wear hats with one type of pattern. Unmarried men wear another, and its position on his head signifies whether he is single and in school, single and graduated, or in a relationship. I can only imagine what it means for the "Define the Relationship" talk, lol. Women wear shawls, and the size of the rainbow tassels on the corner signify their relationship status - large for single and coupled, small for married. 

We then went to eat lunch. If I had known that we would all be eating together for a fixed price, I would have just booked the tour with lunch instead of without. The cool thing was that the guy who ran the little restaurant out in the middle of nowhere on the island gave us a demonstration on a plant that they could grind up and mix with water to make a sort of natural shampoo! Lunch was delicious – grilled/fried trout with rice, potatoes, and beets. The problem was that I was asked to pay 20 soles – and I had only about 11.5 on me. I had no idea what to do, but luckily a girl that I met offered to spot me the rest, so I’m extremely thankful for her and for that! 

After lunch, we had to walk to the Taquile city square. Along the way were houses, animals, and agriculture, which is the main economic activity on the island. The city square was very small, with basically a tourist shop, a restaurant, a great view, some random shops, and the city council meeting place. What made it nice, though, was a beautiful view!

On the way to the boat were these gorgeous arches that framed the Lake in the background in a way that was just absolutely stunning. One other tourist pointed out that he thought the cover of the Lonely Planet guidebook for Peru was taken from Taquile, and I’m pretty sure he’s right. Seriously, it’s beautiful.

That was my day! Pretty chill, about 6 hours of it spent on a boat, unfortunately, but Lake Titicaca from Peru is quite pretty! I'm going to Bolivia tomorrow, starting with Copacabana, where I will see the Lake from the Bolivian side. The trip is making me really nervous because I won't be able to use my phone there, and I also have no hostel/accommodations booked in Copacabana. I don't know what the wifi situation will be either, so this will be quite the adventure - I only hope that it will work out for the best. Wish me luck!