Peru

Lake Titicaca - a miracle in the Andes

3001

09/04/2015

Lake Titicaca (Titi = puma, caca = strong/rock) is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is so large that you can observe the earth curvature there so it may seem you are at the sea and not at the the lake. Another interesting is that the lake has a border between Peru and Bolivia. We set out to see the lake from the Peruvian side out of Puno city and we can truly recommend this option. Our boat trip was really nice with a good English speaking guide and the entire trip cost us only 45 PEN (15 USD). We bought this super deal in our hostel Virgen de Las Nieves where we stayed in Puno. It was an amazing 1day trip.

Uros – an artificial island

Uros is a synonym for the residents of the artificially created islands. Islands are of different sizes from the small to the bigger ones. These islands are built of reed and you may find them on many places at the lake. Nowadays all reed islands are anchored to avoid sailing away to Bolivia. It would be a real problem for local people 😉 We visited one of the smallest islands of the size about 80 m2 tenanted by three families! Yes it sounds unbelievable and it also was! The island is really tiny and people have everything they need. There are small huts where they sleep, shared kitchen, natural toilette and the watch tower. Honestly even they have been touched by the modern era and of course use the gas stove for cooking or have installed solar panels on their roofs. We have to confess that the self-sufficiency of these people truly impressed us. Among the most interesting things belongs the toilette. There is a special part of the island, on the edge where they go and then cover it with the ash. By this they create natural compost. For transportation they use ships made of reed. We had the opportunity to try riding this boat and it was really stable. The only problem is maintaining the boats. For example the boat made only of the reed lasts only 1 year. Therefore they now prefer to stabilize them with plastic bottles and prolong the service life to 2 years. Building the ship takes in both cases 6 months!

Bigger islands are literally the floating villages. There is everything that all people living there need. You can find there a school where teachers come to everyday from the mainland. There is also a medical center, small shops and of course a football field.

Taquile – a natural island

Around 3 hours of boat trip from Puno there is a nice natural island Taquile. The name of the island derived from the name of the former owner. Now it is a property of Peru with circa 2000 inhabitants. All these people know each other and have very interesting habits. An example could be classical Peruvian hats. The colors say a lot – whether it is the authority of the community or if the man is married or not, according to the wearing it also says if he has a girlfriend or is single. 😉 People live mainly from the agriculture and tourism. They are absolutely self-sufficient and try to live absolutely in the harmony with nature. The nature here is very various. And if you are lucky like us you may observe a male and female of hummingbird. Besides that you can see sheep, cows and other animals. We spent 3 hours on this island and truly enjoyed it. We were able to stroll along the lovely small roads, taste local food. And our small trek ended up by walking down 560 stairs.