Lake Titicaca

Yesterday we left for a 2 day tour of 3 islands on Lake Titicaca (pronouned Ti-ti-ha-ha)! It is one of the highest navigeable lakes in the world at 3800m. Our first stop on the lake was at the Uros Islands, also known as the floating islands. These islands, which are floating on the surface of the lake, house hundreds of people. Originally people created and lived on these islands as a way to escape the Spaniards when they invaded Peru. Now, they are very touristy islands it is hard to tell what is genuine and what is done up for the tourists. Regardless it is pretty neat that people live on islands that are floating 20 meters above the bottom the lake. They use reeds and a type of moss to keep the islands afloat and have to keep adding reeds every 2 to 3 weeks.

After the Uros islands we boated very very slowly, about 10 km/hr, for about 2.5 hours to reach Amantani Island. We were greeting at the dock by our family, with which we were staying the night. Our host ¨mum¨ greeted us and walked us up to her house where we met her husband. They showed us our room for the night and then served us lunch. Nothing about staying with this family was touristy at all, which was really nice since we got to see how people on this island truly lived. The families only house tourists once a month, taking turns accross the island. Lunch (consisting of way too much food) was quinoa soup, potatoes, rice and an omelet. The island, which is very agricultural, produces most of its own food. The only part of lunch that wasn´t produced on the island were the eggs for the omelet. I don´t really understand why (it may have been lost in translation) but there is little to no livestock on the island and therefore most or all of their meals are vegetarian. After lunch we hiked up to one of the summits of the island which consists of 2 mountains. The summit at 4,150 m overlooked a beatiful view of the Lake. After the hike we headed home for dinner. Dinner which consisted of some other type of soup (they called it cereal soup, it looked like barley or bulgar to me), rice and potatoes. Once again there was way too much food but I couldn´t bring myself to leaving any food of my plate. Waste is something that doesn´t exist in the majority of households in this country since they work so hard for the food they put on the table. Fortunately my dad and I swapped plates when no one was looking and he helped me finish the food. After dinner, we both got dressed up by our family in traditional clothes and went to a traditional dance. It was pretty neat to see the locals perform some of their traditional dances, while the rest of us felt goofy in our outfits.

My host mum and I in our traditional outfits....

The next morning we woke up and had ¨pankeke¨ (as they call it) for breakfast. It was more like deep fried bannock or a donut than a pancake. We then headed off to the last island call Taquile Island. We walked around the island and then had lunch there. We had a beautiful view while we ate fresh trout from the lake. After lunch we got back on the boat for the 3.5 hour ride back to Puno. About an hour in the driver stopped the engine and anyone that wanted could jump in the lake. Of course my dad and I did!! The lake, at about 14 degrees, is very similar to the temperature we encounter in lakes near Yellowknife in the summer. I jumped in closely followed by my dad. We were caught off guard though, not by the cold water, but by the inability to catch our breath due to the altitude. Cold water usually forces you to take a few deep breaths while you get used to the temperature of the water, but in this case we couldn´t. It actually really scared me, I felt as though I had winded myself and I couldn´t catch my breath, I don´t think I could have swam very far if necessary. Only when I grabbed onto the boat did I manage to catch my breath. The rest of the boat ride back to Puno was spent trying to dry off on the roof of the boat.

My dad and host dad at the table eating breakfast!

The computer is really slow here, I will post more pictures when I find a faster computer. We head to La Paz, Bolivia tomorrow for a little less than a week.