Life on Lake Titicaca

We arrived in Puno after a flight from Cusco to Juliaca and a bus ride to Puno. Juliaca is known as the ugliest city in Peru. It is a place, due to its closeness to Bolivia, where there is much smuggling. There really was not a trace of beauty anywhere. 

Puno, a city on the shores of Lake Titicaca is 12,600 feet altitude - the highest we have been on this trip. Our hotel has nice rooms that have a spectacular view of the Lake. We set an alarm for 5:00 am so we could capture a beautiful sunrise. 

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is 116 miles long at its longest point and 42 miles in width. The deepest part is 930 feet deep. Lake Titikaka (spelled this way by indigenous people) means gray cat. 

Life surrounding and on this lake is varied. Our first visit this morning was to one of the floating reef islands inhabited by the Uros people. There are 87 of these floating reef islands housing approximately 2,000 people. 

These floating islands use the roots of the reef plants (which float) as their base, run stakes through them and tie them together. These are approximately 3 feet deep.  Reeds are and then stacked on top for another 3 feet. Reeds must be added every 3 weeks. The houses they make from the reeds must be replaced every 6 months. 

The Uros people have lived on these floating islands for 800 years. It is believed that within 2 generations, these islands will become only a museum. The younger generations want to move to Puno for job opportunities. 

Interesting life facts:

- the constant humidity causes rheumatism 

- the children learn to swim at the age of one (the floating islands are in 60 feet deep water)

- the government provided each family with a solar panel because there were so many fires due to candles

- the water in the shallow areas (60 feet deep) surrounding these islands is polluted and can no longer be used for drinking

- people take their boats out to the deep area of the lake where it is clear and filter and boil the water for drinking purposes

- they bathe in coves where the water is a bit warmer once a week. 

- they open their islands to tourism (to sell their handwork) for cash 

- they believe if you take their picture, they are immortal. 

Our second stop  -  an hour and a half away on the lake was Taquile Island  a UNESCO site.  It is inhabited by approximately 2000 people.  The island is supported by tourism mainly but they also produce potatoes, fruits and have animals for milk production.  These descendants of the Incan people believe that if you take their picture, you have stolen their soul.

We were greeted by inhabitants dressed in native costumes who played primatitive flutes accompanied by a drum while performing a dance.  We then followed them up to a home where we learned about the native clothing they wore.  One interesting point made was that the hats the men wore were knitted while the rest of their clothing was made from woven fabrics.  Men do all of the knitting - a skill they are taught as children while the women were the weaving.  Single men and women wore different colored clothing than married men and women.

We then went to a buffet lunch of soups, trout, potatoes, rice and flat bread.  After lunch the inhabitants sold their woven and knitted products.

We returned to the boat for the 1 and 1/2 hour trip on the lake with sunny skies and white, puffy clouds rimming the shoreline.

This evening after dinner, we began the bizarre process for obtaining our Bolivian Visa. We had to bring $160 of crisp, clean U.S. bills that had no tears, no marks, not crumpled and did not have serial numbers beginning with certain letters. We had to turn in the cash and our passports a few days earlier. The Director of the Bolivian Consul insisted that he come to our hotel and personally hand us our passports (with Visa inside), and verify that we matched our passport. This was the first step of getting into Bolivia. To be continued tomorrow as we actually cross the border!