Lago Titicaca

It was with sadness that I departed Bolivia, but Peru could not of started better with a trip to Lake Titicaca. The lake is the apparently the highest navigable lake in the world, and the second largest in South America. It is just so vast, you are tricked into thinking that it is actually the sea. It sits on the border of Peru and Bolivia, just about half belonging to each nation. I got to see the Bolivian side from Copacabana, a town on the lake front, but I did not get to visit the Isla del Sol or Isla del Luna, which was a shame because I hear they are really beautiful.

I did however visit the Peruvian islands on Lake Titicaca. Puno is the town on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, there is not really much to see or do there, but it is a pleasant base from which to explore the Lake. We set out early for the port travelling in style in rickshaws powered by a little old man on a bike. We then boarded our boat and set out to visit some of the many islands on the lake.

One of the many islands on Lake Titicaca is Taquile. It is a pleasant little place, where you can hike around 40 minutes to get to the main plaza. It was abuzz with tourists, as I found nearly all places on the lake to be. We had a brilliant guide Alejandro, who was extremely informative, telling us all about the history of the lake, the islands and the people. The view from the top of the island was stunning, just the sparkling blue of the lake all around you, there was also a fab restaurant which served up a pretty awesome Quinoa Soup and Veggie Omelette, as well as Inca Kola the local drink of choice, which tasted like Irn Bru.

The peninsula where we stayed overnight was called Luquina. This was my favourite place on Lake Titicaca, not just because we got to dress up in traditional dress!! There were no other tourists here, it was completely untouched, and did not have the usual tourist traps that were to be found on the islands we visited. The people were very warm and welcoming, and they greeted us with some of their traditional music. After this they challenged us to a game of football. I would like to say that I played football against the locals, but I actually think I spent more time shrieking and covering my head. We lost narrowly 5-4 which was obviously all down to the altitude, which at 3800m played into the hands of the locals.

One of the best parts of the trip was being dressed up in the traditional clothes. We looked absolutely ridiculous, but it was a lot of fun. I just could not get over the amount of clothes they wore, we literally had 5 thick layers of skirts on, which were extremely heavy. After we  were decked out and obviously looking like Peruvians, the locals put on a fiesta for us. They showed us a traditional dance, and then it was our turn to give it a crack, this must have been highly amusing for the locals who had slightly more mastery over the dance than us. We were shown a few more dances, one particularly cute one by the little kids, and then it was our turn to dance with our families. I pulled the short straw by ending up with the son of my host family Wilbur, he was ridiculously energetic and after 2 more dances (not forgetting the altitude of course!) I was completely knackered!

The host family were really cute, their house was surprisingly comfortable and it was not as cold as I thought it was going to be. The family members there at the time we stayed were the mum Juana, the son Wilbur and  his 11 year old sister, whose name I have forgotten! Thankfully the family had a child as we had brought gifts of food and toys including a skipping rope and a hannah montana ball! At first we thought that Wilbur, the 17 yr old was the only child of the family, which was slightly embarrassing...Here you are, have a skipping rope!

The family spoke Aymara which made communication difficult, but we got by with our basic list of Aymara phrases and a few smiles and thumbs up. The host mum Juana cooked us a dinner of vegetable soup and rice with vegetables which was pretty tasty. I did not sleep amazingly, the array of animals seemed to make noise all night, and the cockerel was making noise from around 5am for hours, I swear I nearly broke my vegetarianism and killed the bugger. The breakfast the next morning was slightly random, we awoke to a bowl of chips on the table (interestingly the family did not have chips, I think they just had some assumption that english people only eat chips!) and some deep fried pancake thing, not the healthiest.

We left the island in the morning for the Uros floating islands, the kindness and warmth shown by the people in their humble and simple existence was something I will never forget. The Uros islands were incredibly touristy. They were great to see and it was interesting to learn about the construction of the islands. They are made out of layers and layers of reeds, which have to be replaced every 15-20 years. We spent a little time here looking around the islands, and chatting to the locals, who tried to sell you their wares. We then took a short ride on this boat constructed by reeds, it felt like it was going to break in half at any point, as the waves created by the tourist boats came past.

Lake Titicaca is a beautiful place, and one in which I could have spent a lot more time. It was incredibly serene and peaceful and a great way of seeing the lives the traditional people live.

Onwards to the historic city of Cusco, my next post will hopefully be after I have survived the Inca Trail. Wish me luck! Macchu Picchu here I come!