Day 12

Day 12
Jacob and I arrived in Puno at 5am this morning to visit lake Titicaca. We arrived with no real plan and planned to make it up as we went. After some research we learnt you have to visit the islands guided due to them being protected and limiting visitor numbers etc. for those who don’t know Lake Titicaca is home to man made floating islands with indigenous communities on. Collections of islands are made of different families and every island has its own president. The president is swapped every other year.

We managed to join a tour leaving the bus terminal and after getting some breakfast we hopped onto the bus and headed to Puno port to set off to the islands!! We first visited Uros. This is a collection of Islands closest to the shore and they rotate which islands you can visit so that only two tourist groups visit each island per month. The islands are made of totora reeds which float and they put wooden supports amongst them. They then use the dried reed to build layers to increase the stability of the island and lastly they anchor it. The islands have a lifespan of around 30 years and then they sink and must be rebuilt. Most of the people that live on these islands have lived here through generations.

We arrived on an island in Uros and the president greeted us and gave us a demonstration of how the island was built and introduced us to his family. They do speak Spanish but not as a first language Aymara, and Quechua are their native languages. They also showed us inside their house which was very modest and made of wood and reeds. They also do a lot of tapestries- all the women do this and they are absolutely stunning, I bought one as wall art/ a table runner!

The president then came up to me, noticing i was ill and wrapped a plant around my head with the guide translating that it was for fever. Feeling slightly taken a back I thanked him and interestingly it did help!

Next up we visited Taquile island which is much deeper in the lake and nearer the Bolivian border. This is one of the last Incan communities left in the world. You arrive in a small port to a truly beautiful place. Stunning beaches and scenery with no people. There’s no cars, bikes, or roads and they get all their supplies that they don’t grow from boats. Then the people carry up to 40kg of supplies home. It’s insane. We walked up to the top of the island and were greeted by a group who performed a dance for us and sang a local song. They also showed us the natural shampoo they use and we got to see the ladies using the old looms to weave their works. We learnt that there is no police on this island and that there is only three rules- don’t be lazy, don’t steal, and don’t lie- simple but effective I guess!!

We then learnt that men who are married wear red hats and single men were red and white hats! And that once you get married, the women cuts her hair and weaves a wig for her husband !! They also don’t have wedding rings but sometimes have wedding belts. Weaved by the wives often depicting the calendar seasons. They had so many amazing pieces, Jacob bought a weaved belt to hang on the wall!

We then had a lunch with live music and local foods. This was the end of the tour so we arrived back into Puno. However we had one last thing on the agenda today- a fishing tour! The air bnb hosts we were meant to be staying with kindly moved our fishing tour today today and they picked us up in their speed boat and headed back out into the islands. Here we met Gina who took us out on a traditional boat. They don’t use rods in lake Titicaca only nets which she had laid two nights before. She took us out onto the lake and checked the nets and we did manage to “catch” two fish! Not quite the fishing trip we had imagined but wow was it amazing. The lake was so peaceful. All the tourists had gone home and it genuinely felt like it was just us on the whole lake. Not a single bit of wind, just the occasional bird. The islands and houses framed by looming mountains and sparkling waters is a sight now etched into my memory forever. As we watched the blue sky turn orange and pink it cast watercolours across the lake that danced amongst the ripples. I was pretty impressed with how good my Spanish was, managing to have a pretty long conversation with Gina about her family, the lake, and what it was like to live there.

After this we headed back to grab some dinner and then get the overnight bus back to Cusco to meet up with Keira and Tom. This was such a special day, I think one of my top travel experiences ever !Leggi altro