After a couple of quiet days in Puno, I took a two-day tour to visit the islands of Lake Titicaca. At 3800m above sea level, Titicaca is the world’s highest navigable lake and is bordered by Peru on one side and Bolivia on the other.
The first islands we visited were the Uros, which are floating islands made from totora reeds. The Uros people are one of the oldest tribes of South America and it’s thought that they originally fled to the lake to escape from the various civilisations trying to conquer the mainland. Today there are over 40 of these reed islands on the lake, each housing 5-10 families.
Our guide showed us how the islands are made, which is essentially by binding the thick roots of the totora reeds together to form the base of the island, and then adding more reeds in layers on top. Since the reeds rot quite quickly, new layers are added on top, every couple of weeks. The Uros people also make houses and boats from the reeds, but again they don’t last long. It takes them one week to build a house, which will last for six months and one month to build a boat, which will last for a year.
The island we visited was called San Pedro, and we had a chance to meet the family that lived there and look around one of their homes. It was a bit of a tourist trap, but I still found it an interesting insight into such a unique way of life. And the people rely on tourism for money, so of course they’re going to try to sell you their handicrafts and reed boat trips!
Next, after a pretty harrowing 4-hr boat trip (I’d been so worried about seasickness in the Galápagos but it never occurred to me that a LAKE might be choppy!), we arrived at Amantaní island, where we were to spend the night with a local family. Along with an American couple, I was sent to the home of José and Juana. I hadn’t been too sure what to expect so was very happy to find I had a big, bright bedroom with a beautiful view of the lake, and even electricity... although no running water or flushing toilet! It was a really nice experience though: we had lunch, dinner and breakfast with our hosts (all of which were potato-based!). Their first language is Quechua but they spoke a little Spanish so we were able to make ourselves understood, more or less, although it was a shame we couldn't have a real conversation.
There are two mountain peaks on the island, called Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth), and ancient ruins on the top of both peaks. We took a walk up to Pachatata in the afternoon... also the highest point on the island.... phew! We could see across to Bolivia on the other side of the lake, which was pretty cool.
When we met up with the rest of our tour group in the afternoon or evening, either José or Juana would take us along and then come and pick us up later - it was really sweet. Also very helpful, as Amantaní has no roads so getting anywhere mostly involves cutting across people’s land!
In the evening we had a party with the locals, which involved them dressing us up in traditional costume (embroidered blouse, big colourful skirt, shawl, over the top of my jumper, coat, trousers and hiking boots... nights are cold at 3800m!) and doing some "traditional" dancing. It was a bit too fake/ contrived for my liking, but at least there was beer!
Next morning we were up bright and early to take another boat trip (calmer this time) over to our final island: Taquile. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the views on the 45-minute walk from the dock up to the main square, were stunning.
Taquile is especially known for its handicrafts: knitting is exclusively performed by males(!), while the women make yarn and weave. The community runs as a cooperative, and since it was a Monday, all of the locals were in the square ready to be allocated their payment for any produce of theirs which had been sold the previous week.
Another interesting thing is that the men and women wear different colours to show whether they are single or married. Keeps things simple I guess!
We had a good lunch of grilled trout, fresh from the lake before heading back to Puno.
This was the end of my short stop in Peru, and the next morning I took the bus over the border into Bolivia.
The first islands we visited were the Uros, which are floating islands made from totora reeds. The Uros people are one of the oldest tribes of South America and it’s thought that they originally fled to the lake to escape from the various civilisations trying to conquer the mainland. Today there are over 40 of these reed islands on the lake, each housing 5-10 families.
Our guide showed us how the islands are made, which is essentially by binding the thick roots of the totora reeds together to form the base of the island, and then adding more reeds in layers on top. Since the reeds rot quite quickly, new layers are added on top, every couple of weeks. The Uros people also make houses and boats from the reeds, but again they don’t last long. It takes them one week to build a house, which will last for six months and one month to build a boat, which will last for a year.
The island we visited was called San Pedro, and we had a chance to meet the family that lived there and look around one of their homes. It was a bit of a tourist trap, but I still found it an interesting insight into such a unique way of life. And the people rely on tourism for money, so of course they’re going to try to sell you their handicrafts and reed boat trips!
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| Reed houses on the floating reed island |
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| Reed boat |
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| Our host family, José and Juana |
In the evening we had a party with the locals, which involved them dressing us up in traditional costume (embroidered blouse, big colourful skirt, shawl, over the top of my jumper, coat, trousers and hiking boots... nights are cold at 3800m!) and doing some "traditional" dancing. It was a bit too fake/ contrived for my liking, but at least there was beer!
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| At the top of Pachatata |
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| Taquile Island |
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| Taquile women making yarn in the square |
We had a good lunch of grilled trout, fresh from the lake before heading back to Puno.
This was the end of my short stop in Peru, and the next morning I took the bus over the border into Bolivia.
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