Heading ever southward (and upward) in Peru, our Peru Hop bus wends its way from Arequipa to the city of Puno. Along the way, we make a stop at Lake Lagunillas. I wonder if this has any connection to Lake Titicaca, where we are going?
It turns out that there is a connection in the sense that this lake has a relationship with the Coata River that flows into Lake Titicaca only about thirty miles away. So, they are kissing cousins of sorts. In any event, the views are pretty.
I had been worrying about Puno. My Lonely Planet guidebook had pretty much said that it was a town of cut-throats and cheats devoutly to be avoided. Of course, that edition was printed BEFORE my trip to Peru in 1998. So, the relevance of that information may have been outdated. Fortunately, with Peru Hop, we avoid the most dubious parts of Puno and are delivered safely to the city. It’s just about the only place in Peru that one can really arrange to boat on Lake Titicaca; so walking to the Lake is our first point of business.
The harbor area is a mixture of grandeur and squalor-trash is visibly lying on the shoreline. Besides the Lake, there are a few things of interest here, such as a couple clad in native dress walking from the pier and a bike taxi waiting in the area to pick up passengers to the city. As for us, we walk all the way back to our hotel.
That evening, we walk down Lima Street (Puno’s main drag) on our way to dinner at the Mojsa Restaurant. Even without reservations, we are given a great table on the balcony with views of the Plaza Mayor.
The Plaza is relatively small and, like most of Peru’s main plazas, is a mixture of pavement and greenery. Still, it is an attractive site. The Plaza was laid out in its current configuration in 1901, in front of the Puno Cathedral-where there is a candlelight protest under way.
The nighttime views we have of Lima Street, with its colorful tassels and ribbons, is even better. This street may be touristy; but it has charm.
The next morning, we walk in the rain to a tour agency along the Plaza Mayor. After some comic confusion, the tour minibus picks us up and delivers us to the Puno pier where the tour boats take off onto Lake Titicaca.
I don’t feel well this morning. Maybe it’s altitude sickness-a common affliction here; although I didn’t suffer from that during my first sojourn in Peru. Anyway, that’s a story for later. For now, I decide to tough it out and let the show go on.
Lake Titicaca’s claim to fame is that it’s the highest navigable lake in the world. I guess other, higher lakes that might be navigable just can’t get boats up to them.
Sitting besides the Andes Mountains between Peru and Bolivia, the Lake has a surface elevation of over 12,500 feet. It covers about 3,200 square miles in surface area; but, for all that, it is only the second largest lake in South America-Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is technically bigger, although it is more of a tidal bay. Titicaca is roughly 350 feet deep; so, that’s a lot of water.
My girlfriend and I had spent a lot of time trying to select a Lake Titicaca tour. We wanted (at all costs) to avoid the Uros Islands-which we considered too touristy. However, we couldn’t come up with a reasonable alternative; so we were stuck with cruising to one of them-and what luck we did! It is one of our most memorable stops in Peru.
The 150 or so Uros Islands are “floating” islands because, rather than having a solid base, they are made completely out of totora reeds. These islands have to be staked or anchored down so that they won’t float away.
Our guide tells us that there are Uros islands with schools and that the islands take turns in hosting tourists so that none of them get either overwhelmed or left out. This means that each inhabited Uros island gets visited every three to four weeks.
The island that we visit has only a few houses (also made of reeds), several adults, and a couple of kids. We are greeted with a demonstration speech (of how things work and are made on the island) and a dance followed by a boat ride-similarly fashioned out of totora reeds.
A young man poles us around for about twenty minutes and also shows us how the totora reeds are cut and manipulated. The plant is a type of bulrush which grows from ten to twenty feet high. The stuff seems to be everywhere; but it especially thrives in marshy areas near the shoreline.
The Uro people isolated themselves on these floating islands because they consider themselves the true heirs of the Lake. But they have paid a high price for their isolation. The islands have to be rebuilt every few years, they must boat to the nearest toilets, there are an inordinate number of drownings, and (of course) the Uros have to go to the mainland for medical emergencies and most of their supplies. Fewer Uros are willing to pay this price each year and, as a result, the population is dwindling. The Uro language is already extinct; soon the Uro people may follow it.
For now, however, all is good; and the Uros (who rely on tourism) sell their wares (woven goods, trinkets, and toys) to these tourists. Yes, the Uro experience is a bit touristy; but it is not as unbearably so as we thought it would be.
The other stop on our Lake Titicaca cruise is Isla Taquile. This island is inhabited by self-styled “Taquilenos”, who speak a form of Quechua. One gets the impression that there is no love lost between the Uro, the Taquilenos, and the Aymaras (another people living along the Lake). It is as if we are living out scenes from “Gulliver’s Travels”.
Rain and high seas marked our departure in the morning. The rough seas continue as we pull into Isla Taquile; and the conditions are so concerning that our guide lets us off the boat at quay one; but, once we are off, the captain moors the boat at quay two (on the other side of the island) where the waves are calmer.
As we walk uphill to our lunch destination, we can discern agricultural terraces on the island. Besides fishing, Taquilenos get much of their food from potato cultivation. The farming is communal, although many families own sheep used in the island’s fabrication of handwoven textiles and clothing.
Despite the wind and the threat of more rain, we are seated outside at a picnic table for lunch. At least the views of the lake are fabulous.
Before we eat, unfortunately, we must endure a display of Taquileno woven goods, as they are passed around the table. Although the men on the island (inexplicably) knit most of the clothing, the women are the weavers of “chumpis”-colorful and wide belts worn by just about all the inhabitants of Isla Taquile.
After lunch, we’re all supposed to walk to the town square. Nobody knows for sure where it is; so we just follow the leaders. There is a old “pachamama” temple on the peak of the island; but no one even thinks about attempting to reach that.
When we arrive at the square, some costumed locals (several men and one woman) start to dance in a circle. I don’t know if this dance has a meaning. I guess it does, because the dances are supposed to be traditional. Soon, some of the tourists join in with the locals and start dancing, too. That’s our clue to bug out and start walking back to the boat.
The views from the island are really quite pretty, and we admire these on the long walk (mostly downhill, thank God) towards the second quay.
Our return to Puno is uneventful. We eat at the same restaurant (the Majsa) that we did the night before. In fact, we are given the very same table. After dinner, we take a quick hop into the Cathedral-which is unspectacular and smaller than it looks from the outside.
The next morning, a Peru Hop shuttle meets us at our hotel and drops us off at the town of Juliaca, where (after the usual delays) the Peru Hop bus picks us up and starts whisking us on our way to Cusco. Back to familiar territory. I hope I’ll start feeling better there because, honestly, I feel like crap as we begin our drive.
Musical Interlude: Peru’s Lake Titicaca-Leo Rojas