By: MJ + PJ
There are a few places within close reach of Cusco, and Lake Titicaca is sort of one of them. It is an overnight bus trip to get there (390km), and we planned this side trip prior to planning our exit from Peru… which was taking the same bus and route two weeks later.
This was the first overnight bus trip for AJ. MJ was unfortunately well experienced with these having attended boarding schools in Queensland for seven years. PJ may have been on an overnight bus, but it had been a while. The nice thing about these Peru buses is the semi-cama seating, seat belts, and the buses being speed limited to 90km/hr. However, it is worth mentioning that most smaller towns along the route have several speed bumps each… don’t sit in the rear seats of the bus.
We arrived in Puno kind of tired after a long winding night on the roads of south east Peru. Breakfast was simple and at a hostal that the company (PeruHop/BoliviaHop) uses as a transfer point since there is no Puno bus terminal to use. We were then picked up by the tour company which was to take us on our two day lake islands tour. Our guide was Bruno, from Puno, who had a dry sense of humor and delivery. He swept us all under his wing for the rest of the tour. As a local who grew up on the Peninsula Capachica, he knew all the visited local people very well, showing an obvious level of connectedness.
UROS (Location: 15.8156429S, 69.9737575W)
About 30min on the small boat brought us to the floating islands of Uros, where we disembarked onto the gently rolling and squishy reed surfaced island. About seven homes rest on this one family based island. There are about 120 islands in the larger floating community. There on the island we were educated on the creation of the island, and the lifestyle, culture, business and relationships of these people.
For s/10 each extra we experienced a ride on a traditional reed boat across the channel to another island where there were refreshments and toilets available. AJ and MJ took a turn at rowing one of the two boat paddles on the way there. We reboarded our boat after a short break, then a two hour boat ride ensued to our night location.
AMANTANÍ ISLAND
We arrived late afternoon and were assigned to our host family for the homestay. The ten communities on the island take tourists on a rotational basis. Our host was ‘Mama’ Ilda and Henry who lived, like most inhabitants, about halfway up the steep slope. We were paired with a young Swiss man who was taking a break from his life as an accountant. Bruno had paired us well as our hosts had two children, one being about AJ’s age.
After becoming acquainted (with our hosts and their pets) and having a late lunch, we met the tour group up the hill a little, for our afternoon walk up to the top of the mountain to see the sunset. Sadly it was cloudy, but the views were still spectacular. It is worth mentioning that Lake Titicaca’s surface is at about 3800m elevation, so walking up this mountain was quite humbling to get to 4100m. There were two peaks and we visited both, much to AJ’s dismay. He was done for the day, but there were more things to do!
Bruno had informed us that the evening plan was to have dinner with the host, then with all dressed in traditional garb to go to the community disco. The disco rules were: a) You had to stay at least one hour, and b) you had to go home by 5am at the latest. Apparently some Russian visitors had been sent home at 5am in the months before. With us all looking the part in our apparel, and with the local band playing some traditional and some contemporary songs, we group danced as led by the mamas. AJ lasted about 45 minutes and then faded hard. We headed back after our hour – it had been a long day for all of us. The dense alpaca blankets pinned us into our beds.
TAQUILE ISLAND
This is the island of the knitting men, whose traditions and skills are recognized and protected by UNESCO. Bruno had informed us that it is not ‘tequila’ island, later mentioning wryly that the water in Lake Titicaca contains one percent salt, and one percent lime.
There are no cars and no dogs on this island. There is no policing either, as the elders maintain traditional and cultural control over the island. The inhabitants of Taquile Island do not drink the lake water – being nothing to do with Bruno’s joke – as they don’t like the taste and so collect rainwater instead. There is an abandoned water pump station on the island that had been used to pump lake water up the steep slope, but it had closed after pump parts had been unable to be repaired or replaced. It is a relic now, a symbol of good intent but impracticality.
We walked a contour of the island once we had ascended to the main square area from the boat. Along the way Bruno taught us about many things related to the island life, and some stories of the Incas on the lake – namely about a lost underwater Inca city and the legendary and sought after Golden Sun Disc.
We stopped for lunch and were prepared to eat nothing as we had no cash left after AJ purchased his traditional chullo which Bruno fondly called ‘the cat hat’. Luckily, lunch was included! During lunch a young local man demonstrated the natural native leaf based shampoo and how effectively it cleaned wool (apparently it also prevents male balding). He also wore the hat of a single man, and Bruno showed us examples of male and female, single and married, traditional hat and sash styles. At the long table with spectacular lake views we ate across from a British couple with whom we exchanged stories.
We then walked to a beautiful cove where our boat waited. Then it was a long ride back to Puno, again passing through the reeds near Uros.
At 9pm we were to catch our bus back to Cusco, but it was only about 4pm. Luckily, the fun was not over: It happened to be the day of the “Entrada Universitaria Puno 2018” parade. There are about 10 000 students in Puno, with seemingly most of them participating or watching. The streets were packed. We had dinner just off the main square, with the outside sound of the parade perfectly in stereo with the TV broadcast of the parade from that very square. And that, with all it’s craziness, was the rest of the evening until the rain drove us back to the hostal to briefly wait for our bus.
If you are visiting the area, take the opportunity to experience the homestay. Totally worth it.
