Lake Titicaca

Picking up the story where we last left off, I took PeruRail down from Cusco to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. You basically have two primary choices of towns to visit, either Puno (Peru) or Copacabana (Bolivia), although there are tons of small villages all along the shores. Puno, where I stayed, is a sprawling, mostly dumpy town of 80,000 people or so. Copacabana is a lot smaller but much more "quaint" and juts out on a peninsula.

But crossing borders between the two towns takes the better part of a day and I was pressed for time, so I chose Puno by default. Plus I wanted to see a nearby area called "the floating islands of Uros". Wayyyyyyy back in the day, back when the Incas were conquering the other tribes, one group found a solution to the problem by creating their own islands from reeds and straw and going out in the middle of the lake where it was hard to get to them. Flash forward many hundreds of years later and it's now a wonderful tourist attraction and means to otherwise earn a living.

There are over 40 of the islands scattered around the area, although only about 6 or 7 families actually live on each one. And I say "live on" them in the sense that they boat out early each morning from Puno to get set up before the tourists arrive. At first I thought they actually lived out there, which amazed me since even in the summertime it gets really cold at night... I couldn't imagine being on the lake with some wind blowing at night. But later I overheard someone asking about it and learned the way things really work. Spanish class paid off, yee-haw.

The (president? mayor? governor? head-guy in charge of the island) demonstrated how they construct the islands. The reeds are matted so that they're about five to six feet thick with new layers constantly being added to the top of them every month. The decaying straw and reeds felt like spongey peat moss or something. Walking on it was a bit of a weird experience, I kept thinking about any potential weak patches in the ground and about how cold the water would be underneath. Luckily just some baseless paranoia on my part.

The mode of transportation was another interesting thing you get to see or experience (for 10 bolivianos, or about $1.25 USD). As they've done for hundreds-to-thousands of years of tradition, they construct some very Viking-looking boats out of the same materials that they use for the floating islands. It was interesting to hear an ancient story about the blonde-haired, blue-eyed strangers that visited the lake almost a thousand years ago and taught them how to make these boats. You guessed it -- the theory is that the Norse/Vikings were here several hundred years before Columbus and crew made it to the New World.

A while back, a bunch of college professors and "boat professionals" tried to build boats in this style for a trans-oceanic voyage to test that theory. They couldn't do it so they got some of the Uros island locals to build the boat and then sail it across the Pacific, which they succeeded in doing. I can't imagine that it was terribly comfortable (especially during a rain storm?!) since I spent about an hour on one of them going across the lake to some other islands and that was enough for me. Anyway, it was an interesting Viking story... no one knows what the truth is though.

As for Lake Titicaca itself, for those that slept through their world geography class, it's the biggest and highest (elevation) navegable lake in the world, at around 12,500 feet of altitude. It sits on the border of Peru and Bolivia measures about 3,300 square miles and the deepest point is 920 feet.

On a personal note, it's also a great place to get an amazing sunburn in just a couple of hours if you forget your sunscreen. Although I now understand why a lot of the locals look like they're 80 years old when they're just barely kicking 40. Years in the harsh sun and wind is extremely unkind to the skin... so, my tip: don't forget your sunscreen when visiting Lake Titicaca.

One other thing to mention -- due to the altitude and thinness of the air -- the colors! When the clouds go away, the blue sky reflected in the lake is incredible! The artist types will really appreciate the complementary colors out here, especially with all the ochres and oranges contrasted against the cobalt blue sky and water. On the days without wind the entire place is like a mirror so... don't forget your sunglasses as long as you're also not forgetting your sunscreen.

After visiting the Peruvian side of the lake, I didn't have time to tour the Bolivian side as well. The popular place to visit is called the Island of the Sun, which is where Incan legend claims the sun and moon, not to mention the Incan empire, were born. To get there, you need to stay in Copacabana which is where I wish I had stayed. Alas... with time issues abounding, I had to keep pressing on towards La Paz, Bolivia. Which is what I'll talk about next time.