Lake Titicaca!

After returning to Cusco from our Machu Picchu trip, Bianca and I tried to bust a move to take an overnight bus to the Lake Titicaca region.  Unfortunately, we arrived at the station and there was not a seat to be had. I begged, pleaded, and bribed, but nobody bit.  So there we were, all decked out with our huge backpacks, wandering the streets of Cusco at 11pm looking for a decent place to stay. Luckily we found one, and headed to Puno in the morning.  Puno is a great little city full of movement, hustle, and bustle.  I of course wasted no time in checking out all the goofy crap I could buy.  I thought this one was made just for me.

The next morning we took off on our 2-day excursion to Lake Titicaca.  Yeah, I know. Say it 3 times without laughing.  Lake Titicaca is flanked on each side by Peru and Bolivia, and is the highest navigable lake in the world.  Our over-zealous and overly hormonal 20-something guide tried cracking a joke: “The Titi is from Peru, and the Caca is from Bolivia.“   Tough crowd. We giggled, but nobody else cracked a smile.  There were mostly French people on our boat. Who knows, maybe lost in translation? 

Anyway we first visited the Floating Islandsof the Uros people.  These people have been around for centuries and centuries, and have essentially created islands out of the reeds that grow in the Lake.  It´s incredible– their entire lives are based on the reeds.  Their boats, homes, and the islands themselves are made from the reeds.  About six families live on each small island, and they all work together. 

Our guide told us that the women living here were “a little chubby.” He said that this is because they eat a lot of eggs.  Not sure I`m buying that one.  When you live on an island about 150m long, there`s not much space to move around and be active.    They passed around reeds for us to eat.  The top part is edible; at least that`s what we were told!  Tasted like celery to me.  A little balsamic vinny and we`d be good to go.

Next we got back on the boat and headed towards Amantani Island.

Isla Amantani was another 2.5hrs on the boat.  This was where we would stay for the night… a traditional homestay with local families.  It was definitely quite an experience.  Here are the 2 kids from our homestay family, as well as our momma who was preparing dinner for us:

We played soccer with some of the locals… of all ages.  Oh yeah, the goalie was at least a 65yr old grandma, in her traditional dress of course. It was awesome.  We got our asses kicked pretty bad, and were begging for mercy as we tried to breath at over 12,000 ft altitude.  Just walking around was a chore.

We then climbed to the highest peak of the island and the views were awesome. It was really cold as soon as the sun went down. I guess that happens when you`re so high up.  We found an enterprising couple around the corner serving coffee and homemade donuts.  Watch out Dunkin Donuts… this lady kicked your ass.

The women can be seen in their traditional dress, but the real prize in this photo is the gorgeous and silly man up front. He kept giggling and cracking jokes. 

Our homestay was obviously very humble.  Ain`t gonna lie… we weren`t comfortable and were nervous about the sanitary and hygienic conditions.  We smiled and thanked her for a great pre-race dinner (except we had no race) consisting of potatoes and rice.  About halfway through my carbo-loading session, she told me that her husband has E Coli.  I immediately began having psycho-somatic reactions, truly believing that a parasitic creature was making babies inside my body.  Had enough of those in Ecuador, thank you.   Since I have the bladder of a 75yr old, I noticed the pee pot next to my bed should I have to go at night.  Homegirl doesn`t piss in a pot.  I woke up Bianca at 4am to accompany me to the outhouse with the flashlight.  That girl is such a trooper.

The homestay was the roughest part of our trip, but definitely a good way to learn more about the families and get to know them, their struggles, and also what they enjoy out of life.  Our housemom was born on the island and has never spent any time away from it, and doesn`t have any desire to leave the beautiful island.  They cook on a fire pit and don`t have running water to bathe with.  After our E Coli conversation, the PC Volunteer in me immediately thought this would be an ideal volunteer site working on health education.  Basic stuff.  They have a good life with great family & community values, and their kids are a lot less screwed up than a lot of kids in our country.   There´s just an opportunity to help with health education for sure.

We boarded our boat the next morning for Taquile Island, another beautiful island belonging to descendants of the Incan empire. They have a really cool sense of community to support all of their agricultural and tourism activities. It basically is don`t lie, steal, or be lazy.  What a concept!  We could learn a lot from so many of the people in this world living so “basically,” don`t you think?

The people of Taquile still use the traditional Incan method of terracing for farming.

 

Despite the fascinating peek inside of island life on Lake Titicaca, Bianca and I couldn`t wait to get back to mainland to finally take a shower and eat some protein.  We don`t require much, do we?  A hot shower and some good protein would just have to wait, though.  We ran off the boat and straight to the bus station with about 5min to spare before the last “ejecutivo” (read: comfy reclining seats) departed for Arequipa.  We arrived 6hrs later, around 9:30pm, and had planned to take the first morning bus to Cabanaconde, in the heart of the Colca Canyon.  However, we arrived and learned that there was a bus leaving at 1:30am.  We were going on 36hrs sans shower at that point and figured “hell, what`s another 12?”  The protein thing had to be addressed, though.  Anyone who has enjoyed the ambiance of a Latin American bus station will understand my insistence on purchasing only canned or pre-packaged food to eat while on the premises.  Hence, our dinner below.  Notice the hand gel. That was NOT staged, my friends.

And then we were passed out waiting for our stupidly late bus to depart.  We dared not show our faces in our unshowered, nasty state.  We couldn`t stop laughing though. 

The bus adventure is a blog in itself, but I`ll stop here for now.  I discovered the video function on my camera and went nuts with it.  Will try to get some good videos up later tonight.  Thanks for checking in!  The gorgeous and ass-kicking Colca Canyon report is next up.