Lake Titicaca, Peru

It is beautiful in the highlands with high mountain valleys and lots of agriculture. Small herds of sheep, cows and llamas are all tethered in the fields or with a herder, usually a woman in some colorful costume. Along with Peruvian crops, such as corn, potatoes, and quinoa, we also passed fields of canola and alfalfa.

Our first night in Puno, a small city on Lake Titicaca, Carnaval was in full swing and there were different groups in traditional dress accompanied by large bands dancing through the streets. We also found a market place in a grittier section of town where a different kind of party was happening and most people were very drunk. Even the ladies in their traditional dresses were swigging back one litre bottles of beer and the kids were spraying the gringo ladies with foam. We later ran into the original and much more sophisticated groups but by 10:00 pm even they were pretty drunk and stopped to perform for the gringos.

Dancing in the Streets

In the morning we took a three wheel pedal taxi to the dock and were off to the floating reed islands of the Uros people. They were originally a land based group of people that fished with their reed canoes. As they were hunted by the Spanish as a slave labour force, they fled into the reeds and built floating islands where they could live without fear of the Spanish. The floating islands blew us away - what an interesting way of life. We had a presentation on how they make the islands, homes, boats, etc and then the ladies grabbed us to show us their homes and all the crafts they were selling.

Composition of the Floating Islands

The lady that took us to her home dressed Loreen up in her clothes for a photo op - how cute. In the reed houses there were a few places to hang things and a raised reed bed with a pile of blankets on it, that was all. The kitchen was communal with one two-burner gas camp stove. They do not have any kind of heat in their homes and live a old fashioned life in a cold climate. Loreen felt sorry for the Uros ladies as they would likely never in their life be able to soak in a tub of hot water.

Loreen, Anna and the Mom

The Uros ladies all gathered to sing goodbye to us including one song in English, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star! Then we were off on a 2.5 hour boat ride to Taquile Island.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Taquile is something we have never seen before. In ancient times, legend has it, the island was occupied only by women, but the gods decided that these women were so good they needed husbands and sent men to the island. The women had made their living by trading knitted goods with other islanders, rand efused to marry any men until they could knit as good as the women, hence today the men of the island knit and the women weave. The Spanish government sold the island and all the inhabitants to a rich noble from Andalusia. Andalusia having been under the rule of the Moors for some years had an Arabic style of clothing. This style of dress was forced on the locals so all the women wear black veils. The men wear funny red fez style hats - red if you are married and red and white if you are single.

Dressed Taquile Style

We climbed to the top of the island via the shortest route and had to stop a few times to catch our breath. The locals pack on their back everything they use on the island, propane, drinking water, food stuffs, etc. We struggled with our backpack and they ran past us going to the top with two 25 pound propane bottles in a blanket on their backs!

Taquile Island

We went to a family home for lunch of quinoa soup, grilled trout with fries, rice and salad and then the local mint tea. It was delicious. Then to get back down to the boat it was 500 steps to the dock. Even going down was a struggle in places as the steps were carved out of stone and were steep and slippery. The scenery was beautiful.

The way down off Taquile

They say that they rarely marry non-Taquile people and I don't know how that would work as they must be inbred?? They have other odd customs - like the mating and marriage rituals! Many of the older people have never left the island as they are afraid of the water and boats. They farm, and knit and weave for their living and now they have quite the tourist gig happening.

Back to Puno for the night and then off to Cusco, the ancient capital city of the Inca Empire. The Incas were the largest society to reside on the Americas with a total population of twelve million when the Spaniards came. They controlled the countries of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and parts of Columbia, Chile and Argentina. About one million out of the twelve survived Spanish conquest. The rest died from war, disease and slavery in the mines.