Lake Titicaca

Titi-caca. Tee hee hee. Bahahahaha! Hahaha! Let's get all the giggles out. Lake Titicaca. One of the better names for a lake. Tee hee hee. Ok. Now that we have all had a good laugh, I will continue with our tales of adventure and daring. After our jungle adventure and a couple more days in La Paz, we headed to Copacabana, which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.

Copacabana is a friendly small town with a great church. But let's face it, we were there for the lake.

We arrived in Copacabana in the early afternoon and decided we would tour nearby Isla del Sol the following day. This gave us an afternoon to kill. What to do? What to do? How about I fulfill my dream of riding around beautiful Lake Titicaca on a beautiful fiberglass swan?!? It was marvelous.

Ok. So the swan might have been more of an ugly duckling. It was still a fun afternoon of paddling around. We were told we had to stay somewhat close to shore so we decided to check out the boats that were in the distance.

These dragon boats made of reeds are just used for tourist purposes, but they are still pretty cool. It was fun to get close to them, as it gave our paddling a purpose.

The following morning, we took a boat to Isla del Sol, the location of the main Inca Creation Myth. The rumor on the street is that Viracocha, the creator god, had his children, Manco Kapac and Mama Ocllo, spring from the waters of the lake to found Cuzco and the Inca dynasty. A sacred rock on the island is worshipped as their birthplace. Sounds like a big deal. Better check it out.

The ride is about 90 minutes by boat from Copacabana.We were dropped us off on the northern end of the island and walked to the southern end, where another boat picked us up and took us back to Copacabana. Here is Tim, freshly arrived on the northern end.

It was a sunny day and the light quality was really spectacular. Being at high altitude does something to the light, I think.

The hike took us past pre-Incan farming terraces.

Past a sacrificial table close to the sacred rock...

And past some ruins.

From there, it was a lot of uphill walking to reach the other side. It is a 7km walk but we took our time- we were at 12,500ft.

The views from the top most point were gorgeous. I love the blue color! One thing that I will always remember about Isla del Sol is that it smelled terrific. They had eucalyptus forests and other very aromatic herbs growing everywhere. It made every breath heavenly.

Along the way, we had to pay fees for passing through the villages. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, they do keep the old path in excellent condition and they have to put up with a bunch of tourists walking across their island every day. On the other hand, they are charging you for walking through their village, which seems absurd! I guess if it allows them to maintain their traditional way of life and buy food for this puppy that I met, then fine. His name was Jack (like my parents' crazy mutt) and he liked me!

We passed a donkey caravan. We also passed a group of children standing in the middle of the road with a llama, offering to let us take their photo for money or candy. We declined.

The southern end of the island also has some ruins, including this Incan water fountain, which is still used as the village's water supply. The statues were added later, probably with some of that money they charged us for walking through their village.

On the boat ride home, we stopped by some "floating islands". These "floating islands" are not to be confused with Los Uros, a set of reed islands in the lake near Puno, Peru. These, here, consisted of wood and metal rafts with reeds laid on top. Very Wisconsin Dells. If we wanted to get off the boat for 1 sol and buy something from the people there, we were welcome to. We declined and hoped that Los Uros would be much better!

My favorite part was when some some girl heard the description of the islands as floating, she said "aren't all islands floating?"...... Really?!?

Well, we didn't have to wait long to find out if the real floating islands were worth it. The following morning, we crossed yet another border and headed to Puno, where we booked an afternoon tour of Los Uros.

The green reeds in the lake are what they use to construct the floating islands.

The people of Los Uros have an interesting story. Their people came to Lake Titicaca from the Amazon. They had conflicts with other groups on the shore and their solution was to build these floating islands on the lake and live there. We were told that the Uros people enjoy longevity due to their lake sourced diet and stress free lifestyle. I was really excited to see this unique way of life.

However, upon closer observation, I saw that tourism has changed things for them and I was unable to decipher what was real and what was staged. Tour boats are constantly coming to these islands and the people of the Uros are cashing in.

For example, when we landed at the first island, the boy in the photo below made his way over to a hole cut in the island to draw up some crystal clear drinking water. (did I mention that Lake Titicaca is incredibly clean?) You will notice the tourist standing uncomfortably close to him, getting a photo. Did the boy really need water or does he know the gringos think that is cool photo op? I guess I will never know.

The village leader met us and explained how the islands are constructed, using this handy visual aid. The base of the islands is the think root of the reeds. The reed tops are then placed over the roots. More reeds are added every 20 days. They replace the roots as they rot away as well. It is really interesting. I wouldn't recommend wearing high heels on the islands though. You would sink right in.

After the presentation, we were broken off into groups, and invited to chat in people's homes. The homes were right at the boat landing area and I noticed that there was a designated area where tourists could go. Real life seemed to be happening a bit further back from where we were. Was this really the guy's home? I'm not sure. After a brief chat, we exited the homes and discovered that the villagers had set up an artisan market outside. It literally appeared out of nowhere. Now the line was "We invited you into our home. Buy something." It was incredibly awkward.

After this, we were also invited to take a ride on one of those cool dragon boats to the next island for an extra 10 soles per person. The people who went were treated to traditional songs sung by the children. The money goes toward their school but it just felt way too fake and staged for my liking so we declined the dragon boat ride as well. Yeah, we are party poopers.

Would I say Los Uros were worth it? I'm not sure. It was cool to see how these people live. They do really live on floating islands, which is amazing. However, I could have done without the "show" and the pushy selling of handicrafts. Maybe they should take a cue from their neighbors on Isla del Sol and just charge money to enter their village.

Although the trip to Los Uros felt a bit staged, the sunset was 100% natural.

And that, my friends, was our Titicaca experience.