South America Part 11 - Lake Titicaca

Another day, another tour, another bloody start at 6 in the mornin...

We got up out of bed on time and headed down to the hotel breakfast at Hotel Bulsa Wood Inn.... it had to be the worst breakfast thus far on our holiday. A couple of stale bits of bread, something that slightly resembles strawberry jam, some luke warm coffee and a small fruit salad where the bananas didn´t taste like they should...

We caught a bus down to Puno Port and hopped on a Sari Touristico Class boat - which actually was pretty swanky considering we only paid 30 soles each. Our guide was called "Vladdy" - but with his accent it sounds like "Bloody". But he happened to s### all over our Colca Canyon guide - very knowledgble (he mentioned something about having some uni degrees or something) and funny. He also claimed that he had guided Ernie Dingo (for the Great Outdoors show) around Isla Taquile (which we will get to later in this post). From my death bed the other day - I had picked out that Ernie Dingo had a cameo in Crodoilio Dundee Dous.

Our first stop was the “Floating Islands” or “Islas Flotantes” or “Islas de Uros”. Although LP (Lonely Planet) bitches that this is over commercialized – we both thought it was pretty incredible. The Uros people (during the 7 cities of gold period aka Incas) fled the Incas by moving out to the lake and building floating houses. This turned into mini islands made out of some “floatable” roots and reeds. Ancestors of the Uros (who aren´t pure blood anymore) still live here in a very environmentally friendly way. They have 100 and one uses for the reeds on the island – they make boats out of them, houses out of them… at one point – a woman started to eat a reed. I told Ant – I hope they don´t f### the reeds as well! The people there had “mini” fish farms (all to eat) and they also eat several kinds of birds (including flamingo) and guinea pigs. They even had a hut full of cute guinea pigs – but our guide warned us – “these are no pets!”.

LP mentioned that these islands are too commercial – but hey – when you have something so unique – you might as well try and make a buck out of it. Most of the woman weave tapestries and sell them to tourists. The men make small colourful boats (to also sell to tourists). Ant bought a tapestry and a little wooden plate (something to declare at customs).

We also went on a reed boat ride to another island. The guide said there was a “suggested donation of 5 soles¨. When it was time to pay the “suggested donation” – I handed over a bunch of Peruvian coins and US currency (which was well more than 5 soles. The woman carefully audited the suggested donation to make sure I wasn’t a cheap skate.

A two and a half hour boat ride later (on the Suri Touristico class boat – not the Floating Island Boat) – we arrived at Isla Taquile – “the little cuba in the lake”. The place looked absolutely beautiful. It was quite arid and hilly – but set against the backdrop of a pristine blue – turquoise lake – you could almost think it was the Mediterranean (except it 3000m above sea level and pretty cold considering it was summer!). We trekked up to the town for lunch and learnt heaps about the customs of the people there.

Men are the only ones who are allowed to knit. They make all sorts of things including hats, jumpers and man-bags. Men wear big, baggy hats – which, depending on whether or not they are married, have different colours. Those who wear a half red and half white hat – are single. Those with a red only hat – are married. And those who wear a rainbow coloured hat – are “very important people” according to our guide……. (well I think they are the leaders or something).

Single men stash their “stash” of coco leaves in their hat – while married men are allowed to stash their stash in their rainbow coloured man-bags.

You might recall that this place is known as the “little cuba of the lake”. Basically – everyone lives as the one big group. Any money made on farming, or tourism is divided equally amongst the community. The good thing about this was that the “touts” or people selling stuff to tourists – were the least aggressive out of all “touts” in Peru. You cannot haggle on prices as everything is fixed. Another interesting fact is that, even though there are multiple restaurants on the island – they all serve the same set menu for tourists (trout or omelets) – because they are all run by the same people…

We both highly enjoyed the tour – and the thing which really made our day – even though we were picked up second – we were dropped off second… Something we both wish the Colca Canyon people could learn about (we were picked up first and waited for about 90 minutes to pick everyone up – then we were dropped off last… a$$holes!).

After our long day touring around the Lake – we decided to have something different (in Peru anyway) – Chinese. We decided to order stuff similar to what we would have in Australia – a soup for an entrée and a main dish each with steamed rice. But to our horror – the soup (“simple wonton soup”) was the large size at the Woden Plaza (I mean Westfield!) food trough. Then – to finish us off – the size of the mains were about four times the size of Australian Chinese mains… (Although – it only cost us 40 soles for everything including drinks – cheaper than home).

Adios…until next time gringos…