Blatts in Peru: Lake Titicaca Floating Islands and Homestay on Amantani

Benji and Marina in Puno

The view out the bus window was stark as we entered Puno, a huge city bordering Lake Titicaca (pronounced  Titihaha, with the h more like a cough than a laugh. )  Identical buildings made of orange brick topped with tin rooves spung up randomly, bordering the bumpy, pot-holed road.  The lake, the highest navigable lake in the world, rested its shores against the drab city;   a jewel in a junkyard.

We checked into our room overlooking a dusty road, the honks of cars and the shouts of passerbys entering the room like uninvited guests.   (Two nights later, on Christmas eve, the midnight fireworks practically startled us out of our beds.   We thought, surely, there was an insurgency.)  I fought another altitude headache, soothed surprisingly well by placing  wetted coca leaves on my temples and behind my ears;  an herbal cure suggested by a local woman.  I looked ridiculous, but it worked!
Uros Floating Island

The real reason most tourists stay in Puno is to leave Puno.  By morning, we joined a van full of multi-nationals and headed to the docks.  We boarded our boat for the smooth ride to the man-made, floating islands at Uros.   The shallow waters  are thick with reeds, which the natives use for everything from food, to bedding, to house-building, to constructing the very island on which they build their homes!
The locals on the artificially floating islands use  sand, dirt and reeds, packed together to form large cubes, which they tie together, and cover in more reeds.  They anchor the whole lot with a few sticks of eucalyptus to the sandy bottom of the lake.  At times, after a big storm,  they have woken up to find the entire shebang has moved a few kilometers from where there were originally moored!

After the interesting tour of Uros Islands, which included a discussion with the president of the islands and a lot of tchatcke hawking,  we went by boat three hours to Amantani Island.   

Mama Paula prepares dinner

Amantani Island:  I cannot overstate the beauty of this place; terraced gardens, stone walkways, no dogs, no electric wires (yes, some small solar panels to light a single bulb in some homes), women and men dressed in native costumes,' fresh air, flowers galore and the view, the astonishingly vast and expansive view of Lake Titicaca.  

Fellow tour mates

We spent the afternoon with our homestay Mama; Mama Paula, who spoke Quechua and a very little bit of Spanish.  We were joined by an Argentinian, Marcelo,  a cheerful fellow who taught us how to speak Argentinian Spanish by pronouncing the y sound as jz.  In the modest house, Mama Paula cooked potatoes and rice, and served up quinao soup; all white, carbohydrate staples of Peru and the island.  The lake, sadly, has been overfished, and while Mama Paula's descendants have been on the island for at least 1000 years (no I did not add an extra zero by accident) rather than fishing, they make their living mainly on handicrafts and a trickle of tourism.  Why this island is not more touristed is a real mystery to me.  It is amazing! 

We joined our fun group of travelers for a hike to the old temple ruins, the highest point on the island,  at 13451 feet in altitude.  That's nearly as high as Washington's Mt. Rainier!  There we threw coca leaves in the gate for luck.  After a modest dinner and evading a torrential downpour, we dressed in native garb and headed off to dancing with our equally ridiculous looking tour mates.  

Exhausted from the wonderful fresh air, hiking and carbohydrate overload, we sunk into sleep in the pitch black night. 

 The next day we visited equally beautiful Taquile Island and again were mystified by the serenity, the rural, bucolic landscape, and the surprising lack of tourists.   The members of our tour bantered about an idea of opening a romantic bed and breakfast here,and ruining the native feel, but boosting their economy.  Of course these pipe dreams would never come to be, but it sure is fun to dream. 

 If you're in Peru, I really recommend making a trip to Lake Titicaca, and visiting these islands for a night or two, at least.   Simply put; It's paradise.