Lake Titicaca

Arrived Puno, Peru yesterday after a night in Lima. Puno is located in southern Peru on Lake Titicaca at 13,000 feet. That is a big jump for a girl who lives at sea level. I had a headache all day long. I spent most of my time sitting in a cafe overlooking the central square, Plaza de Armas, drinking coca tea. Yes it is made with leaves from the coca bush, the same leaves that are used to make cocaine. There is less than one percent of the ingredient used to make cocaine in each leaf so it does not make you high. In fact it takes hundreds of grams of cooked down coca leaves to make any amount of the drug. Coca leaves are very important to the Peruvian people, they do not use it as a drug, it is more of a health product. It is very affective against altitude sickness and the headache that comes with it.

I had a nice Saturday afternoon just watching the local people in the square. Later I attended mass in the large Cathedral. I am not catholic but I wanted to experience church in one if those wonderfully old, large, cold, stone churches that makes me feel reverent just walking in the door.

Today was the tour of the lake. I joined a group tour on a boat that took us to the floating islands of Uros and the larger island of Taquile. Surprisingly I was the only American. There were lots of Brits, some French, one Italian and a Polish couple.

The floating islands of Uros are literally that, islands made of reeds that float in the lake. These people live here year round in small reed homes, they fish, hunt birds and ducks, collect bird and duck eggs and even grow some small vegetables. They also trade these things with people on the mainland for other goods they need. In the attached photo you can see a small cross-section of the island they use for demonstration. Then they anchor the island to the lake bottom so it does not float away to Bolivia. They regularly refresh the top layer of reeds which eventually composts into the material you see in the photo.

Of course they sell many goods made from reed or wool, there are many sheep on the mainland. They also sell rides in the reed boats. We were told up front how much it costs but I was amused when he collected the money half way into the ride. As if to say, pay or swim back. The water us about 50 degrees so no one wanted to swim.

The island of Tequile is a large island located 2 1/2 hours boat ride from Puno and it is not even 1/4 across the lake. The people there are very traditional in dress and culture and are known around the world for their weaving and knitting. The men knit and the women weave. They have terraced the entire island for farming and raising sheep and cows. To get to the village we walked a trail that gained at lease 500 feet in less than a mile, not so easy at over 13,000 feet for a girl from sea level. We walked up one side of the island, explored the village, had lunch, and walked down over 500 steps on the other side of the island. It was work but so worth it. Most of my good photos are in my camera so I will post them later.