A Day on the Lake at 12,500 Feet.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Puno, Peru
Puno is really quite a dump of a town, though not nearly as bad as Juliaca, which we drove through on the way here. Our first full day here, we didn't do very much--strolled down to the port and arranged for a tour the next day, as well as finding a couple of decent places to eat and doing a little souvenir shopping. The tour that we arranged, through Salidas Tours, was a boat trip on Lake Titicaca to the floating islands of Uros and to the island of Tacquille, home of the "knitting men". We woke up bright and early, thanks to our 6am wake-up calll--yes there is a phone in the room, a "real hotel"! After breakfast we were picked up on time at 7:30 at our hotel and headed down to the docks to board our "speedboat". There are 2 kinds of boat trips that you can book, "speedboat" or "regular". I can't imagine taking a "regular" boat to Taquile. Somehow it all just seems wrong taking a boat trip at this altitude, though. Lake Tititcaca is 3812 meters (12507 feet) above sea level. Our first stop on our trip was the Uros Islands, a string of about 80 man made floating islands among the reeds offshore from Puno. The islands are constructed entirely from the reeds that surround them. The flotation is provided by blocks of the reed roots cut when the water level is low and bound together with ropes. These are covered with layer after layer of reeds (with more added as the years go by and the islands sink a bit each year). Finally, small houses (we would call them huts), made out of reeds are built on top of the layers of reeds. The islands are of various sizes, with from 3 to 10 families on each, each with its own "president". There is a very organised local government, which charges tours an entrance fee and provides basic services such as a toilet island, a school island and a medical island. There is a rotation to which island the tour boats go to (this is a big business) and we went to one of the newest islands, less than 2 years old. The islands last about 35 years before they sink too much and have to be abandoned. The people lead a very simple life, hunting birds and fishing and eating reeds and bird eggs, but a couple of years ago the national government started providing them with solar panels, which they rent for 10 soles a month, to provide access to TV and radio, which I am sure will change their way of life fairly quickly. The people on the islands do seem very friendly and genuinely happy to receive their visitors. After Uros, it was on to Taquile, which was a couple of hours away by "speedboat". Taquile is a very different island. It is small, but is essentially one very steep hill (or small mountain, elevation 4050 meters). The people on the island also lead a simple life, mainly farming and fishing, but the island is noted for its other activities. From the age of 5, the men on the island start knitting and keep knitting into their 90's, which is how long most of them live. They knit when they are walking around, when they are talking, basically any time their hands are free. And the women weave. So the textiles and knitwear, which are sold on weekends at markets in Puno, as well as to visitors, are a major source of income for the islanders. We had lunch, which included some demonstrations as well as getting up to dance, and then walked around the island to enjoy the spectacular views and meet our boat at the other end of the island. Then back to Puno to watch the Blue Jays actually win (in Spanish of course) and enjoy a very excellent meal at Moysa, just acroos the plaza. Also realized that, since we weren't used to this much sunshine in a day and thus hadn't put any sunscreen on, which is a mistake at this altitude, I had a pretty good sunburn on my face. But it was a very fun day and we were so glad that the weather cooperated.

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