Puno and Lake Titicaca

Much unlike my usual hyper-organized self, I hopped on the bandwagon with 17 other ProWorlders to plan a last-minute trip to Puno (home of Lake Titicaca) over the weekend. Friday day we decided to go, and bought tickets to catch the 11 pm bus out that night, hurrying to our nearest La Canasta supermarkets to pick up snacks for the 7 hour ride. Luckily, I was able to sleep off and on most of the way there, so when we arrived just after 6:30 am I was ready to explore. And good thing I was, too. After dropping our bags off in the hostel and scarfing down a quick breakfast, we were off to start our tour of the Lake just an hour and a half later.

The first stop on our soon-to-be 8 hour boat tour was Los Uros: The Floating Islands. These small islands are made of a reed called totora that grows in the lake, using blocks of the roots as a base flotation for what become little villages in just several weeks of criss-crossing construction. Every week, the villagers put down a layer of totora on top of the last until 2 meters of totora, including the roots, floats on the surface of the water. And ta-dah: thus we create a floating island. While on one of the islands, we learned that the people of Los Uros not only make their homes of totora but also eat it almost constantly. I was not greatly enthusiastic about the watery, semi-sweet taste of the celery-like root, but very much enjoyed watching the islanders peel the roots like bananas every few minutes, munching away as we continued our tour. We split up into smaller groups as the islanders showed us their homes, and as we entered the hut smaller than my kitchen at home I struggled to imagine this family of 5 sleeping together in the single bed by candlelight during the cold Puñenan winters. Alicia, the mother of the house we had entered, told me that her eldest daughter had completed high school in Puno (the kids travel in totora-based boats from island to island for elementary school, but have to venture back to the mainland for further education) but that they did not have enough money to send her to University. After our small heart-to-heart, Alicia took us outside to show us her amazingly intricate weavings, literally begging us to buy something to support their family (basically 100% of these families’ income is based on tourism). I realized that us getting a sneak peak into such a different lifestyle was not possible without great hope and trust from the islanders that the many tourists marching through their homes would reciprocate with the purchase of a wall hanging, or at least a pillowcase.

After visiting a few of the floating islands, our boat made the almost 3-hour trip over to Taquile, a natural (and much bigger) island near the border with Bolivia. As we trekked 40 minutes up the mountainous island to the center plaza, our guide told us that the people of Taquile lived in an independent commune that was governed not by police but by 3 rules: don’t be lazy, don’t lie, and don’t steal. The people of Taquile are almost all trilingual in Quechua, Aymara, and Spanish, and wear traditional dress that is not only beautiful but can signify marital status from a single glance. There are no cars or other motor vehicles, and no dogs (which are regarded in the rest of Cusco as a good security system for the house). The most interesting part of the Taquile lifestyle was that the population continues to live in a highly machista, chauvinistic society. Women, who have their hair covered with long black cloth, must walk at least 3 meters behind their husbands in the streets and are never allowed to touch a man in public. If a husband and wife have a civil dispute they want brought to court, the husband goes to represent both sides of the argument- a woman is under no circumstances allowed to represent herself. Perhaps in the hopes of solving the island’s long history of incest, Peruvian ex-president Fujimori tried to build up travel to the island by establishing a hotel there, but the people rejected the idea and the project failed within less than a year of its commencement. There is, however, a market held in the plaza every few weeks that draws traders from neighboring islands to encourage some sort of local economy and to bring in outsiders to mix with the Taquileñans. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of trout (or omlette), fresh French fries, and rice before descending off the beautiful island into the lake once more as the sun set.