Lake Titicaca, Puno Region, Peru

5Reslysten54 5:00 PM Nov 7, 2022

A delightful excursion on and around the lake
We were lucky to visit on a sunny clear day with calm waters. A large, modern catamaran took us across the water, while serving us lunch. A guide took up a long set of stairs and from the hill terrace we had a marvelous view of the lake, surrounding landscape, and the distant snow-capped mountains. Some in our group preferred not to climb the long staircase, given the high altitude. A shaman performed a traditional ritual that ended in us all being blessed with good luck. The counterfactual will never be known, but the rest of the day was great.

5Robin P 5:00 PM Feb 6, 2020

Gobsmacking sun rise, amazing Uros people..
Puno is a small city located 160 km (2.5 hrs drive) from Bolivia. It was the train stop for us to access Lake Titicaca where, at 4:50am, we watched a stunning sun rise. Lake Titicaca is the highest altitude (3,812m) lake in the world and is on the border of Bolivia and Peru.. We took a boat for a ride on the lake to visit the Uros people, a group which live on more than 40 manmade islands created from floating reeds. There are at least 107 of these floating islands. Uros Islanders speak a different language to mainstream Peruvians. Big part of the Lake is protected; there’s a 10’ depth under the island we visited. Water levels in the lake have dropped 6” in the past 5 yrs. 29,000 hectares of Swamps with 60 species of birds and ducks all protected form part of this eco system. Biggest national fish is the catfish found here. Peruvians eat the Yucca plant and the yellow part of the reeds and, as did Thor Heyerdahl, they also make their boats from the reeds. We tied up at an island which houses two families, one man provided an entertaining demonstration of how they live – in his own language which our guide (who spoke that language also) translated into English. Very gracious, he and his wife showed us into their home – essentially one room with about a double size bed in corner all sitting on the straw like reeds, he showed how they build the reeds up – over time the lower ones become wet and the moisture rises. The build begins right after the wet season when there is a lot of floating stuff, including reeds, up from bottom of the lake bed; these are gathered, compacted, and kept expanded, tied layer over layer and crisscrossed – an amazing insight into another way of life and they do not want to move or change how they live. The two families offered us various knitted and jewellery they have hand made. Including luncheon and a walk on the beach on Taquile Island on the Lake, this was a full day event and is highly recommended to see how these gracious and welcoming people live lives so different to ours.