… besides Machu Picchu
July 30, 2018
Hola a todos —
I hope all is well with you. I am in the middle of my two-week session at a Cusco, Peru Spanish language school for gringos. The school is excellent; but overall, I still prefer the Cuernavaca, Mexico school I have attended for the last four years. We just finished an optional weekend excursion to Lake Titicaca, the Peruvian lake that borders on Bolivia. Six students from this school went on this field trip. We had a great time.
Lake Titicaca is the highest altitude navigable lake in the world at 12,500 feet. To give some perspective, American muffin, brownie, and cake boxes all have high-altitude cooking adjustments. These high-altitude recipes all kick in at the altitude of 4,000 feet. Plus, Lake Titicaca is HUGE. I could see the Bolivian shoreline on the far horizon. The lake is the natural boundary between Peru and Bolivia..m
BOLIVIA IS ON THE HORIZON
Our first experience in this Andean Highland was the lakeside town of Puño, the kicking off point for the lake. Saturday morning at o’dark hundred (7:00 a.m) we left Puno by boat to tour the lake and its islands. Yesterday, (Sunday night) we arrived back in Puño at the end of a weekend excursion that took us back in time and space to when the Incans ruled Lake Titicaca and took tribute from all other tribes, including the Uros People.
We spent Saturday night with a Quechua (Incan) host family on one of these islands, in very rudimentary conditions — no heat, no running water, one shared, primitive bathroom for the six of us gringo visitors. Of course, no shower. There was minimal electricity thanks to one small solar panel; but the family stove was fueled by wood. Did I mention there was no room heat and the temp. at night got down to 37 degrees Fahrenheit? (3 degrees Celsius which is the Peruvian temp. system). The lake cell phone and internet access went the full gamut from barely to non-existent, with emphasis on the latter.
On Sunday, we said a grateful “adios” to our host family and started our return voyage to Puno. We stopped by Uros for several hours on our way back. Embedded here are some photos from the island of Uros. This is an ancient, man-made island — and just to state the obvious — Uros is totally surrounded by the lake. In pre-Columbian times, the original inhabitants, the Uros Tribe were forced off all habitable islands and lakefront land by the invading Incas. The Uros were forced to build their own islands if they wanted to stay in their aboriginal land and lake. The Uros cut the abundant lake reeds (junco in Spanish) and made large, suitcase-size, building blocks out of the cuttings. Then, they lashed these building blocks together in the lake to create an artificial firmament. Finally, they covered this new superstructure with about 10 inches of loose, fresh reeds. Over time, the Uroians (?) have to continually pull out rotting sections of the reed blocks and replace them with fresh blocks. Plus, they made these great banana boats made of lashed reeds.
Considering that you are standing on squishy reeds free-floating on the lake, this island has extensive development. Note: Uros is not monolithic; Uros island is really a series of small inter-connected reed islands, all man-made. I have been told more than once that there is a university on Uros. I did not see it. The U. of Uros just boggles the mind. I did pay the “President” of Uros one Peruvian sole (.35 cents USD) and he gave me a Uros stamp in my passport – just a cute, little money-making, marketing scheme. I cherish my passport stamp.
That’s the update. What a great trip this has been.
Zeferino