Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca and Peninsular Home Stay (Day 19)

We awoke the next day to light rain. I'm never one to complain about the rain because I see precious little of it (particularly in Perth) but I was worried about it spoiling a nice couple of days out on the lake.

Above and below was our transport to the lake. It was all very touristy, but it was the most fun we'd had in days! The drivers turned it into a race. By the time we reached the port a couple of kms away, the rain & clouds were gone & it was shaping up to be a belter of a day.

 

 

 

Lake Titcaca

We climbed aboard our cruise vessel and started out through the reed beds toward the open water of the lake. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3827m above sea level. It's quite large as well and forms a section of the border between Peru and Bolivia. Our boat wasn't very fast, but we had all day to take in the view so we were in no rush.

 

Along the way we saw people in small boats harvesting reeds (above) and others tending fish farms like the one below.

 

The shallow waters near Puno allow the locals to simply drive stakes into the bottom of the lake and string fish nets between them. It's not the same as the fish farming in the western world because they catch the wild fish and rear them until they're big enough to sell. No captive breeding here. Just as we were about to make it outside the bay where Puno sits, we had to perform a rescue mission on a stricken boat that had broken down and was drifting aimlessly. It was all a bit hap hazard, but you have to let the locals do it their way. We dragged them close enough to shore so that they could hop off without drowning. Our good deed for the day.

Taquile Island

 

Our first stop for the day was Taquile Island. After a short wonder up the hill we reached a nice spot where we could look over Lake Titicaca.

 

Taquile Island has a slightly odd society. It's a commune of sorts (Community Collectivism it's called technically). It's not like the communism of China or some of the eastern block countries. Nobody is forced to be there and people from the mainland are able to come to live there. Everybody has a job to do and they all rotate their jobs every 6 months. It seems to work very well and the locals seem to be a happy bunch which is proof that the system works. It's a shame the rest of the world can't play so nice together.

 

We had a prearranged lunch on the island. It was quite nice and with a great view over the lake. After lunch we set off in the opposite direction from where we had come from to jump back on our boat.

 

Home Stay - The Peninsular

 

That night was the night of the trip I'd been dreading since before we booked the tour. It was what they call a home stay. They set each of us up with a family of peninsular residents.
The obvious issue was the language barrier (because our Spanish was rubbish), but there was another underlying gut feel thing that I couldn't put my finger on until sometime later. (I'll explain below). We were greeted by this welcoming committee whose musical talents weren't brilliant.

 

Considering this lot have a new group in every 2 days, they really don't have a clue how to organize the billeting. The chit chat about who's going where went on for a good 20 minutes. I don't understand why.

 So we thought we would be staying in one of the houses in the village near where the boat dropped us off. No such luck. Most of the group were whisked off somewhere close, but Kerri and I (and I think it was Vixy, Special K, Melissa & Richard) were frog marched up the hill and along the ridge (above) to our home stay places. This was after we'd been told we'd be coming back twice during the evening. I was stoked considering the chest problems I was having.

 

 No sooner than we'd dropped our stuff off in our room for the night, than we were turned around & taken back down the hill to the village. Everyone was already playing soccer & looked like they had been for some time. I gave it a miss being unwell. Volleyball was next. Kerri got involved, but I just wasn't up for it.
The games finished & it was time to hike the 3km back up the hill for the second time.We had a fairly simple dinner with our hosts and before spent some time with their inquisitive children. Communication was dreadful with us picking words out of our translation book & me showing photos of animals & birds from earlier in the tour to try to understand what each one was called in Spanish. It was hard work!

 

After dinner,we were supposed to 'suit up' in traditional dress and go do some traditional dancing. I wasn't about to do that hike again and was crashing badly with the chest infection. The temperature drop with the sun gone wasn't helping. I told Kerri she should go because she was keen enough, but I think she wasn't about to do the hike up the hill again either. We decided instead to get an early night.