Peru trip – Lake Titicaca

Like zombies, we boarded the bus to Lake Titicaca (which name allegedly stands for “rock puma”) for a day that would proved to be an opportunity for discovery and wonderment. We began with boarding one of these 25 or so, passenger boats, that take tourists over the lake and then sail over to the famous Uros Islands, that are a set of man-made floating islands, made out of totoro reed, on the edges of the Lake Titicaca National Reserve.

The lake is located at almost 13,000 feet (3950 meters), not an elevation the doctor would order for me at this particular time. When we got to these Uros islands, we where meet the islanders (they're now Aymara Indians) who ambushed us into their huts and literally trapped us inside to make us buy their handicraft.

These guys knew how to round up tourist and rightly so since they were hunters and gatherers before, and descendants of the first altiplano inhabitants. What was remarkable was the way they build the totora reed platforms, live on them and replace them every 40 years or so. To a certain degree, the highly staged, mercantile side of the visit felt fake and just like the typical tourist trap.

Apparently, everywhere we went during the entire trip, guides get a piece of the action if the tourists they bring along buy something. When we were done with the islanders, we were taken to nearby Taquile Island, where the culture allegedly dates back to pre-Incan times. These islanders, on “terra ferma” this time, still live according to the traditions and beliefs of their ancestors and are world renowned for their remarkable outfits and incredible fabrics.

We were told that Unesco has declared Taquile Island's textile as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, for whatever that's worth. We were showed some demonstration of fabrication of soaps from local plants that can be used for washing everything from laundry to hair and are said to prevent white hair and baldness (I should have tried it earlier on!)

We were also treated to a dance by the locals while we were all having lunch on the island. What was the most remarkable to me, was the fact that this was the only tourist place without one element of mechanized transportation in sight. Back at the same hotel, even though our appetite was still down to zero, I was feeling a little better and managed to sleep a few hours that night, sans oxygen. Hope was definitely returning to me!