Around Lago Titicaca: Part One

After the last bus ride in Bolivia turned out to be one of the most testing and shitty, I have finally made it over the southern Bolivian border to the "promised land" of Argentina. I felt sure there would be steak and champagne on plush buses, served by beautiful latin strippers, and all would be imbued with a warm and sunny glow, leaving the smelly, will-we-actually-get-there vibe of Bolvian transport far behind.

Puno and the Floating Islands of the Uros
So after the hard slog of the trek and plenty of "pinch-yourself-to-believe-it" moments at Macchu Piccu, I took a bus for a few hours south down to the town of Puno. It sits on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca and apart from a tiny little courtyard cafe that was playing some soothing One Giant Leap when I walked in and sold the best organic coffee I´d had in Peru (its rather difficult to find), isn´t really anything to write home about. This shop got me excited before I realised what it actually sold:


There is a little lagoon by the lake that has some rather weird looking pedalos with all sorts of different creatures tacked onto the front, and nearby is the most characterful peruvian museum ever based in th shell of a worn-out old bus.




I walked along the promenade and around the coast to where the SS Yavari is moored whilst ongoing repairs are performed. The Yavari holds th title of "the oldest ship on Lake Titicaca" and has a remarkable story attached to it. In 1861 the Peruvian government ordered two gunships from James Watt & Co in England. They were shipped in 2766 pieces over the seas to the port of Arica (now in Chile), then by train to Tacna and finally and most amazingly by men and mules over SIX YEARS to Puno! In-fcuking-credible! There they were reassembled and the Yavari was finally relaunched on Christmas Day, 1870.


You can visit the ship as the restoration work continues with th aim of turning into a fully working tourist boat in a year or two. There is even a letter from dear old Prince Phillip in the cabin saying what a good cause it is, though I bet he didn´t squeeze many shillings from the bulging royal coffers to help out. Its a great project and the story alone was worth the trip to see the boat.



In the afternoon I took a short trip out into the Lake to the famous Floating Islands of the Uros people, which unfortunately have become rather commercialized of late with the islanders setting up stalls and politely hassling visitors to buy souvenirs and take the "Uros Taxi" which is a ride in one of the traditional boats while the women sing and dance. I declined, to wander round and check out the actual islands themselves, and they were a bit perplexed. They had made a little model to demonstrate how the reed matter is processed to form the floating blocks and how they have to be anchored down. They told us that when a strong wind came a few weeks previous, one island was blown almost 2km out into the lake!




Its hard to know quite how much life has changed for them since the influx of so much tourism, however they continue to collect the reeds and create more islands (72 at the last count) and catch fish from the Lake and cook them in a traditional fashion between hot coals, although I spotted one hut actually had a nice solar panel attached - certainly not cheap!





Next in Part Two: I hopped around the coast to Bolivia, Copacabana to be precise, and took the boat over the mythical Isla Del Sol, where the Incas believed the sun was born and that their gods emerged out of the Lake. I may have got that the wrong way round but still, it was seriously beautiful!