vamanos2006: Lake Titicaca

Its big, its high and its freezing! At an elevation of 3820m and covering over 9000 sq km boardering Peru and Bolivia we had our exploration work cut out for us. A bad start in Cusco saw two lonely travellers waiting at the bus station with no Puno bus in sight. Not phased, the bus company we bought tickets from gave us another ticket for the saddest looking bus in the parking lot - needless to say it was a long trip down to our last Peruvian destination, Puno.

Our first glance at Lake Titicaca was a bit disappointing. Luckily this was just the man made Lake Titicaca pond where lovers could paddle about in twin swan paddle boats (no, we didn´t!). Moving on to the main event, our first voyage on Lake Titicaca was to the Isla Flotantes (floating islands made of reed). These ancient communities traditionally eked a living fishing and capturing waterfowl but now suppliment it by giving grockles an insight into their lives. A bit voyeuristic we felt at first but as the head of one of the families explained, now they can afford to send their kids to school, conscience relieved.

After being sat down on some rather comfy reed sofas he then went on to explain how the islanders depend on one type of tortora reed. From the dense rootbeds of these reeds they build the floating foundations of the island and then pad it upward with the dried reeds. The islands end up being about 1.5m thick and float, teathered by eucalyptus stakes, in about 40m of water. These reeds they also eat, they tasted quite good too, well as good as reeds can. If that wasn't enough, they build their houses, cook the fish, and make gnatty souvineers to sell to the likes of us (Lara & Zez, ´prizes on the way if customs doesn´t get toey). Not bad for a humble reed. After our informative little talk and reed salad we wandered around, snapping away and enjoying the bouncy feel of the floating island. With one island explored (they´re not exactly huge) we were ferried to another in a funky and apparently quite sea-worthy reed boat for more exploration.

Feeling a little fried (the sun is hot and cooks you at this altitude) we opted for a pedal-taxi back to town from the quayside. Couldn't help but feel a little guilty as our driver (?) weezed his way up the hill. Peru should put some of these guys in for the Tour de France!

Next stop on our grockle tour were the funery towers of Sillustani, about 45minutes out of Puno. This pre-inca culture placed its posh dead in towers made from huge precisely fitted blocks of stones on top of the surrounding hills. They tend to suffer a little from lightening strikes so some of them are a bit worse-for-wear but it was worth braving the freezing altiplano wind for the views of the lakes around.

For another insight into local life we were given a wander around one of the local family´s homesteads. The local indigenous people are pretty welcoming of the grockles and the chance to earn a few more soles as its obviously hard graft surviving on the altiplano. The tour around their home, the chance to taste some of the local food and see how they lived their lives was fascinating, aside from the opportunity for more cute llama shots!

Our time in Peru pretty much over, we braced ourselves for the delights of Bolivia. Another sparrow-fart start saw us creeping our way over the border with the usual officialdom before landing in the tourist ghetto of Copacabana. Hmmm. Least said about here the better... It was however the departure point for a quick overnight jaunt to the Isla del Sol.

This island was where the first Inca emperor and his sister/wife were born (no we haven't detoured to Alabama). It's a beautiful island (once you've gasped your way up the 350 steps to the little village), its also a funny island. Every house is either a restaurant or hostel. Don't expect to be able to eat out though as none of them are open. Also, being an island on one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world everybody of course has to buy their water from the mainland! Our glum pepper-pot hostel-granny informed us that there was no water until 5pm when the next boat came in and she'd hauled it up the hill on the back of her donkey. The trip was worth it however to jam the camera to bursting with shots of the amazing sunsets they get around here and to lay in bed to recover from the stonking high-altitude colds we'd both picked up.

With our Titicaca adventure over we headed to La Paz. Despite our best efforts in chosing the comfiest looking servicio touristico bus we could find we unfortunatly ended up on a heap of rust which, aside from smoking like it was running on used chip-fat, died on the first hill out of town.

Rescue came, after much mobile phone debating from our drivers-buddy over how many gringos he could sqeeze in a combi and how much per head he was willing to pay if his mate back in Copacabana found the cash (the driver meanwhile snoozed on the roof!). Rescue was hilariously in the form of a girls school outing bus. Hilarious from the point of view of the girls who promply split up all the ozzy guys who were with us and then proceeded to press for kisses and marriage!

The young, male gringos got a brief respite when the bus was emptied to cross lake Titicaca, only to be dragged up for a boogie when the driver finally relented and put their Reggaton tape on (Reggaton is local boogie toons) when we set off on the other side... Funny!