Lake Titicaca and Its Islands

Thanks for the comments everyone! I get a little homesick every now and then and reading the comments really helps with that. :)

So the last few days have been interesting. First, I´ll tell you about Lake Titicaca and the islands of Amantani and Tequile.
Lake Titicaca was beautiful. A veritable paradise for water sports enthusiasts. It boasts the distinction of being the highest navigable body of water and several thousand feet above sea level. Still, pristine; as beautiful as I´d dreamed it would be.

Naturally, Titicaca was near the top of the list of places I wanted to see. Albert had gotten wind of an opportunity for outsiders to stay with families on the islands of Amantani and Tequile, both located in the middle of the lake. Being an Anthropology major, I am always looking for new authentic experiences from other cultures, so this really appealed to me. Since this was going to be my first outing on my own, I decided to play it safe and booked a tour with a travel agency.

The tour promised three meals, and two days and one night in Amantani. On the way to Amantani, there was a stop at a man-made island made out of a type of shoot that is native to the area. The second day included a stop by Tequile, the other inhabited island in Lake Titicaca.

My bus departed at 10:00 PM on 07/11 and I arrived in Puno at 4:00 AM. They agency allowed us to rest at their office which was furnished like a house until the boat was scheduled to leave at 7:30am; this would mark the start of our tour. Basically, I got no sleep before starting the tour.

At some point, I decided it would be a good idea to start taking pictures of all of those involved with the tours, for a couple of reasons.

1. So I could remember their faces if I lost them
2. So I could hold them accountable if someone tried to pull a fast one on me
3. To include in my blog. :)

Meet Alvaro, the coordinator... the Lucius Fox of my tour. Alvaro met me bright and early at 4 AM and made sure I got to my boat on time. A very sweet man; he also got me a deal on my hostel; $10.00 U.S. for my room which includes cable tv, free internet, hot water... He also booked a Bolivia bus ticket for me ($15.00 U.S.). Suffice it to say, a good man to know when you are a foreigner in Puno.

It hasn´t always been easy to coordinate with him since he speaks very little English, but he has come through for me every step of the way. There were moments when I thought I was going to be taken on a ride, but I have been able to count on him, and in a place like this, that means a lot.

Alvaro showed me to the boat and I headed off for our first stop on the tour: Uros, the man made island.

I think it was right around this moment that I knew I was not going to enjoy the tour. It all seemed very Epcot Center to me and not at all authentic. To tell you a bit more about the island, this method of living is a tradition that these people have carried on for 4 centuries. It truly is impressive, but the presentation was all very.... ugh.. The people of the island were very kind, and I knew their very existence probably counted a lot on the money they made off of tourists, so I donated some money to them, but couldn´t bring myself to buy any of the wares they were peddling to the tourists. They were kind enough to let me explore their island beyond the roped off area, and what I found there I thought was more interesting.

We left for Amantani after spending about 45 minutes on Uros. Now being abroad, I´ve become very obsessive compulsive about checking my bags and my pockets often; you never know. On the way to Amantani, I checked my pockets and found that my keys were not there. I started pulling my things out of my bag to see if I had stuck them in the pockets of one of my other pants or jackets. I pulled my jacket out of my bag and set it on the ground of the boat I was on. All of a sudden... "thwoop, rattle-rattle-rattle, pffff." My jacket was sucked in to the turbines of the engine and caused it to stall. *cold sweat* At that moment, I realized that I had put my Bose In-Ear Headphones and my iPod Nano with all of my music for this trip in the breast pocket.

Luckily, we were able to get the jacket out and the engine started up again just fine. The electronics were not so lucky and I will be without music for the rest of this trip. Actually, I have some music on my iPhone, but just some original stuff I am working on with my friend, Marko. I also have Barack Obama´s "The Audacity of Hope," so I guess this will give me a chance to relisten to it. :)

The rest of the tour was fairly uneventful. I got the meals with the local family as promised. I have pictures and vids, but I don´t want to waste the time posting them. I´ll put them up on youtube when I get back. There was a hike which I skipped because I didn´t want to do it simply to see some more ruins that couldn´t have possibly compared to Machu Picchu anyway.

Tequile was nice. We had a nice lunch prepared for us by a local family with a very nice view of Lake Titicaca. Truth be told, I was happy to return to Puno last night.

My plan was to push on to Bolivia today, but I found out that my Lonely Planet guide which indicated there was no Visa fee charged was printed in 2007, and there was a law passed in 2008 requiring Visa for U.S. citizens to enter Bolivia. I will not be paying the $135.00 Visa charge and will instead pass through Chile to Argentina. It´s a shame as I really wanted to see the Salar de Uyuni which is a salt flat in Bolivia and allegedly quite the sight to see. 80% of this flat lies in Bolivia. Luckily, 20% of it lies in Chile, so I will get to see a portion of it, albeit not the best part. Still, I´m sure it will be quite nice.

Oddly, I had one of my most authentic South American experiences today in Puno, simply running errands. It´s hard being in a foreign country and not speaking the local language, but I have adapted well I think. After I returned to my hostel, I decided since I was not going to be heading to Bolivia, I would take care of some important things, like fixing my suspenders which were falling apart at the seams, getting nail clippers to aleve the pressure on an ingrown nail I have on my toe (yuck, I know...), and to do laundry. Where does one go to find the tools needed to accomplish these tasks in a country where there are no superstores like Fred Meyer? Not an easy task to solve.

Not speaking the native language and not having an English to Spanish dictionary but having chores that desperately needed to be done, a memory flashed in my head of an experience I once had playing Cranium with friends. The challenge was that I had to draw something blindfolded for my partner to guess. The word to guess was "stickshift"; I think we won the challenge in something like 15 seconds. It occurred to me that I may not be able to talk to people, but I can draw exactly what I need to say with relative ease.

At the front desk, I scrawled images of a pair of tweezers, nail clippers, and a needle and thread. I opened up a rudimentary map for the concierge who looked at my drawing and then circled the market on the map explaining to me that I could purchase those items there. I walked outside and waiting for me (or anyone else who needed to get around) was a bike taxi. I showed him the map and asked "cuanto cuesta." "Un sol" he replied. That´s about $0.30 U.S. So off I went.

When I got off the taxi, I found myself in a shopping center where I counted a total of zero other foreigners. I must admit, I got a little excited. I was able to communicate well enough to find all of the items on my shopping list as well as a card reader which I purchased so that I didn´t have to keep burning CD´s to post vids to my blog. This all sounds easier than it actually is. I purchased a little notebook too so I could continue doing this drawing to communicate thing as it is working very well for me.

At the market, I had my first Andrew Zimmern moment:

So that´s my adventure so far, in a nutshell. I am having a blast! Since Bolivia has fallen through, I have decided to stay in Peru just a little longer since there are some canyons I´d like to see before I head into Chile. I did book a tour again. I think the problem with the last tour is that I was going to see a people. Tours can´t be that bad for natural wonders or sites like Machu Picchu, so I think this should be fine. Anyway, the sites in my opinion are just an excuse to move around. The real adventure for me is everything that happens in between.

Love, Don.