Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca was another memorable once in a lifetime experience. We spent three days visiting its iconic sights. This included time with the Uros people on their famous floating reed islands and an overnight stop on the tranquil island of Taquile. 

The reed islands were extraordinary. More than a thousand people still live on an archipelago of 60 artificial islands floating in the reed marshes near Puno. Our tour visited one of these remarkable structures while on our way to Taquile. The image below (that I’ve pulled from the web) gives you a good feel for this remarkable archipelago.

As we glided into the reeds, I was surprised to see how close the islands were to Puno. As you can see below, the city’s hillside suburbs were always visible in the distance. It's incredible to think that the Uros have maintained their unique lifestyle for hundreds of years less than 5km from a major urban centre. 

After weaving through reedy channels we eventually "docked" at an island the Uros had converted into a tourism venture. Here we met some of the locals and experienced their aquatic culture first hand. This included lessons on building and maintaining a floating island. 

The islanders are continually harvesting and drying reeds to sustain their remarkable islands. As the bottom layer of reeds rots, they replenish the island’s surface with a fresh layer once or twice a month. Over time these layers descend until they eventually become the island’s new base layer. 

The Uros harvest reeds from the bed of the lake using a long underwater scythe-like tool. The reeds are then stacked and left to dry for a month or so. As a result, every island is dotted with conical stacks of drying vegetation. We saw them everywhere we went.

The larger islands house about ten families, while smaller ones, only about thirty meters wide, house only two or three families. The island we visited had a small watch tower, plus a dozen or so structures. The tower offered a superb elevated view of the island. Naturally, I had to climb it. 

We also took a short ride in a traditional reed boat. They’re surprisingly sturdy, built from tightly bound “logs” of dried reeds. At one point, Garry and I were each handed an oar and invited to propel our boat silently across the lake. Yes, it was classic tourist gimmick.

Garry also bought a couple of cushion covers from the locals. You can see him scrutinising a final selection in the image above. We eventually bought two of the grey designs you can see. These now take pride of place, along with cushion covers from South Africa, on our leather sofas at home.

However, while the Uros island visit was fascinating, it did feel a little engineered at times. This made the island of Taquile, our next port of call, all the more special. The people of Taquile are reserved and friendly folk. They've preserved many of their traditional culture and customs despite the daily visits of up to 800 tourists, and have done so without morphing into some formulaic tourist version of reality.

The women wear large flowing skirts and brightly coloured shawls, while the men wear white shirts and black trousers with large, home-weaved cummerbunds. The men’s costume is topped off with a large, floppy ‘Santa’ hat. Different colours denote single and married men. At times you feel as if the entire island is preparing for an endless black-tie event. Dress smartly folks, we're at 4000 metres.

We climbed to the summit of the island on our first night and watched the sun go down. At 4000 metres, you think you're above the fray. However, as the sun sinks, it drops behind Andean mountain peaks lying beyond the horizon. At this moment spectacular black shadows streak across the sky. We saw this phenomenon repeated one evening while on the Amazon, almost 4000 feet lower down.

From Taquile, we returned to Puno where the town's annual street festival was in full swing. Our final evening was filled with a riot of colour and sound as thousands of people participated in a stunning street parade. The cavalcade included drummers and musicians, women in ornate swirling skirts and men in dramatic flowing capes.

This festive crowd snaked through town for several hours, slowly passing down one narrow central city street after another.  By chance, the parade route included a laneway outside the restaurant we'd chosen for dinner. As we dined, our group rose from the table, again and again, to stop and watch the incredible spectacle glide by outside.

The costumes were bright, loud, hand-sewn garments. Everyone, young and old, male and female, rotated and swirled through the cobblestone streets singing and dancing in time to flamboyant, local music blaring from trucks and houses. The entire evening was a stand out highlight during our time in Peru.

Join us on our next stop as we visit the heart of Inca territory.