Home » Peru » Life on the Reeds; and on the Rocks!

Catching my head as it suddenly dropped from exhaustion, I continued counting down the minutes until the arrival of my night bus to the lakeside town of Puno. Before leaving Cusco, I had set up a two day excursion on Lake Titicaca; where I would visit three of the islands and stay over night with a local family. Everything was sort of running on schedule to get me there in time to make my 8am boat departure. The night had kicked off to a rough start when the bus company had double booked nearly 20 seats and attempted to pull away with angry customers running beside and in front of the vehicle. Lucky for me, I had arrived really early and insured my spot. The rest of the night went rather smoothly; well except for the bitter cold that filled the cabin and had turned the condensation on the windows to ice. Then as morning neared (5am), the bus suddenly came to a halt (only 10km outside of Puno). We soon discovered that the road between us and the town had been completely blocked off by angry civilians who were holding a demonstration.

Life on the Reeds; and on the Rocks!

Jeremy Curl
2006-08-28 12:03:07

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was a relief. Although, we would have to give them a little bribe money (merely change) in order to be aloud to pass, and then we would have to walk the mile of rubble where cabs would then pick us up and take us to town. Too make a long story short, I was an hour late meeting my travel agency at the bus station; but luckily they had hung around. I then quickly dropped my larger pack at their office and arrived at the docks just in time to make my boat's departure - Phew!!!!

The tour I set off on covered three islands found in the waters of Lake Titicaca. Now, this is no ordinary lake. It is known for being the highest navigable lake in the world, while it also holds the title for the biggest lake in South America and the largest lake above 2000 meters. Lake Titicaca, which lies 3820 meters (12,533ft) above sea level, covers 9000 sq km and straddles the Peru-Bolivia border. Besides the impressive statistics, the lake also carries with it much history and fabled stories. According to legend, the sun was born here (I actually met its mother - she's huge) and the first emperor of the Inca was said to have risen from the rock called Titicaca (Rock of the Puma) on the Island of the Sun (Isla de Sol). That is some pretty heavy stuff, but the real attraction (at least for me) were the floating islands of Uros. Making our way through the high grasses of the shallows. The waters soon opened into a clearing full of tiny floating islands. There were 35 islands in all; each one constructed entirely of totora reeds which grow abundantly throughout the lake. Docking at our chosen island, we all hopped off onto the spongy surface of the village. It was like walking around on foam - pretty weird. We were greeted by the village inhabitants (several hundred live on the islands), who showed us around and tried to sell us stuff they had crafted from the reeds. Not only were these reeds used for the entire make-up of the island, but they were also ...