We got to have a relaxed start to the day since the original itinerary would have had us riding the bus from Cusco to Puno, stopping at some ruins, having a lunch prepared by locals maintaining their traditions, and marveling at the views from the highest pass we drove over. So instead Raul put together a short walking tour of Puno and lunch at a nice restaurant. In a way it worked out nicely, because the Hotel Lago Titicaca was one of the nicest places we stayed.
After a nice breakfast in the hotel, we took a little walk around the “used to be island, now peninsula” the hotel is located on, and met some of the local alpacas.
Then we rode a bus into Puno and disembarked near the old main plaza. From there we walked to the “new plaza” and got some information about the city’s history.
I noticed in Cusco and here in Puno that it is popular to mash up Star Wars and Peru stuff in shirt designs. I heartily approve of this mashup, but didn’t buy any shirts.
Then we had a nice lunch where I tried the alpaca lomo salteado and found it nice: lean and mild-flavored.
Then we walked down to a boardwalk on the lake to see a bit more of the town and take some photos.
We rode a different bus back to the hotel. The hotel has a fire circle atop a hill and offers a sunset hot cocoa for US$10. Raul reserved the whole fire circle for us and almost everyone came out to sit under blankets and watch the sun go down.
Between the late lunch and the muffin that came with the cocoa we decided to skip the dinner Raul had reserved seats for us at in the hotel restaurant. It was nice to have a couple quiet hours, go to bed a bit early, and try to catch up on sleep.
We had another nice breakfast and then met at 9 to board a boat at the hotel’s dock. A spiffy water taxi took us to Uros, a community of floating reed islands. Our visit with the Uros people of one of the islands was fascinating. Each island is limited to about twenty people, usually four or five families. Rosario, our local guide, introduced several family members to us, and they told us, via Rosario translating, a bit about themselves. Then they asked to learn a bit about us. It was fun to see how universal humor seems to be, and there were a few laughs when we learned how the island’s president met his wife, and similar laughs when they were told similar information about us.
We learned how the islands are constructed by gathering ‘rafts’ of reeds that have broken loose from the ground during a storm. The Uros people lash these rafts together to form an island about a hundred feet on each side. The reeds provide all kinds of uses to the Uros: they eat the inner part of the bottom foot or so of the reed, the skin peeled off of that part has a moist fibrous surface that can be used as toilet paper or a moisturizing wipe, the rest of the reed can be used for construction or split and braided to produce baskets, cord, or rope.
The construction aspects were fascinating. The storm-loosened reeds bring some soil along with their roots, but the reed itself is buoyant enough that the whole thing floats. However, water moving under the raft will erode the soil away, so there are strict boat speed limits near the floating islands. After lashing the pieces together to form their island, the Uros cut and gather other reeds and spread several layers crosswise to each other. The first several layers will end up being underwater, so they begin rotting. To counteract this, the Uros must cut and gather enough reeds to spread another layer or two every two weeks.
They build up even more layers to serve as a ‘foundation’ for their house. This is because, while it is easy to add a new layer of floor to the ‘open’ parts of the island, it is hard to add one underneath your house, so the houses are light enough that a dozen or so people can lift and move them. They add an extra foot or more of floor layers and place the house on top. That way they can wait four to six months before having to prepare a new ‘foundation’ on a different part of the island and moving their house. The islands themselves are anchored on all sides to the bottom of the lake. Originally they used reed ropes which, being underwater, needed frequent replacement. They were glad to adopt nylon ropes for anchoring, and to lash the parts of the island together.
Living on one of these islands requires a fair amount of maintenance and work. The president, Evar, told us that lazy people are not tolerated. If one of the families on the island fails to contribute, or cannot get along with the other families, the portion of the island holding their house can be cut away from the rest of the island using a big saw, a really interesting form of eviction. That family can approach other islands and try to join them, but news travels quickly in their small community of about a thousand and a half Uros, so if the family’s reputation is bad enough, they may not be accepted anywhere.
The people themselves have a heavy appearance, but our guide explained that is largely due to water retention. The Uros drink the lake water which, due to mineral deposits in the rocks around the lake, is slightly salty. They cook on a clay stove that rests on a flat rock after wetting down the nearby reeds. The stove burns dried reeds.
Other than working on maintaining their island and home and fishing or gathering other food, the Uros do a lot of crafts. After the presentation they showed us the pieces they have for sale. They do embroidery and we bought a couple of pillow cases. They also make mobiles and figurines and things out of reeds. There is a real ethos of cooperation and sharing among the Uros. Our tour group was divided into four sub-groups - each would shop from the crafts offered by one of the four families. Even just entering the community as tourists we paid an entrance fee that would be used for the good of the community, and we were directed to a specific island - each island takes turns receiving tourists so that all are given equal chances to sell their wares.
It was a fascinating visit and we learned a lot (with a plenty of humor along the way) about this people’s traditions, many of which they continue carrying on today. When we left, some people paid a few soles to get to our next stop, a community center island, on a reed boat. This island has some public bathrooms, a coffee shop, and some market stalls.
Our next destination was Taquile Island. This island is internationally recognized for their tradition of knitting and weaving. The island itself has been inhabited since before the Inca came to dominate the area. The boat stopped near the middle part of this long, thin, island and we walked up a path to a market plaza near a new solar power station.
Rosario explained some of the traditions of this community. Each family on the island owns six different plots of farmland. Because the soil is so rocky and water is relatively scarce, they farm only three plots each year, leaving the other three plots fallow on a rotating cycle. The men have to knit hats that are woven tightly enough to hold water for several seconds before being permitted by the woman’s family to marry her. While the men do the knitting, the women are weavers, and they weave a wide belt for their husbands using their own hair spun into threads for the weft. We purchased one of these belts because they are impressive demonstrations of weaving skill.
We hiked a half mile or so to a restaurant where we had lunch. It was a great way to see more of how people live on this island.
The big hit of the meal was a deep-fried bread that was like an extra-dense sopapilla. Everyone else had trout for the main course while I had a vegetable omelette.
We left the island for the hour-long boat ride back to the hotel. We arrived a bit before 6PM. Raul had made dinner reservations at the hotel restaurant for 7.
We stopped in at the bar around 6:30 and had some nice cocktails.
This was our final dinner with the whole tour group and I was hoping it would feel really special. Unfortunately it ended up being a bit frustrating with drinks ordered that never arrived and waiting almost an hour for the meal to appear, but one of our group members made a very nice toast to Raul and we had some interesting conversations during all the waiting.