Lake Titicaca

Never a ship sails out of bay but carries my heart as a stowaway. Roselle Mercier Montgomery

Titicaca the largest lake in south america, and at 3800 metres it is the highest navegable lake in the world. apparently inca structures were discovered underneith the water . the quechua name titicaca means lake of the puma and fish. strangely an upside down aerial photograph of the lake shows the vague image of a puma and a fish.

however what makes the lake so interesting today is that it is home to several indigenous cultures who live just as they have for centuries. the most unique of these cultures being the "Uros"who live on floating islands. the islands are made from a reed plant called totora which grows abundandly in the lake. they have lived like this since around 200 AD when territorial wars were ongoing between tribes in the area, the uros were not interested in conflict found that living on the lake offereed them the peacful existence they wanted. now days they have moved the islands close to the city of puno for trade.


Uros come to welcome our boat.


Uro boat with puma head.


the uros speak the aymara language.


originally they had used boats which would have been tied together to prevent drifting, these boats eventually evolved into large man made islands large enough for whole communities to live on.


totora
the boats the islands and the houses are made from this stuff , in fact they can even eat it.


old type of house made form totora


the modern design of totora house.


the surface of the islands needs to be topped up constantly and the houses need to be raised one foot every three months.



there are 50 islands with 2000 inhabitants. one island even has a school on it and a small clinic.


each island has a tower, these are used for quick comunication form island to island if there is any trouble. this island has a particulatly creative tower.

to be honest i hardly even asked much about what the tour was about beyond the visit to the floating islands , so i had no idea where we were going after that.
next up was a three hour trip into the lake to visit the island ofof Amantani where we would stay one night.



some people in traditional clothing come to greet us.


they discuss who takes who.



these are the kind of houses they live in.
the people survive mostly on food produced on the island such as potatoes. for the most part the people on this island are vegetarians though they do sacrifice the odd animal for a wedding! but they dont eat it.
the wedding celebration incidentally go on for three days, there was one ongoing when we were there, i could hear a brass band tooting away somewhere in the hills.


isabella, maximo and niños
this is the adorable family i stayed with. sorry about my poor fotography.
i gave some coloring books to the kids and my torch to the old lady.

tiny doors. about shoulder height on me. i whacked my head several times.

view from my window.

there are some pre inca ruins on the island known as the temples of pachatata and pachamama.

pachatata is the god of the universe and pachamama is mother earth.

the ancient civilizations used these locations to study the stars which doesnt surprise me, these are the clearest skies i have ever known.

they even took us out for a night of traditional dancing.

next day we took a one hour boat trip to the island of taquile

the main plaza on the island

men on this island dress like this, the way they wear their hat indicates if they are maried, single or looking. the married ones also wear a colorful belt decorated with drawings and symbols telling a story about their marriage. this is given to them by their wife on the day of the wedding.

view of the lake titicaca from the island of taquile

Bolivia lies across the sun sparkled waters

Links

Lake Titicaca

The Uros

The island of Amantani

Taquile island

Map of lake Titicaca