Puno and Lake Titicaca

Uros island and boats
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A relatively short bus hop of 5 hours from Arequipa followed by a 10 minute ride in a cycle rickshaw saw us at our hostel in Puno, Hostel Imperial, near the central Market. We checked in and dropped our bags before heading out for lunch and to look into our options for an overnight on lake Titicaca. Puno itself is nothing special but look up and you know you are somewhere special, the skies are the bluest we have ever seen and the clouds are nothing less than spectacular. We decided to do a homestay with a family on Amantani Island, one of the less touristy islands and to do it independently rather than booking through an agency as the islanders see more of your money that way. Next stop was the local market to buy some fruit and veg to bring with us as gifts for our family followed by an early night as our boat left next morning at 7.30am.

Island dwelling
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Down at the docks bright and early we discovered the boat didnt acually leave until 8, could have had an extra 30mins beauty sleep! Our boat began loading, tourists, locals, an incredibly large cargo of fruit, veg and other supplies for Amantani, followed by more tourists, locals.... you get the picture! By 8.20 we cast off, to our relief as the boat was already borderline overloaded and the only restriction on passenger numbers seemed to be space! We chugged slowly out of port and across the bay into a large expanse of reed beds. Soon we reached the Uros reed islands, and pulled alongside one of the larger ones, Chumi. The history of these islands is fascinating, the inhabitants fled here to escape the domination of the Incas and continue to live this unique lifestyle to this day. As we disembarked we were welcomed with lots of smiles and hand shakes by the friendly residents of Chumi. The surface of the island is spongy underfoot which feels quite strange at first, consisting of layers of reeds which are replaced as those underneath rot. We later discovered from our homestay hosts that soft drink bottles are also incorporated in the construction to help flotation (not something they like tourists to know Id imagine!). The houses are also built entirely from reeds as are the ornate boats and a properly constructed boat could support a family for months. On the down side the Uros have become highly touristed and as a result your visit feels primarily an exercise to get you to buy local handicrafts, but you can hardly blame the islanders for this! They still subsist primarily on fish and birds and the small income they make from tourists supplements their basic diet. There are still more isolated reed island comunities on Titicaca who rarely see visitors and the Anthropologist in me hopes this remains so.

Islanders
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We continued our trip with a further 3 hours to Amantani. When we arrived our captains 15 year old assistant, an islander led us through the Pueblo to meet his family with whom we stayed for the night. The economy here is subsistence farming and fishing, the best description I can think of is Ireland in the 19th century. Our family live in a house contructed of mud bricks with mud floors and corrugated tin roof. They keep a few chickens and grow maize, potatoes, onions etc. Our accommodation was upstairs in a room which though basic, looked considerably more finished than the rest of the building. Meals consisted of veggie soup, a main course of rice and veg, egg or pancakes and chips and tea made from either cocoa or a herb similar to fennel that grows at the end of the garden, not sure what it was but it was delicious! We walked to the top of Pachatata, one of 2 hills on the island for spectacular late evening views of lake Titicaca with its skies that just go on forever before returning for dinner by candle light. This was 18th November, Sarahs birthday... dinner by candle light, you cant say I dont know how to treat a girl!! - ok, Ill come clean, it gets dark by 6 and theres no electricity on most of the island but hey, I try !!!!

Chumi
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Next morning we were woken at 6.30 for brekky (leftovers from dinner) and headed down to the pier for our 8am boat which was now leaving at 9 because it was local government election day and people needed time to vote! We pulled away from Amantani and as we did so were exposed to the full strength of an easterly wind which was creating a large swell so we quickly agreed to head directly back to Puno rather than the scheduled 4 hour visit to Taquile Island.

While in Puno we also visited the remarkable M.S. Yavari, originally built as a gun boat/cargo/passenger ship in 1862. Built in Birmingham she was sent out in pieces around Cape Horn to Arica port, from where they were shipped 40 miles by train to Tacna before being hauled by mule and porters the remaining 250 miles and 15500ft ascent to Lake Titicaca! The whole journey took almost 6 years! The original engine was steam, powered by dried Llama dung! The ship fell into disrepair before being rescued by Meriel Larken in 1987 and is currently in the process of being restored to her original Vicorian glory as a 20 passenger cruise boat! She is now powered by a Swedish 4 cylinder Bolinder engine, the largest and oldest of its kind in working order in the world today. If old boats is your thing, the website is http://proyectoyavari.perucultural.org.pe/index2.htm