Lake Titicaca - yes, we all used to snicker at the name as kids. But even the tour guides here get into the act! It actually means 'rock of the puma' and is pronounced ´titi-kha-kha´ which gives it a much different meaning than the other choice! The lake lies at 12,500 feet (3,810 m) above sea level in the Andes Mountains of South America, astride the border between Peru to the west and Bolivia to the east. Titicaca is the second largest lake of South America (after Maracaibo) and is considered the highest navigable lake in the world. It covers some 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) and extends in a northwest-to-southeast direction for a distance of 120 miles (190 km)! It is 50 miles (80 km) across at its widest point. A narrow strait, Tiquina, separates the lake into two bodies of water. The photo above is of the waves as our boat went forward on the lake.
We flew into Juliaca and then took a collectivo mini-bus down to Puno. Puno is known to be divided into three parts - the Aymara speaking, the Quecha speaking and Spanish. These days, most of the Aymara have intermarried with the Uros and now the people on the floating islands speak mostly Spanish (also because Spanish is spoken throughout most of Peru).
The city of Puno itself doesn't have much beyond its main drag, Calle Lima, which has several good restaurants and bars. But the real highlight was the visit to the Floating Islands and the Sillustani funerary towers. The floating islands are all made from reeds or totoras that grow all through Lake Titicaca. The people that live on the islands are known as the Uros. The islands are abuot 2-3 meters thick with a spongy surface...all the houses and structures on the islands are made from these reeds. The reeds are used for all sorts of additional things, including food (the center of the reed is a good source of iodine), thatching for huts, building material for boats, building material for shoes & clothes and more! Smruti immediately got down to housekeeping duties, as you can see from the photo!
These days, the islanders use solar panels to get their power, so on another on of the islands, there was a small post office, a hospital and school. The boats look like Viking ships with their fierce looking figureheads. The Uros had moved to the floating islands during the Inca period to to isolate themselves from the Inca invasion and to avoid paying any taxes. But now many leave after school to go to the mainland. We also visited the primary school which had a solar-powered computer!
The same afternoon, we took a tour of the funerary towers at Sillustani. Apparently, the towers are built in the shape of an uterus based on the pre-Inca belief of pacha mama (earth mother) and that people were buried in fetal position in order to be prepared for re-birth. The largest of these towers is 12 meters high--the only way in is a small passageway that faces east. It's a wild, bleak place. you can see the towers from miles away.
We would have stayed and explored further but got caught in a sudden lightening and hail storm-- thought it would be safer to be away from high exposed places! We did see the rain approaching from miles away. Apart from Brazil, this is the only place I´ve seen the streams of rain from far away (as opposed to seeing it fall on myself). From Puno, we took a bus down to Arequipa. On the way, we saw some fantastic landscapes consisting of lakes and snow-clad mountains. We even caught a rainbow on our camera!
- Smruti
hola un saludo a los uuarios de blog
Posted by: franco | Friday, March 18, 2005 at 08:37 AM