Titicaca. What a strange name! I remember giggling stupidly at the mention of this name (sounds like “pee-poop” in French) when I was younger. I confess it still makes me laugh. But where does the name? Several hypotheses, but it seems that it is a term in Aymara language that refers to the Rock of the Puma on Isla del Sol (Sun Island), the birthplace of the Inca civilisation.
A bit of geography for those who are fond of it. Lake Titicaca is located on the border between Peru and Bolivia, in this vast region called Altiplano (high plateau) at 3800 meters altitude. The highest navigable lake in the world is as big as three times the Luxembourg (or twice Rhode Island). It is a freshwater lake, half fed by rivers and half fed by the rain that falls on its surface. The lake level remains constant through the flow of the Rio Desaguadero (7.5%), but also to significant evaporation (92.5%) due to the dry climate of the region.
From Cuzco, Henning and I joined Puno, our last stop in Peru, on the shores of the lake. We met Paulo there (he left us in Lima to join Lisa in Arequipa) and Lisa. Not much to do in Puno if it is to visit the floating islands of Uros. The Uros are an indigenous Indian people originally from the lake. Chased by the Incas, they decided to flee on mini-islands they made out of reeds. These islands could be moved like floating barges. Very convenient! Later, they approached the current Puno, less prone to droughts.
These islands are quite staggering: a layer of several meters of submerged earth (which makes it floating) covered with reed, and anchored to the bottom of the shallow waters of the lake. On average, they are 500 m² and are home of five families, living in small huts made of straw. It takes 8 months to make an island, knowing that they have a life expectancy of 40 years. The coating reed is renewed every two weeks by adding new reeds, the old one being incorporated to the topsoil.
You'll be a little disappointed, but no longer Uros Indians inhabit the islands. The last representative of the people died in 1959. But the Aymara Indians are now living on the islands and run the visits. About 2,000 people live there, most men work in Puno and women run the visits and sell their handicraft products. Nowadays it looks like a attraction park, but it's still interesting to understand how the Uros lived at the time and made their islands.
We then continued our journey. Border crossing: we leave Peru. While I really enjoyed all the hiking in the Peruvian Andes, I found the Peruvians very unkind. I don't like making a generality out of a three-week experience without real contact on site. But the fact is that I was surprised to find this trait (unfriendly, unsmiling, no humour) regularly and in all the places I went. To all those who have told me that I would love Peru, tell me what I missed, please!
Bolivian first step: the Island of the Sun. It is the largest island in Lake Titicaca. Some human communities are installed (about 5,000 people), but most of the island is wild. Steppe landscape, rocky, little vegetation, it is very beautiful. We toured over two days, with a night in a tent in the centre of the island, the highest point from which we witnessed sunset and moonrise, and moonset and sunrise the next early morning. On the pictures, you will see the moonrise and sunrise the next day, in front of the lake front and the snowy Cordillera Real in the background. Nature is really beautiful!
Finally, we headed to La Paz. From the lake, we rode on the Altiplano, until we got to El Alto, on the outskirts of La Paz, perched at 4,100 m (13,500 ft) altitude. And from there, we suddenly plunged into the cauldron of La Paz, 500 vertical meters below. I met there my friend Kati (that you begin to identify now) to ascent the five of us the Huayna Potosi (6,088 m – 19,975 ft), the highest peak identifiable on pictures of the Cordillera Real.
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