Titicaca - a VERY big Lake

Lake Titicaca is massive - make no bones about it. It's all about the 3,800 meter mark so no running for a few days.  We visited the  pre Incan site of Tihuanacu on the way and found out that the Incas  were merely the last in a long line of civilisations and they pinched everyone elses good ideas. It seemed difficult to imagine a rich and complex society when it looks so poor and windswept and desolate now.  They think that there was a 60 year drought which caused all the people to drift away and allowed the Incas to walk in and benefit. Like a lot of what we saw in Bolivia it was poorly curated and seemed very sad and not a patch on what we saw in Peru later.

A big bonus throughout the high country was discovering just how accommodating the Llamas were. 

 We  had a tortuous journey across the plateau and across the Lake to eventually reach Peru and immediately could tell it was a richer society.  Puno was a nice town on the shores of the Lake and we celebrated Ifrah's birthday with a show of wild and wonderful dancing at a dinner show. Then off the next day we took cycle rickshaws to the port to board our boats to take us to the islands and to a remote community where we were to stay with a family in a homestay.

Aine and Linn were the two girls from Norway with us from Rio to Lima - unsuccessfully correcting my Norwegian as we went. I got pretty good at "otter" "whore" and "having a good time", so I'm all set for the fleshpots of Bergen where I will be understood. 

The floating islands really were floating and moored just off Puno where massive reed beds sheltered the port and the islands. They do seem to suffer being close to so many tourists and it was all a bit tacky. 

It was much nicer far out in the lake on Taquile island where the men do all the knitting. The climb up to the top of the island for lunch was pretty lung bursting and made us think about what was to come on the Inca Trail. Here Verity (on the left) is chatting to one of the knitters.

Lunch was great and we had a chance to see how the boys knit and the women weave. Amazingly complicated.

It was a long day before we finally reached the peninsula where we were billetted. The band came out to welcome us but before we could get dressed up in local costumes and show our dancing we had a crunch local football match. In the end we had to play the weight advantage (I am a veritable giant compared with Peruvians) because after running for the ball I couldn't breathe for 5 minutes. Thankfully I pulled a hanstring and Verity came on and sorted them out.

 

It was a bit odd staying with the family but I struggled on in limited Spanish and Lourdes and her Mum and Dad and Granny were very friendly (as were their sheep and pigs and cows).

Mum cooked simple vegetarian food on a clay stove and we were packed off to bed straight after dinner because everyone gets up very early.

Next morning we had to work for our keep, taking the sheep out to tether them on the salt marsh and peeling potatoes. I'm afraid we weren't very good subsistence farmers. 

Then off back to Puno to prepare for the bus to Cusco.

(Lourdes in the sheep pen)