Lago Titicaca

On my second day in Puno, I took a day expedition to the islands in lake Titicaca. First we arrived in one of the Uros Islands. The Uros are a series of floating islands originally artificially created by the ethnic Uros to escape the incas and later the Spanish. The people there have lost the Uro language but they continue to conserve their island way of life in many ways thanks to tourism. The guide Luis, who had lived in Mexico, gave a passionate speech about this love hate relationship between tourism and the Uros. The people there rely mostly on a fee charged to visitors and on the profit from selling crafts and giving boat rides to tourist. The islands are ingeniously built using materials from the lake like the glass and roots of the grass and are constantly replenished with new materials. They also make their boats from the aquatic grass.  

Titicaca is the largest high altitude lake in the world. It get chilly at night and aside from fish and flogs nothing inhabits the lake waters. Well there is a variety of birds. Ironically, due to the low temperatures of the water not many of the lakes inhabitants can swim. The lake is also of significant commercial importance as it is divided among two nations: Peru 60%; and Bolivia 40%. 

After visiting the Uros we went to the Tequile Island. The island is further into the lake and it is populated by some 3k people. The people there have sheep and rely on agriculture and the production of textiles which are considered human patrimony. They people there have a complex set of customs relating to marriage and courting. Among one of them is a hat which is worn in different ways to denote the status of males as it related to relationships. If the hat is all one color the man is married is it is two colors the man is single. If the hat is worn to the right it means the man is dating, if it is worn to the left it means the man is looking for a girlfriend, and it it is worn back it means the man is either not of age to date or not looking. 

For some weird reason our boat back to Puno was very slow and we made it back after sunset. None the less I had an interesting conversation with the guide about literature, whose wife kept calling. He was pretty nerdy but was knowledgable and mention that the indigenous people often made the mistake of giving pity in order to sell their crafts. He argued that they should be proud of their heritage and not resort to such ways to sell things.  

Traditional Uros boats

One of the many Uro Islans

Tequile island 

Tequile Island