Tuesday, 20 December 2016

Lake Titicaca

We met outside the hotel to pick up our rickshaws to get through town and down to the harbour, L to R Stu & Sonia, Rosie & Christine, Maki & Jane.
And lastly me and Shannon. Shane had a rickshaw to himself. We went in a loose convey down to the docks although Shane´s driver was the youngest a with less wait he overtok everyone to arrive first.

We took a ferry to cross Lake Titicaca to see our first island on a boat similar to this one. We had a private tour so the nine of us had the boat meant for thirty to ourselves.
This is a British built ship and wa the first large vessel to be launched on the lake in 1868. The UK had a large textile industry an sort to trade to buy the fine threads from llamas and alpacas. It was built in UK and shipped in bits to the lake ad took six years to transport all the parts across the mountains.

A luxury hotel on a former prison island at the mouth of the bay opposite Pona...unfortunately outside of my price range but it has lovely views across the bay back towards the city or across the reeds beds of Lake Titicaca n the other side of the islands.
Tghe Uros people liv in the reed beds on floartig islands and make a living out of fishing and tourism. Thia was one of the checkpòints monitoring entry into their area, set on a floating island of reeds.

They live in reed huts on the reed islands.
Thr process of making a reed island was explained. Tieing together some roots of the reeds and placing more reeds on top. As the island sinks and rots, new reeds are placed on top which needs to be done about six times a year.
We all had todress up in local clothes to have our photos taken, Christine.
Christine and me flanking one of our hosts.
More embarrassing photos,  L to R me, Jane, Christine and Rosie.
The huts ar set on raised platform to try to keep away from the damp of the sland a rheumatism and respiratory diseases multiply in the damp.
How do you cook on a foating island that is combustible? They use a large flat rock and a cleverly designed pìece of pottery which holds the fire and the cauldrons above it.
One of the men on the family island fishing through a hole in the reeds...so you have to be careful where you put your feet. All the island has a springy feel to it wherever you walk.
We wer going to look at anothe island but for a few soles, you can be rowed across by the traditional form of mass tansport on a reed boat.
We reboarded our ferrry for the two and a half hour journey up the lake to our isand destination where we were going to have a home stay.
There were no roads from the harbour, we walked up hill and across fields up tracks alongside farmhouses to our homestay where five of us and our guide Jorge would stay.
The view from the large communal balcony was lovely, showing flowering shrubs alongside fields. The red flowered plant to the left is the national flower of the country.
There were horses grazing in the foreground of lists over the lake.
There were walk ways all over the island, but no cars and no dogs.
The central plaza had a small church with a short separate steeple and bell. There were also two shops, a cafe and a local government building but nothing else and no people.

That evening we had a walk up the hill behind the village to see a monument dedicated to Machupata and a favourite place to watch the sun set. We walked up the hill from lake level at 3,808 to summit, 3970m. There were some great views over the island and across the lake.
One particular flower that caught my eye, called Touch me if you dare. If you touch the flower it first stings the hand and causes an itchy feeling followed by numbing the whole hand. So best not to touch. I was dared to touch it and I made the flower quiver. But then again I knew a trick and only brushed the petals with my nails, not any skin so I appeared brave and invincible who I had no side effects.
The arch before the monument site itself. Legend or folklore has it that if you was around anti clockwise three times and make an offering, typically coca leaves, then your wish will be granted. I dutifully walked around three times with the choicest coca leaves that I could find tightly grasped between my right hand thumb and forefinger. I blew them from my open palm through the gate as if blowing a kiss to see them settle on the ruins inside the gate. I felt an expectant feeling to fulfil my wish but the spirits will fulfil it in due course.

Meanwhile I am still poor, suffering from aches and pains, poor eyesight and not as good looking as I could be and single...I even compromised at two out of five abut I am still waiting.
The sun was setting and the air was cooling rapidly. Towards dusk the cloud built and obscured the sun as it went down to the horizon. We anticipated this and left early on the promise of  Peruvian doughnut but unfortunately they were not on offer this particular evening. But we had the path to ourselves and the many old ladies selling their wares from blankets spread out by the side of the road gave us no hassle as we descended a long time before sunset.

Then it was time to return the mainland and we found our boat moored in one of the many little harbours along the coast.

A picture of our boat, the Calypso, as it moved out of the shallow harbour and manoeuvred itself to the outside of the harbour walls in deeper water in order to take on passengers.
We were making our way home but via another popular island Taquile. The wind caused the boat to pitch and yaw and it wasn't a plain crossing. We docked briefly for the passengers to get off nd take a steep path up the island to the central plaza whilst the boat left the dock to met us on the far side of the island in the lee of the win. we walked up the steep path to the main square.

The arch over the pathway that leads to the other side of the island, with the local government building to the left of the arch.
After seeing the sights of Taquie, which in our opinion, might have been worth missing with no loss of knowledge or experience, we started down the track to the other side of the island. It was a quiet and picturesque walk but still in the wind and the bright sunlight at altitude.
A couple of pictures of the countryside that we were passing through.

It was a three hour ferry ride back to the mainland of Puno and then an early start to get on the road to Bolivia. We skirted the coast of the lake for kilometres, sometimes seeing fish cages positioned in the shallows, some way off shore and a long way from the road.
We passed through customs which is a story in its self but sometimes, borders can and do take all day to cross but luckily we were through in under I've hour and on our way to our txt stop, La Paz in Bolivia. 

La Paz sits in a bowl and the sprawling suburbs have spread up the hills nd onto the surrounding plains. The most expensive residences are located in the bowl to benefit from the oxygen rich air, often polluted by car fumes as against the oxygen poor mountain air on the plateau a long way above the original centre of the city. The next day we were due to cycle down the Most Dangerous Road in the World.

A picture of the centre of La Paz, sitting in a bowl, with one of the three cable chairs (with more planned) to help move people around the city seen in the bottom right hand corner of the photo. 



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