August 11th - Lake Titicaca

Hello again,

Well yesterday morning I blitzed some museums in La Paz (Archaeology, Ethnography, and Music) and then had chinese food for lunch at the Jackie Chan Chifa-no kidding, before boarding my swanky tourist bus back to Puno. For some reason there were several long stops along the way, and the trip back took about 7 hours from the scheduled departure time. My trip to La Paz took about 4 on collectivos. No matter, I had no plan for the evening, and I made it back to the hotel before they gave my room away, so it was all good.

La Paz was an interesting city. It lies in a canyon, with a giant snowcapped volcano behind, and is very picturesque when seen from afar. The houses spill down all sides of the canyon and pool at the bottom where they grow into skyscrapers. The 'highest' hotel in the world is in La Paz. I think that's a measure of altitude rather than floors, but I really can't say. The city is very hilly. I don't believe there is one level street in the place. Several are so steep that the sidewalks are staircases. At 12,500 feet, walking around is a bit of a challenge. The taxi system is interesting. Taxis are not really private, so a driver who already has a passenger will pull up and ask where you want to go. If it's not in the right direction, he'll say 'no' and drive away. Sometimes drivers without passengers will say 'no' and drive away. Not one cab I rode in knew where to find my destination, except for the ride to the bus station. Generally I was dropped off somewhere in the general vicinity, but somehow always downhill from where I wanted to be.

Today, back in Puno, I finally had my trip out to the islands in Lake Titicaca. We rode first out to the Uros, which are the floating islands. They are made of reeds, and people have been living on them for centuries. We got out and walked around and saw some demonstrations of cooking and fishing and the home life of the Uros. Walking on a floating island is very interesting. They are about 6 feet thick, made of piled reeds, and are squishy under your feet. Most everyone there was barefoot. Why not? The people were wonderfully friendly. We had the opportunity to peruse their crafts and I wanted to buy everything they had, just to support them. Somehow though I couldn't picture their embroidered crewel-like tapestries hanging in my home. Everything there is made of reeds, the island, the homes, and the boats. After exploring the first island, we took a reed boat across the channel to another island. It was powered by two burly oar wielding locals, and was lots of fun. We explored the second island a bit, then got back on our high speed boat to go to the island of Taquile.

This tour luckily goes to the less touristy side of Taquile, and we hiked up the island to a small village, where we saw demonstrations of weaving and spinning and knitting. Knitting is the work of the men in that culture, and even small boys were walking around working on their projects. Women spin with drop spindles and weave extraordinarily fine textiles. For that matter, the knitting was so fine you could barely see the stitches. It was truly amazing work. Unfortunately for me, it was priced somewhat appropriately to the labor involved, and I just hadn't expected things that would cost $50 US, so I couldn't bring home the most amazing things they had. But they did have several things that were 'less fine', which would be amazing in any other market, and I did luck into a few opportunities there. After that we had a demonstration of local plants used for food and other purposes, and then some men with cane flutes came and serenaded us up the hill to where we had our lunch. Lunch was served in a local styled courtyard and included quinoa soup and a choice of fried kingfish or an omelet. Nobody there eats meat. I was in heaven! After lunch, we hiked about an hour across the island to the main port, passing farm houses, grazing sheep, amazing agricultural terraces, and astonishing views of the Bolivian mountains to one side, and the Peruvian skyline to the other. Lake Titicaca itself is sapphire blue, once you get away from Puno. It was gorgeous.

Along the way, I met a really nice family from Georgia who invited me to join them for dinner tonight, so I think I shall. Tomorrow I'm thinking of moving to Juliaca, which is where the airport is, and then finding my way up to some archaeology sites near there. With luck I'll run into some folks I met in Arequipa at the conference. And then Saturday morning, I fly to Lima.

Somehow it's all coming to an end, but what a finale! I had an amazing day and the people were just so nice.

And there are still a few more days of adventures to come. Incredible...

Hasta luego,

Karen