Lake Titicaca and the Uros

Lake Titicaca is a huge freshwater lake, in the highlands (12,500ft!) between Peru and Bolivia. It is also home to the Uros people, who live on the lake, on floating islands made of totora reeds. While trawling the LP forum, I read a post by some guy who actually arranged to spend a night on one of the islands. After reading his enthusiastic review, we decided to contact Victor and Cristina, who run the setup. This led us to the most unique experience of our 2 weeks in Peru.

From Arequipa, we call Cristina to arrange pick up from the Puno bus terminal. We were met by Mariebelle, Cristina's daughter. In the taxi to the lake, I try to make conversation, but my spanish is woefully inadequate. Char was in the 2nd taxi so i was missing my translator.. We end up smiling a lot at each other. Mariebelle seems like a very happy person.

At the lake we were met by Victor, and his reed boat! He rows us to the island-- Isla Qhantati. Words fail to adequately express our wonder and joy at this moment. The reed boat is so cool! The sun was marvelous! Victor was wearing this cute woolen cap! And telling us about the lake and the ducks and the totora... He tells us that each boat takes 1 month to make, and uses many bundles of totora, and 200 plastic bottles (a modern innovation). They slowly soak up water, becoming harder and harder to row, and are retired after 18-24mths. We make a mental note to give them our water bottles before we leave the island.


After navigating through a maze of reeds, we arrive at the Uros village (?), and Isla Qhantati. The island is not very big-- maybe about 10 huts, housing 5 families. (when an island gets too small for the families, they simply make a new island) It's next to many other islands, all of them anchored to poles driven into the mud. The 'floor' is made of layers of totora, which is invitingly fresh, and springy to walk on. All the Uros walk around in bare feet, but Victor advises us to wear shoes, because some of the reeds can be sharp.


Victor tells us about the history of the Uros, about how they were fishermen, who traded with the other Andean tribes. However, when the Spanish came, half the tribe fled to Bolivia, and the other half decided to escape by living on the floating reed beds in the shallow part of the lake. They still make a living by fishing, and trade fish for other necessities at the market. However, they are now also doing the tourism thing to make money to send their kids to university. Victor proudly shows us the modern improvements they have made to Qhantati-- they have solar panels, a porta-potty (for the tourists), and a little garden made from composted reeds.

In the evening, after a delicious meal, we meet the extended family, who express their delight at meeting us. They sing us a traditional song in Aymara, about the sun, the lake, and the waters of their fathers, and also a song in Quechua about being happy that the sun is shining. They then launch into an impressive repetoire of songs that other guests have taught them, in spanish, english, french and german-- one of which is 'My Bonnie lies over the ocean'. It was quite surreal. We feel obliged to also share a song. In the end, we teach them a song in mandarin about 3 little mice, and a song in english about catching fish alive..... not quite a fair cultural exchange, I felt. Here we were learning about their amazing traditions, and the bond they have with the reeds and the lake, and the only thing we can offer them about our culture is a song about 3 mice.

*sigh*

The next day was equally fabulous and enchanting. Early in the morning we went out to harvest the fishing nets that were placed the afternoon before. Victor kindly let us 'help' untangle the fish from the net. He told us that the yellow-bellied ones were female, with more fat, which is good for the brain. Apparently the Uros children are fed a lot of this brain-food, so they become very smart. =)


When we got back Victor teaches us how to weave thread around small strips of totora to make a sun-pattern. The sun is one of the most important elements, and features heavily in their crafts and embroidery. We are extremely slow learners, but Victor is a patient man.

Lunch is truncha from their fish pond! Cristina removes the spine, and stuffs it with tomato, garlic and cilantro. It is then wrapped in aluminium foil, and baked in the sun. It is AMAZING.


Unfortunately, we had to leave for Cusco that afternoon, and could not enjoy more of Victor's and Cristina's hospitality. It was the most meaningful experience I had in Peru, and I would do it a hundred times over. Highly highly recommended. However, they don't speak much english. So if you have zero spanish ability, please go take a class or two before going, or beg a spanish speaking friend (thank you Charmaine) to come along.

Arequipa, and the Life-changing Colca Canyon

The bumpy bus ride from Nasca to Arequipa was not as wonderful as advertised. Bleary-eyed, we arrived sometime ard 7 or 8am, and checked into our hostel, the aptly named "Home Sweet Home". Indeed, this was the best hostel of the entire trip. For 20soles pax, we had: a private room for 5, free breakfast, free internet, and UNLIMITED HOT WATER. Oh the Joy!!! Never underestimate the moral-shattering ability of cold water.


We take a short nap, then go out to explore. The main plaza (Plaza des Armes) is extremely nice. There's a big cathedral on one side, and low colonial buildings on the other 3 sides. The square in the middle had a lovely fountain, nice trees and flowers, park benches, multitudes of pigeons... Charmaine was delighted to see that there was a protest going on. Many people were holding up banners... Didn't bring the dictionary, so don't know what the banners were saying... something about the judiciary(?) The protesters were also delighted to see us. When C went forward to take a picture of them, they shouted 'Chino!', and waved.


After lunch, we went 'shopping' for a Colca Canyon tour. The Colca canyon, which reaches depths of 3400 ft, is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon (1600ft)! We choose a 2D/1N trek from a cute tour operator named Lady. She assured us that it would be an easy-moderate hike: the guide will pick us up at 1am, we'll take a 6hr bus ride to Cabanaconde (town on canyon rim), get breakfast. Hike down to the canyon floor takes 3hrs. After lunch, we'll meander ard the canyon floor, passing several villages. 3hrs later, we shd arrive at our final village, where we relax, have dinner, then sleep. Next morning we'll wake up at 3am, hike up the canyon (3-4hr) back to Cabanaconde.

At 1am, we wait expectantly for the guide.
At 2am, we give up waiting and go back to sleep
At 2.10am, we hear a knock on the door. It's Lady, our travel agent! Apparently the guide could not find the hostel, gave up, and left for Colca without us. Lady hustles us into a taxi, and gets us tickets for the next bus to Colca.

10am, we arrive at Cabanaconde. The guide (Anhil) is there with the rest of our group-- 2 Israeli girls (Maya and her sister A--). We start hiking down the Canyon. 2hrs later, we're still hiking down. Man... this canyon goes on Forever! We can see the bottom, but it's taking a heck of a long time to get there. Also, the path is often sandy and gravelly. And Bert and Char have bad knees. This is harder than we'd thought... Conversation became as thin as the air.


1pm, we reach the bottom! Yay. Now for a short but extremely steep section up to the lunch spot. But finally! Lunch! We are so tired. Lunch was a great onion-quinoa soup, followed by tofu with rice (apparently one of the Israelis is vegetarian and had requested a veg-menu). Quinoa is an important Andean grain, regarded as the "Mother of all grains" by the Incas. An extremely interesting page about quinoa can be found on wikipedia.

After lunch, we start hiking again. The canyon is pretty green and lush this time of year, and we see random vegetation, as well as fruit trees and maize. The trail gets pretty interesting-- we were hopping over streams, and walking through a field... Oops. In front of us was a massive gully. Er. The guide mutters something, then instructs us to wait in the field. Apparently we had missed a right turn, followed a cow-route, and were now in prime grazing property.

*sigh*

we retrace our steps, and were once again on the right path. we hit the gully again, but this time there was a steep trail leading down, and a dauntingly long n steep trail leading back up. wow. this trek is turning out to be a journey of epic proportions.

suffice to say we finally make it up, and walk for roughly another hour (downhill again!?! why can't these !$^#&* people make trails on level ground?) to the final village of the day. To top things off, it was rapidly getting dark, there were storm clouds above, and it started raining towards the end.

At the village we gratefully sank onto the beds provided, in little huts with dirt floors. Although the showers were COLD, I was just so grateful to be 1) clean and 2) not walking.

The next morning, we wake up at 2am to begin our ascent back into civilization. It is a steep trail with never ending switchbacks. Charmaine was really suffering through this. Her knees had taken a beating throughout the 3 hr descent the day before, she had flat feet so her arches were just dying with every step, she was tired, and we forgot to bring food for the way up (our luggage was being carried up by a mule that would start the ascent an hour later). Our superhuman guide must have been part mountain-goat, because he showed zero signs of fatigue.

When the mules started to overtake us, one of the guys offered us a ride up for 25 soles. Char gratefully accepted, and trouped off ahead. The rest of us trudged determinedly onwards. I'm not sure how all of us survived and made it up, but finally, one of the summits ahead was indeed the true summit (and not yet another evil imposter). As I emerged onto the plain above, the sun lighting the mountains in the distance with its magical alpen glow, the town where breakfast would be served clearly in sight... emotion welled in my chest.

Unfortunately, our guide managed to get us lost again on the way to breakfast. It was another 20mins to the Most Amazing hot tea, eggs, bread and jam that I have ever had the privilege of consuming.

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. We went to the Cruz del Condor, but couldn't see any condors because of the heavy mist, then returned to Arequipa via the town of Chivay (pronounced 'chee-vai'-- this has disturbing similarities to a swear word in hokkien). But that day was also the day of our most amazing Peruvian shower, and our most delicious dinner (3kg of fried pork: chicharrón de chancho with our tour operator Lady).


We left Arequipa the next morning for the town of Puno, at Lake Titicaca.

Onward: To Nazca, and Beyond!

We did not linger long in Lima, but caught a morning bus to Nazca, 7.5hr away by bus. It was slightly startling to discover that our taxi to the bus terminal harbored a stowaway in the hatchback....


The bus ride was supremely boring, and was not at all assuaged by their choice of in-flight movies: Broken Arrow, Cheaper by the Dozen, Sorority Boys and Jewel of the Nile, all dubbed in spanish, with No Subtitles. As we rolled by sand dune after sand dune, I definitely had a mild 'why am I here' existential moment... But I must say that compared to the sardine-like chicken buses in Guatemala, Peruvian buses were a lot more comfortable-- with assigned seating (only 1 person per seat!) and even movies.

That night, we celebrated JM's birthday with Pisco sours (pisco is a peruvian grape brandy) and our first taste of Lomo Saltado (a 'tipycal' dish: strips of beef fried with onions and french fries-- tasted pretty good, and actually a little asian...). Back in the hotel, we went to bed early, in preparation for our early morning tour of the Nazca Lines.

Unfortunately, sometime ard 4am, we were vaguely awakened by mosquitoes, roosters, noises from a fiesta, and by people stomping around outside our room. Bert told us the next morning that he was convinced that the people outside were preparing to storm our room to kidnap us and our valuables... Um. Perhaps those nefarious characters were aware that we had 2 highly trained military personnel in the room (B & JM); Suffice to say that the noises eventually died down (hopefully someone managed to strangle the rooster) and we drifted back to sleep.

Anyways. The highlight of our Nasca adventure was the famous Nazca Lines! These are massive geoglyphs (drawings on the ground) found in the gravel-desert near the town of Nasca. While it is now widely accepted that the lines were created by the Nasca culture sometime ard 200BC and AD700, there was a theory that the lines were made by aliens!?! You can read about one attempt to disprove the alien theory-- by recreating one of the Nasca figures in a field in Kentucky-- here. I also like the Nasca info pages by BBC and the Discovery Channel.


The best way to see the lines is by plane. For US$40pax, you can hire a teeny weeny (non-polka dotted) plane to fly u over the lines. These planes seat 4-6 people total, and the pilots are extremely anxious that u get a good view of the lines-- ours obligingly tilted the plane nearly 90degrees to the right and left, to ensure that we don't miss out on the marvels of the whale, dog, monkey etc etc... My stomach was definately regretting the one cookie I had for breakfast.


After the over-flight, we arranged for a tour of the Chauchilla cemetery. The Nascans mummified their dead, and buried them in small underground tombs with objects that they'll need in the afterlife-- gold, pottery, some textiles, tools.... The chauchilla cemetery is estimated to contain about 5000 tombs!! The mummies are quite, quite macabre. There were even babies and children...


The gut-churning flight, in addition to the mummies, left us in no mood for lunch. We basically spent the rest of the day hanging out in the hotel lobby, playing cards, then caught a night bus to Arequipa.

Peru 1: Hola Lima

Happy new year!! Sorry for the spoiler, but I'm back frm Perú! Safe and in one piece.

To start at the beginning.....

Last yr's trip to Guatemala was but a detour from our ultimate destination: Perú! I was convinced that I needed to see Machu Picchu before I die. This year, our merry band consisted of Bert, Jon, Jianmin, Charmaine, n myself.

We were much better prepared this time! Both Char n I had taken a quarter of Spanish, and C summered for a month in Argentina. Also, I had spent a lot more time bonding with my Peru guidebook, and drew up a rough plan on my post-it pad. Best of all, we had pre-booked our 1st night in Lima, and someone would get us frm the airport.

The adventure started at SFO: arriving in plenty of time to check in, we were horrified to find a sea of people and luggage at the TACA counter. After 1.5hrs of standing in line, and listening to the guy behind us (Mike) talk about himself and all the Silicon Valley bigwigs he knows and whom invite him to their houses in Carmel, we finally make it onto our flight and arrived in Lima without further mishap.

Our Lima hostel was in the tourist district of Miraflores, a lovely beachside district. Monica at the hostel recommended that we go to the LarcoMar mall-- a frou-frou hangout for trendy Limeños and tourists. Our first Peruvian dinner consisted of risotto, seafood paella, seabass, and ceviche. Ceviche is raw seafood marinated in lime juice, and the citric acid denatures the proteins, so it tastes cooked. Read about it on wikipedia here.


The next day, we wake up to find that Jianmin had arrived safely from Cornell. His flight was actually due 2 hours before ours, and throughout the night we had been envisioning all the possible gruesome kidnapping scenarios that might have befallen him. It wasn't helpful that some guy at the hostel (Chris) had just returned that evening from central Lima, after having 2 guys attack his Adam's apple and running off with his bag and camera. Chris was now spending the night commiserating with a Korean girl who had had her bag stolen in a bar at Cusco.

Turns out, JM had not been kidnapped. His flight was delayed due to bad weather, and he also spent some time in an interrogation room in Columbia during his stopover in Bogota. (I'm not too clear about the details here. gotta ask him yourself)