Lake Titicaca
On the way to Lake Titicaca we stopped at Sillustani where there are pre-Columbian funeral towers, called Chullpas, in a glorious tranquil setting (i.e. not too many tourists around). Apparently the engineering involved in the stonework is more complex than comparable Inca works.
Over the centuries, tomb robbers & the weather have destroyed most of these Chullpas.
Alan sizing up the Chullpa & me next to a smaller one.
Stone Circle. The purpose of the stone circles is unclear. One theory is that stones were moved round to predict the equinoxes – a mini version of Stonehenge maybe?
Lake Titicaca is over 100 miles long and is claimed to be the world’s highest navigable lake. However, if you check the photos of Sillustani above, the nearby lake shown (lake Umayo, elevation: 3,844 m) is higher than the much larger Lake Titicaca (elevation: 3,812 m). I suppose facts shouldn’t destroy good PR/tourism.
The Uros people fled other Indian tribes centuries ago and found shelter in the middle of Lake Titicaca on floating reeds. These eventually developed into enormous floating man-made reed islands, the Uros Islands. They now supplement their traditional fishing economy with tourism and are spread across some 40 floating islands. The dress sense just looks so odd to me. (Red jacket with green skirts – surely not!) The bowler hats are very Bolivian. Not surprising as Peru shares Lake Titicaca with Bolivia
Each island supports about a dozen families. Below is the island leader greeting us who described how they build & look after their islands. If neighbours fall out, they can simply saw the island in half and float apart. We went into his tiny hut where he was proud to show off his solar panel powering his 4″ B&W TV set. He was concerned about maintaining their traditional lifestyle and bemoaned the fact that many of the younger Uros people go to the mainland to try to earn more money. However because there is better education on the mainland than on the islands they find it hard to get jobs & often have to return to the islands.
We had a bit of fun dressing up.
Taquile Island
We next visited a real island on Lake Titicaca, Taquile island. Unfortunately we visited on a Sunday – the busiest day of the week with lots of tourists. So our guide took us round to the back of the island to a small village for lunch and the obligatory welcoming music & dancing with a video here of it.
The islanders run their collective society on the old Inca moral code of “do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy“. Hence no idle hands here. Their hand-woven textiles are considered among the best in Peru. I got my Coca bag from here.
The weaving is a very slow process – not quite exciting enough for this daughter.
Even the little kids had a job to do; escorting the tourists back to the boats.
