Up Among The Clouds

Hey everybody,

I’ve been speaking Italian for two weeks with my brother and his wife and Spanish with everybody else.  On the bus I sat next to a guy from Montreal who tried to explain the difference between the Spanish verbs tener and haber… in French.  I’m writing this in English.  I walked into my hotel in Copacabana and said “sawasdee khaap” to the receptionist which means hello in Thai.  All these damn languages are giving me a headache.  Of course, the headache could also be caused by the altitude.  We went from the Pacific coast to Puno (elevation 3800 meters/12,500 feet) in about a day and a half which is probably why I only slept about 2 hours total over the next two nights.  Puno isn’t a particularly scenic town but it’s not a bad place to spend a couple of days.  The whole reason for tourists coming to Puno, though, is the spectacular Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world.

Stefano, Caterina and I went on a two-day tour on the southwest part of the lake and on three islands.  The first set of islands, the Uros, are man-made floating islands that are made from 2x3 meter blocks of mud and reed that are tied together for several months until they form a single block.  Layers of dried reeds are then used to create a flat surface for the island and then the villagers proceed to build huts, mud ovens, and the rest necessary for survival on the island.  The whole process takes about 18 months and the islands last between 20-15 years.  It’s a very impressive process, but the visit to the Uros left mixed feelings.  All the information about the construction was great, but on the other hand they immediately tried to sell us trinkets and blankets after the lecture.  Then the women sang a couple of songs as our boat was leaving… Vamos a la Playa and Row Your Boat.  It just felt a bit weird, a little too touristy, a little too put-on.  Talking to Ste and Cate they both thought that the residents only lived on the islands for part of the year and mostly for tourists.

Luckily that was our only such experience on the trip.  We spent several hours on the boat on the way to the island of Amantani, and it was one of the most scenically spectacular rides I’ve ever taken.  You are literally floating in a lake that’s among the clouds.  I couldn’t stop staring out at the cloud formations on this beautifully sunny day and thinking that this is exactly the reason you travel.  Once we reached Amantani we were handed off to the host family of Valeriana and Dionisio for a one-night homestay in the village.  Their family consisted of children and grandchildren, and they mostly spoke Quechua to each other while speaking Spanish to us.  The first thing they did was feed us, which of course will immediately endear anyone to me, and I had my first mate de coca (tea made with coca leaves).  We then went for a climb for a sunset view of the lake from the top of the island.  There are two peaks, Pachatata and Pachamama, each with a temple at the top, representing the two opposite forces, positive and negative, yin and yang, or at least the Incan version of it.  We climbed to the top of Pachamama, the tallest peak at 4200 meters which is about the same height as the Annapurna base camp in Nepal.  We were lucky to be relatively secluded since most of the others in the group chose the smaller peak and we were rewarded with amazing 360 degree views of the lake.  It gets cold quickly at that height though so we went back for dinner with the family.  Stefano got into a conversation with Dionisio and his son about how the whole homestay business works… they host tourists only about 6 days a month for some extra income but otherwise work the land.  The son also works sometimes as a fisherman out of Puno or has even gone as far as Lima for a period to work. After dinner Valeriana could dressed us up in traditional campesino garb and took us to a dance.   Holding hands and dancing in a circle to some traditional Andean guitar/flute tunes was fun for about half an hour but after that we just needed some sleep.  I suppose that was the tourisiest part of the stay on Amantani, but the whole thing was really low-key.  I think the three of us enjoyed our homestay much more than we thought we would.

The next morning we traveled to the island of Taquile, the first of these islands opened to tourism in 1978.  There are pre-Inca ruins on the island so it’s been inhabited for quite a while.  Most of the farming is grain-based, quinoa and whatnot.  There are cows and chickens but all vegetables have to be boated in from Puno.  There were some excellent views from that island as well, but nothing compared to what we saw from Pachamama.

After heading back to Puno, Stefano said to me, “Why don’t you go to Bolivia?”  So I left Ste and Cate to head home to Cusco and I went to Bolivia.  I’m in fucking Bolivia!  Heh… it’s just funny to me, I don’t know why.  Anyway, I headed to Copacabana since it was only a 3-hour bus ride from Puno even though Ste and Cate told me I’d probably hate it because it’s full of hippy backpackers.  They were partly right… it’s some kind of tiny tourist town on the Bolivian side of Titicaca that’s full of drum-toting, natural fabric-wearing, dreadlocked hippy backpackers.  It’s also strangely peppered with older European tourists, and it seems to be some kind of retreat destination for Israelis.  Exactly the kind of place where I could fit right in.  I usually get a bit anxious anyway when I’m off by myself after having been traveling with people for a while and the weirdness and general unfriendliness of Copacabana was not really helping things.  In these situations I try to keep reminding myself that if I keep exploring eventually I’ll see something fantastic, and the day trip to the Islas de Sol and de la Luna was the perfect tonic.  Isla de la Luna held an old Incan temple of the virgin that still seems to be used for ceremonies or prayers, as well as a picturesque dock with a spectacular view of Lake Titicaca and the mountains beyond.  On Isla del Sol I hiked through a village to the top of one of the mountains for more amazing views.  If I had to do it over again, I would’ve spent a night at one of the hostels at the top of the island, which is what I’d recommend if any of you are going to head there.  You can spend all day hiking around the island and/or just sitting on a patio overlooking one of the most beautiful lakes in the world while drinking a beer.  I might have to go back.

Hopefully, you like pictures of lakes and clouds…

Take ‘er easy,
Dave