The Last Stop in Peru

We have a long way to go on buses...a long way, and they can be brutal. More on that some other time though.

After a 7 hour ride from Cusco we made it to our final destination in Peru--a small, grey bustling city called Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Like most cities/towns in Peru this one consisted of many shanties and small run down earth-colored mud brick houses, as well as one main strip designated to tourism commerce (i.e. travel agencies, restraunts etc.).

The reason for this stopover though is Lake Titicaca, the birthplace of the Incas and home of the Uros floating islands. After reading in our trusty Lonely Planet book that the tourism industry had slightly jaded the visits to these islands, we decided to go against our adventurous spirits and book a tour through the hostal we were staying in. It proved to be somewhat of a fallacy as all the things the book said were completely true. At 6:45am we were picked up by the bus, which then collected about 30 more people of all shapes and sizes from all kinds of different places. We knew right away that we had not chosen our preferred method of sightseeing--besides being the youngest people in the tour (except for a young girl with her parents) we just felt strangely out of place, away from the backpacker crowd we had been surrounded by for the previous few weeks. I hope that doesn´t sound snobbish...it was just weird, that´s all. Anyway, after everyone was loaded onto the boat and introduced to the ´guide´, Bruno from Puno, we made the slow, slow journey towards the Uros islands.

The islands themselves are amazing and made the entire day worth it. There are a series of them, 45 or more, that are all made of reeds growing in the lake, and are then anchored to the bottom so they don´t float away. Entire communities of the Uros people still live on the islands today. Their houses, their crafts, and their livelihoods all come from the reeds...pretty incredible. This is where the toursits start to get exploited...just like the book had warned. After a small demonstration on the island we stopped at, the native people circle around everyone, obviously staged, and sew, knit, husk reeds--busy doing their day to day tasks....then the ´guide´tells us to support the people by purchasing some of their handmade crafts...some of which are ceramic bowls, clearly not made on an island made of reeds. After haggling with a Uros woman, Shanon and I bought a flute. Awesome. One of us will need to learn how to play it.

Afterwards they load all the people on the tour onto a big reed boat and paddle you to another island across the channel. Pretty amazing, but again, they want 5 Soles from every person on the boat for the short 10 minute ride. Besides the feelings of exploitation, they islands are impressive without a doubt. It´s amazing that for centuries people have sustained a great deal of their culture while floating just off the shores of an ancient lake--and also adapted thier lifestyles just enough that tourism is a critical part or their livelihood. Next up...life in Bolivia.