Wednesday, 3 September 2014
At 7.45 am I left the hotel to go to the jetty to take the boat to Lake Titicaca. I didn't sleep well again last night because of the cold, despite having a heater in my room. The heater short circuited my adapter too, so that I had to ask the hotel clerk to buy one for me and I will reimburse him. I left my luggage in the hotel in Puno and just brought with me a small bag with my essential stuff.
Lake Titicaca was actually known as Titihaha, titi means puma and haha means great or stone, so great puma or stone puma. There were 3 most important animals for the ancient people, the condor which represents the sky and one's head, the puma which represents the earth and one's heart, and the snake which represents the underground or one's wisdom. The Spanish then changed the name to Titicaca. About 60% of the lake is in Peru, and 40% in Bolivia. It is the largest navigable lake in the world, with an area of 8,400 square kilometers, and the deepest point of the lake measures 284m.
Almost 2 1/2 hours on the boat, and we were in Uros Floating Islands, man made islands where almost everything is made of totora reeds. The tip of the reed can be eaten, and I tried one. It's tasteless and full of water. The islands are anchored to the bed of the lake, which is about 4m below the surface. The people on the island speak Aymara, a language spoken by the people even before the Incas. These people once lived on land, but then had some problems with some of the tribe there and they left to live on boats at first. Later, using totora reeds, they created floating islands to live on. The main economic activity is fishing. As soon as we arrived in Uros, we had the opportunity to sit in a boat made of (surprise!) totora reeds, and went for a ride around the bay.
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