Titicaca Lake - Peru
10/1/05
Our second day in Peru was also the so awaited "DD Day", the day we met two great friends from NY that decided to join us on their vacation, Danny and Doris.
Angie and I spent the morning at Ricos Pan, the excellent Peruvian bakery, having breakfast, working on the pictures for the blog and waiting for the time to go to the airport, in Juliaca, to pick-up our friends. Juliaca is the neighboring town where the airport is located, one hour away from Puno.
We left around 1 p.m. in a private taxi to Juliaca, where we passed quickly by the center of the town and then headed to the airport. The flight arrived at 4:20 p.m. and we welcomed them with balloons and a Bolivian hat.
Back in Puno, after Danny and Doris checked in, we went around to visit the main street and then looked for a nice restaurant to celebrate our meeting.
Danny brought a bottle of Pinot Gris from France and we opened it at the restaurant. We had Llama, Beef, Trout and Guini Pig. Later another bottle of Casillero del Diablo and to finish Pisco Sour. Wow, after all that alcohol everyone was speaking, perfectly, Spanish.
During the dinner, out of nothing, a parade passed outside, just by the window. There were many people playing acoustic guitars while dancers performed.
10/2/05
The day started early, we left puno at 7:30 a.m. ...
... for a tour on the Titicaca Lake, the world's highest navigable lake, at 3820 meters high with 180Km of length and 60Km of width.
There are two interesting places in the lake to be visited, The Floating Islands and Taquile Island. The first one is populated by the Uros people, that found out they could build up floating islands, made of tortora reeds which grow abundantly in the shallows of the lake, to isolate themselves from other tribes, the Collas and the Incas. It took us some 30 minutes by boat to get there.
In fact there are many tiny islands; we visited two. Locals came out to greet us on our arrival.
There, our guide gave us an overview about the lake and how the tribe lives. From the reeds they don’t make only the island, but also eat it. The greener part can be peeled of and it is known as the banana del Titicaca. During the overview a family sat aside to demonstrate.
Danny and Angie could also calm their stomach.
A curious bird landed in the middle of the group in hope of some food.
Beyond the island and food, the reed is also used to make boats, very nice boats indeed.
Boats are used between islands and move out of the lake to bring other things they need, like stones, woods and other kinds of food.
Kids do not have much space to run and play, though they take a lot of attention from the tourists.
The isolation of the Uros people from other tribes and the lifestyle they developed led them to adapt physically to the unusual environment they live in. Their legs are now shorter and their feet are softer than the people living on land. That is because by living in a such tiny island, they walk very little and the soft ground modified their feet.
Here is our boat going through the reeds.
After we visited two floating islands we started a slow boring trip to Taquile, two and a half hours away from Uros.
The lake is so big that it resembles the sea.
Due to the altitude (and probably amplified by the drinking on the previous night) Danny wasn't feeling 100%, the trip to Taquile seemed even longer to him.
Anyway, at one point we got there and we found Taquile a fascinating island, where people wear colorful traditional clothes which they make themselves and sell in the island’s cooperative store. The work is divided between men and women. The women spin the wool ...
... and the kids are not spared ...
... while the men neat the clothes.
It was a sunday, the day of the week they hold a ceremony at the main square in front of the church; and we got to see it!
On the way to the main square, with the altitude and the strong sun, Danny started to feel worse. It was when a friendly old lady, a Peruvian tourist in our group, voluntarily offered her knowledge in help of our New Yorker friend, which Danny kindly accepted. But her methods were quite alternative; she jumped on Danny’s hair and started to pull selected chucks of it, after each strong pull she blowed the root of the chunk she was holding and asked Danny if he was feeling better. She kept pulling until Danny miserably announced he was ok. If Danny didn’t get better at least one thing is sure, he forgot it for a few minutes. Here is a picture of the surgery.
We arrived at the main square just few minutes before the ceremony started, women were gathering for the weekly event.
The high rank men stood and made a speech ....
... while the others gathered around.
One, very peculiar, detail of the people living in Taquile is that the single man must wear a red and white hat ...
... while a married man do wear a completely red hat.
The lunch was in a communal restaurant where we had fish from Titicaca and soup while a young musician performed traditional music, sang in Quechua, for us.
At the end of the tour, while walking back to the boat the lake was strangely reflecting the white clouds.
The boredom of 3 hours in a boat to get back to the shore, combined with Danny’s bad condition made him collapse, and our camera was there to capture this kodak moment :D
Our second day in Peru was also the so awaited "DD Day", the day we met two great friends from NY that decided to join us on their vacation, Danny and Doris.
Angie and I spent the morning at Ricos Pan, the excellent Peruvian bakery, having breakfast, working on the pictures for the blog and waiting for the time to go to the airport, in Juliaca, to pick-up our friends. Juliaca is the neighboring town where the airport is located, one hour away from Puno.
We left around 1 p.m. in a private taxi to Juliaca, where we passed quickly by the center of the town and then headed to the airport. The flight arrived at 4:20 p.m. and we welcomed them with balloons and a Bolivian hat.
Back in Puno, after Danny and Doris checked in, we went around to visit the main street and then looked for a nice restaurant to celebrate our meeting.
Danny brought a bottle of Pinot Gris from France and we opened it at the restaurant. We had Llama, Beef, Trout and Guini Pig. Later another bottle of Casillero del Diablo and to finish Pisco Sour. Wow, after all that alcohol everyone was speaking, perfectly, Spanish.
During the dinner, out of nothing, a parade passed outside, just by the window. There were many people playing acoustic guitars while dancers performed.
10/2/05
The day started early, we left puno at 7:30 a.m. ...
... for a tour on the Titicaca Lake, the world's highest navigable lake, at 3820 meters high with 180Km of length and 60Km of width.
There are two interesting places in the lake to be visited, The Floating Islands and Taquile Island. The first one is populated by the Uros people, that found out they could build up floating islands, made of tortora reeds which grow abundantly in the shallows of the lake, to isolate themselves from other tribes, the Collas and the Incas. It took us some 30 minutes by boat to get there.
In fact there are many tiny islands; we visited two. Locals came out to greet us on our arrival.
There, our guide gave us an overview about the lake and how the tribe lives. From the reeds they don’t make only the island, but also eat it. The greener part can be peeled of and it is known as the banana del Titicaca. During the overview a family sat aside to demonstrate.
Danny and Angie could also calm their stomach.
A curious bird landed in the middle of the group in hope of some food.
Beyond the island and food, the reed is also used to make boats, very nice boats indeed.
Boats are used between islands and move out of the lake to bring other things they need, like stones, woods and other kinds of food.
Kids do not have much space to run and play, though they take a lot of attention from the tourists.
The isolation of the Uros people from other tribes and the lifestyle they developed led them to adapt physically to the unusual environment they live in. Their legs are now shorter and their feet are softer than the people living on land. That is because by living in a such tiny island, they walk very little and the soft ground modified their feet.
Here is our boat going through the reeds.
After we visited two floating islands we started a slow boring trip to Taquile, two and a half hours away from Uros.
The lake is so big that it resembles the sea.
Due to the altitude (and probably amplified by the drinking on the previous night) Danny wasn't feeling 100%, the trip to Taquile seemed even longer to him.
Anyway, at one point we got there and we found Taquile a fascinating island, where people wear colorful traditional clothes which they make themselves and sell in the island’s cooperative store. The work is divided between men and women. The women spin the wool ...
... and the kids are not spared ...
... while the men neat the clothes.
It was a sunday, the day of the week they hold a ceremony at the main square in front of the church; and we got to see it!
On the way to the main square, with the altitude and the strong sun, Danny started to feel worse. It was when a friendly old lady, a Peruvian tourist in our group, voluntarily offered her knowledge in help of our New Yorker friend, which Danny kindly accepted. But her methods were quite alternative; she jumped on Danny’s hair and started to pull selected chucks of it, after each strong pull she blowed the root of the chunk she was holding and asked Danny if he was feeling better. She kept pulling until Danny miserably announced he was ok. If Danny didn’t get better at least one thing is sure, he forgot it for a few minutes. Here is a picture of the surgery.
We arrived at the main square just few minutes before the ceremony started, women were gathering for the weekly event.
The high rank men stood and made a speech ....
... while the others gathered around.
One, very peculiar, detail of the people living in Taquile is that the single man must wear a red and white hat ...
... while a married man do wear a completely red hat.
The lunch was in a communal restaurant where we had fish from Titicaca and soup while a young musician performed traditional music, sang in Quechua, for us.
At the end of the tour, while walking back to the boat the lake was strangely reflecting the white clouds.
The boredom of 3 hours in a boat to get back to the shore, combined with Danny’s bad condition made him collapse, and our camera was there to capture this kodak moment :D
posted by Adriano and Angie | 11:39 PM
2 Comments:
It is about time that you guys put our lovely pictures on your blog. Thanks you. It was a great time in Peru, can't wait to do it again.
Danny
How wonderful! Those are the great times we had together. Again, thank you for the lovely & colorful balloons, hats and popcorns. Though, we had some physical struggle (under the alcohol & altitude influence) during the first couple of days, but it was sure fun to watch Danny's moments on the trip, and of course, the good time that we shared with our friends.
Doris
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