It is Thursday, the 17th of November, and our day to visit the floating
islands of Lake Titicaca.....
| The busses and cars of Peru produce unbelievable levels
of pollution. So do the boats.
Our boat had a Chinese built diesel. |
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| A typical "Floating Island". The indigenous live on
these islands fulltime.
The tradition started hundreds of years ago, during a major war.
Building and living on floating islands was their way to escape the
war. |
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| Sandy, trying to get her "Floating Island" footing.
It is very strange to walk on the islands, which are from 3 to 6 feet
thick.
The surface flexes and moves as you walk. |
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| This Father and Son gave a 30 minute presentation of
life on the islands and how the islands are built. |
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| The Father also explained how the boats are built.
The boats, built entirely of reeds, last for approximately 7 to 9 months.
But, there have been construction improvements that permit the boats to
now last for 2 years.
Inside the reed tubes they now use about 3,000 empty plastic soda
bottles for floatation.
Kind of wished he hadn't told us that! |
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| They grind their grains with this 20 pound rock. No,
she is not sinking through the reed island, she is seated.... |
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| The proud boat owner. This is the boat upon which
Sandy and I traveled to another "Floating Island". |
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The figure, on the head of the boat, is the symbolic "Puma".
| The Father had a delightful smile. |
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| The kids were sure cute..... |
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Sandy, cheating on Hannah (our granddaughter).
| The "Puma". |
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| I told Sandy, that a boat built with over 3,000 empty
Pepsi bottles doesn't require any "Emergency Floatation Devices". I am
not sure she bought it..... |
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| The people of each island wore different colors.
The women on this island wore only pink and blue. |
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Typical Lake Titicaca Cruiser.....
| Typical Lake Titicaca village... |
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| After our visit to the floating islands, we were now
heading to the non-floating island of Taquile. It took 2 additional hours
to get to Island Taquile. |
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| The island had a very "Greek/Mediterranean" feeling to
it... The language used on the island is Quechua.
This island was about 6 km long and 1 km wide. |
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| The entire island is terraced. We had to hike about 1
mile and climb about 600 feet.
Sounds easy, but at 12,500 feet, it is a slow go...... |
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| The arched entryway to the only village on the island. |
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| We had lunch in this home. The trip started at 7:30
am, when we were picked up by a taxi, then boarded the boat, then taken
to the floating islands, then another 2 hours to this island.
Then served lunch, and then the 3 hour boat ride back to Puno.
Then at 6:00 pm, a taxi ride back to the Hotel.
TOTAL COST... $13.00 per person! |
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| The home where we had lunch, with Lake Titicaca in the
background.... |
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| After lunch we crossed the island on foot, then
descended 549 steps (about 600 feet), back to the boat, which was
relocated to the other side of the island. |
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If you look very closely, you can see the steep trail down from the top of this
island.
A local, collecting reeds to build his island. It is a continuous process.
Click on the "Next" button, which will take you to
"Peru 13".......
   
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