Lake Titicaca

So I thought before too much time passes, I’d wrap up the rest of my trip with another blog post or two. In my last blog post I had said that my mom and I were on our way to Lake Titicaca… it sits about 3,800m above sealevel , about 400m above Cuzco, which is getting pretty high. The temperature of course was also colder because of the altitude. We spent the first night relaxing in a nice hotel in Puno, and I was so grateful for a hot shower and a nice warm bed to sleep in after 3 months of practically no hot water, and no heat in my house. It was a nice change :) We woke up at 6am to have breakfast and our tour guide, Guido, picked us up and we headed to the harbor. The lake was absolutely beautiful. It was like looking out at the ocean. It was a beautiful morning with clear skies, just like every morning I have seen in Cuzco since I’ve arrived. We boarded our boat with our tour, and in about a half hour we arrived at the “floating islands”.



People live on these man made floating islands that are made from the roots of the reeds that grow in the water…literally the island is floating on this stuff. Every 2 weeks they have to put more reeds on the surface of their “island” to keep their ground (of other reeds) from getting too wet from the water coming up from below. It’s a crazy concept, but these people make it work, and they really live there! It was really cool to see. They still dress in customary clothes and practice their old traditions, but they still have a tv which amazes me, since the families of 4 to 5 live in a tiny house. The house is essentially ONE room, where they only spend their time sleeping or relaxing. The rest of their day is spent outside. I couldn’t believe it! My mom brought lots of beanie babies from home so she was handing them out to the kids who were more than happy to have a new toy to play with :) They were adorable!

After that, we got back on our boat and had about a 3 hour boat ride to the Island of Tequile. I slept for most of the ride, but after we got past the harbor it was almost like being on the ocean the lake was so huge. It’s the highest navigable lake in the world. Once we got to the island, we went to meet our family who was going to be hosting us for the evening. The guy who owns the house that we stayed in, is actually a world known weaver. In the house lived the world known weaver and his wife, their son, his wife, and a daughter. They cooked an amazing trout dish for lunch which was incredible!

Afterwards we took a short nap (because let’s be serious, we’re in South America and you can’t go a day without napping). After finishing the nap, we walked to the “downtown” of the island with Guido, and it was a ghost town. It was basically a plaza and there were about 5 locals sitting, weaving, and eating home made popcorn. There was one store open that sold chocolate and that kind of thing…but nothing else. It was so crazy! We hung out with the locals and with our tour guide for awhile until it was time to walk back to the house. The house was very typical, it had no heat, and there were lots of animals in the yard. My mom was complaining of the cold, but to me it was what I’ve dealt with for months so I guess you could say I’m accustomed to it. We had a nice tea to warm up (it wasn’t coco tea but something else I can’t remember the name of) and soon after that it was time for dinner. South American life seems to revolve around sleeping and eating, but I’m totally okay with that. They made a pasta dish, and afterwards they performed some traditional dances for us. They even made us get up and dance with them! Afterwards we attempted to sleep, but my mom was so cold she insisted sleeping in my bed (we had about 4 layers of clothes and our boots on and were still cold… it’s crazy how these people survive).

The next day we woke up early again (as always) for breakfast, then went downtown. There were more people because the market was open, so my mom and I looked at the handcrafted products that were made by the residents of the island. We bought a pair of gloves and a hat for pretty cheap… afterwards we just hung out until we had an early lunch (trout again, I never get sick of the stuff). The restaurants there are just like they are in Cuzco. You don’t order, but you get bread and ahi (a spicy type of salsa type of thing), a soup, main course (trout) and then a tea after to settle your stomach. Oh god do I miss the food from South America…
We then took a boat back to Puno, where we spent the night again. We had to wake up at 4am the next day to make it to our flight from Puno to Cuzco…We arrived in Cuzco around 8:15am, and after checking into our next flight, I picked up my luggage from my host family in Cusco and said my goodbyes. I can't believe my time here is over..

hasta luego<3