After the Amazon, we decided against the 24 hour long bus ride up the world’s most dangerous road and instead took a flight out of Rurrenabaque to La Paz. We landed in La Paz on Thursday, just in time to catch Star Wars Episode III.
The next morning, we hopped on a three hour bus ride to Lake Titicaca. The town we stayed in was Copacabana. On Saturday, we went on a 17 kilometer hike around the shore of Lake Titicaca to the town of Yampupata. Once we arrived at the town, we hopped in a short boat ride over to Isla del Sol, or the Island of the Sun. According to Inca legend, this island is the birthplace of the sun, and also the where the first Inca’s were born. There are lots of old ruins from the Inca period on this island. Once we arrived on the island, we explored one of the larger ruins on the island and then found a hotel for the night. Sunset over the lake looks like this.
On Sunday, we hiked across the island to see the other ruins.The path we were following was an old Incan road. We hiked to the Templo del Sol, or the Temple of the Sun, where the Inca’s believed the Sun was born. The temple has been well preserved and it is possible to explore all of its hallways, rooms and courtyards. After hiking the entire island we hopped on a boat and headed to Isla del Luna (Island of the Moon) to visit the Temple of Virgins, and then headed back to Copacabana.
On Monday, we took a bus to Puno, which is a town on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. We setup a two day tour to start the following day. On Tuesday our tour started with a 3 hour boat ride to the island of Amantani. Here, our tour group arranged for us to stay with a host family for the night. When we arrived, a few hundred islanders we on the dock to greet us. We met the mother of our host family and followed her to her house where she had prepared lunch for us. The food we ate was typical islander food, which was Quinua (a type of grain) soup and a bowl of potatos. Afterwards we played a game of soccer with some of the local kids on the islands. Then we went for a hike to the top of the island, where there was another old Inca Temple. From here we watched the sunset. Afterwards, we prepared for a party that the folks in town prepared for us. We got dressed in the local fashion, and headed to the community center. Here, two Andean style bands played music and we learned the local style of dance.
The next day we headed to visit the the island of Taquila and then the floating islands and Uros. The Uros are an old tribe which lives on floating islands made out of reeds. The Uros originated around the 1500’s in Bolivia and migrated over time to Lake Titicaca. There are two theories as to how they started living on their floating islands. The first theory was that at the time, this was a Spanish territory, and the Spanish imposed heavy taxes on the Uros. To avoid these taxes, the Uros people built these floating islands to avoid the Spanish. The other theory was that the Uros built the islands as a place to live to espcape the Incas. Our boat stopped at a small floating island for about 20 minutes or so. Eight families live on this island. Everything is made from the reed, which is a type of thick weed that grows in the water. The base of the island is made out of the reed route, after a few years, the weed routes mesh together and provide a stable floating surface to live on. More reeds are then added on top of the reed routes to make a soft surface. The houses and boats are made of the reeds also. This was a very primitive community, living exactly as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago.
Now we are in Cuzco. Tomorrow we start the four day hike up the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu.