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water world
By Graeme Green.
Published in the January-March 2012 issue.
Take high-altitude scenery, add thousands of square kilometres of shimmering water, colourful villages and a history dating back to the birth of Incan culture, and you have Lake Titicaca – South America’s Andean jewel.
Our boat chugs out of Peru’s Puno Harbour in the early morning, sunlight rippling on a calm silvery surface. The great expanse of water all around us, reflecting a flawless blue sky, is pretty impressive in itself. But this, the Inner Bay of Puno, is just a fraction of the much larger Bay of Puno, which in turn is only a tiny portion of the bigger body of water it opens out to: Lake Titicaca.
Titicaca is an absolute giant – 170 kilometres long, 70 kilometres wide and with a surface area of about 8,560 kilometres. The lake stretches from southern Peru across the border into neighbouring Bolivia and is the largest lake in South America (by volume) and, at 3,810-odd metres above sea level, the highest navigable lake in the world. It’s also of huge importance to the indigenous people of the Andes: the Incas, Uros and Aymaras. You could spend days exploring the 40 or so islands that dot the lake. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.
Just five kilometres west of Puno port, we stop at the Uros islands, man-made islets crafted from reeds to float on top of the water. Women in colourful Andean costume greet us as we step off the boat onto the soft mattress of reeds. The Uros islands are a known tourist trap, as much floating craft markets as floating islands, but they’re interesting nonetheless. Virtually everything here, from houses and archways to the cat-faced tourist boats, is made from totora reeds. They’re even used for food – young girls sit munching on the white stalks as we arrive. I try one – it’s cool and fresh and would work well in a salad.
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Jola, one of the local women, shows me how totora reeds are laid out over the islands, which need to be constantly maintained. “Don’t you get tired of the process?” I ask. “No,” Jola laughs. “We’re used to it. If we don’t do it, the island might sink.”
We sail on, navigating a gap between two peninsulas to reach the main lake. Away from the shelter of the bay the water is a little choppier, sunlight gleaming on the breaking crests of waves. Looking south I can see Illampu and the snowy peaks of the Royal Andean Mountain Range in Bolivia. All the islands we pass have been sculpted by pre-Incan cultures into agricultural terraces, huge projects that, without modern tools or machines, would have taken decades. “All over the lake, you’ll see thousands and thousands of terraces,” says Luis, my guide.
We reach the island of Amantaní, where women in black skirts and brightly embroidered shirts welcome our boatload of tourists and lead us to various lodgings. Local men in port town Comunidad Pueblo heave around newly sun-dried mud bricks, constructing houses.
We have a hearty lunch, including soup made from local grains, beans and vegetables, and drink tea made from muna, a herb that’s good for staving off altitude sickness. In the afternoon, we walk across the island. A chatty local woman falls into step beside Luis and I, telling us she’s on her way to visit relatives. She coils sheep’s wool on a spindle as we walk through the terraced fields, chunks of dark volcanic rock jutting out of the landscape.
“There are 10 communities here, growing and spreading out,” says Fernanda, when I ask how she likes living in the middle of Titicaca. “But it’s always peaceful. There are no cars on the island and not too many people.”
Fernanda breaks off; Luis and I continue up to the island’s highest point, known as Pachamama (Earth Mother). The sun is shining on the neighbouring island of Taquile. We watch it set slowly until it’s no more than an orange glow behind the jagged silhouette of the mainland. A sliver of moon appears and it quickly becomes bitterly cold as we make our way back down to the town.
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On Comunidad Pueblo’s main plaza, there’s a statue of Manco Cápac who, according to legend, was one of the first Incas to appear out of the waters of Titicaca and move onto nearby Isla del Sol (Sun Island) along with his sibling Mama Occlo. Luis explains: “According to the legend, they’re the children of the sun. The sun saw the people on the land as savage people, so he sent his two children to civilise them. Manco Cápac taught the people how to work the land, the fields, how to use tools. Mama told women how to raise children, how to weave and make clothes. That’s how the Incan empire began.” It’s this legend that’s made Isla del Sol and Lake Titicaca the centre of Incan culture.
Next morning, we sail across to the Capachica peninsula and take out a few kayaks – a chance to get up close and personal with the lake. The water’s cold but calm; the sky’s blue and absolutely cloudless. “You can never get stressed in this job,” says Oswaldo, our kayaking instructor. “I like being on Titicaca. I just wish it wasn’t so cold.”
We paddle along the shore, past trout farms and groups of women mending fishing nets and collecting sand to use in bricks for new houses, stopping to visit the village of Llachón, where local leader Valentín Quispe greets us with a cold beer.
There’s virtually nothing to do here, which is Llachón’s biggest selling point. “Everything is quiet, natural, fresh. I don’t like the city very much,” says Valentín. He tells me he likes waking up to this view every morning. I gaze at the magnificent black-and-white peaks of Bolivia towering above us. Who could blame him?
Luis and I stroll along the coast with high views out across empty beaches and terraced farmland on which donkeys graze. We catch a minibus – more than 30 people in a vehicle that comfortably seats 18 – from the plaza back to Puno, where I check in to the Hotel Libertador Lake Titicaca and watch the sun set over the harbour.
Rising early next morning, a soft orange light on the lake around the hotel, I make my way towards Bolivia. After shuffling my feet for a while at the dusty border crossing, I’m finally given the nod to move past customs. I may be in another country but Titicaca still fills the horizon – it’s so wide that at times it looks more like an ocean than a lake.
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I make my way to Copacabana to see the white Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana. The town is abuzz – it’s Virgin’s Day, a major local celebration, and the church and plaza are filled with people; monks are flicking holy water from flowers onto the crowd. It’s also the weekend of Bolivia’s Independence Day (August 6), so costumed schoolchildren and brass bands march through the town.
I catch a catamaran from the harbour out to the sacred Isla del Sol, Titicaca’s most important island, mooring outside the village of Challapampa. A local boatman rows me along the rugged coast to the northern tip of the island. Grace, my Bolivian guide, shows me around a labyrinthine set of ruins on the hilltop, built by ancient Aymara and later re-used by the Incas.
There’s an important rock on the hillside where the “children of the sun” are said to have appeared after climbing out of the lake. Grace points out a puma’s face in the rock (Titicaca combines old Quechua words for “puma” and “grey rock.”) “There’s the open jaw, the ear, the head, the body…,” she says, pointing emphatically. It looks to me more like a big rock – you have to really want to see a puma.
After a night on the catamaran, sleeping in compact, comfy cabins, we check out other important sites on the island. We hike up to Pilkokaina Temple and stand in cupboard-sized “cold rooms” once used for mummification and in silent chambers used for meditation.
At the end of the island is a small artists’ workshop where women demonstrate weaving and men show us how to make traditional reed boats. The local medicine man, the Kallawaya, conducts a short ceremony for Pachamama, blessing us with water. There’s a good museum here, too, filled with ancient artefacts, statues, ritual masks and costumes.
Tired from hiking and sightseeing at energy-sapping altitudes, we take a break on the hillside, gazing over the lake to Isla de la Luna (Moon Island) where, in Inca times, virgins lived and learned to weave, farm and fish. Later, under the Bolivian dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s, it is rumoured opposition politicians would hide out there or use the island as a “stepping stone” when swimming across to freedom in Peru.
We drink rejuvenating cups of coca tea while staring out at water that stretches to the horizon. That’s the thing with Titicaca – it never seems to end. •
Photography by Graeme Green..
TRAVEL FACTS
getting there
LAN flies to Lima (the capital of Peru) from Sydney, via Auckland and Santiago. 1800-558-129; lan.com
getting around
Chimu Adventures offer tailor-made itineraries around Lake Titicaca. A private four-night trip, including transport, accommodation, most meals and a guide, can be arranged from Lima. 1300-687-909; chimuadventures.com
when to go
The best time to visit Peru is during the dry season, mid-April to October. Lake Titicaca is located at high altitude so it is always cold, especially at night.
where to stay
Puno Hotel Libertador Lake Titicaca offers excellent sunrise and sunset views over the lake and Puno Bay. 5-11/518-6500; libertador.com.pe
further information
Visit the PromPeru (Commission on the Promotion of Peru) website for additional tips on travelling to Lake Titicaca. peru.travel
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