South America, Days 19 to 21 - Stage 4: Peru - Puno & Uros floating islands

On our afternoon trip to Sillustani we stopped at a viewpoint with a large puma statue overlooking Puno and Lake Titikaka

Day 19 Sunday continued 

We dashed out for some lunch, and saw some amazing looking rack of lamb and rack of alpaca, we'll be going back for dinner then.

I did say it was a large puma statue, and there it is. When Jackie wrote this text we didn't know why there was a puma, but since then we've found out that that the Titi in Lake Titikaka means puma in the local Aymara language (their native language, Spanish is their second). The kaka bit means grey, so Titikaka means grey puma

Back to the hotel to be collected for our trip to Sillustani. We were on time, same the same can't be said about the group of 4 who really kept us waiting! A big bus, we were both slightly dismayed to see, but it was more comfortable than our small bus and 18 isn't that bad a number. Julio was another great guide having to say everything twice. We really like it when the English comes first and we can try to make out some of the Spanish. It wasn't just for our benefit today but we both actually felt on occasion that we could have coped without the translation, only for about one section, but it's still good.

Out there is lake Titikkaka, 120km long, 60km wide, the highest navigable large lake in the world. About 57% of it is in Peru, the remainder is part of Bolivia, where we're heading next

First stop was at the statue of a giant puma looking over Puno. Don't know why they have a giant puma, but hey, good photo opportunity! 

Our second stop of the day was at this Aymara house to see how they live (and to give them a chance to try to sell us souvenirs). These are Guanaco, one of the four species of camelids in South America and only usually seen in southern SA, Argentina and Chile

Second stop was for alpaca and guanaco, the fourth S.American camelid and the only one we haven't seen, unsurprisingly as they aren't usually found here, good to tick them all though. Then a bit of a chat about potatoes and quinoa, and a few very cute guinea pigs. We ate one last time we were here, and Brian had some from the second buffet lunch. Don't think he felt bad about it!

Look at these really cute guinea pigs. These are born to eat - how could they! Oops, we have! They just look a bit different served up on a plate

Third stop was at Sillustani, a pre Inca funerary complex. This makes it sound very old, and some of them were, but the Inca were only actually here from the mid 1400's to the mid 1500's when the Spanish arrived. The impressive chullpas or tombs belong to the Colla people who were mummified in the fetal position before being interred along with precious objects and utensils and food. It was all very interesting, and I guess we need some history along the way.

Sillustani, an ancient burial ground, pre-Inca and then during Inca times

Back to Puno and straight out to dinner, the rack of lamb and alpaca. Sadly they both looked better than that tasted!

The site is a peninsular on a hill almost completely surrounded by a lake with only a narrow strip of land connecting it to the mainland. Here on the hill is the lake with a flat central island in the middle. This is the crater of an ancient volcano and the island is the central volcanic plug

Day 20 Monday 

Up and packed an overnight bag, taxi to the Puerto Kalapajra Chulluni. No sign of Habraham, but WhatsApp is a wonderful thing, and within 15 minutes there he was in a nice little covered boat. Off to Uros Khantati, one of 120 floating islands, and as it turns out the first to do overnight stays. Victor and Christina, Habrahams parents in law, worked very hard at this for 8 years, maybe getting one overnight a week, until they made it in to the Lonely Planet when their fortunes changed.

I'd identified this as being of Inca, rather than pre-Inca origin before looking at the explanation board. Look at the interlocking stones with no gaps between. See how some of the stones are cut specifically to locate the one above. We'd seen this in Cusco when we visited 8 years ago

The islands are just piles of reeds that have to be constantly refreshed on top as they rot away from underneath.

Here's a broken down one with Jackie to give an idea of the size of stones, they are pretty big and heavy. Our guide said they had been struck by lightning, which is possible, but until the 1970's the site was just open to anyone and, as they contained the bodies of aristocracy, they contained gold and jewellery buried with the dead. On serious study and excavations many were found with bones and non-valuable items just strewn outside where people had left them after ransacking. Recovered precious items are now on show in a local museum

Our room was beautiful, bright furnishings inside and out so we enjoyed the day bed for a short while till we went out in the little boat with Habraham. "Do you want to buy handicrafts?" He asked. This is what we'd been afraid of, 99% of the islanders income is from tourism, either homestays or selling to the day trip tourists, and we had read of the very hard sell. We said we didn't want to buy, so we didn't stop at any of the islands, just looked, went to visit the kindergarten, the doctors (only open on a Wednesday) and the junior school where the kids were just leaving for lunch, taking themselves off in little motorboats, not like when Habraham was a kid when he had to row himself to school. There is also an Adventist church, though the majority of the islanders are Catholic, they have to go into Puno.

We saw a few of these wandering round the Sillustani site. They are buff necked ibis

Lunch was included in our stay, but rather than cook it themselves we were taken to the restaurant island for trout and chips (and rice, there is always rice) which made perfect sense. A gentle potter back and the afternoon was our own.

Waiting at the little port for Habraham to collect us for our stay on Uros Khantati floating island

Out on the day bed to just sit and stare, there is no WiFi but Brian's esim works, we are however not using that for surfing, so a lovely afternoon of reading, chatting and puzzles. Watching the birds on the water, blue billed ducks, grebe like things that suddenly take it upon themselves to run across the water, and later very conscientious mummy birds with their babies sitting on their backs. We were joined by Estrella the cat, very friendly, with one blue and one yellow eye. Very happy Jackie. There are 4 here apparently, we've seen the little black one who wanted to say hello, but wasn't quite brave enough, but no idea on the other two. 

Waiting at the port I sent him a WhatsApp message. Feeling fairly confident with my Spanish I sent him the message 'Hola, Esparamos a la puerta' thinking this said 'Hello, we are waiting at the port' This seemed to confuse him and after confirming the name of the port 'Puerto Kalapajra Chulluni' I sent him this screenshot showing where we were waiting. I thought about it afterwards and thought Esparamos means 'we wait' not we are waiting. I decided I should have said 'Estamos esperando' , estamos means we are, esperando means waiting. He confirmed it later, but also said port is El puerto not la puerta as I had written. La puerta means 'The door'. So I had written 'we wait at the door'. No wonder he was confused! I should have written: Hola, estamos esperando en el puerto. Ah well, I'll know for next time!

Brian is obviously feeling better, he wanted a beer to relax and watch the sunset with. We haven't had a drink for 4 days as the altitude headaches were bad enough on their own. No beer, but they did have wine, so a bottle of Peruvian red it was then. We sensibly only drank half the bottle, but what a setting. Dinner was brought to our room as the dining room has been newly decorated and smells of paint. We didn't mind, what luxury. We had moved indoors for this as although day temperatures are low 20's with scorching sun, night temperatures are not much above freezing. We were just trying to decide whether to get into bed, what to do with the plates etc when Christina arrived, 3 hot water bottles (well, pop bottles filled with hot water and wrapped in fleece) put into the very large bed and an extra blanket put on the top. Brian gave her a hand to clear the outside space as there was a possibility of rain forecast while I had huge cuddles with Estrella who sadly wasn't allowed in the room because of other people's allergies.

Here we are on his boat heading to his floating island with Habraham at the helm

Once she'd gone we removed the hot water bottles and the extra blanket, we already had 2 blankets and a huge duvet on the bed, and got into bed still looking out over the lake at the lights of Puno.

Here we are  arriving at Uros Khantati (Khantati means sunrise in his native Aymara language), not the one on the left with the out-of-keeping tall green roofed building, that he is unhappy about, but the island on the right right

Day 21 Tuesday 

Woke up after a great night's sleep, what a view, eventually got up in time to see the delivery boat arrive with, I suspect, the fresh bread and cake for our breakfast. This was shortly followed by a boat load of reeds. Estrella took advantage of everyone being occupied as I saw her run past and under next doors hut with a fish in her mouth, not that anyone seems to mind.

And here we are on this lovely island. Remember, none of this is land, it's all reeds and floating. You could feel it and see it going up and down, not as a complete entity, it's just reeds, so the whole floor ripples, quite surreal

Once the unloading was done our breakfast was delivered, again, we feel very spoiled.

It's quite large, this section is where the family live

We are now just sitting, with Estrella on my lap, not sure what is going on. It's 10.30, the original booking said we'd be back on dry land at 10.00, Habraham asked us yesterday if we were in a rush to which the answer was no, so it was suggested Victor might take us out to show us how reeds are cut, but who knows. New hut or parasol tops have just been delivered, Christina and her daughter have been planting flowers in the mulch that was brought onto the island by a couple of guys yesterday, it's all go, and we are just relaxing.

And this is where we stayed in this fabulous cabin overlooking the lake with outside chairs and a day bed to lie on to take in the views. They have four of these for rent, but we were the only guests. Habraham told us that there are 120 islands, of which 99% are involved in tourism and there isn't sufficient demand for them all, so competition is fierce. They have a headstart as they were the first to start a rental business 22 years ago. The other islanders thought they were crazy, remember this was in the days before internet advertising, they didn't even have a phone. One by one other islanders converted to tourism and now it is the main source of income, particularly as overfishing has reduced the fish population in the lake. Habraham told us that his father in law, Victor, used to put of a big fishing net and would catch hundreds of fish, now they might catch 10. Their traditional way of life is now unsustainable, hence converting to tourism 

This was the view we had from our bed. I took this this morning as we woke up sipping a cup of tea. How fabulous is this!

This was our room. An immense bed, a bathroom with shower in the top corner behind the reed screen and a washbasin and mirror on the right up there

View from up by the wash basin looking down the room. There's another bed, I suppose for those people coming with children. 

And that, through the window was our day bed, where we could just stare at the lake watching the birds and boats going by in peace and tranquility

Out with Habraham for lunch and our afternoon boat ride round the islands 

That's a traditional boat, in fact that's a double one

The buildings on the right are the kindergarten school, on the left is the medical facility. Habraham's three year old daughter will start attending this school next year

Approaching restaurant island

Step onto the island, find a table in one of those covered cabins and have lunch! There's a lookout tower if you fancy climbing up and going with the sway 

Here we are, we had a fabulous lunch of lake caught trout

Look carefully at this video. I waited until a boat had gone past causing ripples and, I hope you can see, how the whole island ripples, like an earthquake

Photos because, well, you have to!

Back on Uros Khantati island and Jackie finds Estrella (Star) cat, who's very friendly. Little back cat behind would love to be fussed but is just too scared

She was very happy to spend time with us. She has one blue and one yellow eye, a David Bowie cat as Jackie said

We're going to have a tough time here!

Lots of different types of duck and birds here. This one is a Ruddy duck

Here it is doing a bit of a run and dance across the water. Watch at the end as it shakes its head and lets out a cute quack

Here's a mum Titikaka Grebe paddling past us with a baby on her back

As the  afternoon sun got a bit hot for us we retreated to the chairs and put them in the shade of the day bed cover. Estrella joined us and decided the random array of cushions and blankets we'd left on the bed made a fabulous den for her

Meanwhile a Titikaka Grebe paddled past us, disappeared under water and reappeared with a fish in its beak. An afternoon snack!

Lets get really comfy for the afternoon!

Early evening, the sun has set and the temperature starts to drop. We get a bottle of red wine, put our duvet jackets on, cover our legs with a blanket and do the days cryptic crossword 

This morning, sitting outside reading and a boat comes past towing a delivery of reeds

Its all hands to the pump as all the family unload it onto our island. We felt a bit guilty not helping but it would be a dirty, wet job and we didn't have any old clothes

Today's delivery stacked up ready to be laid. Victor told us they'd need about 10 loads to cover the area of one cabin

Here's an area they did earlier. The reeds are laid in layers at right angles to each other. Victor said they will leave that like that for a year so it compresses down. Then they will move one of the cabins onto that and build up the area where it was, leaving that for a year. He says he will get about 25 people to lift and move the cabin. All the islanders muck in to help each other out as required

There's one that has been completed. It's now on a new bed of reeds and will be OK for about two years before it needs to be done again. It's an ongoing job and quite hard work. In from you can see a garden that Christina has just planted. The soil is rotted reeds from the island that form an excellent compost. They plant out at this time of year as it is the start of the rainy season, through to next April

Meanwhile, we're still relaxing, eating breakfast and watching this 'almost' traditional boat being rowed across the lake. I say 'almost' as the reeds have been covered in a fibreglass to make it last longer

Jackie was writing this blog before Estella decided she made a comfy bed

Another reed delivery comes by. This one wasn't for our island

Here's mum Titikaka Grebe with two babies in hot pursuit 

Jackie takes a selfie of herself and Estrella hoping to get a closeup of her two different coloured eyes. Unfortunately she was thwarted!

Its time to go so we go and say goodbye to all the family and Habraham goes to get the boat round to take us back

Habraham's three year old daughter came out too, but she's a bit shy so wouldn't talk to us

Habrahams got the boat round, but there's a problem. He forgot to tie it up and it's floated off into the lake!

So he has to get his rowing boat out to go and retrieve it

Those are the three cabins together for rent, we stayed in the middle one

 

On our way back and we have a final look back at the island. Our cabin is on the left in that cluster of three

On our way a boat comes past with a large cupboard delivery

There's a lookout on an island heavily disguised as a duck!

Back in our hotel, the Sol Plaza, in Puno we go up onto the roof where they have a nice view over the city, they say has a population of 150,000, but it looks much bigger than that. We'd have said at least 500,000 if not more. There's the cathedral with the Plaza mayor in front

A bit further round and, on the left just to the right of the white building is a stairway leading to a viewpoint. We have one more day here tomorrow and I'd like to climb those stairs to get the view, if the lungs at this altitude allow 

Further round, over the rooftops you can just see Lake Titikaka and, beyond is Bolivia, where we are heading the day after tomorrow. We've booked the bus that will take us over the border and a hotel stay on an island in Bolivia on the other side of the lake. The adventure continues...