DE ISLA EN ISLA - ISLAND LIFE AT 4.000m

El viaje hacia Puno fue muy largo. En Perú acostumbran a parar el autobús cientos de veces, por no decir miles. Que si ahora sube un vendedor de comida o refresco, ahora personas que viven en mitad del camino y que aprovechan tu transporte, ahora sube un nuevo pasajero, ahora baja otro, el que no se ha acordado de ir al baño de la terminal y de repente le entran ganas de orinar, de repente huele a pollo, de repente huele a algo que no logras reconocer, controles policiales, pollitos dentro de una caja poniéndose nerviosos… en fin, en ocasiones te preguntas si realmente llegarás algún día. Vaya viajes…

It had been a hell of a bus ride to Puno. We had recovered from the jungle, but weren't aware of how long of an infernal bus ride it would take to get to Puno. Upon arrival, we were hit again but the altitude, a feeling we had forgotten since we had been in Huaraz. Not being acclimatized, we wondered the streets in look for a decent cheap hostel. 

Puno no es exactamente una ciudad idílica a orillas del lago Titicaca. No puedes ver el lago en toda su plenitud y no hay mucho que hacer por allí. En alguno de nuestro paseos por la ciudad, nos alejamos un poco más de lo habitual y visitamos el barco Yavari. Este barco fue encargado a Inglaterra por el gobierno peruano en 1861. Lo transportaron pieza a pieza, 2766 en total. Primero fueron cargadas en barco, luego en tren y después en mulas a través de los Andes. El barco completo estuvo listo y apunto en el lago 6 años más tarde.


Puno isn't our favorite place, in fact you can't really see the Titikaka lake in it's full magnitude. However it does give you a feeling of what it feels like being in Bolivia as you are only 3 hours away from the boarder. We stayed a few days to acclimatize to the altitude and hand said our good byes to peru with a good ceviche. We also had time to get to know the Yavari, a boat that was transported from England, piece by piece (2766 to be precise), across the Atlantic, up the Andes by mule (up to 4000 meters where the lake is found ) and  reconstructed on sight. This trip took 6 years to accomplish.

Luchando con el mal de altura (estar a 4000 metros no es fácil), decidimos ir a visitar las Islas flotantes (los Uros), la isla Amantaní y la isla Taquile. Lo malo fue que como en la época que fuimos había pocos visitantes, les costaba más llenar los barcos, así que sin preguntarte te enchufaban en un grupo turístico. Pero eso es lo de menos… Las primeras islas, los Uros, son realmente interesantes. Son islas artificiales construidas a base de totora. La totora es como una especie de… ¿bambú muy finito? que crece muchísimo en el lugar y que por tanto la utilizan para todo, construir las islas, las barcas y también para comer. Lo malo es que son hiperturísticas, así que no llegas a ver realmente la vida real que llevan allí. Hay bastante islas como estas, ya que cuando un miembro de la familia se casa crea su propia isla. Ya sabéis, tener una isla privada es fácil, no hace falta ser ni Uma Thurman ni Mel Gibson…

To get a better feel of living on the lake, we decided to visit the neighboring islands to get to know the Aimara and Quechua communities that live on them. The floating islands of Los Uros was our first stop. The strange thing was that being in low season, we were forced to share our boat with a "tour group". This didn't allow us, or didn't give us the feeling of traveling independently, however that feeling was gone as soon as we stepped off the boat and on to Amantani Island. We later discovered that traveling with these groups has a very negative and dark side as well. 

Después fuimos a visitar y pasar la noche a la Isla Amantaní. Esta isla tiene varios caminos para recorrer y poder disfrutar del lago desde lo alto. La comunidad de Amantaní es muy tradicional, no hay hoteles ni posadas, sino que los propios habitantes te hospedan en sus casas. Funcionan gracias a través de un sistema rotatorio, es decir, hoy estas tres familias hospedan a turistas, mañana estas otras tres. Así los beneficios se reparten por igual. Otra parte negativa de visitar estas islas a través de un tour es que estos actúan como intermediarios, quedándose con parte de las ganancias que en principio les corresponden a las familias. Los tours tienen otra parte muy negativa. Se ve que muchos de ellos hacen tratos con los dueños de los restaurantes o bares, es decir, ellos prometen llevar sus grupos turísticos a consumir a su negocio, siempre y cuando ellos les permitan pasar unas horas en privado con sus hijas menores de edad. Triste pero cierto. Al principio no podíamos creerlo, pero dado que nos lo contó una persona boliviana que había estado allí viviendo durante mucho tiempo trabajando para una ONG… los hechos pueden ser reales. 

Tour agencies are normally the middle man between tourist and the guesthouse owners on the island. This leads to a minimum income left by tourists who are lodged by families, as the agencies stay with a large percentage of the cash. What happens in this case is that the families are then forced to treat you more like a walking dollar, instead of a traveler, as they have to find money in some other way. In this case, fake traditional parties are arranged so these tour groups can spend their cash on photos of the dances, dressing up in local garments etc. The darkest fact we discovered was how some guides took advantage of the locals that lived on the Island. Considering they were bringing a large group of tourist who would pay for their food and accommodation, some guides with no morality would exchange "guiding" their tour to a restaurant and hotel in exchange for being left alone a few hours with the hostel owners underaged daughter. When we were told this horrible story we couldn't believe it, but hearing it from someone who had been working in an NGO on these islands for long enough, we thought it was a horrifying experience. 

Tenemos que pensar que son islas donde la globalización y la modernidad aún no han dejado su huella. Las cosas siguen haciéndose como siempre, las costumbres siguen siendo las mismas… Las caras de la gente son de rasgos duros, fuertes, toscos… a estas alturas no nos extrañará tanto que el maltrato doméstico esté a la orden del día.

To a certain extent these people are very "traditional" and live very isolated form a "western style" way of life. There is always male dominance and some women in fact accept and resist the fact that they can get beat by their husband no questions asked. You can see it on the people's faces, tough, unbreakable, sturdy, and rugged. They come from a long line of survivors that have lived these islands for centuries. we assume that too change a culture like this is almost impossible. I guess it's just going to take time until globalization kicks in.

De todas formas, dejando lo negativo a un lado, la experiencia es muy auténtica. Duermes con la familia, desayunas y comes con ellos… te guían para que salgas a caminar por el pueblo… eres un invitado más. Las casas tienen lo básico excepto duchas. El agua en la isla está muy limitada, así que si quieres asearte… al lago, que ahí hay agua de sobra. Eso si… a ver quien tiene los huevos de meterse en el lago a esas temperaturas. 

Taking aside all these negative issues and considering we travelled independently we managed to enjoy the island and it's people in a positive way. With a clean conscience, we managed to discover independently the island's highest peak, the Pacha Mama and managed to enjoy a beer on in one of it's many bars. a great little escape and experience.

The night we spent in Amantani was cold one. In fact the altitude played with us as Julia got a bit sick. It must have been the walking, the intense sun (at 4000m its worst than a caribbean beach) mixed with the altitude which mixed together can be a dangerous cocktail. 

A la mañana siguiente salimos hacia la próxima isla, Taquile. La verdad es que es muy parecida a Amantaní. Sus habitantes llevan unos gorros muy característicos que solo hacen allí, y lo gracioso es que son los hombres quienes los tejen. Cuando llegamos, estaban construyendo un "stadium", y lo que nos encantó era que los habitantes del pueblo se turnaban cada semana para construirlo. Todos colaboraban.

The next day we were all feeling better, and managed to see another island, Taquile. very visited and slightly more exploited, but still worth while visiting. After a light snack and a walk through the islands perimeter, we continued back to Puno.

El barco nos volvió a dejar en Puno, así que fuimos corriendo a coger el bus para cruzar al lado boliviano. Debíamos darnos prisa porque la frontera la cerraban a una determinada hora de la tarde, teniendo en cuenta que Perú y Bolivia tienen una hora de diferencia. Al final pasamos por los pelos. Vamos, que casi nos quedamos en territorio de nadie, entre los dos países.

De allí fuimos a Copacabana, un pequeño pueblo a orillas del lago. Mucho más turístico que Puno, pero cuando llegas entiendes por qué. Terrazas para tomar un refresco a orillas del Titikaka, con el sol calentándote la cara, y un mirador para ver atardeceres inigualables. 

We left Puno late in the afternoon and caught a minibus to Yunguyo the boarder between Peru and Bolivia. To be honest we barely made it in time to get stamped into Bolivia. The only issue was that we only got 30 day stamp, something we didn't realize until the day we wanted to leave the country. But that's a totally different story on it's own.

Copacabana on the bolivian side is amazing. Slightly smaller, manageable and cheaper. Yes, Bolivia is the cheapest country so far. But it's a great place to chill back, drink a beer or fruit juice and admire the lake in it's full scale as the views from Copa are incredible. We stayed in Copa a few days before we took another boat to visit the famous "Isla del Sol".

Desde Copacabana salen ferrys que te llevan a la Isla del Sol. Dicen que es un lugar que desprende una energía especial, uno de estos puntos mágicos del planeta. Creas en esto o no, la Isla del Sol es de visita obligada. La isla la forman tres comunidades y cada una de ellas hace valer su territorio. Esto quiere decir que no puedes pasear por la isla libremente, sino que tienes que pagar una especie de "entrada" cada vez que quieres pasar de una comunidad a otra (aunque… eso depende del ingenio de cada uno, claro).

Hay que ir bien abrigados. Hace un frío de mil demonios. Creednos, no estamos siendo exagerados, nosotros dormíamos con pantalón y camiseta térmica de esquiar, con el saco de dormir de invierno y la colcha de la cama encima. Por otro lado, los alojamientos son también muy básicos. La mayoría de los hostales tienen agua durante 15 minutos al día, y no caliente, claro. Así o pillas esos 15 minutos, o ya sabes lo que te toca, lavado gatuno. A pesar del frío y las incomodidades, merece la pena...

El lago titikaka, ¡el lago navegable más alto del mundo!

It was a sunny day and we managed to meet up again with our friends from Amantani who were also interested in visiting the islands. So there we were all 5 of us on the roof top of a boat on our way to one of the "energetical points" of the earth. What we didn't know was that once the boat moves, it doesn't really matter if it's sunny or not because the air is so cold that you really feel like being on the summit of Everest. A good two and a half hours of freezing wind and we made it to the island. The island itself is very mystical. Not because there are loads of "yoga/pachamama loving hippies" but because there is a starge feeling to the island. Again the people here seem to have been living in the same way for years. On the north side of island, guesthouses were available but these places were literally rooms that families had for tourist to occupy. Pacha mama guesthouse was our choice, and a nice feeling at that. There wasn't much to do here apart form walking around the island and admiring views, ruins and the local life. We even managed to enjoy a local wedding which looked very sophisticated compared to the routinary form of life the islander had. The amazing thing we discovered in Bolivia is how much they like to drink. Boxes of beer were ready for before and after the wedding ceremony. The only downer was how food was so expensive. To be honest we thought that trout would be a local dish and it was, but anywhere you ordered this fresh water fish, the proportions would be rather disappointing. One way or another it was food, and being able to fill our stomachs was enough to keep us satisfied and happy.

Another negative side to the island is that you have to pay for a lot of things. if you want to visit the ruins you pay, if yo want to walk the walk, you pay, if you want to visit a community you pay. Yes here, you pay for everything. we discovered that the communities on the island have a large rivalry, as some have more income from tourism than the others. So what happens is that each community puts a price on their land. This was quite annoying as one community doesn't seem to be aware of what the other community charges for, so when you ask: " is the the last time I pay?" , "yes yes, this is the las time you pay" and then you find yourself being forced to pay more cash. Some people can't take it and start getting nervous. All in all Titikaka and the Islands have been an amazing experience. if it wasn't for the cold and altitude we can say that these places wouldn't be the same. All in all a great experience and an amazing place to recharge yourself. If you need to get away from the city hustling of la Paz, or Arequipa and Puno on the peruvian side, Lake Titikaka is the place for you!