Floating Islands - Lago Titicaca - Puno, Peru

This morning is a typical one for me these days. I’m still up very early, missing my run with Rob, but making do with some coffee and computer time planning our next few days. Kelli and the kids are up in the room sleeping. Eliot will most likely make the first foray out into the world. This is when I do most of the postings and I thought I’d put up some out of date, but still interesting (at least in my opinion) pictures.

These photos come from our one day spent on Lago Titicaca back in Peru. It is the highest navigable lake in the world, shares its waters with Bolivia and is strikingly beautiful. As you may have read, we planned a two day tour with an overnight with a local family on Isla Amantani, but had to change things when Eliot got sick during the night. Regardless, we were still able to visit the famous “Floating Islands” and Isla Taquile. Both islands are still inhabited by their indigenous people, who speak Quechua and are in varying degrees focused on fishing, agriculture and tourism to support themselves and retain the integrity of their lifestyle and heritage.

The Floating Islands were fascinating. They are constructed by assembling 1 meter square “bricks” of the root structures of the local reeds strung together by ropes and anchored to the lake floor. The dried up section of reeds from above the water are then simply laid down together to make the floor or ground of the island. They are continuously harvesting more reeds to lay on top and maintain the integrity of the islands. It takes around 6 months to construct and the islands then last for about 8 years. The sensation of walking across them was very weird. It was soft and spongy, very unlike the terra firma that we experience every day.

Arriving to the islands was a bit strange. Both for the uniqueness of their construction as well as the outright focus on tourism as a way of life. Our tour boat was greeted warmly by the residents of the island who demonstrated various aspects of living on the island, showed us their homes, sang songs and took us on a ride in a reed boat. From the leader of the island on down to the youngest walking child, they performed for the tourists. The children even parroted songs in Quechua, Spanish, English, French and Chinese. Honestly, it was a bit weird and spooky. On the one hand it seemed good that they have found a way to support themselves on the other it felt a bit exploitive.

After the Floating Islands we visited Isla Taquile which is primarily a farming community. Again they have a focus on tourists, but it is clear that they take their farming very seriously and it provides them with most of their food. We only spent a few hours on the island and it felt a bit rushed as our tour guide shuttled us from one location to the next to be sure to stay on schedule. With all of the moving we were able to take in some of the truly spectacular views of the island, lake and sky. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t spend more time their or have stayed overnight.