Lake Titicaca and Thereabouts

Looking for missions that would take us out of Cusco while we waited, we went to more ruins, this time at Tipon, which is thought to be a fancy royal estate (because they have no clue and it is pretty).  It's most notable feature is a complex series of water canals and miniature waterfalls.  The first thing we noticed is it is located up 4km of steep switchbacks.  Still it was a really nice site to relax at

The day before we had been debating finding somewhere cheap/free to sleep, we happened to ask the owner of the hostel we had been staying in.  He said we could camp for free in the garden of a house he was renovating.  Not only was it free we had excellent views over the whole city at night.  Win.

We met up and spent a nice afternoon evening with our Quebecois enjoying the market, the herb cheeses, the tamales (which are really good and come in savoury and sweet varieties) and other things one last time, endured a massive tropical downpour and in the morning were happy to leave Cusco and get back on the road

Still travelling with our friend AR, Peruvian hitch-hiking remained kind and we reached Juliaca and bedded down for the night in the huge bus terminal.  However before we did so, we enjoyed a huge bowl of chicken broth, with lots of chilli onion mix to add as desired.  We've all been a bit stuffed up with cold recently and this was the perfect medicine for that.

The next day we went out to the beautiful grave sites at Sillustani.  Though we were going for the ruins, we were amazed at how beautiful the nearby lake was and all the small stone compound type homes in the area, with pretty arches and good luck cow statues on the rooves.

We did some more gorgeous hiking and camped there (again for free) for the night.  However we were now about 3800m above sea level and the while the stars were pretty, the clear night left us shivering.

Puno is the Peruvian gateway to Lake Titicaca and numerous islands.  It's also a pleasant, cheap, lively city with several markets and 2-3 sole (50-75p) two course menus.  A friend of AR´s had recommended Taquile Island as a place to hike and we decided to tag along.  The ferry took about three hours to reach the island, helping us appreciuate the sheer size of Titicaca. Along the way the boat stopped at one of the 'floating' Uros Islands, which are made from layers and layers of reeds with reed houses atop them.

It was interesting to see how they make the islands, but kind of a strange place to be.  It seems the island you visit is more of a display and doesn't look actually lived on, and you are immediately surrounded by people trying to sell you artesanias of various kinds.  A combination of bag space and Scottish/Yorkshire heritage means we almost never buy souvenirs and when we do they have practical uses.  But it's a dynamic that makes you uncomfortable.  And so it should.  Compared to the Uros Islanders, any tourist is rich and privileged, usually directly because our economies Take All The Things from their type of economy.  But aside from the issue of not being able to buy from everyone, it doesn't feel to us like its the way out of these situations anyway.  Tourists can only come and buy these things whilst we are all richer than the artists in question.  Any actual redressing of that inequality and they would find their economy no longer has a base.  We've taken away all autonomy and power from these places but told them it's ok, they can be just like us and rely on consumerism for everything.  We'll toss them just enough crumbs that they can remain romantically poor.

Taquile itself felt like a  much more genuinely inhabited place.  The colours of the stunning blue lake and the red tin rooves and the labyrinthine network of stone dykes that covered the island made for some gorgeous hiking, even with our tortoise-like pace up the hills (it´s the altitute we swear).

The second day we even found a beach to enjoy a brief swim.  The lake looks crystal blue and inviting but is freezing.

It was during this time C finsihed The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian author.  As we´ve mentioned we have been looking up some Latin American authors and books while we are here and WotEotW is the best Latin American fiction C has read yet. A novelisation of a real war, don´t look it up or you´ll spoil the plot, but do read it!

Returning to Puno, we napped in another large 24-hour bus station (it´s quite common here, kids and families waiting for a morning bus etc) and set off to an Incan fertility temple in Chucuito, although since it wasn´t built on a hill, lording it over everyone else, we are suspicious as to its Incan authenticity.

But it's really very educational and interesting, and anyone who giggles at this is obviously much more immature than us.

It was after this that we parted company with AR.  It was fun travelling with someone else for a while as it makes a change.  We set off for the border and after smooth process we were in Bolivia!

Bolivia is somewhere we have both wanted to go for a long time and it felt really good to have made it.  Copacabana is the Bolivian gateway to Titicaca and is the original that the Brazilian beach is named after.  It is also home a very important pilgrimage site, where people walk the 200km from La Paz over Holy Week. Fearing we might be trapped by road closures for this we decided to get a bus that night to La Paz.  This was fine with us, as we had already eaten some delicious, battered, tiny lake fish called Ipsi and Copacabana was a much more tourist-filled place than Puno, and we were struck by the sheer number of signs in English advertising wood-fired pizzas and vegetarian menus.  So we didn´t feel very tempted to stay longer than a couple of hours.

During our time in and around Lake Titicaca we heard several different explainations for the name.  We were told that 'Titi' means cat in Quechua and 'Caca' means grey in Aymara.  We were also told that this name referred to;
1) A big gray rock shaped like a puma on Isla del Sol (Incas were always seeing puma in everything)
2) A legend about the creation of the lake involving a crying Sun God and some bedraggled survivours
3) If looked at upside down from space, the lake is the shape of a cat (it isn´t)

Anyway, we were really pleased with all the hiking and things we got done over the last week or so, but feel like a break from old stones and camping for a little a while and are looking forward to exploring the massive sprawl of Nuestra Señora de La Paz (highest capital city in the world, except it´s only the de facto capital, which makes the claim a little bit qualified but there you are).