Lake Titicaca Islands: Uros, Amantaní & Taquile
Beavis would be proud, we have made it to Lake Titicaca. The elevation here (3830m) is intense and it took me about 2 days to feel like my head was not in a fishbowl. But, the altitude sickness was not as bad as last time…no major nausea. I rested for a few days once we arrived in Puno, then we headed to see the islands.
The Lonely Planet guidebook makes a BIG deal about how travel agencies in town don’t give the locals a fair commission (and somehow it is cheaper to go with a guide than alone) and they encourage you to do it on your own so the locals see more money. Sounds all roses and puppy dogs, eh? That was not our story.
We bought a 3 island ticket direct from the port, the first stop being touristy Uros, the floating islands. Unfortunately, we were the only tourists and the capitan decided to skip Uros and go straight to Amantaní (without informing us). I was worried but he promised the next day he would take us to Uros before returning in Puno.
Sooo, we arrived in Amantaní, blue skies, strong sun and an island that has about 4,000 inhabitants. We were put up with the capitan’s family, who were nice but spoke in Quechua to each other unless we asked questions in Spanish. It was a little awkward. We spent the day wandering around town and hiking to the 2 big ruins; Pachatata and Pachamama, which are circular stone walls with a sunken ground. The views were great.
We even ate pretty well because the island is all about agriculture and sheep for wool. Meat’s expensive so their diet is for the most part, vegetarian. Muña tea was a favorite (a local herb kind of like mint). In the evening, Matt and I got dressed up in the local garb (the women’s clothing is complicated and very tight around the ribcage) and went to a peña, with local music and more tourists from the island. We learned their local dance (holding hands and violently shaking them back and forth while dancing forwards or backwards) and tried a local Puno beer (which tasted like Coors).
The next day we took a boat to Taquile, after much fighting with the boat capitans (the guys from yesterday were nowhere to be seen) who refused to take us to Uros and at one point in the discussion told us we weren’t welcome on their boat. Long, frustrating story short, we got to visit Taquile but were screwed out of Uros. I don’t know if it’s a fact or not about the travel agencies taking advantage of the islanders, but I would recommend going with the agencies because at least you go to all the islands and don’t have to deal with the boat capitans…better than being angry that the locals are taking more advantage of you….it left a bad taste for us. (Inka Tours, ask for Neo…he was with another group on the island and was really nice.)
So, Taquile is a 7km island with 2,000 inhabitants that rarely marry outside their island. They are known for fine weaving skills (men used to weave with their own hair) and unique clothing, where you can identify if someone is single and looking or not or married just by the style of their hat or color of their skirt. We only spent about 3 hours on the island, but it was pretty and the hike was nice. The men knit their own hats as well, and we saw boys knitting all over the place. The deal is that the marriage-ability test is for a woman to pour water into the man’s hat and it the weave isn’t tight enough to keep the water in, he’s not going to make a good husband.
They also have a ritual before marriage where they live together for 2 years and after that time they can choose to get married or not. If not, a new guy can move in with the girl and see how it goes. They also have to have a child before they can get married. Their culture is really interesting and detailed.
After Taquile, we had to go back to the mainland then buy another ticket to Uros, which is VERY touristy and I’m curious how many people actually live on the reed islands in their reed houses on their beds of reeds. It looks like something out of Disney, people living on islands made of reeds. It’s a little squishy and our boat took us to one island, where we learned how they make the islands (and if a family fights and wants to move, they cut part of the island off and push it away) and looked at the wares for sale.
We took a reed boat taxi to another island and looked at their stuff for sale and then left. I think it was the most touristy thing we’ve done so far but it was still neat to see the islands. You can even spend a night in one of the reed houses but it looked pretty cold….at this elevation it’s really cold at night!
Overall it was an interesting trip and pretty islands but it was frustrating having to fight along the way for fairness. I would have rather gone with a tour group, but oh well.