Day 8: Lake Titicaca - How Many Speed Bumps to Puno

Having to wake up at 4:30am is never the most ideal situation....Having to wake up while not going to sleep until 11pm is even less ideal...Having to do both while sleeping on a bus that for whatever reason decides to take the road with speed bumps every two miles and breaks like you're about to hit a moose is just plain chaos. Whelp, we did just such. The bus, Cruz Del Sur is actually a remarkably nice and luxurious bus with seats that recline into a bed, free blankets and pillow, and a very smooth ride, except when you hit a speed bump every 20minutes. 

Fortunately the bus was 40min late for arrival which worked well for us considering the earliest ferry to Lake Titikaka doesn't start operating until 630am. We safely got to the port, at around 5:45am, maybe closer to 6, which wasn't terrible but we immediately got swarmed by local merchants who tried getting us to purchase boat tickets. Even though we told them we were going to do such and even though there was only one boat operator, they kept coming back. Aside from being ridiculously tired, it just became even more ridiculous when a local set up his shoe shine shop literally on the seat of the bench right next to us and even more local merchants came to get their shoes shined. 

The morning was a little chaotic, as stated we were extremely tired which didn't help the case, but our plan was to stay on the island of Taquile at a homestay. When purchasing the boat tickets we found out that the earliest return from that island wouldn't get us back until 6pm and we had a 3pm bus to catch to Arequipa. The Lonely Planet Peru book was quite lacking in information for this leg of the trip as it failed to mention that, or really what to expect when hopping on one of these boats or even purchasing the tickets. 

We decided that our first option was to try and stay at one of the reed huts on the first island of Uros, only 30min boatride with frequent trips back, and the second option just to get a place in Puno for the night. Well after all the chaos of trying to buy a ticket and communicate when the return boats would be with a guy who struggled with understanding our broken Spanish and didn't speak a word of English, we finally were able to get on board and departed the port at 7:45am. Luckily for us, our boat tour guide, and our entire boat spoke Spanish, clearly we were the only clueless gringos on board. 

We stopped off at Uros, the island made out of solely floating reeds, which was fascinating, and we could actually understand most of what the tour guide was saying as he spoke quite slow which was a bonus. Oh, it was also a bonus that we even had a tour guide as the book conveyed that we would just take a boat an get dropped off at these islands. The third perk, and the best of them all is we found out there was another English speaker on board! This Italian woman named Elena who is currently a PHD candidate in the literature department of Harvard - she was truly our godsend for the day. 

^that is not Elena - just a local chef

Having gotten to the reed island, we couldn't exactly figure out where on earth we were supposed to find a place to stay and not really speaking any Spanish, well we decided that wasn't going to be an option. The island was something unlike anything we've ever seen before. It's exactly what it sounds like, a bunch of reed huts atop a bunch of floating reeds. You have to step very carefully or you could find yourself sinking through a couple layers, surely still far from the water though due to the unfamiliar feeling it seemed like the lake was right there. Unfortunately we only spent about 15min on the island and then departed for what we all thought was an hour boat ride to Isla Taquiles but ended up being about 3hrs. 

This was slightly excellent as it did allow us to catch up on a bit of sleep, but being on a boat that long when expecting only an hour isn't the most enjoyable. Taquiles was extraordinary and certainly worth the trek. The layout and look of the island itself reminded me a bit of Capri in Italy, as it basically was a giant hill. We were expecting to climb over 500 steps which we had been forewarned about but what we didn't realize was that Lake Titikaka is actually a higher elevation than Machu Picchu and Cusco! It sits just over 4,000 meters above sea level while Cusco is about 3,300. Thankfully we came from the slope side instead of the cliff side so while still tiring, it was nothing close to what we could have experienced. Upon reaching the top we were greeted with 360 panoramic views of the lake, which looks just like an ocean as you can barely see any land. It's actually a remarkable sight as its so high up the at times it looks like the clouds are almost touching the clear blue water. 

Taquile is about 7km long, only natives reside here and live an incredibly tranquil life. They don't allow any cars, buses, or even bikes here as that causes too much commotion. They don't have a police force even though they are broken into 6 different provinces. Remarkably enough they don't even allow dogs as dogs are commonly used as watch dogs to sound an alarm. A very utopian type lifestyle but sadly it is clear they are quite economically disheveled and rely heavily on tourism. We walked around the main square which was quite downtroddened but was brought to a nearby restaurant where we were served especially local dishes of quinoa soup and fresh caught trout. Emma smartly and cautiously opted for the alternative option of an omelet - I of course dabbled with the trout. 

During lunch we got a quick lecture in Spanish about the traditions on the island, of which there are many. The most notable tradition is the use of these elf-shaped hats knitted with mostly red but also other brightly colored yarn. These hats are worn by men only, and signify whether they are single, married, or widowed. The single men's hat is half in the red pattern, and half white. The married men's hat is all in the red pattern, and widowed half in the red pattern and half brown. All of the hats have brightly colored, rainbow-like, puffballs on the end. Also, the way they wear these hats signifies something about them, as young boys wear them with the flap to the back, and the older single boys wear them to the side. At first when we saw these outfits we figured it was solely for the sake of the tourists but after hearing more we realized that these traditions are still very much alive. 

After lunch we walked around for a little, saw the local market, and departed for the boat by walking about 20min across the island and down the absurdly steep and uneven steps we had read about, which were even worse than Wayanapichu at times. One of the woman in our group actually ended up stumbling and twisting her ankle, but fortunately didn't appear to break anything. The real fright was that she had been carrying her 2.5-3yr old on her back, but fortunately the child was fine, just merely jostled. We finally made it back to our boat, and jaunted off back to Puno. 

The majority of the boat ride was uneventful for the most part, we got, or well I got a wicked bad sunburn even having applied sunscreen on (being 4000meters closer to the sun really is no bueno), and I caught up on writing this blog. Emma occupied herself with either sleeping or watching the 3yr old gallop around the boat and him interact with a couple native children. But the real excitement, or well fright came when we were still over half an hour out from the dock and it started thundering and lightning. Basic number one rule of thumb with boating is never get caught in a lightning storm, and well yup, that's exactly what happened. The locals oddly enough didn't appear to really assess the danger as much as the rest of us tourists did, even though the lighting was basically giving us this 180 panoramic showcase. An incredible sight, but not so much when you're on a metal structure in the middle of a body of water. Not to mention the boat itself didn't appear the most reliable having stalled a couple times when docking at Taquile, and not to mention it had mufflers attached to it with a sketchy engine - I don't recall ever seeing a boat with a muffler before let alone two. 

Alas, we made it safely to the shore right as the intense rain just began. Hopped in a cab and made our way to the hostal we had chosen from our guide book. Everything ultimately fell perfectly into place (knock on wood for our last three days) - it was best we didn't stay at the homestay as we would have really struggled with our broken Spanish and their zero English, not to mention we have no idea what it would have been like with this storm; we were able to see both Uros and Taquile and spend the entire day on the lake opposed to us anticipating getting back to Puno at around 1pm an having no idea what to do; the fact that the hostal had available rooms; and lastly the ability to catch up on sleep finally and not be rushed tomorrow morning. I'd say both Emma and I are relatively experienced travelers, but continuously we have been overly impressed by how well our scheduling, our contingency plans, and just our luck has had it. Although we've packed so much into such a short time frame, not one single place have we felt we missed out on or wished we focused more time on. 

Well once we retreated the storm, which had apparently turned into a hail storm once we sought refuge, we snagged a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant, nothing to rave about as I got a very very well done steak and Emma actually got fettuccine Alfredo which wasn't that bad tasting. After the grub we called it a night and hit the much needed hay.