Lake Titicaca: Buses, Boats, and enough papas to last a lifetime

In order to get the most out of my last weekend in Peru, my friend Karina and I decided I´d go out in style with a trip to Lake Titicaca. Two of her friends, Laura and Julia (twins) joined us, along with Kim, a former student at our school during our primero semana.

The Lake was absolutely beautiful! We had two crystal clear days with full sunshine, a cool breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. The lake is the highest navigable lake in the world and thus you´re literally in the mountaintops, you just happen to be on water. You´re reminded of this when you spot all the snow capped mountains surrounding the lake. Here´s a “quick” recap of our weekend:

Karina and I did some research, got the best deal on bus tickets and we all took off on Friday night on the 10 pm overnight bus trip. While the seats reclined and were as wide as first class plane seats, I was still unable to really get any sleep. My faithful Tylenol PM let me down in the moment of truth and I arrived in Puno un poco grumpy and very tired.

We were all excited to arrive, but we hadn´t done any further planning, all we knew was that we wanted to spend the night on an island, and we wanted nothing to do with Puno, cause there´s nothing there. So before the bus even came to a complete stop, some Peruvian man in a track suit was in our face about taking his company´s tour and staying with a family. We politely told said “Peruvian Dude” that it was 4:30 in the morning, we were hungry, tired, and wanted some time to chat. “sure, sure, of course.” He proceeded to sit at the next table over (we were inside at this point, he followed us from the bus to the terminal to the upstairs “foodcourt”).

Then another “Peruvian dude”, who also happened to be in a track suit, cooed up to our table and offered us a better price. Everything he said sounded better, so we began the process of going with him. Then Peruano hombre numero uno pops back up again and suddenly he can offer us the trip for 50 soles (13 less than hombre numero dos). Some Spanish smack talk obviously occurs between the two competing salesmen dressed like they´re headed to aerobics class, but being the poor travellers we are, we go with the cheaper price. So then we go through ALL the details and begin to make some for real plans. Then he says, okay, so it´s only going to cost 275 soles, I do the quick math, uhhh no, that´s 55 per person. Then Julia, the best Spanish speaker of us all, goes into asking him if he´s a liar and letting him know we´d lost trust in him. I wanted to take the easy route and just punch the guy in the face, but my fellow travellers talked me out of it. We finally ditched the idiot and decided to go it on our own. We´d take to the docks and make our own plans….

It couldn´t have worked out better! While we paid the same price the sleezy guy was offering, we knew all of it was going to the families of the island. So we got on a boat with about seven other random travellers and we all entrusted our lives to the folks who said they could house us for the night.

We took an hour ride to the Uros Islands. These are the floating reed islands. The people live their entire lives on the islands and it seems to me they rely solely on fish and money from tourists. We explored for a little bit and then boarded the boat to head to Amantani, our second island of the day and resting spot for the night. We arrived two hours later and their well organized system saw us get escorted to a home ready to take in the five of us. It was a small two story home with a little courtyard and an outhouse. We had lunch: potatoes with cheese and a side of potatoes. Then we all met in the square and a girl of 10 years old showed us to the top of the island. It was no easy walk but well worth it. We arrived and had a 360 view of the lake and a prime seat to watch the sunset. It was clearly the thing to do because all the other tourists were there as well. I met a guy from CARE who lives in Atlanta and more than likely used to order four cheese ravioli bolognese from me at Figo. I was reassured that other people were entrusting their lives to the folks of the island.

We hiked back down in the dark to our house, NOT easy with no lights, and while I wasn´t looking forward to it, I was totally ready to have my front teeth reinstalled by a Peruvian dentist if it came to that. Dinner was potato soup and an omelette ontop of rice. Lo and behold! The omelettes had potatoes in them!! This put us into hysterics, we couldn’t escape the papas. We even had to smuggle to lunchtime potatoes out of the house because they too closely resembled giant maggots to be eaten.

All in all, at the house, we were a scene from Charlie and Chocolate Factory. Karina ate from her bed and changed on the side of her bed. She became “abuello joe” for the night. On Sunday we took the boat to the island of Tekille and had another gorgeous hike to the top of the mountain that made up the island. I had the best meal I´ve had in Peru, a pitabread sort of thing with an egg and cheese on the inside. I was in heaven…it´s the little things. Then we headed back to Puno, hopped on a bus, and after seeing three high class movies (Even Almighty, Terminator vs. Alien, and Littleman), we arrived safely in Cusco. I´m outta here on Saturday, inshallah. So maybe there will be one final entry for all those Spanish speakers out there. Otherwise, check back with me in July when I move to Kenya. –EKY V.