The Womb of the World

The Quechua people have a legend that the first Inca ruler, Pachachutec, emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca with his sister and went on to found the Inca empire. I find that hard to believe as the water is so cold it would freeze the caca out of your titis.

Despite the funny name, we decided to visit Lake Titicaca and find out for ourselves just how cold the water was. We took the tourist bus from Cuzco that made the 7 hour journey to Puno in style. The bus stopped six times along the way to view ruins, take in some sites, have lunch, and just make the journey nice and relaxing. Most of the stops were relatively uninteresting, but the buffet lunch was fabulous and well worth the price we paid for the bus. There was also an interesting incident that we like to call "Alpaca attaca."


So there I was, minding my own business and hanging out with the alpacas. If you`ve never seen an alpaca, they are quite possibly the cutest animals on earth. They have these adorable faces and make the funniest sound when you scratch their butt. I´m going to discover a way to breed pygmy alpacas and then sell them to little girls who want ponies. Well, one of the alpacas must`ve sensed my ambitions and didn`t like me hanging around his girl. One moment, I was petting the cute little alpaca and all of a sudden the slightly uglier and larger one came over and tried to bite my ankles. I dodged away deftly and he followed. I shuffled backwards and all of a sudden I had a facefull of alpaca. The alpaca had reared up on his hind legs and was trying to knock me over. Luckily, they have really long and awkward necks, so I was able to grab that and keep him away from me. The owner came over laughing and calmed the alpaca down, telling me that he likes to play. Yeah.

We arrived in Puno with very little in the way of places to go and ended up asking the cab driver for a hotel recommedation. Big mistake. I told him we were only looking for a bed and warm shower, and he managed to bring us to both, but there wasn`t much else. We walked in and the manager was sitting behind a desk with pornography hanging on the walls behind him. He wrung his hands nervously as I looked at the place. He took me up to the third floor to show me the double room. The halls were dark and reminiscent of something from a really bad horror movie. The bathrooms didn`t have toilet seats and were about 100 ft from our rooms. And the shower was literally a water closet with a closet door that closed and lukewarm water. I immediately said yes. Why? you might be wondering. Because I was suffering from the worst case of travelers diarrhea I had ever had. I actually had to take antibiotics for this one as it didn`t go away within two days and I had crippling stomach pain that night. So Katie, horrified at my selection and scared for her life every time she went to the bathroom, moved right in and settled into our new abode. It was most assuredly the worst hotel I have ever stayed in, and a horrible place to get sick. But there we were.

So our first day was spent recovering from being sick. We wandered around Puno, did some internet stuff and went out to the Yauryi. This is a really interesting ship that is moored in Puno. In the late 1800`s the Peruvian navy wanted a ship of war to patrol the waters of Lake Titicaca. Well, being that Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world nestled on a plain on one of the highest mountain ranges in the world, this was no small undertaking. The ship was constructed in England and then shipped over in thousands of parts to Peru. These thousands of parts were humped by donkey and laborer hundreds of miles over the Andes and to Lake Titicaca. There, the Yauryi was assembled and set sail with another steam powered ship. Unfortunately, there wasn`t enough coal around at the time to power the steam ship, so the crew had to resort to burning dried llama dung. The ship was eventually decomissioned and then abandoned on the shores of Lake Titicaca. In the 1980`s an enterprising woman ,with way too much time on her hands, found the steamship and decided to rebuild it. The product sits at a very upscale hotel who we conned a tuk tuk driver to take us to.



The ship is magnificent. Perfectly restored and beautiful, with original wood paneling and funiture, fully decked out engine and steering room (I`m sure there`s a nautical name for that, but being from Colorado, which is thousands of miles from the nearest nautical thing...I don`t know it), and a full compliment of crew that lays around and waits for tourists to give tours to. Katie and I were given the tour and then played a little Capitan and his First Mate dress up and then it was off for drinks.


We wandered over to the nicest hotel in Puno. We brazenly walked in like we were staying there and because we were gringos, they didn`t give us a second look. We ordered a Pisco Sour and a Piña Colada from the bar. The waiter brought me the Pisco Sour and Katie the Piña Colada. I guess it`s not accpetable for a man to order a Piña Colada here. What! I like Pina Coladas!

The drinks were drank and then it was off to find the agency that we would use to travel around the lake. I had read about a relatively unique service that offered three days of sea kayaking around the lake. This sounded like a blast as I have never been sea kayaking and have always wanted to try it. I proposed the idea to Katie and I think she only accepted because she wanted to get out of the hole in the wall that we were staying in. So we organized the tour through Titikayak, met the verbose Guido the sea kayaking guide, and got ready for our journey.



That morning we woke up early and traveled by uncomfortable bus to the small town of Llanchon. Katie and I had our first true gringo moment when we accidentaly overpaid the bus driver. We arrived in a small hostal that overlooked the lake and after a brief introduction, a little food, some stretching and some kayaking instructions, we were ready to head out on the lake. The paddling was very relaxing as we glided along close to the coast looking for frogs and fish. The water was crystal clear and we could see almost 15 to 20 feet down. We were carrying our lunch and we stopped as we rounded the peninsula and before we started the long paddle out the first island of Amantani. When we did start the long paddle we had an interesting incident.



Sea kayaking is pretty boring. There was really nothing exciting going on in the hour or so that it took us to get out there, so I decided to try to spice it up by playing a little game of bumper boats with our guide. Who knew that kayaks were really unstable. Katie and I started paddling toward our guide and he laughed as our boat contacted his gently and pushed him around. The laugh quickly turned into a little scream and Katie and I watched in horror as our guide tipped in slow motion. I thought it was quite funny at first to see our guide`s kayak upside-down in the lake. He had regaled us with tales of learning how to roll in the kayak, and I thought he was going to just roll back over like a river kayak. After a few seconds and no movement, I realized I was mistaken and started to feel bad. I felt really bad when he came spluttering to the surface and started to shiver because the lake was so cold. I still felt bad until he loaded himself onto the support boat and Katie and I watched as he kicked his feet up and slept while Katie and I paddled to the next island. It turned out to be a blessing in diguise for him.


We didn`t really mind as we continued paddling to the next island. This was very very relaxing as the wind was at our back and we could just let it carry us to our destination. Our destination turned out to be this very quaint and charming little village situated on the island. Our hotel room had an expansive view of the lake and delicious food, which was just what we needed after paddling for five hours straight.


Katie and I slept like stones for a couple of hours and then we went to the festival. This was just a bunch of middle schoolers playing for a room of gringos, but it gave us the opportunity to dress up. Katie looked especially cute.


They played local music and we danced with around like the idiots we are. It was actually surprisingly fun for being so touristy.


The nexy day, we got up early, had a delicious breakfast of bread, jam, and muña tea, and headed for the sailboat. We thought it would be cool to try to sail around the island and then hop in our kayaks and paddle to the next island. Unfortunately, wind and sailboats were conspicuously absent from the village we were in. We did find a local fisherman with a sail and he agreed to sail around the island with us. He rowed us out and never raised the sail, but did let us try their strange way of paddling. They have a paddle mounted in the stern, they stand there and like a gondolier, move it back and forth like a fish´s tail. In this way, they are able to propel the boats surprisingly fast. First, our guide tried it and was able to move us passably well. Katie tried and did better than Guido. After a short time, I decided to give it a try. I got back there and nearly threw myself out of the boat with the first stroke. I eventually got the hang of it, but I couldn`t steer to save my life. After nearly running the boat aground, I turned it back over to the boatman.

We hopped back into our kayaks and proceeded around the island. This is where I discovered the fun of getting as close to rocks on the shore as you possibly can without hitting them. I weaved our kayak in and out of the rocks along the shore and had a ball doing it. We had lunch next to a flock of seagulls and then it was off to the other island. The journey was a very long way, and Katie and I decided to just be towed by the support boat to the other island. I know it`s lazy, but we were on vacation. After an uneventful tow, we proceeded around the new island called Taquile. We weaved in and out of rocks again until we reached our destination for the night. This was a small, secluded beach on the other side of the island that we had all to ourselves.


We put our kayaks back in the boat and went back for lunch which was at another stunning location. We were going to be camping on the beach again, and of course for a beach fire, you need some kind of alcohol. So we decided to run to the little village on the island and see if we could find some wine or beer. We hiked along the beautful island full of grazing sheep and little children peering at us above the walls. Our guide told us about a custom they have here. All the men were wearing these unusual, elf-like hats that were either white or red. Our guide explained that the men wearing the red hats were already married and the men with the white hats were available. It was kind of funny because we saw some little 12 year old kids with white hats on. The sun was quickly setting so we decided to try to run some of the distance to the village. If you`ve never run at 13,000 feet, I wouldn`t really recommend it. We made it about 100 yards and nearly died of exhaustion.


We got to the village and found our wine. The view of the lake from the plaza was absolutely stunning. Kids were playing with a bouncy ball as the sun set behind us and illuminated the tall moutains is Bolivia. We hustled back to the campsite on the beach and were greeted by the most gorgeous sunset I have had the priviledge of seeing since I`ve been here. The sun set and we got our tent set up, the fire roaring, and the wine flowing. We watched the millions of stars appear one by one and then went to bed and slept like the dead.


The next morning we woke up and I decided to go swimming. Swimming at almost 13,000 ft is not something I recommend. It was bitter cold, but nice to finally feel clean after a few days on the lake. We were going to paddle around the rest of the island and take a boat back to Puno, but my back had decided to give me some grief. I occasionally have lower back problems that are almost debilitating. I can barely move when this happens to me. So we just rode the boats all day and made it to the floating islands.

These are these really cool islands close to Puno that are made out of reeds. The islanders lay a new layer of reeds down every 2 months and have built their houses on them. They are a major tourist attaction now and have all the trappings that this kind of tourist attraction usually does, but they are still cool and interesting. We took a couple of pictures, rode around on the gondola and headed back to Puno.



All in all, great and relaxing trip. It was kind of expensive, but most definitely the best way to see Lake Titicaca.