Lake Titicaca: home away from home

by Juliette Sauvé (Peru)

Making a local connection Peru

Peru… it’s hard to describe a place like this. Culturally and geographically rich, with amazing wildlife and food, its definitely a country that has a lot to offer. Lake Titicaca was the third place we visited during our 9-day adventure in Peru. I thought in all honesty that after hiking Rainbow Mountain, nothing else would compete with it. But, if you ask me now what was my favorite part of the trip, I would tell you in a heartbeat that it was the 48 hours spent on Lake Titicaca. At 3,812 m (12,500 ft) Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world! Altitude is something we had to take in consideration when going to Lake Titicaca. I would recommend spending sometime in Cusco or arrive a day earlier in the Puno region to acclimatize to avoid altitude sickness. Lake Titicaca is home to the famous Uros floating islands inhabited by local indigenous people of the Aymara culture. It’s a culture that was there a long time before the Incas and they actually started to live on these man-made islands made of reeds to escape from the invading Incas. Visiting these islands was the first activity of our 48 hours stay on Lake Titicaca. The Uros islands are just a 20-minute boat ride from Puno, the mainland city. The inhabitants of one of the islands showed us how they lived. I thought it was really interesting to see how each member of the island contributes. Community is important for them and you could really tell that everyone was valuable on each island, from the little kids to the elderly people, everyone has a role. After an hour or so, it was time to say goodbye and go to the next island called Amantani, the highest island in the world! It’s also where we would be spending the night with a local family! With little to no tourism, we were actually the only travelers on the island during our stay, we were completely immersed in the culture and lifestyle of the island. The father of the family greeted us at the tiny harbor and took us to his family home. The only way to get around on the island is by foot or by donkey, because there are no streets and no cars! The total lack of pollution and being so high in elevation, I don’t think I ever breathed air this pure. It was revitalizing! Once we got to the house, we went straight to work! We worked in the field with the mother, we harvested and unshelled hundreds of beans for the soup we would be having that night and for breakfast, we fed the sheep, and played with the children. Allowing us to take part in their daily activities really gave us a taste of what Amantani Island and its people are truly about. We shared a hearty dinner and we went to bed early that night, tired but so happy about our day! The next morning, we woke up at 4:30am and hiked to the top of the island to see the sunrise! It took us about an hour and when we reached the top, we discovered that there was a sacred temple where people make offerings to the gods. The view, from the peak of the highest island in the world, was breathtaking. I had this overwhelming feeling of peacefulness and felt like I was in a different universe. I was in utter awe. After, we had breakfast and gave our parting gifts, rice, vegetable oil and chocolate, to the family and left for our last stop, Taquile Island. There, we hiked on the island and swam in the surrounding cold crystalline water. The landscape was picturesque with all the animals freely roaming. Later we had lunch with another local family. We danced and had a really good time! We were sad to be going back to Puno, we had gotten used to the island life very quickly! None of this would have had happened if the local people hadn’t opened their homes and welcomed us. For that, we are very grateful because our experience on Lake Titicaca was priceless thanks to our new families!