Lake Titicaca is the world highest navigable lake and according to legend, this lake gave birth to the Inca civilization. Thus it is regarded as a very sacred place.

Soon, after the minibus ride from the hostel to the port, we were sitting in the tour boat heading out to the floating islands. We were amazed of the beauty of the lake but it was a little annoying having to listen to the non stop talking guide saying everything in both spanish and english so you heard everything twice. An Argentinian guy let his cup of Mate tea go around to everybody in the boat and two japanese girls sat there and didn´t understand either spanish nor english...

After a while we arrived at one of the floating islands, also called the Uros, named after the Indians who inhabited them. Legend has it the Uro Indians had black blood that helped them survive the cold nights.

On the island, the president, yes the president, explained the way of life around this island and how the islets are made of totora reeds which grow in the lake. They also eat the totora reeds which are also used to help ease hangovers from drinking too much. After the talk we could walk around the island and visit the houses and wear some traditional clothes. We looked... great. Before we left, we had to guess the depth of the lake from where we stood. I won and received a nice uro-made necklace. When we were about to leave the uro-women started singing one of their traditional songs. It was really beautiful at first when they were singing in this-quechua-language-none-of-us-understands but then they started singing in english, spanish, french, german, even in japanese. Suddenly, the whole mystic feeling about the lake disappeared for awhile. Unfortunately, they are too dependant on the tourists which keep on exploiting the local people.

Cultureshock 1

Cultureshock 2

We left the island on the best boat though, a Mercedes Benz, instead of the tour boat. You really notice the tranquillity around the lake when you are on a motorless boat. We visited another floating island where they sold uro-made stuff. After that we got back on the tour boat. We found out they have a separate island to go to the bathroom (número dos). Imagine what that island must look like… we didn’t get the privelage to go there though.

Two and a half hours later we went ashore on a "normal" island on the lake and there we saw a real closed community, which have really different clothing compared to the rest of Peru. Here they don´t use rings to show if there married. Here they wear different colored hats to signify their marital status. A solid red colored hat signifies that you’re married. A white and red colored hat signifies that you are single… and depending on how your hat falls could mean that you’re “looking for” or “not interested” in having a relationship.

On this island, if a boy likes a girl, he throws a pebble (or rock) at her (real old-school Stone age way of doing it) to attract her attention. If she responds with a smile or good gesture then it's a "go". If she frowns or throws a rock back at the guy, well then it's probably not gonna happen.

Before getting married, they move in with his family for 5 years. Within this time she must produce some children, if no children are born, the man doesn´t have to marry the poor woman. If they do marry she is bound to forever walk 2 meters behind him! Progress apparently - as 10 years ago it was 5 meters!

Another thing is that once the bride and groom get married, the bride will cut all of her hair and give it to the groom. The groom then wears the hair on his head for the rest of his life.

They also live by 3 ancient rules - do not steal, don't be idle and do not lie. Having these rules means there is not need for police on the island.

It was surely like stepping into another world. Next stop, Bolivia!

Steffi

written by  Steffi & Chris on February 1, 2010 from Puno, Peru
from the travel blog: 212 days
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When we stepped ashore on Isla del Sol kids were running up towards us asking if we wanted to stay at their hostel or home. We said no, no, no. I really hate seeing children who have to work...

Geographically, the terrain on Isla del Sol is harsh; it is a rocky, hilly island. There are no motor vehicles or paved roads on the island. The sun was burning this day and our backpacks were heavier than ever (Chris 20 kg and mine 15 kg). In front of us were hundreds of steep steps and it was the only way to go. No donkeys to carry us or elevators. Half an hour later we arrive at the top of the steps. We began our search for a hostel and found one 15 minutes later. We got a really nice room with a beautiful view for a good price. We dropped off the backpacks and started our hike around the island.

First we went to see the Temple of the sun. The hike there was beautiful but the altitude made it a little more than a walk in the park. We could see the magnificent Cordillera Real in the backdrop and continued further to climb a big hill that we had found. The view was incredible. Suddenly alpaccas came running together with a nice little old man behind them who kindly let us take a picture of him.

lake Titicaca is a magical place!

As soon as they left we were totally alone or so we thought. Two little girls with their backs heavy of things to sell came up to us. They had big smiles and I asked them how old they were (6 yrs) and if the bags weren´t heavy. I got a happy "no". Then I asked what they were doing here in the middle of nowhere. Selling was their answer and I looked around and couldn´t see another soul.

We went down the hill and found two other kids who wanted money... We said we didn´t have any but played with them instead. They got a bit unpleasant and started to take off my gloves and trying to find things to get. Nail polish too for some reason. It was really sad to see and almost every child we met was begging for money not because they were poor but because they have gotten used to tourists giving them money.

We had a nice dinner at sunset and had a dark unlit walk back to the hostel.

Next day we were off to La Paz.

Steffi

written by  Steffi & Chris on February 2, 2010 from Isla del Sol, Bolivia
from the travel blog: 212 days
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We quickly found a good one and bought a package with flights there and back (since the roads are horrible here) and a three day Pampas-tour including two nights at a lodge in the jungle.

I have never in my life set foot in such a small plane. Even I had to duck down to enter it and there were only room for 18 passengers. I felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie when we landed in the middle of the jungle in the wilderness without any visible landing spot. Some people crossed their hearts and didn't find it at all exciting while Chris and I had a really good time.

From the coldness in La Paz caused by the high altitude we were now at sea level and the weather was tropical.

We were picked up by our tour agent and went to the agency where the other people of the tour were waiting. There were in total 8 people including Chris and I and all of us were couples in almost the same age. One couple was from Holland, one from England and another from Argentina so it was a nice mix.

We went inside a dirty old 4x4 and were told we had a 3 hour drive in front of us. We have seen many scary roads on our trip but Bolivia is the worst. It was to say the least a bumpy ride. We had to drive through a lake of mud and the car almost flipped. We were driving on two wheels but the driver did some car magic and we somehow landed on four wheels again. The other couples who had gone by bus from La Paz to Rurrenabaque told us that this was the same as the road they took but the only difference was that then you had a hell of a drop off on one side of the bus since it was up on the mountains so none of the women could sleep but the men slept like babies since they had the aisle seats...

When we arrived we switched from car to boat. On the way we saw some Elvis looking birds, tucans, monkeys and turtles. Our guide was about to turn the boat to go back and look for a big monkey when we suddenly bumped into a huge bush full of Pippi Longstocking monkeys. There were about fifteen of them and each one was staring at us. One had a baby monkey on her back and another one was chewing on a big insect he just caught and they were right in front our faces. Even the guys were like "AAAAW".

After two hours we arrived at our lodge where we soon had a delicious dinner. Our guide then introduced us to his friend who was lying in the water just a few meters from where we were eating. Pedro, A fully grown caiman.

Caiman

Next day we saw some new animals such as capybaras and pink dolphins. The pink dolphins were literally everywhere. Our guide told us to jump into the water to swim with them. The rain was pouring down and the water was as black as coal. The guys and I got in. The rest of the girls stayed inside the boat. It was a strange feeling swimming in the Amazon. To summarize it, it was like swimming in a pool of compost. Except there were pink dolphins around.

At night we did a boat tour in the dark under a starry sky. It was pitch black and we only had three flash lights. Every now and then our guide turned off the engine and you were surrounded by the sounds from all the different animals. It was really cool and a bit scary. Then he turned it back on again and somehow he found a little caiman baby with the help of the reflection of his eyes. He didn't look at all intimidating.

A baby caiman

Last day we went looking for anacondas. We were back in the boat and this time we were going with the boat through grass. We searched for land for over an hour but everywhere it was just water. As soon as we hit land we got out of the boat and started walking. My rubber boots were not tall enough so they filled up quickly with water. The mosquitoes were everywhere and I gave up really quickly with the searching. Chris on the other hand though was the last one to leave the island but was covered in mosquito bites. I counted the ones on his forehead and neck but stopped after 30. We didn't find any anacondas at all that day and no piranhas either but it was a really cool day nonetheless.

Searching for anacondas

Steffi

written by  Steffi & Chris on February 5, 2010 from Rurrenabaque, Bolivia
from the travel blog: 212 days
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this is where one girl drove off the cliff

Other than that everything was perfect. Excellent safety and nice and friendly guides.
We started the tour early in the morning and they drove us in a van up to 5700m above sea level and from there we were going to go down 3600m over 65km of road.
We got our nice full suspension bikes and 15-20 minutes to try them out.
It was freezing that high up and I could feel my hands getting really stiff which worried me a little bit about the going down part.
But as soon as we started going it felt really good. The first section is paved and a fast downhill section with beautiful scenery. We did a couple of stops on the way and then we came down to a police checkpoint were we had to pay the entrance tax to go down the Death road.
The road is not used anymore because they have built a new better and safer road so although the road is still open there is hardly any traffic at all on it.
As soon as we had started to go down you could feel the climate getting hotter, during the descent we were going to pass through 4 different kinds of climate zones from highland Puna to subtropical rain forest.
The death road is a dirt road and when you see it its hard to believe it was actually a heavily used road just 3 years ago.
But keeping that in mind its easy to understand how 15 people a month died in road accidents.

On the decent we went for maybe 20 minutes and then the guide stopped gave us some new information about the section to come and then we went on. This we kept doing all the way down, and all along the sides we kept seeing crosses after people who had died there.
Also the guide told us stories about tourist and guides who had lost control or have had accidents even after the traffic has gone away.
After the decent which was filled with adrenaline and beautiful views we came to the town were the downhill ended so we got back in the car and drove up to a hotel were we got to swim in the swimming pool take a shower and after that an amazing lunch!
This was the whole tour and after 12h we were back in La Paz and ready to go to Rio De Janeiro to meet Steffi's brother and father and also of course experience the carnival!

600m straight down

Cheers!

Chris!

written by  Steffi & Chris on February 9, 2010 from La Paz, Bolivia
from the travel blog: 212 days
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