The Greatest Lake

As children, we study geography. We look at maps of irregular shapes; not the squares, circles, triangles, and even trapezoids that we´re used to...and we´re supposed to commit to memory these countries that we have never visited (and quite often, never will). Sure, Italy is easy to remember because it´s shaped like a woman´s boot...and I had a pretty good grasp on the feared USSR until they went and cut it into more irregular shapes and gave those shapes unpronounceable names. But of all those geographical studies, I don´t recall ever paying much attention to South America, with of course one exception: Lake Titicaca.



To a child, there is no better word than Titicaca. It is a combination of two of the most hilarious and inappropriate words, but somehow this union makes the word alright for a kid to say. And to an adult, I think the word still carries a little hilarity - if only in a nostalgic way. But it's intrigue extends far beyond the name: at 12,500 ft above Sea Level, Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world! Did you know that this lake also has a group of 41 artificial floating islands, known as Uros, with over 3,000 inhabitants. God bless Wikipedia

The islands of Uros, are quite literally floating, made from materials found entirely in the lake. The homes are completely mobile, as four men can pick them up. And like a large boat, they use anchors to keep the island from completely floating away.

So for a number of reasons, including its infamous name, Lauren and I were bound for Titicaca. We began in the city of Puno: the most common launching point in Peru, because of it´s close proximity to the islands of the lake. Within minutes of departing from the harbor, we realized that amazingly, this lake lives up to its name. The giggle that the name used to inspire, is now replaced with visions of a picturesque blue lake topped with fluffy white clouds and an even more impressive deep blue sky.

The tour on which we embarked, visited 3 of Lake Titicaca´s islands. That´s right, it´s a pretty big lake, with islands. Uros, as mentioned before, was our first stop. The colors on this island are impressive. Even more impressive is the resilience of the island´s inhabitants. You can see the city of Puno clearly from the reeds on which which you stand. On any given day, due to the floating nature of the island, I´m sure a fit person could swim ashore and start enjoying the finer things, such as: meat, people who aren´t related to you, electricity, etc. But as we found on this trip, it´s not about the finer things, it´s about simplicity.

We next ventured to Amantani (A-man-ta-ne), a real island, made by God or volcanic activity, or whatever you believe in. On this island, we had planned to spend the night, and so we immediately met our host family. Señor Augustin and his family kindly welcomed us and prepared lunch for us. Later that night, after a stroll through town and a quick hike, we returned for dinner. Of course, the dinner conversation was limited and awkward due to our inability to effectively speak Spanish. But we were able to talk about the cold weather and rain, and that despite the fact that he is a vegetarian due to the non-existence of meat on his native island...his favorite food is chicken. After dinner we went to the discoteca, not exactly the Graduate on Minor Madness night, but impressive nonetheless. We participated in authentic dances while dressed in authentic clothing. At one point, the authentic dance evolved into one large ring around the rosie game...that´s really the best way to describe it. It´s a good thing the dance only lasted one hour. We definitely lived the simple life: there are no cars on the island, little electricity, and really nothing to do but live. When we asked Augustin what he does for fun, he kind of laughed as if to indicate that that´s not really his thing.

(Senor Augustin)