We stopped at Taquile Island, a relatively large island in Lake Titikaka.
The islanders do a lot of sheep farming.
Each section of the island is led by three men that wear tophats. There are statues of them on archways between the sections.
The island had gulls.
And big beetles.
Our boat is on the right.
This is the view of the lake from the island.
The reason to head to Puno is really to head out on the lake. It is shared by Peru and Bolivia and it is split either 60-40 (in Peru’s favour) if you are in Peru or 30-70 (in Bolivia’s favour) if you are in Bolivia. There is a patrol but no real border. You can’t land on a dock in the other country though which leads to complicated boat transfers just off shore. It is 280m deep at its deepest point and the depth can fluctuate by over a metre due to the rainy season.
Titikaka means grey puma and is the highest navigable body of water at 3809m above sea level. The snow topped mountains barely seem to be higher than the lake.
Reeds grow along the banks of the river and quite a ways out. They have to clear a path for boats to actually get out to the main body and move around due to the growth.
After we finally got out of the reeds you could see the lake better. Here is looking back at Puno off in the distance.
The reeds grow really close together and you’ll see what they are used for in another post.
Even though it was bright out the altitude keeps it pretty cool and the water stays a cool 9C all year round.
The lake is considered fresh water because it only has 1 ppm salt, but they can’t use it for irrigation because the salt accumulation eventually kills everything.
Today we were put to work at a community village. Before work we had to get dressed.
They have very colourfull clothes in Peru.
Some hats were more intricate than others. Matt’s was lined with beads and buttons.
There were complex patterns in everything.
The tools of the trade were a hoe and sunglasses. The plant was mint which Kerri used to clear sinuses.
They also raise pigs in the community.
We think this is quinoa.
This was one of the corn fields. Didn’t need help figuring this plant out.
It was close to harvest as the ears were pretty big.
These were broad beans.
The beans are huge and have to be peeled before eating (even after being shelled).
Here is the shelled bean before peeling.
Here we were shown how to find the potatoes. The women can do pretty much everything with a child strapped to them. And when not a child it is usually a larger amount of goods they are carrying.
This was Matt starting to help find the potatoes.
They grow them in raised patches to make weeding and pulling easier.
Sometimes there were only a few small ones.
Other times we would get bigger ones.
Lots and lots of fresh potatoes.
The start of our lunch was really simple and just a peeled boiled potato. They were still delicious.
