Titicaca- Peru

After a few months spent at home following our Asia trip last year, we couldn’t wait to step back into our hiking boots and set out with our backpacks to explore a new region of this wonderful world we live in. Off we go to discover Peru, a first time for us in South America.

Our trip starts with a long travel to get us to our starting point. Planes from Montreal to Atlanta and then Lima (Perou). Without leaving the airport, we wait 5 hours for our domestic flight to Juliaca. Here, when stepping of the plane, we expect to be be short of breath since the town sits at an altitude of 3800 meters above sea level! To our surprise, all seems normal... for now. We hop into a taxi that drives us to Puno, the town bordering the mythical lake Titicaca. 20 hours after leaving Montreal, we have finally made it and are ready to start this new chapter in our adventure book!

We are quickly confronted with a very clear reality. We are in Spanish country and English which is usually an easy second language for all during our travels will be of little use here!! I have to say that although I did learn Spanish years ago, 20 years without speaking the language makes if hard to remember! And so it is with a very basic and barely functional Spanish that I try to communicate with locals in order to make our way around and obtain the informations we need to plan our trip. This is a different challenge for us but with a bit of humor and my family cheering me on, I think I was able to make do, and so it began :)

We walked around town and along the lake for a while, taking in the rhythm of this new culture, trying to take our marks. We are able to book a boat for the next day to take us to Taquile, an Island on the Titicaca lake.

​Unfortunately, the long travels and the altitude gets the best of us and it’s with a headache that we call it an early night. But before we do that, we discover that Peruvians are Ace’s at “Pollo a la brassa” served with a mountain of French fries and a delicious soup!

​It’s our first but definitely not our last time eating in a Polleria!!!

Early morning, we set out on the lake towards Taquile. The lake is huge and is the highest altitude lake of this size in the world. On the way, we make a mandatory tourist stop to the Uros islands. These islands are quite intriguing. They are floating islands situated approximately 5 km off shore from Puno and are entirely man made. They are created out of layers of totora root and reed. Initially, these islands were much further out on the lake and served to protect the Uros community from the quickly expanding Inca empire. 

Not the best picture, but the only one we have of the Uros Islands

Today, they survive on tourism and the arts and crafts they produce and sell to the visitors passing by. The 120 islands each house 4 or 5 families for a total of 1300 inhabitants. Everything on the islands, from the base layer to the houses and boats, is made of totora and reed, quite impressive!

After this quick pit stop, we continue on to the Island of Taquile. Here we spend 4 days and 3 nights in the family home of Hector. The home is located at the top of the island at 3900 meters. It is extremely rustic, no heating and no showers (let alone hot water) but plenty of wool blankets to keep us warm at night for near 0 temperatures after sun down.

The family speaks the native language, Quechua. So much for my horrible Spanish and hurray for body language haha!!

​The 100 meter hike up with our backpacks was enough to convince us (read me not us!) that we need time to make some red cells before we go on our  upcoming trekking adventure near Cusco! 

Hector, quietly knitting away, creating traditional and colorful garments

 The family is lovely and welcoming. We ate generously at every meal. Our 4 days here were spent wandering around, appreciating the amazing views and all the while acclimatizing to the altitude. The kids felt nothing, Alex and I managed the headaches at night but all in all, what a magical time we spent here. The locals are dressed colorfully and bear huge smiles. ​

The island is extremely calm with no cars and only a few motor bikes here and there, but mostly locals walking along the unique man made stone road circling the island. Often, they are seen carrying their loads and accompanied by their sheep. Funny story, when we asked how long the sheep live on average, the answer was “3 years... then we eat them”! ​

The sunsets are incredible and the views are majestic. Once the day time tourists have gone, it feels like we have this little paradise to ourselves. We did make our way through the day crowd to enjoy the “show” put on by the locals with their traditional dance and to snoop around the arts and crafts market. We also enjoyed the lovely beach and Alex and Olivier were brave enough t take a dip in the lake (no more than 9 degrees they say).

The lake is huge and it feels like we are by the ocean! The white in the background are not clouds but the snowy summits of the Bolivian mountains

Local market down below

And that’s a wrap for this first part of the adventure. Back to Puno for the night before embarking on a bus to Chivay. Quick word on this trip to say that the road brought us through yet more amazing views, zigzagging up to 5000 meters in altitude!

We saw heards of lama’s, of alpacas and Vicunia’s

We saw flocks of pink flamingos

We even saw an active volcano erupt (puffing up smoke)

Out of nowhere we stopped to stretch our legs and ended up buying baby alpaca hats from local women. Oh so soft!

Arrived in Chivay, we found a small local restaurant filled with locals that we figured meant it would be tasty and cheap. Couldn’t manage to communicate with words but by pointing to dishes served to others, we managed to order “something” tasty and it was also the cheapest meal of our trip. 20 soles for the whole family (approx. 7$). Last stretch for the day, we hopped on a collectivo (cheap local transport in a minivan) for an hour drive to Cabanaconde, start of the next portion of the trip.