Puno, Lake Titicaca, and the Floating Islands

A floating island

After Arequipa Rachael and I parted ways, and I went to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, to see the disappointingly overrated floating islands.  I went down to the port in the morning and got a seat on one of the boats that shuttles tourists to and from this world renowned attraction.  On the boat ride to the islands I met some Argentinians and another American who spoke Spanish really well, and hanging out with them made the excursion worthwhile. 

Demo of how the islands are made

When we got to the islands they gave us an explanation of how the islands are made.  They use chucks of earth that are held in blocks by roots, tie the blocks together, and put reeds criss crossed over them.  They are then anchored in place in the lake.  Originally there were only about three islands, primarily used for fishing, but as they became a famous tourist attraction, more and more islands appeared.  Now there are about 80, and none of them are for the purpose of fishing.  Since the blocks of earth are just tied together, they can divide the island if the families start fighting (there are about 5-6 families that live on each island), or join their island with new friends. 

Look!  I live 100% on the floating islands too now!

After the explanation, we got to go in the houses and even try on their clothes.  They say that they live 100% on the island and don't own houses on the main land, but most people who have done the tour seem pretty skeptical of that.  They didn't have kitchens, stoves, fireplaces, ashes, food, wrappers, or trash in any visible places, and nothing about their houses felt like people actually lived there.  Then we had the opportunity to buy the obligatory arts and crafts item to thank them for letting us into their homes.  And if it had stopped there the tour would have been ok.  But there are 5-6 families on the island, and they each wanted us to buy something from each family, and were very, very, pushy about it.  (We had also paid an entrance fee to go on the island.)  The women (no men or children were on the island - also odd considering they all supposedly live there, and women have 4-6 kids on average, but none of the women had children with them, and there were no toys or anything visible) and our guide kept saying things like, "If you don't buy our crafts we won't have money to go to the main land to get food for our children," and they kept repeating that we should "help them out."  Then there was an optional boat ride, and the 5 of us that opted not to go on it (for an extra fee, of course) were basically given the cold shoulder by the women, which was actually preferable to listening to their pushy, guilt-laden sales techniques. 


Completely unrelated, Rachael and I thought the crosswalk indicators in Arequipa were hilarious!

Walk, faster, faster, run!