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Lake Titicaca
From Cusco Corina and I headed south. I wanted to see some of Bolivia and Corina was moving to La Paz for a few months. Our last stop in Peru was the city of Puno on the shore of lake Titicaca. This is a very unusual lake. The size of a sea it lies at 3800m! Higher than many of the mountains I have climbed in my Alps trips.
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From Puno we took a day trip out to the islands on the lake. The more famous ones are the floating Uros Islands. These are reed islands that float on the surface of the lake. Some of these are natural and some have been constructed by the Uros indians who live on these platforms. I hear there are 20-30 of these islands on the lake.
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The Uros used to make their living from fishing, but tourism is a big part of it new. The reed huts now have solar power and TVs.
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From the Uros islands we travelled to Taquile Island. This is a 'normal' island on the lake. It was similar to something in the Mediterranean (not that I have been there). There are simple houses, stone walls and basic farming and tourists.
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The indians on the islands retain much of their original way of life. The men knit. These ones are knitting their traditional hats. Things are run by a committee of elders. And the local committee members can be identified by the black hats, like the man on the right here.
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We were on a day trip, but you can stay overnight. Then you usually stay with a local family in their house. As I walked around the island I was struck by how similar the place and the lifestyle (even with all the tourists) is to the Aran islands of the west coast of Ireland.
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The big difference of course is that the island is 4 times higher than the tallest moutain in Ireland. At this point I had spent about 3 weeks in Peru. My next stop was to be Bolivia. I could see the snow capped Bolivian Andes on the far side of lake Titicacca below the moon. And you can see the pictures of that part of my trip here.
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