Only a couple of hours apart, Lake Titicaca and La Paz couldnt be more different. The first is trnquil and traditional. the second is anything but.
Fromt eh lakeside town on Puno on the Peruvian side, we boarded our boat to the "floating" Uros islands, Amantani and then Taquile, three different and distinct cultures, suspended in time, pretty much unchanged since a certain Peter and Ann Hallam were here some 40 years ago!
The Uros are a fiercly independent (and therefore quite clearly rather inbred) community which live of floating platforms made completely out of reeds, which grow naturally on the lake. Pretty much everything is made of this woven material, even the the houses and their boats!
Though touristy, it was quite a sight to behold, especially when I thought about the fact that I was probably playing with the children of people Mum and dad had all those years ago.
On Amantani we were hosted for an overnight stay by Jovita, who at 16, already had 9 month old Dyana to look after, but was clearly excited by the prospect of 3 young(ish) western girls for company. With daddy gone, she was in charge of looking after us, cooking us Quinoa soup and taking us to the local "disco" with Amantani´s finest, dressed in - yes you´ve guessed it - the traditional get-up.
Waving goodbye as we sailed across the enormous Titicaca towards the beautiful mediterranian island of Taquile, the promise I had made to Jovita to somehow get the photos I had taken of her back across the lake (without the help of a postal system) lingered in my head. I thought about how simply determined her life was, no more school, just motherhood and a constant stream of visitors, bringing her nothing but stories of the outside world and much needed cash. I´d last about a week before you would find me hanging form a near-by tree (in light of the facts that there are no lamp-posts).
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