Showing posts with label Lake Titicaca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lake Titicaca. Show all posts

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

Fancy footwork and all-men knitting circles

More tribal people live on the lake on real islands, made out of dust and dirt. But because these islands are so small, there are no cars. In fact, animals are pretty rare too (they only eat meat on special occassions). When we visited their stunningly beautiful island, one small girl invited me to join her in a traditional dance with her family. Under the watchful gaze of her father, I tried to keep up with their steps while smiling and wondering how long the song that her brothers were playing was going to last.

But at least I didn´t have to worry about being seen as a prancing sissy in front of my tourist peers. I mean, the men knit there. And they don´t just knit the odd sock or scarf every now and then. They knit all the time. In fact I wouldn´t be surprised if they knitted in their sleep. I guess this is why the tiny island of Taquile is known for producing some of the finest textiles in the world.

If you don´t like your neighbours, sail away

Sitting at 3827m, Lake Titicaca is the higest navigable lake in the World (we´re not actually sure why one can´t navigate lakes higher than LT, but if you know let us know). It´s also an anthropologist´s dream and full of indiginous Peruvian tribes.

We risked life and limb to visit them (mum almost fell into the lake when she lost her footing while clambering on board our vessel) and landed at a collection of floating reed islands called Uros. Everything on these tiny islands is made from reed, from the simple abodes to watchtowers. The floor beneth your feet is springy and unsteady and the whole island is approximately 10m square. Yet 10 families will live on this piece of floating land, fishing, making traditional gifts for tourists and planning grand fiestas to celebrate local weddings.

It may sound like a hard life, but it has a lot of advantages - it´s always clean because there´s plenty of water to wash everything, there´s always lots of yummy fish aronud and if you don´t like your neighbours you can up anchor and find new ones.