Peru Part 3

After escaping the flood, we went up in the mountains to the highest lake on the planet, Lake TitiKaka or Titicaca depending on which language you use in that area. The lake is around 12,500 feet above sea level and is the 11th larges lake in the world. There are several different communities at the lake that have been there for over 1,000 years. Besides Spanish other languages such as Aymara and Quechua are spoken by the natives. One community moved off the mainland and made floating islands out of roots from the totora plant. They had houses, restaurants, soccer fields, etc., on these islands. Every 20 or so years they have to make new islands. Besides a little help from solar and motorboats they live very simple lives. We then stayed with a family on a different island, not floating, and got some home cook meals. This family is from a completely different community with different traditions. At this island we hiked up from 12,500 feet to 13,500 feet to see the old temples and enjoyed NO oxygen with leg pain:(. It was worth it! After that we went to a different island to see another community and had a lovely lunch at a local restaurant. All in all, this was three days of site seeing.

An overlook on the way to the lake. This is the highest part of the trip. It is around 14,000 feet. The next photo is a beautifully crafted snow Llama at the overlook.

Here is our guide Maycol showing us information about the floating island.

Here is the root system they used to make them float.

This is a trout from the lake. It is not native and most of the native finish are gone due to the fact of introducing non native fish to the lake.

Here is a traditional boat we got to ride on to another part of the floating islands.

Here is what a house used to look like on the island compared to the houses they use now. If you look at her outfit you will be able to see that she wears something completely different than the family we stayed with on another island.