Peru 2010: Lake Titicaca / Isla Taquile

Lake Titicaca is located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It is 12,500 ft above sea level, making it one of the highest commercially navigable lakes in the world. At 3200 square miles in size and up to 1000 feet in depth, Titicaca is one of the largest, highest, and deepest lakes in the world. It is fed by rainfall and meltwater from glaciers on the Sierras that abut the Altiplano.

Lake Titicaca has several islands of interest to tourists. The closest to Puno are the Uros islands which are a group of floating islands. There are about 50 floating islands total with about 2000 people inhabiting them. They are made of reeds which grow in the lake. New layers of reeds are woven on top as the ones on the bottom decay. The other two islands tourists visit are Amantani and Isla Taquile. The plan was to visit Isla taquile and stay overnight with a local family there.

Our trip, which included a taxi ride to the dock, boat ride to Taquile island with a stop at Uros isalnd, lunch at a restaurant on Taquile, and an overnight stay with an island family which included dinner and breakfast the next day was 75 soles or about$25.00. The trip took 2 1/2 hrs without the stop on Uros because it was raining.

Taquile is an island on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca about 28 miles off the city of Puno. About 1,700 people live on the island, which is 3.5 by 1 mile in size. The highest point of the island is 13,287 feet above sea level and the main village is just under 13,000 feet. The inhabitants, known as Taquileños, are southern Quechua speakers. The people of Taquile are living pretty much the same as they were hundreds of years ago. There is no running water or electricity. There is plumbing with modern toilets but the toilets have to be flushed by puring water in them from the community well. Some people do have some electricity provided by solar panels.

Taquile, whose Quechua name some believe was Intika, was part of the Inca Empire and has a number of Inca ruins. The island was one of the last locations in Peru to capitulate to Spanish domination during the Spanish conquest of Peru. It was captured for Carlos V. and eventually passed to Count Rodrigo of Taquila, after whom the island was named by colonists.

As the Spanish forbade traditional dress, the islanders adopted the Spanish peasant clothing which they still wear to this day. They combine this with finely made Andean-style garments and accessories (ponchos, belts, mantles, coca-leaf purses, and others). They are known for thier fine, hand woven textiles amd clothing, which are regarded as some of the highest quality handicrafts in Peru. Everyone on the island, women, childern and men, spins and weaves.

Plaza de Taquile

They all adhere to the traditional dress they have been wearing for hundreds of years. The women wear bright dresses, a black shawl over their heads when in public, and another shawl over their shoulders which hangs down in the back. If the woman is married, she has two colored tassels on the bottom of her shawl and if she is not, she has one.

The men wear the costume of the Spanish matadors with black pants, white shirts and a red woven cumber bun unless you are a governor then you wear all black. The current governors wear a colorful rainbow knit hat with a black hat over it. Former governors get to keep the rainbow hat but have to give back the black hat. The rest of the men wear two different kinds of knit hats. Married men wear a red hat and unmarried men wear a red(on the bottom) and white (on the top) knit hats which are tall and are draped to the side. They use their hats as wallets to store everything from coca leaves to money in them. The unmarried men can wear their hats in three diferent ways; draped to the right side they are looking for a woman, to the left side they have a girlfrend, and to the back they are not looking.

Taquileños run their society based on community collectivism and on the Inca moral code ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla, (Quechua for "do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy"). The economy is based on fishing, terraced farming, based on potato cultivation, and tourist-generated income from the approximately 40,000 tourists who visit each year.

Taquileños have lost control of transportation to and from their island. Although they still benefit by selling textiles and providing meals, they have almost no control over the mass day-tourism operated by non-Taquileans.

The tour started early in the morning and we were supposed to stop at the Uros floating islands but it was raining so we did not. When we got to Isla Taquille we hiked up and left our bags with the family we were to stay with and met them then went with the rest of the tour to the plaza for lunch at a restaurant there.