Pre-Christmas Road Trip, Part Two: On Floating Sticks

The most frequented place in the Puno region by far is the cluster of Uros Islands on Lake Titicaca. About a thousand years ago, as a defensive measure, the Uro tribe moved onto floating islands they had constructed of the tortora reeds that grow in the lake. These folks have since been culturally invaded by the Aymara tribe through intermarriage, then overwhelmed by the Inca about five hundred years ago. Wikipedia provides a more thorough explanation here.

The tribe manages to keep its identity intact, and now benefits enormously from their fascinating living conditions because, as you can imagine, the tourists go gaga over folks living on what is now fifty-or-so self-made floating reed islands on this superlatively high and giant lake.

Usos islands cluster. Note: the red and yellow roof is that of the floating LDS meetinghouse.

Anyway, at this Islas Uros segment of our trip, we were faced with the decision of whether to join the swarms of slobbering tourists on a package tour to stomp around the on-display natives for an hour as they tout their handicrafts and charge for photo opportunities. Then we learned of a unique opportunity to actually stay a night with an Uro family on Khantati, a more remote island away from the tourist hordes, and jumped at the chance. Sure, it was still a little artificial and programmed, but Christina and Victor (our amazing hosts) had deliberately made it so to ensure that our experience was interesting and comfortable, rather than just a lame isolated thumb-twiddling session.

Abram, our hosts' son-in-law to be, picked us up in a little wooden boat to take us to their island.

It sure was really great to get away from the city crowds and into a more natural setting.

Before long we arrived at the fee station. Turns out that you've got to pay to play here!

This is Khantati, our destination:

Khantati is located at the end of this long archipelago.
Picture these two images stitched together:

Like most of their neighbors, our hosts had a few traditional thatched boats, mostly for tourist purposes. Although they are super cool, they are apparently also a pretty major maintenance hassle.

An aerial view of the Khantati compound:

And there are lots of things to do on a floating island! You can chase around the pet flamingo....

....or take in a birds-eye lake view from the mirador....

....or just sit on the reed beds and relax with your people.

But not for long, because the hosts will keep you busy! Before we knew it, we were being whisked away on a fishing trip in the puma boat! (By the way, "Titiqaqa" means "stone of the puma" in the native Quechua language, after a big rock outcropping on the Bolivian side of the lake apparently looks like a puma. The Incas held the puma, condor, and snake in pretty high regard, thus the puma head as the bow spirit on the thatched boat).

There was still plenty of stuff to do on our way to check the fishing nets. Victor had made toy boats for the girls, who had a great time dragging them along behind the big boat. It was reminiscent of many river hours spent towing toy boats behind our NRS Precious.

Meanwhile,with the girls otherwise preoccupied, this setting gave Victor a chance to tell Mel and me all about Uro life and history, while it also afforded me the opportunity to provide Victor some active, hands-on instruction in proper navigation and boat handling. I'm sure he was really appreciative of my help, especially when I recommended that he invest in some oarlocks. 

In contrast to the plodding boat, time sped by quickly until, at last we arrived at the fishing nets. Naturally, I was expecting to have my first Luke Chapter Five experience and, as you can clearly see, we were not at all disappointed with our haul:

OK, so maybe the fish weren't that big, but it should be acknowledged that Lola's giant hands make them look a lot smaller.

Smeagol? Or Gollum? Well, that depends on the day...

Big or small, the fish we hauled in made for a mountain of entertainment for the girls. 

For my part, though, seeing these scrubby fish landed sent a shock of fear through me, as my understanding was that we had been on the lake to catch our dinner! Having been raised on Hamburger Helper by flat-landers, neither Mel nor I have a great affinity for eating fish, let alone tiny, bony junk fish from the murky shallows. From this point forward, my stomach would enjoy no pre-dinner comfort.

Harper contemplating her baby eye-tooth.

Fishing trips like ours are a lot of hard work! Certainly this strain on the system would require a lot of relaxation upon our return to the island:

Lola tethered violently to Mama's hammock,...not at all a disruption to her well-deserved R&R!

No sooner had we recovered from the toils of our long day at sea than we learned that it was school time! Victor presented a few thoughtfully-prepared lessons on the processes of both ancient and modern island building, thatch-house and boat construction, and (very important) how to cook on a fire without burning down the island.

Once class was over, most of the now-enlightened pupils rushed for the swing set.

But, as you must know, I get bored with such things. So, I grabbed Mel and bolted straight to my all-time most favorite-est pastime ever......


....wait for it.....


.....DRESS UPS!!!! IN TRADITIONAL NATIVE GARB, NO LESS!!! JOY!

As anticipated, the girls were also elated to also play dress-up, and were especially enthralled by the dangles that Cristina braided into their hair. It made me green-jealous that my hair wasn't longer.

Once fully costumed, the girls returned to their first love, the swing set. Enjoying both of these concurrently was like finding chocolate in the peanut butter. 

Now, if you know me at all, you know the only thing I love more than dressing up is taking pictures in costumes (channeling my inner-Feulner here)! 

And Mel is an even bigger fan of family photos, although coaxing Norah away from the swings proved to be a daunting task. In the priceless photo below, take special note of the deadly laser beams shooting from my dear wife's eyes as she tries to melt the brain of her jubilant, but disobedient spawn:

Fortunately, Norah survived the episode with her brains intact, permitting us to eventually capture this gem of a family portrait:

And this one....

And this one of the girls being cast away to avoid Pharoah's men....

And, finally, this one (too bad the sun was in our eyes).....

To my profound relief, all of this fun led us, thankfully, to the best TROUT dinner I've ever eaten, after which we all settled down for a long winter's night. Playing all day in the sun at this altitude truly does tap a lot of one's energy.

The next morning we had a great breakfast and got ready for our boat shuttle back to Puno. Just about the time the wait started to get boring, we noticed our hosts and some other locals rallying around to assemble a strange pile of reeds:

Sure enough, they were building their own Uros version of a Christmas tree.

TTP supervising the ladder work

The project looked like heaps of fun so, at the kind invitation of our hosts, the girls joined in to help decorate the tree. (Read: In true colonialist fashion, we co-opted their family Christmas tradition.)

What a great way to kick off the Christmas season!

We hadn't expected to be able to get festive with these great folks. It was really cool, and it spoke volumes to our hosts' desire to not treat us like the tourists we were. Anyway, the moment of our departure came too soon.

Fond farewell to our hosts.

Naturally, the trolling motor pushed us back to Puno at a break-neck speed. As we glided by them, the girls reached to grab on to every Tortora reed that they could, perhaps emblematic of a great experience that we left too early and hope to never forget.