Lake Titicaca - Los Uros - our adventure! (and happy birthday Paul!)

 

If you're looking for an amazing trip to take with your friends, spouse, family - this is it!  Something you, and they, will always remember!  Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the WORLD!  It sits at 12,500 feet.  In comparison, Cuzco is 11,500 feet and the top of Pikes Peak is 14,000.

For each of our birthdays, we plan to go somewhere new and fun.  For Ella's, we went to las Aguas Turquesas, this one was for Paul.  For mine, we're hoping to go to Iquitos.  For Noe's birthday, Ella had her dance for the wedding so we didn't go anywhere, but we did do a later trip in December to Las Islas Ballestas and the sand dunes!  

We flew first to Lima from Ayacucho.  As I mentioned in a previous post, most departments (like Ayacucho), can only fly to Lima.  No where else.  So, in order to go to Juliaca, we had to fly to Lima first.  Seems a little backwards if you look at the pic...but that's how it works here :)  Ayacucho to Lima is only 45 minutes.  Lima to Juliaca is a little over an hour.  We had a 2 hour layover in Lima, and a one hour drive from Juliaca to Puno - so the entire trip took about 6 hours (plus the 2 hours we waited in the airport before we boarded).  To drive from Ayacucho to puno would've taken over 20 hours...so flying was definitely worth it!  

Since the Ayacucho airport is so small, we walked out to our plane - no breezeway.  Ella thought that was pretty funny.  It is kind of weird the first time you do it!

We stayed overnight in Puno the first night and set up our day tour to Lake Titicaca/Los Uros from there.  They came and picked us up at 7:15 in a van and took us to the Puno Port.  From there we met our guide - "Fausto" - and got on our boat!

While we rode to the first islands of Uro, Fausto explained the geography, history, and culture of the islands.  It's pretty fascinating.  There are hundreds of islands on Lake Titicaca and Los Uros are a big part of those.  The Inca took over the islands a loooooong time ago and some of the natives were ok with it - and learned their language of Quechua.  Some islands were against it, and kept their own language - Aimara.  The islands have no police as they take care of their own people and problems.  Many of the islands are "floating islands".  They are made out of reeds and the roots/riverbed - six feet of each.  More reeds are added every two weeks, except during the rainy season, when it's every week.  It's someone's job on the island to collect them.  They work 7am-8pm gathering reeds.  The guide took us to two different islands.  The first one was part of Los Uros and we were greeted by the community!

Much of their economy is based on tourism, so they have a program planned for each group that visits (they get as few as one per week and as many as 3 a day).  The tour groups alternate islands so that each one gets the benefits of tourism.  Pictures are encouraged - they actually asked us to please post them to help them advertise :) 

This is the "President" of the island.  They elect a new president every year.  He is explaining how the island is built.  The block of dirt you see behind him, is the 6 feet of roots/riverbed underneath the 6 feet of reeds (that he is standing on). 

view of the island from the top of our boat

one of the huts on the island and family blankets for sale

a family took each of us back to their house to show us how and where they live and what they make and sell to the groups. we bought one of the boats!

The girl is holding up a family blanket that she made in school.  It tells a story of their life.

Speaking of school, the kids are taken to school in a "schoolboat".  They make different kinds and sizes of boats using the reeds.  They took us for a ride on one!

cool boat! i can't imagine how long it takes to make one of these.  They told us the boats last about a year and then they have to make a new one.

one of the local girls liked my hair and braided it while we rode their boat lol.

view of the floating island from the boat.

The video above is of the kids on the island singing us a song in their language of Aimari. :) 

After visiting this island, we went to a land island called Taquile where we ate lunch, stuck our feet in the water, and were greeted by some locals who taught us about their culture.

This lady did a weaving demonstration for us and then we were able to buy some of their products - again, tourism is a huge part of their economy, so they put on a show for the "tourists" so we can see how they live.

This gentlemen showed us how he made homemade "shampoo" to clean the fur/hair/yarn they use in their products.

two men (yes, men!) sewing hats like the ones they are wearing.

They also danced for everyone and then invited us to dance with them :)  Noe and I did, but the kids wouldn't budge. lol.  They did take videos of us though 😂 (no, i'm not posting those lol)

We walked to a nearby house/restaurant where they fed us delicious quinoa soup and rice/fish (I don't eat fish...nor do the kids, so they gave us an omelet).  That was the first time the kids have eaten quinoa soup though - and they liked it!

Afterwards, we got to put our feet in Lake Titicaca.  If you're wondering why we didn't swim - it's because it gets down in the 30s at night on and around the lake and only up to the 60s/70s during the day.  So, the water is a constant 45 degrees all year.  On the beach, where it was shallower, it wasn't quite as cold...but our feet still got numb after a while! lol

After that, our tour was over - but we had decided beforehand that we wanted to get the WHOLE experience as this is a once in a lifetime trip.  So, we were dropped off at one of the Uros Islands to spend the night!  We could have stayed with a local family...but since we live here in Peru, that didn't seem necessary.  Instead, we stayed in a hotel owned by a local family.  It was very lovely!  

"Papa Mario" picked us up at the church behind us in the picture, and took us across the lake to his hotel. "Mama Leah" (below), greeted us as we arrived!

Two huge beds that were quite comfortable!  There is no heat so we each had around 4-5 heavy blankets to keep us warm at night.  Plus, Mama Leah brought us hot water bottles to keep at our feet while we slept :) 

the beautiful view! (and noe ;) lol

Here's a little tour of the island we stayed on :)  I'm talking softly cause it was early and the kids were still sleeping :)  It's funny, the island right next door, that is attached, can't be walked to - you have to get in your boat and row 20 feet! lol.  Papa Mario told us that they ware moving sometime in the next year across the lake (by the church where we were dropped off), because they want a better location for their hotel.  How does he do that?  Well, he pulls up his 8 anchors, detaches the island from the surrounding islands, and has it pulled right across the lake :)  Easy peasy!

At the end, Mama Leah and Papa Mario brought out some traditional clothes and said we needed to all take a picture! So we did :)  He said - post them on social media and help us advertise :) so we are!

The hotel had solar panels that allowed us to charge our cell phones and have lights!  The only thing it didn't have was a working toilet.  It was an "ecological" toilet...so when you go to the bathroom, you put sawdust on top when you're done.  It seemed to function pretty well!

After our stay, Papa Mario took us back to Puno.  We had a few things planned to do there, but neither worked out.  So, we chilled much of the day in the hotel.  We were tired so that was fine :)  Noe walked around a bit to see some sites, and I went to a supermarket where I found mac and cheese, baked beans, and ranch dressing :)  lol score!  The altitude is so high, that I got really exhausted just walking the half mile to and from the store.  So, resting all afternoon was fine :)  Here is a time lapse video of part of our boat ride back to Puno with Papa Mario.

It was a really neat experience and I hope you put it on your bucket list!  Totally worth it :)   Here are just a few more fun pics from the trip...

One hour van ride from the airport in Juliaca to Puno :) 

the Plaza in Puno

This guy was in our hotel...is he not the spitting image of Groot?! lol what is Groot doing in Puno?!

One of the dancers on Taquile

There was a lot of algae near the shore - it looked so thick it looked like you could walk on it!  There are some pigs in this pic - most of their meat comes from fish (seems obvious), but they do have some pigs and chickens.  We also saw some cows on the big islands (not floating) 

beautiful sunrise from our hotel

Hope you enjoyed the pics and blog!  Thanks for following along on our adventures with us :) 

In Christ, 

Laurie and the Juarez's

Aguas Turquesas - Feliz Cumple Ella!

We celebrated her birthday the evening before with a cake and presents :) 

Well, this trip was NOT for the feint of heart 😳  We gave Ella a few different options of places we could go for her birthday and she chose the Aguas Turquesas.  It wasn't what we were expecting (in some ways), and, in true Peruvian fashion, the tour agency didn't disclose that the main road leading to the AT was closed so we had to take a detour!  The 3 hour trip took 4 hours and 45 minutes to get there!  The car ride wound around the mountain pretty much the entire time.  Imagine the curviest road you've driven on.  Now, imagine that curvy road on the edge of a mountain...that is over 5,000 meters (1,000 meters higher than Pikes Peak).  Now, imagine that curvy road has no shoulder, is basically one lane and you have various animal and people obstacles to look out for.  Oh, and then imagine that it's a dirt road 🙈  Yeah, my thoughts exactly.  Luckily, our driver was awesome (even though he loved looking at the scenery while he was driving).  I did not partake of the beautiful views as looking over the side was terrifying! lol  Here's just a little taste of the drive there.

Because of the curvy road, the lady in front of Noe got sick about an hour and a half into the drive.  The driver was able to pull over in time.  Paul, however, did not get so lucky! 🤢  He's never gotten car sick before and it came on so suddenly there was no warning.  Good times.  I had already asked to sit up in the front seat because I was nauseous.  So Paul joined me.  We felt much better in the front...but it also gave us a front row seat to all the "curvas peligrosas".

Once we finally got there (such relief!), we hiked the 1/2-3/4 miles to the top of the mountain to look down on the Aguas Turquesas.  At 5,200 meters, I had to take a few breaks on the way up.  The kids and Noe seemed fine lol.  Gemma was also quite content the entire trip!

The view from the parking lot was amazing.  we were very high and could see down (a looong way) and we could see miles and miles in most directions.  

hiking up!

If you look closely you can see the yellow stair handles.  They go all the way up (see my red circle).  I took multiple breaks to catch my breath while the kids and Gemma ran up ahead lol.  

on our hike, we saw a few of these along the way.  The guide explained that this is a very poor (and remote) area of Peru.  Indeed, we were VERY far from any large town.  so, they built these to store the water from the river (which is pretty clean), and then stocked each one with fish.  Pretty smart.  Since the main road was closed, one of the locals said that fish was basically their only meat option (unless they had their own animals)

So this is the view from the top.  Beautiful!

I've heard two explanations as to the color of the water and they are very different.  One website claims that limestone is brought in from a nearby cave which make the water turquoise.  Our guide said that it is copper sulfate which changes the color.  I'm thinking the guide may be right - as the rocks and bottom of the river were covered in white...which I think is the copper sulfate (but correct me if I'm wrong).  The sun that reflects off the minerals (whatever they are), creates the color. 

This is the bottom of the waterfalls as the water changes into a regular color...

we hiked down to the water once we finished at the top and got to see everything up close.  All the rocks and stones are white.

They no longer allow people to get in the water because the oils, dirt, and run off from people was destroying the color.  If it is in fact turquoise because of copper sulfate, this is probably a good thing - as that isn't something you want to bathe in!  plus, the water is freezing, so we had no desire to get in anyway  (although we originally thought we could and Ella was disappointed!).

Paul and Noe continued with the group to the very, very top to see where the water originated.  Ella and I hung back because she wanted to look for cool rocks to take as a souvenir :) 

That's Noe inside that little blue circle :) lol

This is the top where the water starts and falls down to the pools.

I was dreading the ride back home.  I knew it would be dark for part of the ride, and I realllly wanted to get through the curviest part before that happened.  I even told our nice driver - if you get us home safely, I'll give you a tip :) lol.  The poor guy was so exhausted by the time we arrived!  We stopped a few times along the way and Ella always found dogs to play with 💙  When we stopped for lunch/dinner, we even got to see and hold a 3 week old baby sheep!

She's like the pied piper with dogs :) lol

Overall, it was a nice trip...but I wouldn't do it again.  When the main road opens up, I think it'd be worth it...but the fact that we couldn't get in the water (and it was so cold), and the trip was so long, made it not really worth it.  This was one of the things on our Peru bucket list to see though. so I'm glad we got to do it!  It will definitely be a birthday Ella remembers! lol

En Cristo,

Laurie y la familia Juarez