a lake and a desert

I'm in Chile now, after 14 hours of traveling from Peru yesterday. So far, Chile seems quite nice. It's much more first-world than Peru, and has a noticeably different feel. To be fair, though, I only visited the most popular tourist destinations in Peru, and I don't think that Arica, Chile has the same sort of tourist draw. I'm curious to see how things are when I get to San Pedro de Atacama.

My visit to Lake Titicaca was quite nice. I arrived in Puno after a 6-8 hour bus ride through the altiplano from Cuzco. I had read descriptions and seen pictures of the altiplano before, but I had no idea of the expanse. It's a bit like driving across the mid-west -- you know the US has lots of agriculture there, but until you've been through it it's hard to comprehend the scale of things. The altiplano is the high plains of the Andes, and it bears some similarity to the great plains of Colorado -- no trees, just brown scrub everywhere, 12 - 14,000 feet altitude, some mountains in the distance. There were adobe houses dotted across the land, and lots of llamas, sheep, and alpacas to be seen from the bus. Tomorrow or the day after (probably the day after) I'm going to try to make my way up to PN Lauca, which is back up in the altiplano.

That night I made reservations from a two-day tour of Lake Titicaca. Given my previous experience with guided tours versus doing them alone, I was a bit worried about the tour aspect, but it actually worked out quite well. There were about 25 people on the boat, doing the same tour, including a couple from Boulder. We fist went to the floating islands of the Uros. These were interesting, and it was really quite an experience to walk on them, but ultimately I felt a little bit like I was walking through a theme park that some people lived in. It did make me a bit jealous of my friends who played volleyball on the islands, though.

After a little time on the floating islands, we began the 4 hour trip to Amantani island. I'm not normally a big sunbathing / beach person, but I certainly enjoyed lying on the deck of the boat in the sun while we went out there. When we arrived on the island we were divvied up into different families, with whom we stayed for the night. They cooked us a traditional lunch and dinner from things grown on the island, and we stayed in their houses. Lunch was quinoa soup, followed by eggs, potatoes, and onions. It was all quite delicious. This island felt less like a theme park to me, though the local economy was entirely focused on tourism.

The family we stayed with was quite nice. At home there was a mother and two of her children. Her husband was in Puno for a few days, and most of her children had left home. She had 7 children in all -- 4 living elsewhere in Peru, 2 in school, and one living on the other side of the island with children of her own. She had never been to visit her children off the island, though they came home for the holidays occasionally. In fact, she said she goes to Puno no more than once a year, and has never been farther from the island than that; however, due to the heavy tourism, she hosts people from all over the world once or twice a week, and she has pictures of people and places from all over the world on her wall. The island has no power, but it is not entirely isolated -- we sat and listened to Cienciano (the Cuzco football team) play Argentina in the finals during dinner (They tied, 3-3. Tune in next week for the rematch in Arequipa). It will be interesting to see how life on the island changes over the next 30 years. I don't think that the younger generations will be as content to remain on the island, especially having grown up seeing so much of the world.

The next morning we went to Taquile island, which was also quite nice. Taquile island sees a lot more people, and has been open to tourism longer, and therefore felt more like an extension of Puno than like a separate place. I took a walk up to the top of the island, where there were beautiful views and relative quiet, which was quite nice.

After that, another relaxing boat ride back to Puno. I managed to sunburn my scalp on the ride -- the sun at that altitude is brutal. In Puno I managed to run into several of the people that I'd met in Cuzco, and spent the evening hanging out with them. The next morning, up and off to the bus station.

Took the bus to Tacna, and then a car from Tacna to Arica. The first half of the bus ride was through the altiplano again, then the second half was through the Atacama desert.

The Atacama desert is dry. And I don't mean dry like California in the summer, I mean only seeing a plant every 5-10 minutes dry. That said, it's also quite beautiful, especially during sunset. Unlike the altiplano, there were no people living in the desert -- just sand and miles and miles of road and power lines.

Arica is, I think, situated next to that desert. It's quite warm here, and I feel silly carrying around a huge backpack full of winter clothing and winter camping equipment. I'm sure, though, that I'll be happy enough to have it when I get to Patagonia.

Posted by vanwie at December 13, 2003 07:13 AM