As we handed in our car in Cusco, after more than 2000 km on the road, we are now back to being backpackers (with way too many backpacks!) for the final stretch through Peru to Bolivia, and to Pepe! Bolivia Hop turns out to be a convenient hop on hop off bus option to La Paz, with different stops at Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake.
To avoid the Disneyland criticism often heard about the Titicaca Islands, we decide to stay two nights at an Uros floating island, with Ivan and his family. A true hidden treasure, and in our humble opinion, the only way to truly experience and enjoy the Holy Lake. The floating islands, on which the Uros people have been living for centuries, are little miracles: made entirely from totora reed (of which new layers need to be added about every week!), they float on the robust roots of these reeds, and can even be moved around (just in case you don't like your neighbours ;)
As soon as we set foot on the island (at 6:30 AM!), tranquillity takes on a whole new meaning. A tour of the island takes five minutes tops, so the rest of the day is spent relaxing in the sun loungers and hammocks, and exercising long forgone skills as knitting and making handicrafts, with a fishing trip in a typical puma-headed boat (titi means puma in the local Aymara language) as the most exciting activity of the day.
Excitement levels rise when a nasty gust of wind catapults my sunglasses to... the bottom of the lake. At that very point at least 5 meters deep and covered in impenetrable algae. Bye bye, sunglasses. Not according to Ivan, who promptly throws a single reed in the water, which keeps floating on the surface... pursuant to local Uros belief meaning that "the Lake will give your sunglasses back." Yeah right...
After a magical sunset, an ice cold night (with temperatures around zero degrees) awaits, but with a - surprise - hot water bottle at our feet and nearly suffocating under the huge pile of blankets, we fall asleepdreaming about this wonderful day, while I can't help still being a little sad about my sunglasses, which are spending the night on the bottom of Lake Titicaca.
The next morning, upon embarkation of a slightly quicker boat to visit some of the non-floating islands in the Lake and get a better feel of its vastness, Ivan - seemingly without the slightest bit of excitement - hands me my sunglasses back, adding jokingly "check if they are yours"! While the excellent diving skills of the Uros people might have something to do with it, I now believe in miracles. And in addition to a pair of holy Converses (which I inadvertently dipped into a holy Tibet lake last year), I am now the proud possessor of a pair of holy sunglasses as well :)
Before leaving our "home" for two days very early the next morning, we ask Ivan to throw another reed in the Lake... for Pepe, though not to tell us whether it kept floating. Miracles happen to those who believe in them.
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ”
