Lake Titicaca (or, Kota Mama)

Between my visit with Kelly and my upcoming visit with my mom (one day!) I spent some time in Puno, Peru and visited a few of the islands on their side of Lake Titicaca. The lake is named after a rock shaped like a puma on the isla del sol, but the name used by the Aymara people (original inhabitants of the lake) is Kota Mama (Mother Lake). The lake is massive and slightly salty and sprinkled with islands on both the Peruvian and Bolivian sides.

One of the most incredible sites on the lake must be the community of the Uros floating islands. Numbering 40-50 in total, each island is built entirely of reeds and floats on the reed root beds. The islanders are constantly layering their islands with more reeds to make up for those that rot and their houses and boats are also made of the same reeds.

We visited one island where there are 10 families living and they took us for a ride on their "reed bus", a boat used to ferry large groups of people for weddings and touristy events.

It was absolutely amazing to see how these communities have managed to create a life with the resources available to them and how they have managed to retain that way of life even in the face of pressures from the mainland and, of course, tourism.

From there, we headed over to Taquile island which is characterized for the high quality of weaving produced by its inhabitants. The men weave themselves hats that signify their marital status and their wives or mothers weave them belts that act as a sort of story of their lives (family members, major events, belongings, etc.)

Now I'm just waiting a few hours until I see my mom! She's coming on the 7am flight tomorrow, so I will soon be graced with yet another wonderful visitor.