 It was the vast blue waters of Lake Titicaca in Southern Peru which provided the spectacular setting for the birth of the mighty Inca civilization. It was here on the lake that the Inca's creation myth was said to have been played out with the appearance of Manco Capac, child of the sun and the first Inca. Even today the local lake people's lives remain essentially unchanged from those of their Inca ancestors, and many of the old Inca customs are still celebrated. Locals often conduct business dressed in ceremonial clothes, and ancient languages have been preserved amongst the tribe's people. |
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| At 3,800 metres above sea level, Lake Titicaca is often described as the highest navigable lake in the world but this is not strictly true. What is perhaps more accurate, and I think more impressive, is that Lake Titicaca, at approximately 120 miles in length, is the largest high altitude lake in the world. An indication of the scale of the lake is the fact that it once was part of an ancient inland sea. |
| Unfortunately, one of the potential side effects of travelling to a place so far above sea level is altitude sickness. My arrival at Lake Titicaca was welcomed with an intense bout of the illness which debilitated my first day's activities. Not dissimilar to severe flu, a floating feeling of disembodiment combined with more familiar symptoms of headaches and fever, took hold of me. |
THE LAKESIDE CITY OF PUNO:
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Lakeside City of Puno / PHOTO CREDIT:Wikipedia = Incacity
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| Puno Cathedral/ CREDIT Wikipedia=Entropy1963 |
Puno Inca Ceremony / CREDIT Wikipedia=Aldoz
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| I was staying in Puno, the town on the western shores of the lake offering excellent views over the expansive waters. I travelled to Puno by coach after leaving the airport at Juliaca, the largest of a network of urban communities in this sparsely populated region which is dominated by the altiplano, the endless dry plains which define this part of South America. |
The coach to Puno took us through an arid, empty landscape draped in the monotonous gold brown hue of the high plains. It was like being marooned in some gigantic landlocked beach, an undulating mass of bright brown which rolled along for miles and miles. It was a land of low horizons over which towered the huge sky saturated in euphoric blue. The coach reached a ridge and I looked down on an outcrop of small blue-grey roofed buildings scattered across the surface of the plains. They looked as though they had naturally emerged from the sandy tundra, and I was surprised to learn that this was the "town" of Puno.
Apart from its setting, which affords fabulous views over the lake, Puno is a fairly nondescript place except for its cathedral and some colonial buildings. It is most notable for its extravagant folklore festivals consisting of high octane dances where the participants don elaborate and outlandish costumes. |
| Isla del Sol / Wikipedia-CREDIT=Skykid |
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| At Huajsapata Park, just outside Puno, superb views of the lake can be obtained. On the summit of the small hill here is a white statue of Manco Capac looking out across Lake Titicaca. It was from the deep blue depths of these majestic waters that Manco Capac is said to have dramatically emerged with a golden staff in his hand, heralding a new era of mankind. Sent into the world by the sun god Inti to civilize mankind, Manco Capac and his wife, Mama Ocllo, were the original children of the sun from whom all Incas are descended. For the Incas, Lake Titicaca was the great birthing pool of civilisation; they called it the womb of the world. |
| On the eastern side of the huge lake, located in the Bolivian territory of Titicaca, are two sacred islands of great significance to the Incas: Isla del Sol and Isla de la luna, the islands of the sun and the moon. Legend has it that it was on these islands that the Inca Empire was founded. The Isla del Sol was believed to be dwelling place of the sun god Inti, a benevolent deity the Incas became entirely devoted to. According to legend it was Inti who ordered the Incas, the children of the sun, to build the Inca capital of Cuzco which lies to the north of Lake Titicaca across the Andes. |
| To complement the island of the sun, we have Isla de la luna, the mythical home of to the Inca deity Mama Quilla, the moon goddess. During the era of the Inca Empire the island was used to carry out special rituals and ceremonies which were performed by the "Virgins of the Sun", specially chosen young women who lived pure, spiritual lives on the island, remote from the world. |
In this scorching landscape, where the sun's presence is particularly powerful, it is easy to see why the Incas were so captivated by the mystical aspects of the sun and came to equate it with the concept of a creator God. The sun was the source of all life, upon whose willingness to shine rather than withdraw its beams, their lives depended. Little wonder that Inti was known as the Giver of Life.
The great sun god was particularly worshipped by farmers whose lives heavily depended upon the vagaries of the sun. The Aymara people who live around the lake today are still farming the land here using ancient agricultural techniques and creating their stepped terraces. They manage to cultivate such common staples as barley and potato on some of the highest farmland in the world. It is a remarkable tribute to human resilience how these hardy Peruvians have managed to survive in such an inhospitable region.
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THE FLOATING ISLANDS OF THE UROS
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Reed Islands of the Uros / Wikipedia-CREDIT =ThomasQuine
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The Aymara Indians of the region today are descended from both the Aymara civilisation and the Incas. During the era of the Incas, the various tribes around Lake Titicaca were subsumed into their vast empire. But there was one small tribe who took extraordinary measures to remain independent of the Incas: the Uros. They took to the waters and created their own floating islands out on the lake. Remarkably, the Uros still live on these islands today despite the encroachment of the modern world.
These floating islands are quite unique and are constructed entirely from reed, where layer upon layer is packed together to provide a spongy surface to walk on. The Uros survive through fishing, hunting birds and utilising the plant life around the lake, particularly the tortora reeds which they use to build and maintain their islands. |
The Incas dismissed the Uros as a primitive race. While the Incas strove for grandeur and immortality, the simple lives of the Uros seemed limited and transient to them. Yet the precarious looking islands of the Uros have long since outlived the mighty Inca Empire with its massive stone temples spectacularly positioned high in the Andean mountains.
The Incas proud boast that they are the children of the sun is challenged by the Uros tribe's lineage which they claim is older and superior. The Uros legends proclaim that they inhabited the earth before the sun even existed. They claim to have "black blood" which enabled them to survive the extreme cold which they endured in the pre-sun era. However fanciful these claims may be there can be no denying that this is a people with formidable fortitude who have superseded the Incas and continue to survive in a difficult environment.
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| The floating islands are accessible to tourists and are easily reached by boat from Puno. The day I took a trip out to them I was still suffering from the effects of altitude sickness and the whole experience became rather surreal. The buildings on the island are also made out of the same ubiquitous reed as the islands themselves, and in my delirious state I felt I had been transported to a strange new world made of straw. Walking about on the surface of the islands was like stepping across a continuous water bed as the ground beneath my feet gently bent and sprung under my weight. I felt completely spaced out. |
| Reed Boatr /Wikikpedia-CREDIT = ThomasQuine |
| The Uros also build beautiful boats from the all-purpose tortora reeds which they use to traverse the lake and carry out their fishing and hunting activities. These elegant boats are surprisingly long and can accommodate whole families. The boats are formed from bundles of reed which are laced together and are reminiscent of the papyrus vessels depicted on ancient Egyptian buildings. |
Sometimes it is possible to cajole one of the Indians, usually with the aid of money, into giving tourists a ride on one of their boats. I was lucky enough to enjoy a fairly long trip out onto the lake in one of these wonderful boats which felt as comfortable and sublime as a gondolier ride in Venice. As I lay back in the welcoming bow of the boat and allowed myself to be gently swayed along, the idyllic peace of the lake enveloped me. The perfect cloudless sky stretched across the horizon to infinity, the exquisite blue water lay all around and the radiant light turned the altiplano incandescent.
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Lake Titicaca has a rarefied atmosphere which is quite unique and it is easy to see why these waters are so venerated. There is a clarity and purity of light here I have seldom seen elsewhere. The thin air and intense sun makes everything appear pristine and crystalline, unsoiled by pollution, a piece of paradise still untarnished.
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PHOTO CREDITS: Paul Millward and Wikipedia, as noted...
For additional information, contactPaul Millward at - pmillward60@tiscali.co.uk
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