So after departing Cuzco we took a bus ride to Puno. After some stops at sites of Pre-Incan and Incan ruins and a old Jesuit church we arrived at Puno on Lake Titicaca. At 3811m elevation, it is the highest navigable (is this a word?) lake in the world. Yeah, yeah big deal you say. Well, it is, just stay with me. Our first full day we wandered up to the main square where the obligatory huge catholic church was. As we were taking photos we noticed there was a large number of police milling about.
Some of them seemed dressed a bit heavily for a small town, they appeared to be in riot gear, strange!! Oh well, off we wandered down the pedestrian street where we were overwhelmed with the number of stores and cafes. After saying no thanks (in Spanish of course!) I do not want to buy another blanket, sweater, or whatever was being sold a million times, we went to get a coffee. We were enjoying our coffee when the noise began. There apparently was a reason for the riot police to be in Puno. People started to march down the street to the main square. Who you ask? The miners apparently. The government wants to close down a silver mine that is polluting the water and the miners do not want them to. So as the several thousand angry protestors walked by we had another coffee. After, we hid in our hotel which was a block from the square and listened to the protest for the rest of the day.
A number of these protests have gone on and a few have been bloody, hence the riot police. The next day, before that days protests began, we took a bus to the dock. Ok, this is one of the reasons you go to Puno, not just for the protests but to see the non-tax paying people who live ON the lake. Yes, ON the lake on floating reed islands.
These reeds grow in the lake and a long time ago these pre-Incan people did not like their neighbors, so they moved onto the lake. First they lived in boats in the small bay of the lake. They realized they could build floating islands (that are now anchored down with rocks) using the reeds and their roots, that grow in the lake. Oh yeah and they could build boats
with them and eat the reeds too. So about 500 years later these people are still floating. About 4-5 families live on an island, these last about 35-40 years but they continuallly put more reeds down on top. They each have a house (ok, a room with a bed) and a cooking shack. Theses islands have one president each, though his duties were never well explained. They have a separate pig island (good idea, they are smelly) and some islands have chickens and ducks. They fish and hunt ducks, etc that they dry out for jerky as there are no fridges. They do have small solar panels which generate electricity so they have lights, tv and radios. The light allows them to do handicrafts they sell to the tourists. There is a banos island, as well as a school and medical center on other islands.
They do not pay taxes as the do not use the public electricity grid, the water or the roads. After primary school the kids are "boated" into Puno for school, so I am not sure if they pay for that or not. 
Anyway, a neat place to visit, you could stay overnight with a family if you wished (no thanks, too far to row to the banos) but definitely worth a trip.
Back to the Puno dock where we ran into some new friends from the Inca trail hike, so we ventured back to protest central and went out for dinner with them. Next we are off to La Paz Bolivia for a little more old "culture".
No comments:
Post a Comment