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Nous avons passé deux jours au lac Titicaca situé à 3,810m d’altitude. Notre première journée a commencé par une visite aux îles flottantes d’Uros. Sur l’île où nous nous sommes arrêtés, il y a 5 familles qui y vivent, chacune dans une petite case de roseaux. Ils nous ont expliqué les méthodes de construction de l’île et de leur maison qui n’a qu’une pièce, principalement pour dormir et entreposer leurs effets personnels. Le reste du travail quotidien se fait à l’extérieur. Les îles ont maintenant l’électricité fournie par des panneaux solaires ce qui permet d’avoir la télévision et des téléphones cellulaires. Un bateau construit en roseaux sur un fond de bouteilles de plastique récupérées dans le lac permet de faire un petit tour pour expliquer la récolte des roseaux.
Nous nous sommes rendus par la suite à Llachon pour rejoindre notre gîte chez l’habitant. L’accueil fut très sympathique et nous avons demeuré dans la maison du leader, Magno. Un des principes de ce séjour est l’intégration aux activités familiales mais comme nous étions au début de l’hiver il n’y a pas autant de tâches à partager. Magno nous a donc assigné la tâche de trier des patates récoltées durant l’été. Au coucher du soleil, ce fut plusieurs joutes de volleyball contre les locaux qui se sont avérés des adversaires redoutables.
We spent two days at Lake Titicaca located at 3,810m above sea level. Our first day started with a visit to the Uros floating islands. On the island where we stopped, there are 5 families living there, each in a small hut of reeds. They explained to us the methods of building the island and their house which has only one room, mainly for sleeping and storing their personal belongings. The rest of the daily work is done outside. The islands now have electricity supplied by solar panels which allows televisions and cell phones. A boat built of reeds on a bottom of plastic bottles recovered from the lake allows to take a short tour to explain the harvesting of reeds.
We then went to Llachon to join our homestay. The welcome was very friendly and we stayed in the house of the leader, Magno. One of the principles of this stay is the integration into the family activities but as it was the beginning of winter there aren’t as many tasks to share. Magno therefore assigned us the task of sorting potatoes harvested during the summer. At sunset, there were several volleyball games against the locals who proved to be formidable opponents.
Iles flottantes d’Uros / Uros floating islands
Llachon
Magno et sa famille / Magno and his family
Tri de patates / Potatoes sorting
Volleyball
[Auteur/Author: Suzanne & Pierre]
Les voyages de Suzanne & Pierre 
We did almost the same tour the last time we were in Peru but won’t this time. The pictures are great and the sky is so blue, makes me want to return.
Thanks for your note. I think it is a very common tour for anyone coming to Peru for the first time and I can understand why as it is quite an interesting one. The sky was truly blue for most of our trip (only in Lima and Paracas did we get gray skies).
What a wonderful trip!
Thanks Sue. It was indeed…we loved our stay in Peru.
😊😊
We were not able to visit the Uros islands, and for that I like your photos even more. Their boat with the animal head is wonderful, their whole world is made of reeds. I am sure they are happy to have solar panels for phone and TV, even though it disrupts the idyllic view. Do they live there all year round? I somehow thought they had mainland homes as well.
Thanks for your note and so glad you liked this post & photos. Most of the Uros lives there all year round though the kids now go to school on the mainland. A few of the islands are more touristy and on those the people don’t live on the island; they just come for the day. We stopped at a smaller island where people lives there full time.
The sky is so blue, the people’s clothes are so colourful. The dwellings look sturdy yet fragile. The amazing thing is that in the end a game with a ball breaks down barriers to communications. Thanks for the tour.
Thanks Jacqui. We have very sunny days for most of our trip except in the first few days. As for barriers to communications, you are totally right. The first language of the people at the homestay was Quecha and some spoke good Spanish but as our Spanish is very limited there wasn’t lot of long conversations. I (Suzanne) didn’t play volleyball as I have low level of arthritis in my wrists so I didn’t think that volleyball was for me but it was fun to watch.
Many changes since I was there in 1979… Cell phones and solar panels for one! We went via boat to an island and stayed with a family. We slept on a stone bed with a thin reed covering… can’t imagine that now, hehe. It was a different culture wherein the women did the agriculture and the men knit all the time as they walked from one place to another. I loved how the snow capped peaks turned rosy with the last light of the day. Thanks for spurring the good memories!
Thanks Eliza. Glad to be bringing back such lovely memories of your trip. You can still stay on some of the floating islands but it is on a real bed now. We did our homestay on the Llachon peninsula. The bed was very comfy but there was no heating in the bedroom so it got pretty cold at night though we had lots of heavy blankets and they gave us bottle of hot waters to warm up the bed. The men still knit while walking so that hasn’t changed!
Hurray for that… I still have the hat I bought off the head of one of my hosts. It is very special to me. 🙂
A lovely story…thanks for sharing.
I was in Puno for two days only, it was very windy and cold. The closest I got to Lake Titicaca was to the shore and look over the distance to find Bolivia territory. The night we got to Puno was late in the evening and we went to a hostel which was cold, dirty and I couldn’t sleep at all. Next nigh I left in the train toward Arequipa. Loved your photos. Thank you. 🙂
Thanks for your note. Glad you are enjoying this series. We love our stay on Lake Titicaca (one more post on Friday on our second day on the lake). We spent two nights in Puno but truly didn’t get much time to visit the city. We did stay in a more comfortable hotel than you though there is rarely a heating system in the rooms…so extra blankets is your best friend.
Une série merveilleuse, pour ses couleurs, sa lumière, ses sourires, sur un lac emblématique.
Un grand bol d’air… avant de descendre reprendre un peu d’oxygène !
Merci Marion. Bien contente que cette série ait su vous plaire. Nous avons adoré cet endroit
Such an amazing experience!
Thanks Rosemary. It certainly was.