Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

Lake Titicaca (Photo Credit: Some person from the internet that I stole it from)

Our bus got into Puno at 4am on the dot, and we were immediately accosted by all kinds of locals offering rooms for rent and tours. This tends to happen quite frequently, and has both good and bad ramifications. Its great that you do not have to wander aimlessly into remote foreign cities trying to figure things out on the fly, and its bad that you are prone to be consistently ripped off by seedy locals. If only I did not look like the biggest gringo on planet earth. The magnanimous target on my back can be spotted two miles away.

So, we went with this guy that looked legit to his hotel and booked a tour to the “mysterious floating islands” of Lake Titicaca. We managed to get a solid two hours of sleep before the guy was banging on the door to get us up. Groggily, we woke and got on a bus for the islands. Puno, lived up to its reputation as a complete shit hole.

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Locals Waiting for us to Dock on the Floating Islands

The Floating Islands were pretty weird. Furthermore, they are the stereotypical tourist trap that you constantly look out for. Nonetheless, we did not regret out visit and found it pretty interesting. Basically, in the 1800’s a group of people from the local community wanted to escape the local government of Peru, so they made islands out of reed type things, and lived there in the middle of Lake Titicaca. They still live there with no electricity, and tourism as their only means of income. Surprisingly, most of the women on the island are extremely fat.

Kash eating local bamboo sort of stuff that the locals use for everything.

Me with local little island girl….

We are beginning to start to enter areas that are inhabited by South American Indians. They make up 90 percent of the population. The floating islands have been one of my first culture shock moments. I have a feeling there will be many more to come.

On the islands with local kids. We had to pay them a Boliviano to take the picture with us.

Boats the locals make to travel between the islands.

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After the tour, the same day, we hauled ass out of Puno as fast as we could and headed straight for the Bolivian Border. I had a mild scare as we heard news at lunch that the Bolivian President, Ava Morales, is requiring US travelers to get Visas due to strict immigration policy from the US towards Bolivians. Ava Morales is a nutcase (more on him and his politics later). Anyway, we all got through the border with no trouble at all. In fact, I think you could have driven a nuclear warhead through the border and the guards would not have even noticed.

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When we finally got to Copacabana we realized just how beautiful Lake Titicaca really is. Orla, Martin, Kash and I took a three hour boat cruise across the lake to Isle del Sol (The Incas thought that the Sun was born on this island). We concluded after a brief visit that the Incas were pretty stupid to think this. However, there were many spitting llamas on the island.

The Crew (Kash, Orla, Martin, and I) on Isle Del Sol (Island of the Sun)

On the way back from Isla Del Sol I sat on the top deck of “the slowest boat ever created” and took in the scenery. Lake Titicaca is the highest Lake in the world at 3800 meters. It is surrounded by mountains, and has a deep crystal blue color. The weather was perfect. This sort of situation is where I usually find myself in deep thought, working things out in my head. It was a pretty fantastic feeling to find that I do not really have anything to work out in my head. Im at peace with anything and everything in my life. Any sort of issues that I had with my recent past (before I started traveling) are not even in the rear view window any more. They are long gone. I find myself focused on learning as much as I can, having a good time, and relaying my travels through the blog. So, in summary, I am big fan of Lake Titicaca. big beautiful natural things are good for the soul.

My view of Lake Titicaca from the deck of the boat

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Notes:

> Copacabana is a huge Hippie Town. Martin and Kash both thoroughly despise hippies. On the other hand, I am a pretty big fan of Hippies (Minus the female armpit hair and body odor). The vibe on the lakeside town was really chill, and we actually got a few good meals in.

> Kash had a pretty big lost camera scare. Martin ended up finding it under the the table of the restaurant we ate at earlier. He had over 500 pix from 4 months of travel throughout South America, and Easter Island with NO BACKUP. We were all really relieved that he found it. Much talk ensued about whether the stupid hippies stole it. I maintained that hippies do not steal, they love.

> Kash travels with his Guitar and we had a late night jam session at our hotel in Copacabana that included some vicious freestyling by yours truly. Yes, it was captured on video. No, the people running the the hotel did not endorse our late night musical adventure. Apparently Bolivians do not appreciate white people skilled with the art of putting rhymes together. If thats the case, I say SCREW THE BOLIVIANS. Just kidding Bolivians…. I know some of you have taste.

> Martin and I have taken to drinking scotch to kill all of the food poisoning germs that might attempt to invade our bodies. We have also taken to frequently quoting Ron Burgandy’s line in Anchorman “Scotch, Scotch, Scotch”, “I love Scotch”, ” Down in my belly”. I think thats how it goes, but I am the worst person at quoting movies alive.
Orla, on the other hand, has a photographic memory and can quote anything. Much like Chris (from our Machu Picchu adventures).

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