Titi + caca

September 4rd, 2010: When growing up Titicaca was one of those words you could say right in front of your mom, dad or even a virgin nun and not get in trouble for saying it. It sort of falls in the same category as Jackass (a male donkey), Bitch (female dog) and other childhood favorites. I can still see those words roll off my brother Joe’s mouth right in front of my mom, defended himself saying that they were not swear words and almost getting away with it. I was such a prude when growing up, because when younger I could not say most inappropriate sounding words that were technically…non-swear words, but I was able to say Titicaca. It wasn’t until I was in high school, looking into the bathroom mirror when I decided to expand my limited vocabulary…looking more like a censored episode of Sesame Street.

Now that I just officially saw a portion of Lake…Titicaca while on the Peruvian side of the lake for a two day tour, I can say it is not what I envisioned it to be. It looks like just a big lake with really really cool name. What is even better than a lake named Lake Titicaca is that it drains into a lake further south and this lake is called…Lake Poopo - seriously. I cant believe that these were just innocently made up names…I cant.

During my tour of some floating reed island, I was able to interact with a large colony of tax evaders. How can you pay taxes on grass tied together which makes a man/woman made island? Thankfully most islands seemed to be equipped with solar power so that the women can knit tourist paraphernalia in all hours of the night under a proper light.

The kids that live here have the luxury on these islands to not get hurt if they fall on the spongy dried grass – no scraped knees and no need for band aids. Living here on the island the children in a way are imprisoned in a small confined area with what it seems, nothing to do besides run from one end to the other and perhaps sip their mother’s breast milk until an inappropriate age to quench their thirst - but without having any cows or goats on these islands, I guess this could be an effective way to be more self sustainable. These islands are a prime example on how tourism can extremely alter and perhaps destroy someone’s lifestyle. They dress up and waving to every boat trying to get you to visit them and once on the island as they try to push their big puffy handmade items of uselessness onto you.

Exploring a few of the real islands on Lake Titicaca, one thing that was impressive is how many islands were altered and some might say destroyed by terraces from pre-Incas. I have seen a large amount of terraces around the world but these were so excessive, covering almost entire islands it was actually almost as beautiful as strip mining.

The family’s house I stayed at was quite nice. It was a little deceiving though…because the kitchen did not fit the niceness of the guest rooms or bathroom. I think it would have been better making our food in the bathroom using boiling toilet water. Fortunately there was not much bacteria and dirt we could eat because I have a strong inclination that they were trying to starve us by feed us the absolute minimum. Can’t ask for much though when you pay about $19USD for: Hotel transfer to the dock and back, 3 meals, a night’s accommodation, a tour of 2 islands and one floating island getting there by boat totaling about 8 hours of boat time.

Having to dress up for this party the locals through for us, I dawned a poncho and a typical Andean hat. The girls were dressed in the traditional woman wear. Do I need to remind you on how much I am attracted to women in tradition wear? I did notice that seeing some of the skinny tourists dressed up were instantly turn into human bells…it smashed my thoughts that most Peruvian women are storing stuff in under their dresses or that they have jelly bellies from eating too many potatoes.

As I write this post on paper, a shadow is casted on the wall with my flashlight. I am tempted to make some animal shapes but there are two other grown adults in this room…not quite sure if they are sleeping yet. I need to grow up…or get some kids of my very own so I can do it and be cool…not a “strange backpacker.”