urbaneer: Machu Picchu & Lake Titicaca: Retracing Astrid’s Granddads steps

Peru: 30 August - 12 September

Our first week in Peru was spent acclimatizing in Cusco with our 3^rd week of Spanish lessons. Cusco is a charming and quaint town, 3300m high in the Andean foothills. Steeped in Inka history with lovely colonial churches it is the main gateway to explore Machu Picchu. Even though Spanish is the official language of Peru most people speak Quechua as their main language in the region.

After our hard-core 7 day hike in Nepal we were kind of glad that the classic Inka trail was already booked out when we tried to claim a spot back in June. We therefore had to opt for an alternative route and decided on a 3 day / 2 night trip to Huchuy Cusco and Machu Picchu. In reality it was 1.5 days of trekking through beautiful Andean highlands, crossing a pass of 4400m, camping at 3800m in a little village and meandering through a narrow gorge down to Huchuy Cusco with the most beautiful view over the Sacred Valley. In Inka cosmology the Urubamba river connecting Cusco and Machu Picchu is seen as the duality to the Milky way, thus making the Urubamba river valley the sacred valley with many archaeological sites along the way. Once we descended to the sacred valley from Huchuy Cusco we took the train to Aquas Caliente, the hot springs tourist town form where the buses leave up to Machu Picchu. We had a lovely group of Danish friends as part of our trekking team.

Astrid’s late grandfather had once trekked to Machu Picchu and also visited lake Titicaca. Part of our trip was always going to be to visit these spots. So it was extra special when we saw our first glimpse of Machu Picchu in the morning light. The mountains surrounding the ruins are just as impressive as the archaeological site itself. It is immensely beautiful and interesting to be there and to hear about the history and see their achievements in architecture. We also climbed the steep steps up Waynapicchu, the look-out point.

The next day we took the train from Cusco to Puno. A relaxing 11hr ride through the Andean highland.

The following day we spent on a day trip from Puno out onto LakeTiticaca. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3812m. We visited three different areas of the island, all with their own distinct cultures and traditions:

Taquile Island (less touristy south side): Here a small community was working on building a pathway. We learned that man knit their own hats and when they come of age to be married (¬16-17) the boy must knit a hat for the girl he likes and the girl then checks the quality of the hat by pouring water into it. If it is sufficiently well-knit the water will remain in the hat and the boy is a good match. If water seeps through the hat, the boy is deemed lazy.
The tip of the peninsula where we had an awesome lunch cooked with hot stones under the earth. Here also the man make their wives embroidered hats.
The floating reed islands of Uros. This was probably one of Astrid’s highlights of our entire trip thus far. The Uros people came originally from the Amazon area to escape warfare and to live on the lake they built floating islands entirely made from reeds. The reeds not only serve as building materials, but also as food source and we could see the kids literally munching away on their island. There were 5 families living on the island we visited, living off fishing and more recently tourism due to over-fishing of the lake. The Uros have lived in this way for centuries and generations, yet the allure of the modern world and modern comforts may see their lifestyle extinct within the next generation as the young people dream of living in cities like Puno. The island needs to be continually replenished with new reeds placed on top as the old ones rot away on the bottom. Life expectancy due to arthritis and rheumatism is only ¬55-60 years.

Cusco: