Fake Titicaca

Yes, that is not a mistype:
Over the last few days we have been reviewing our plans as we were falling behind of schedule (thanks to our forced break in Huaraz).
In the end we decided to cut out La Paz and to head down to Arica in Chile.
And yet we thought we should make an effort and try to get at least to Lake Titicaca.
We believe we wasted out time.
As we got to the shore in the morning we noticed immediately that the lake is unfortunately very polluted.

We also found out that some genious introduced trouts in the lake in the 60s.

The trout is a predator and as such is pretty much feeding off all the other endemic species pushing the other fish to extintion.

As we circumnavigated part of the lake we could also notice how the lake is slowly shrinking.

Here is a picture of some fields that once upon a time used to be water....

To cheer us up we jumped on a ferry and decided to go to visit the famous Uros.

The Uros are little islands in the middle of the lake made of straws.

The inhabitants of these islands stripe the roots and the straws together, put more straws on top as the old one rot and anchor their mini islands in the lake to avoid being moved by the strong winds.

These people have been doing this for centuries, however we got the feeling that today the whole tradition has no longer reason to exist if not for one reason: milking the tourists.

And so the show begins:

They welcome us and show us their "artisania". (and ask for money)

Then kids are signing us songs in 10 different languages (and ask for money)

Finally they put us on one of their traditional boats made with straws (and guess what?)

At the end of the tour we really got the feeling that the only real thing in the whole village was the solar panel on top of that "cabana".

As we catch our ferry back and we gaze at the reflections of the clouds on the lake we can only think of one thing: The whispers in Puno are probably true. The people from Uros at 6pm pack up and go back to their real homes one the mainland to have their dinner, then they go out clubbing to spend the money that those gullable Italians left behind today.

In the evening we went out with our friend Chris to have some alpaca steak.

Ths is the 3rd time we meet up with Chris in South America, after Galapagos and Huaraz, and who knows there might be a fourth one, eh Chris?