totora

Explorer

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The hidden life in lake titicaca. : )

Trust

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In a world of colors the caress of your hand is the best one. 🐵 🙈 🙉

En un mundo de colores la caricia de tu mano es el más bonito color Nicol-chan.

Lazy boat

lazy boat

I’d love to have a time like that lazy boat… but there is a ton of work. I wonder how make the people that plays in “second life” with their works and activities there in that virtual world, I barely have time for my own one xD

A dock in lake Titicaca – Puno bay

peaceful blue

Despite the location of Puno city is just half an hour by bus from Juliaca city I haven’t many chances to go to there. And when I go to there I take advantage to take a bus to other cities where the lake is cleaner. Nevertheless I had to transact a document and they said me I had to wait four hours, so as the time was reduced I choose to walk just in the bay, the furthest I could from the centre because the contamination issue.

It happened a morning of May.

The road

Echoes of Babylon

I prefer to feel the road with my legs, even when riding horses I feel like I would be seeing the places in third person. The first I noticed was this bull like the ones in the gates of Babylon. I saw a viscacha that didn’t escape from me so I guess it’s used to the people.

fearless viscacha

muscles as rocks

José Antonio Hotel – the dock

two clouds dance above the Titicaca

There was no hurry so I just keep walking until I saw a dock, it hadn’t doors nor was closed but it was clearly obvious that it was private property; usually the public spaces in Puno city suffer from bad governments and not so good professionals so they don’t fulfill any rule of proportion, scale, beauty nor harmony with the lake; but in this case the dock was perfectly integrated and was quite beautiful to see and walk. Crossing the road I saw a hotel and asked to the staff if I could pass to the dock. To my surprise they allowed me so I was there just a few minutes. I don’t know how is inside the José Antonio Hotel but certainly the staff is very kind. I didn’t say that the photos would end in my blog so that makes their gesture one very valuable to me.

I hope you can see in the photographs something of the beauty I saw with my eyes B-)

a cloud caught in its reflection

mathematical repetition

a distant star in the lake

a deck and some clouds

virtual space inside the infinite blue

patterns in the surface

echoes in the lake

blue quietness

white eye seeing the landscape

There is something poetic in the waters of this lake. Actually it’s the remain of a sea, in the morning its waters are tranquil with the totora growing up slowly and green but in the afternoon it has a nature similar to an storm, always cold in Puno bay.

subtle fingers

And that was all. I just was there no more than a few minutes but I took the photos with calm, I try to mirror the quietness I have when I walk alone.

flowing in blue

Uros: Artificial Islands in lake Titicaca

hill talking to heaven

Uros are at the same time old and new artificial islands in the Peruvian side of lake Titicaca. Similar to the Japanese wooden buildings they are old because people have built them since long ago, possibly as a way of defense against invaders, they could be when there was a migration from the south. I’ve theories but not details. They are made with totora, I ate totora a bit when child, it’s a neutral taste; and they are new because they are rebuilt, moved, even some can navigate when the lake is brave and the anchors cannot support them. So you have the key in the totora, you can built ships, homes, the ground with it, and even eat them. It’s almost a gift.

I’m not the touristic kind of traveler, I just like to take a bus and walk, see, think. This time I had to go with a brother and, before I got my Sony R1, I used an Olympus SP500-uz from 2006. This camera has softness in the long end of its zoom, chromatic aberrations and was broken so I just could used in totally manual mode so I learnt to control the exposure with the experience. What I try to say is that if I could get some good photographs then you can too with any cheap compact of today. Those days I used to take thousands of photographs, now I think before shoot. With film or digital I just shoot what I think I can share with you.

The travel started with reflections in the lake. We were in road to Uros islands.

soft

rock island

yacht for two

Then we arrived to a little island. There a person expose us about the construction and culture (and I am part of that culture) but it was so short and there was no time to ask questions. But here started the fun and the reason I don’t like to use touristic services: The brief exposition ended and after that we had free time to buy souvenirs… I bought a pair of keychains and went to take some photos, I was a bit uncomfortable, in certain way it was like if I would go to shopping instead of traveling. It was not expensive but I would feel that we were not respected. In our culture it’s quite important the correspondence in education but I think they could avoid that for the contact with tourists in a hurry, I hope.

climb

arrangement

Skeleton of hunted home (perhaps by smugglers of house oil)

white blue yellow

lakeworld

corners

triangle

a touch of vermillion

storm sentry

love

But surprises didn’t end there. The pirate, ehem, the captain, said that there was another island, bigger and with a restaurant (and I guessed with more souvenirs) but we had to pay MOAR or been left in the smallest one until their due return. Well then… So we navigated the eternal sea to the bigger island.

blinding intensity

little pet

In the next photograph I am not sure if it is a place to produce souvenirs. I think that home is preparing for a celebration so the colorful textiles.

time of celebration

a moment in Uros artificial islands

My brother wanted to eat but I didn’t feel with humor to eat for the unexpected surprise. I know I am exaggerating but for that reason I don’t use touristic services. So I just walked…