Day 14 – Onward & UPWARD

A boat ride out of the Puno area of Lake Titicaca delivers you to the Uros.  Comprised of about 44 artificial floating islands made of totora (reeds) that grow in the shallows, their original intent was defense and they remain portable.  The culture is artisanal and the food source is fish…tiny little fish.  While visiting you are welcomed into their reed homes and invited to don their native dress.  Oddly, a president governs each island and a mayor governs all of the presidents.  The president of the island on which we landed demonstrated the construction of the reed islands and one of his two wives offered us a taste of reed banana, which is pretty much just a reed that gets “banana peeled” from the bottom up.  It tasted much like the cactus that Tim and I had eaten a week or so ago, but this time without the debilitating memory effect.  After purchasing some of the family’s crafts, we were invited into a reed boat for a trip across the waterway to another island station.  Apparently the local custom dictates giving the guest the “not very good” oar, while the president’s oar was stellar.

Heading back to the hotel, we picked up some box lunches for the day and got moving on our 173 mile day.  We were returning to Moquegua and beginning to sense an approaching conclusion.  We watched the foliage taper off with each mile and soon we were back in the Atacama Desert.  The picnic lunches got opened at 14,230 feet at an overlook of natural hot springs and accompanying caverns.  With full stomachs we continued the climb to new heights hitting 15,600 feet as we moved westward.  Flying between 14,000 and 15,000 feet for most of the remainder of the day, we got a great look at the volcano Vulcan Ubinas rising to 18,600 feet as it graced the sky with ash and steam.

We exhausted our supply of desert mountains at about 14,900 feet and began ramping down to our destination of Moquegua.  Twisty heaven was ours with a 10,000 foot descent over a distance of 36 miles.