From Cusco, I took the Inka Express bus for tourists, recommended by the Swiss man on my Galapagos cruise and by Lonely Planet. This meant that I wasn’t allowed to sleep on the journey as I would have liked, but instead we were herded off to see some church or ruin every hour or so. The guide was a charming man who looked like the French guy who lures Liam Neeson’s daughter into human trafficking in the movie Taken. “Mi nombre es Hugo. Cómo Hugo Boss. O Hugo Chávez. Jajaja.” He gave the exact same spiel in English as in Spanish.
On the way, we saw many of the non-native eucalyptus trees, imported from Australia to stop soil erosion but now planted everywhere as a cheap and profitable crop. Unfortunately in disregard of the fact that these thirsty trees are sucking the soil dry and in a few years time they won’t be biologically or economically feasible anymore. It was snowing at the highest point on the route, and the unfortunate souls who were bravely manning the artisan stalls had to cover them up and, I’m sure, did not do good business that day. In the communities at this high altitude, we were told, life expectancy is very low. This is due to the climate, their poor diet (they kept livestock but only to sell, while they stick to a very monotonous vegetarian diet), and the use of lama dung as fuel in houses with no windows. Community properties (previously under a feudal system) lack the titles to prove ownership, so the government could take the resources of these areas whenever they want to. The most important promise, therefore, that a politician in this area can make is to award these titles; but the inhabitants have been waiting 30 years for these promises to be fulfilled. Families have 4-6 children, as they need the labour, and education is limited though legally compulsory up to the age of 16. Education, as I’ve been repeatedly told by earnest locals, is the key to economic development and equality.
As we approached our destination, we passed through the commercial centre of Juliaca, strategically located between Cusco, Puno, and Arequipa, and close to the Bolivian border, and as such a centre of contraband trade. Puno, in fact, wasn’t a whole lot nicer, though more geared towards tourists. The main attraction is a visit to one of the islands, and in particular the unusual Islas de los Uros. The Uros are a pre-Incan people who live on manmade islands created from totora reed, originally built as a defensive measure against their aggressive neighbours.
The boat I took had some rather serious engineering problems but eventually we arrived at the island of Chumi. Five families make this island their home, with a president to lead them. In total, there are 2,000 Aymara-speaking inhabitants on 80 different islands. There is a small hospital and there are three primary schools, but for secondary education the children must travel to the mainland. On the capital island, there are even hotels. “No hay discoteca. No hay internet.” The principal activity is fishing; on the mainland, 1kg of fish can be exchanged for 2kg of potatoes. The people here also hunt birds and eat the meat – better than chicken, apparently. For entertainment, they play football and volleyball – but not basketball. And their weddings last for two days, with people coming all the way from Cusco and Arequipa to get married here.
From the small island of Chumi, we were told that we could also make a special visit to the capital island, for an additional, but apparently not optional, cost. As we left Chumi in one of the traditional boats (less traditionally powered by a small boat behind us with an engine), three women said their goodbyes. They sang a local song, followed by Row, row, row your boat, and finally Vamos a la playa. No commercialism here. We had a lovely boat ride after which we were dumped on a small patch of totora reed with an artisan shop, a restaurant, and a toilet. This must have been the ghetto of the capital. We all stood around there for an hour until the captain decided we would be allowed back to Puno.
The next day, I left Peru for the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca.
Photo opportunity at the highest point on the journey from Cusco to Puno
On the boat to the Islas de los Uros
Should the engine be smoking like that?
The island of Chimu
“Bang! Bang! This is how we shoot the tourists.” Haha.
Our boat to the capital
Adiós Peru!
the whole part on property deeds is wrong…the Communities legally own the land, the government will never take those away, that’s absurd, whoever would try that would be hanged by the peruvian population. The Government took away the land from the previous very few (legal) landowners, and gave these to the local communities. Though you could argue it was feudal, it really is/was not much different than the property structure in the UK and most of EU and US a few decades ago…but the Peruvian government in a Leftist revolution (french style) took away all the land from the owners claiming too few had too much, talking about feudalism, etc, etc….fair enough, it is estimated that about 1000 families owned 90% of all the land. It was also easier to piss off a couple of thousand rich folk vs. the 18 million poor in those days, so the massive expropriation done in the 70’s remained supported and was/will never be reversed. Many communities took advantage of their new ownership and did well, but most didn’t and it has taken decades for many to work out their own problems. These communities own the land, but essentially do very little with them. There are 2 registries that keep tabs on this, the problem isn’t just getting a deed on it, the problem is what you do with it. Nearly all communities have been incapable of working as a true cooperative, and many cling to using their land in easy-lets-stay-poor ways on the whole. The community members complain about not getting individual deeds, but instead of breaking up the land and splitting it among the members, they have endless internal fights on who gets what that prevents any allocation of individual property every time the government property agency is there to try and get this done….still, the government has given some 3,000,000 property deeds to people around the country over the last decade, which is WAY more than I can say any other country I know of, has done. The issue in those communities that cant get there yet is ignorance and greed…and poverty will remain VERY (65% are poor over 3000 mts) high there until they get their act together…education is an indispensable need, and the government even has programs that pay people money to keep their kids in school for that, but still, many traditions hold and they think their kids tilling land is better…maybe by the next generation these more detached communities will be more focused (I have my doubts on this, the only people from these communities that succeed, tend to be those who emigrate to urban areas or lowlands). The peruvian government is far from great, but it is also used as a massive escape goat for the local communities own faults.
Ahh the things they tell gullible tourists… 😉 Thanks, Marco, very interesting.