Taquile, February 2001

Taquile? Where in the world is that? It's a small island in the middle of Lake Titicaca in Peru. Lake Titicaca is neither the highest nor the largest lake in South America. It is, however, the highest navigable lake on the continent. The lake starts about 100 km west of La Paz, Bolivia, and the map below shows where Taquile is in the lake. Bear in mind that Titicaca has an elevation of 3,822 meters, or 12,613 feet. The summit of Taquile is at nearly 14,000 feet.

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We took a boat from a dock near Puno and headed out to the island. Here are some views as we approached the island, and of the climb up to the village. It's not often that you get to see a boat tiller made out of a piece of pipe. The girl is selling wrist ribbons to the ladies. Why they were buying them remains unclear to the men on the trip...

In the village, we encountered a woman spinning wool yarn, and two men knitting hats. The men knit everywhere they go without seeming to ever look at what they're doing. There are two kinds of hats -- ones that are solid white on top, and others where the pattern goes all of the way to the top. Unmarried men wear two-tone hats, married men wear the one pattern hats.

We then went across the village square and then up to the highest point on the island. Along the way, there was a woman weaving in the terraced fields. Near the top, on a different side than that from which we approached, are some pre-Inca ruins.

We spent the night at a guest house on the island, and the next morning, our hosts gave demonstrations of hat making and weaving.