We left
this morning for the airport to fly to Juliaca, the closest airport to Lake
Titicaca. Lake Titicaca lies on the
border of Bolivia and Peru on the alteplano, or highlands. We were picked up at the airport by Abel, a
guide from our hotel, Titilaka. Before
we left the airport, Abel checked everyone’s oxygen saturations. If you were below 80, there was an oxygen
tank in the minibus (can’t make this sh#$%* up). We all passed the test! Helps having been at altitude for the past 9
days.
Before heading to
the hotel (about a 2-hr. drive), Abel wanted to show us the town of Lampa, the
“pink city”.
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| Stop to see the "Pink City" on the way to our hotel |
Lampa gets that name from
the pink colored bricks used in the construction of the buildings in town. It
is a sleepy little town, but with much history.
We first visited the the Iglesia Santiago
Apóstol. a beautiful building, though showing some
signs of wear.
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| Lampa Square |
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| Lampa Cathedral |
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| Lampa Cathedral |
The church had an
interesting ossuary, , made from the bones of around
1,000 people,
many arranged in skull-and-crossbones patterns.
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Ossuary
|
and it had
a life sized exact replica of the Pieta donated to it by the Pope.
The original replica (oxymoron?) was in
plaster and was originally intended for the church — until it
became obvious that weighing in at more than one ton, it was too heavy And an aluminum (much lighter) replica was made to replace this. The story behind
Lampa’s La Pietà is also fascinating. The replica was the dream of a local man
who, it turns out, happened to have the perfect connection; a sister who was a
nun and worked in the Vatican. In fact, legend has it that Lampa’s version of this famous
statute is so perfect that when a vandal damaged the original in St. Peter’s in
the 1970s, knocking off one of her arms, the Italian restorers travelled all the
way to Lampa to
measure the replica before beginning their work in Rome.
It sits atop the ossuary in the church’s
Capella de Santiago, donated by Enrique Torres Belón, one of Lampa’s most
famous sons, Engineer and politician, he designed and built the tomb in the
mid-20th century so that he could rest in peace, along with his wife,
surrounded by the earthly remains of the city’s forebears, bones that were
taken from crypts, the catacombs under the city.
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Life size aluminum Pieta
|
It was near lunch time, and the hotel sent
huge boxed lunches for each of us. We
relaxed in the sun in the town square and ate our lunch trying not to think of
all those bones.
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| Lunch in main square of Lampa |
After lunch, the
city hall was opened for our perusal.
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| Lampa City Hall |
Outside,
there were several murals depicting the history of the area from pre-Incan
times through the Spanish invasion into present day.
Inside were a library donated
by Torres Belon, as well as life-sized statues of Belon
and Víctor Humañreda Gallegos, a famous Peruvian impressionist painter, born
in Lampa in the 1920’s.
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| Courtyard of city hall |
There was also
an interesting statue donated by Belon of an Ayarachi dancer- part of an
ancient funeral procession.
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| Ayarachi funeral procession dancer |
Back into our minibus (with
O2 provided) for the 2-hour drive to our hotel, Titilaka. The drive across the Alteplano was pretty
boring, not much in the way of scenery, until we reached Puno, on the southwestern
shores of Lake Titicaca. Puno seemed to
be qhite built up with many houses and high-rise hotels. This is where most people visiting Lake
Titicaca stop.
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| Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca |
But we continued on
through rich farmland along the lakeshore,
another 30 or 40 minutes to the
tiny village of Titilaka. We pulled up
to an unassuming 3 story structure on the lake.
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| Titilaka Resort |
When we entered, we found an all but unassuming boutique hotel.
We were greeted by a gentleman whom we all agreed looked like
Mr. Miyagi (“Karate Kid”) who turned out to be the manager of Titilaka and her
sister hotel in Lima (think of Ricardo Montalbam in “Fantasy Island”. In fact, his name is Ricardo).
He seemed to always turn up, and was a great storyteller
and host. On arrival, we had delicious muña
tea, good for altitude sickness. Our
rooms afforded a stunning view of the lake looking east with the largest bed we’d
ever seen.
After a hot shower, we met in the bar for Pisco sours
trying all their variations including prickly pear Pisco sours, and gooseberry
Pisco sours. We then met with our guide
for our stay, Alberth, a native of the :floating reed islands (more about that
later). Before dinner, we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.
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| Sunset over Lake Titicaca |
Dinner was amazing, wide
selection and deliciously prepared. We
had alpaca, duck, trout, and tenderloin, all prepared with local flare. The chocolate and Grand Marnier soufflés, as
well as the chocolate mousse and Tiramisu were all big hits for dessert. I
tried the Suspiro Lemeño, a custard and merangue, to compare it with Jeri’s
version that we had at our Peruvian dinner before we left. She nailed it, as usual!
Tomorrow we will spend the
day on the lake.
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| "Do Not Disturb" |
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