Isla de la Luna, Lago Titicaca

Last weekend as International Citizen Service volunteers, we were lucky enough to spend three days and nights living alongside the local Aymaran community, on the beautiful island of the moon, in the azur blue waters of lake Titicaca. The name "Titicaca" combines words from the local languages Quechua and Aymara and translates literally as "Rock Puma". Isla de la Luna (3km long by 1km wide), the sister of her nearby larger brother, Isla del Sol, is an important religious site and home to a small Aymaran community of 25 families. We lived alongside Bolivian families, who welcomed us as part of their own family and helped out with their day­ to day activities - an amazing experience.

The community worship mother earth (Pachamama), nature and consider the distant snowy mountains as their protectors. They toast to Pachamama´s honour before every meeting or festivity, by spilling a small amount of liquid on the floor, before drinking the rest. Isla de la Luna is the legendary home of the Inca goddess Mama Quila. The ruined temples on the island were originally built by the pre-Incan Aymara culture. During Inca times, specially selected women known as the "Virgins of the Sun" lived like nuns on the Isla de la Luna and performed ceremonies dedicated to the sun.

The long-term plan is for International Service volunteers to visit the community every three months over a three-year period, to help the community develop and maintain sustainable community tourism projects. As part of this goal, we were assigned a topic per group, to research potential areas of interest among the locals for development, which could be supported by the work of International Service volunteers. I researched health and education services available on the island, and managed to communicate with our family, using a mixture of broken Spanish interspersed with a few words of Aymara!

Every morning we got up at 7am to eat breakfast of coffee, cheese and bread in our family´s small kitchen. We all sat round on tree stumps, surrounded by walls blackened by the wood smoke of their adobe (mud) cooker. On the shores of the lake we helped pull fish called Ispis (small whitebait) out of their nets with our Dad Roberto, and kept some for frying in batter and eating later, so delicious! We rowed out to their trout farms (small square nets containing around 1000 trout) and fed Ispis to the trout, catching some with a net on a long wooden pole to eat later. Back in their kitchen, we helped our mum Vivienne gut and prepare the fish for eating.

One morning we helped lead their two Llamas (Negro and Amelia) up on to the top of the island for grazing. Then we herded their 10 sheep on to another side of the island, a challenge at 3800m altitude! As we headed rapidly upwards, our mum (Vivienne) pointed out plants used as herbal remedies for all types of illnesses. We managed to collect a few specimens to support our research along the way, while trying to keep up with her marching pace.

The most common illnesses on the island consist of colds, coughs, flu and fevers. The leaves of the eucalyptus tree, abundant all over the island, are used to treat fevers by soaking the leaves in hot water and placing on the skin. Crushing up the eucalyptus leaves, releases a powerful scent used to help treat coughs, as well as the leaves of the wira wira plant. The sacred coca leaves soaked in hot water are important for soothing stomach pain, as well as a mint-scented plant called ‘coha’, and the ‘anis’ plant. Soaking leaves from the romero and salvia plants in hot water are important remedies for treating colds. For more serious conditions, the only option is to take a 2 hour boat trip to Copacabana for pastillas (pills) which our family seemed to acknowledge as an acceptable solution.

Amelia the Llama

The stars were incredible at night, with the milky way the clearest I´ve ever seen it. We had bonfires in the evenings accompanied by lots of music, alternating between the men of the community playing wooden pipes and drums, us English girls singing (with me on the ukulele) and songs by the Bolivian children, soo cute! The sun was incredibly intense, even though the air temperature was sometimes cold and as soon as the sun set, I was grateful for the warmth of my ski jacket! Swimming in the waters of the lake felt amazing and very refreshing after the heat of the sun, although surprisingly none of the locals joined us!

We visited the neighbouring Isla del Sol for an afternoon and local guides led us up a winding rocky path to a large sacred rock, at 4000m altitude.  The ruins of a labyrinth-like building remain, with a well containing the water of eternal youth that supposedly never dries. In the religion of the Incas, it was believed that the sun god was born there. Across the waters we could see the shores of Peru in the distance and some floating rock islands in the middle of the lake.

Back on Isla de la Luna, we all helped our families prepare a huge Apthapi (a big picnic lunch spread cooked by all the local families). Everyone tastes dishes made by other families which are all laid out on the floor on colourful blankets used to carry the food. Their diet contains a large number of vegetables (including potatoes, sweet potatoes and quinoa) and a few types of fruit, the majority of which are grown locally on the island. They eat fish on a daily basis which when fried in oil and salt is delicious!

Carrying food for the Apthapi in the traditional way

Our family told us they are happy with their access to education on the island and have abundant knowledge on how to treat illnesses with herbal remedies to maintain good health. The people were so friendly and welcoming, although very shy at first. Worshipping the earth, along with celebrating music and dance seems to make for a contented, happy community. They were initially apprehensive but excited to welcome tourists in to their homes and families which helps them to earn a living as well as share the beauty of their lives and culture.