Adventures in Peru: Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca. I had heard of it, I vaguely remember reading some mission stories about it, but I really didn't know much about it at all. As we traveled towards the town of Puno, which is a main port city on Lake Titicaca on our tour bus, I learned more about it. It is 12,500 feet about sea level, making it the highest navigable lake in the world. It is the largest lake in South America and you can see it from space. As our bus climbed higher you could definitely tell the difference in the air. You breathed just as much, but you got much less oxygen. Just walking up the stairs to my hotel room in Puno put me quickly out of breath. Fortunately I did not get altitude sickness like some others.

The day after we arrived was Sabbath. Tickets for a boat tour of the lake had previously been purchased. It was a gorgeous day, nice and warm but not too hot, and I was excited for the day's adventures. We could look over and see the coastline of Bolivia from our watercraft...

Normally I hate tour guides and tours, and today was no exception, at least at first. I was so tired and every time I dozed off, the tour guide's voice would come loud and crackling over the boat's sound system. Finally I went up top and laid in the sunshine and quiet.

Our first stop was the island of Taquile, pronounced like Tequila, the alcoholic beverage. We had told our tour guides that we were Adventist Christians and they, being the truly awesome tour guides that we found them to be, had called ahead to some Adventists on the island that they knew, and when we docked, there we some local Adventist men there to meet us and take us with them to worship at their church! We were delighted!

First though, let me tell you a little bit about Taquile Island. It is primitive, but not like some dirty village in India. Winding dirt paths, clean hewn-rock stairs, green sheep pastures, neat rock walls, and locals in traditional outfits tending their gardens or sheep near quaint homes. It is the picture of quiet serenity with breath-taking views.

Dogs are illegal, and life is very simple; no electricity (except for solar panels), no cars, no hotels, no crime and no police. There are about 2,200 occupants and all are farmers, living off the land. There are two Catholic churches and one Adventist. Our tour guide said that in Peru the two largest religions are Catholic and Adventist.

After huffing and puffing our way up the long path we arrived at a little Seventh-day Adventist church. Feeling rather conspicuous and self-conscious in our jeans and t-shirts we were ushered right up to the front row. My uncle, who is a pastor, was asked to preach. Fortunately for us, this meant we would understand the sermon. No one there spoke any English, but we had a lady in our group who could translate for him.

Special Music

After the service we all went outside. The children were especially cute, and I found everyone to be very warm and happy, but rather shy. We asked our tour guide if their outfits were simply church-wear, but he said that everyone wore these outfits everyday, including the black head cloths for the ladies, but they did add an extra layer or two of skirts for church.

After getting everyone to pose for a picture outside their simple church, we were willingly and eagerly asked to join their "fellowship dinner." Feeling a bit bad about eating their food (they surely weren't rich), but not wanting to rudely turn down their invitation, and also excited to eat local food, we agreed. The ladies of the church laid open cloths filled with roasted or steamed vegetables from their own gardens.

There were finger potatoes and beige-colored carrots, green beans and corn, all unsalted and unseasoned, but boy did it taste good. Maybe it was something about the fresh mountain air, and the clean, unpolluted soil that made the vegetables taste so good. To feel so welcomed and accepted by a group of people, total strangers, that did not even speak our language, who to them we should merely be tourists, was truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and it was simply because we were all of one faith, part of the family of God. After eating our fill we thanked everyone profusely and feeling incredibly blessed we headed back down the island to our boat. Our tour guide was duly impressed. He said he had never seen the locals treat tourists the way they had us, welcoming us into their church and sharing their meal with us. I hope that our Christian fellowship was a seed for good planted in his heart. He also told us that my uncle was the first foreigner to ever speak at their church.

Next we were off to see the Uros islands. The Uros people live on forty-two, self-fashioned floating islands made of reeds. The people live very simply there as well, except for some generators, solar panels and some of the boats have motors.

Learning from experience, our boat tour guides took us directly to the floating Adventist island complete with a small church school and floating church built by Maranatha several years before. We arrived during an AY (Adventist Youth) meeting.

We stepped out of the boat onto the springy reeds, the island was really fun to walk on as we made our way to the church. The people enthusiastically welcomed us. They were not shy at all here. After sitting in for the rest of their meeting, it was time to go, in fact it was past time to go. Everyone from the church stood outside and waved us off and a little girl even rowed a boat out after us a bit.

As our boat pulled off we sang a song in English as the locals sang in their own language (unfortunately I don't remember the song). It was another very special moment of a very amazing day!