220 CultureShock! Bolivia
Lake Titicaca may be both too high and too remote for
the overdevelopment that comes with excesses of tourism.
The more enlightened tour companies (we had a very
positive experience with Transturín; Crillón is also a Titicaca
specialist of high repute) have attempted to interact with
locals by alternating visits to local homes so that everyone
would equally benefi t from the contact, complying with the
island’s self suffi cient, egalitarian way of life in which there
is no misery or wealth and where resources are pooled in
times of need.
Contact with the island’s children illustrates the dilemma.
On the more visited side, children now ask for caramelos. The
healthy diet of the islanders is virtually sugar free. A dentist
who ventured here to live would remain unemployed. If you
aren’t accustomed to eating sweets, you don’t miss it. But
once children taste it, they are hooked.
At the home of José, a resident of Challapampa on
the opposite side of the island, the local foodstuffs were
decked out on the patio in a dazzling collage: numerous
varieties of corn (the buzzword ‘biodiversity’ has never
been needed here), fava beans, quinoa and various types
of potatoes, including the oca, a cross between a yam and
a potato.
Cheese did not become part of the diet until the Spanish
Conquest. The lake’s various species of fi sh comprise the
primary non-vegetarian staple.
“The islanders love the pigs, sheep and cattle that loiter
on the beach,” José explained. Every family has its own
animals. They are used for food only in emergencies or for
special festivals.
What is lacking on the island is fruit. Nutrients from
fruit are recouped through various types of vegetables. The
claimed presence on the island of a fair share of centenarians
speaks well for the diet.
As one approaches the island of steep cliffs, crevasses and
coves, it hardly seems the place where a community can be
self suffi cient agriculturally. But this pre-Inca culture had long
ago created an elaborate system of terraces, embellishing the
lake’s hilly shore with a ribbed texture.