Humble, homely food on Lake Titicaca
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:59PM
Lake Titicaca’s islands are world famous for their peaceful beauty and well-preserved traditional agrarian cultures, which you can see up close by staying with families on the islands. A homestay here is a privileged glimpse at another way of life that you’re unlikely to forget.
Lonely Planet, Peru, 2010
Most people who visit the Lake Titicaca islands do so through an organised tour booked from one of the many travel agencies lining the streets of Puno. This usually includes a trip to the famous floating islands constructed of rotting reeds, Isla Taquile with their socially symbolic fluffy hats and Isla Amantani with their penchant for rousing traditional dancing and drunken revelry. Unfortunately, the islanders themselves benefit very little from such tours.
Tour agencies pay host families a set amount per visitor, which is negotiated with islanders separately by each agency. Nearly all of the cheapest agencies (and some of the expensive ones, too) pay little more than the cost visitors’ meals.
The Lonely Planet goes onto suggest various things you can do to ensure that the families get the most out of your stay, one of which is to consider visiting some of the communities on the peninsula around the lake which are less frequented by tourists but offer the same sort of activities and equally spectacular scenery.
This is how I found myself in Llachón on the Capachica peninsula staying with Magno Cahui, his wife, Julia, and their three children. And let me tell you, I went to some of the more popular islands, and this was the 5 star resort of turismo vivencial. I think you’ll agree this is not just any old mud hut:
And check out the interior:
And they weren’t lying about the scenery either:
One of the nicest things about the home stays is taking part in the family meals. The food itself is nothing to write home about (I’m going to anyway), but there is something humbling about eating a plate of food that is almost entirely grown on the plot of land just outside your door. Helping with the preparation and being part of the ritual is also a great insight into family life.
Julia was by far the best cook of all the families I stayed with. Her sopa de quinua (quinoa soup) was the tastiest I tried in Peru, and I tried a lot! The basis of any good soup is a rich stock and Julia’s was packed full of flavour. Where other soups were filled out with the grain, Julia’s soup had a generous helping of potatoes, carrots, spinach and beans as well. She also added spring onion, probably considered a luxury since she did not grow it herself, which gave it a fresh and lively edge.
From Llachón I was able to visit some of the less touristy floating islands. Unfortunately the fact that they were less touristy did not save me from being bombarded with artisan handicrafts and looked upon with bitter disappointment when I didn’t buy any. In fact, I was made to feel so bad that I gave double the recommended tip for visiting, a move I instantly regretted when it did not illicit so much as a glance, let alone a thank you from the recipient.
What I did want was fish, but that particular island didn’t have any so they told me to try the next one where I was able to get some kingfish for my host family. I didn’t expect them to share it with me but they were so excited about fresh fish for lunch that Julia cooked it up for everyone as soon as I got back. Filleted, dusted in flour, shallow fried and served with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lime, it was perfect in its simplicity.
Dinner that night started with sopa de semola (semolina soup), the first I’d tried and, again, one of the best. The semolina makes for a thicker soup which was studded with chunks of vegetables. Cheese was also added, giving it an almost creamy texture and a rich, if slightly pungent, flavour.
For mains we had revuelta de verduras – literally scrambled vegetables but actually more like bland fried rice. Weirdly, Julia had also put some of the same strong cheese that went in the soup in the rice which can only be explained as a way to use it up for I can think of no sound culinary reasoning.
I woke up early the following morning to another gloriously sunny day and an unexpected treat – pancake.
This was such a delicious pancake, I really wish I knew what was in it! The colour was a wholesome brown and the taste was rich and nutty, but the word I wrote down when I asked my host simply does not translate into anything it could possibly have been made from. Anyway, lathered with strawberry jam and washed down with sweet coffee (instant coffee is only ever satisfactory with lots and lots of sugar) it was by far the most satisfying breakfast I had on the islands and a perfect start at sparrows fart before my journey to Isla Ticonata.
Isla Ticonata is only accessible by organized tour, and is a rare example of Lake Titacaca’s local communities calling the shots on tour agencies, to the benefit of all.
I arranged my tour of Isla Ticonata through CEDESOS, another Lonely Planet recommendation. CEDESOS is an NGO who are working to reduce the negative impacts of tourism on the community by giving the power back to the local people. The organisation assists families to prepare themselves for tourists and ensures that all profits go to the families not to an intermediary. In fact, CEDESOS helped me to arrange all my accommodation and boat transfers and, if you speak Spanish, I would highly recommend you use them if you are planning to visit the area. They don’t charge anything for the service, they just make the phone calls on your behalf based on your proposed itinerary, quote you the prices and ask that you pay the families directly when you meet them.
Isla Ticonata is tiny, I easily walked around the whole thing in a few hours. I was blown away by the scenery, but once I’d seen it I have to admit to feeling a little at a loose end. The hosting arrangements on Ticonata are more regimented, less personal and having been left to my own devices I did get rather bored of my own company eventually. Thankfully I had a good book.
At lunch I tried a new soup, sopa de trigo (wheat soup), which was pretty much indistinguishable from quinoa soup, just one grain substituted for another. This soup was quite bland on account of a weak stock, but a small amount of cumin helped matters.
The highlight though was the frito de ispe – fresh out of the lake that morning, these lightly floured, shallow fried whitebait were just as good as anything you might find in NZ, world famous for the stuff.
Dinner was more soup (but of course) followed by fried cheese with the usual accompaniments – potatoes and rice. The cheese was the same strong stuff I’d tried on the mainland and I wondered whether it was made from sheep’s milk. I asked my host who said that it was made from cow’s milk gained its flavour from the maturation process. Well this is how I chose to translate it, what he actually said is it was old.
The next day began the more touristy part of my trip as I headed out to Amantani. I was keen to see at least one of the islands frequented by most visitors and after several days as the only gringo I was looking forward to the social side of mass tourism.
I arrived just in time for lunch which was more quinoa soup followed by fried cheese, this time with an interesting assortment of vegetables as well as a light salsa made of tomatoes, onion, lime and a hint of chilli. The vegetables were typically bland but the salsa helped to jazz things up a bit.
That night marked the end of a two week long festival so there was fiesta with much dancing and drinking in the central plaza, which filled with locals and tourists alike. I was surprised to discover as the night progressed that it is socially acceptable for women to ‘go bush’ or rather to ‘go field’ without any attempt to cover the act. I never thought I’d see one, let alone many, Quechua women in full traditional dress lifting their voluminous skirts to take a wizz in a field behind their central plaza.
Street vendors cooked up various snacks to satiate the drunken revelers, my favourite of which were the alpaca kebabs, which although stingy on the meat, were wonderfully salty and spicy.
Fortunately, my host Virginia had cooked up a hearty meal of sopa de mais (maize soup) followed by a vegetable omelette with plenty of carbs on the side, so I wasn’t hungry long. I can’t say I am particularly fond ofmaize soup . The maize gives the soup a strange texture, slightly grainy but only ever so slightly so that it appears that the soup might just be curdled.
I went to bed early that night because I had to catch a colectivo back to the mainland the next morning. Or so I thought, no one had told me that they didn’t run on Sundays. Luckily I was able to blag my way onto a tour boat which turned out to be both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because I made friends with some fun, if wearied, tourists at the end of a long two days with the most boring guide on earth. A curse because it meant I was also stuck for the day with the most boring guide on earth.
I had not originally intended to visit Taquile, but as the tour boat was headed that way it also meant I got to see the men with the fluffy hats:
I also met these cute kiddies who will soon be donning fluffy hats too no doubt:
For lunch we ate in Restaurante Los Angeles, where there was more soup followed by trucha a la plancha (grilled trout), which was very fresh but sadly very overcooked. The chips were great though, actually crispy which made a nice change from Bolivia.
Somewhat satiated we ambled over the hill and down the other side of the island where we were blessed with more fantastic views before the slow chug back to Puno, where myself and my new found friends were eager to begin our search for a meal that did not begin with soup and end with cheese.
CEDESOS – 3rd floor, Moquegua 348, Puno; +51 51 36 7915
Reader Comments (5)
Those food pictures are awesome. Great blog, very well done. :)
George Z.
Thanks so much for this post. We're going to Peru soon and are considering doing a home stay with Cedesos. Great to hear about your positive experience with them - and especially from a foodie perspective. Trying local foods (especially HOME COOKED!) is one of my favorite things about travel! :-D
Hi Jenny, glad to hear you will be doing a Cedesos home stay, it is so much better than the touristy option. I have to admit I did get a bit bored of cheese, rice and potatoes, but it was nice to eat home cooked food and it was mostly very healthy. Have fun in Peru! :)
How do you book a stay with Magno Cahui? I'm going to Peru in September and love to stay there. Any chance to get by there as a vegetarian?
Hi Hardy, I arranged my visit through CEDESOS but, as per above, you need to be able to speak Spanish to arrange things through them. They have a little office in Puno where I went to make my arrangements. If you can't do it this way then I suggest finding your own way to Llachón and asking after him. If he is fully booked (unlikely) there is bound to be someone along the peninsula with a spare room. It is how most people make their living there. Re. being vegetarian - yes, fine. They are mostly vegetarian there. They only ate fish because I bought it for them as a treat.