Our first stop when we arrived at Lake Titicaca was to visit an Aymara family. The Aymara are an indigenous people of the Andes Mountains, residing primarily in Bolivia. The Aymara people's history goes back many thousands of years in the high-altitude plains of the Andes. They flourished near Lake Titicaca and trace their roots back to the Tiwanaku civilization. They became subjects of the Inca Empire in the late 15th century and were subjugated by the Spanish colonial rule.

The Aymara people are still around today, and we visited one Aymara family. This family lives right on Lake Titicaca. The leader of this family is Portfidio Esteban. We knew going there that he builds reed boats, from the reeds growing in the shallows of Lake Titicaca, upholding an ancient cultural tradition.

You can see Portfidio in his reed shop below with some of his memorable photographs.

I will confess that I didn't have great expectations for our visit here. While I understand traditions and cultural industries, I hardly expected what we learned. His father was Paulino Esteban and Portfidio learned reed boat building from his father. Thor Heyerdahl visited his father and him here and they also did sailing projects with Thor Heyerdahl, to prove their and Heyerdahl's theories. The Aymara people believe that the Vikings made it all the way to South America.

Portfidio has traveled the world to build, sail, and teach his reed boat making craft. He's traveled to Japan, Norway, Egypt, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Iraq, and other places. He's also sailed on several experimental trips with and without his dad. You can see a photo of a photo below. Portfidio is in the middle with Thor Heyerdahl to his left and his father to the left of Heyerdahl.

Portfidio told us that it takes 4,000 reeds and three months to make a reed boat. The reed boats hold four to ten people. Today, boats are no longer being made, so Portfidio now makes reed furniture, couches, baskets, displays, and other items, as you can see below.

In the back room of his business, we found his wife working as well, only she was doing weaving. Her work seemed pretty elaborate, and she seemed to be intent on her work.

We got her to take a break and of course, she sells her blankets. Vicky purchased three Alpaca blankets from her. They were very impressive blankets.