Collaborative Narrative: Yavari Ship Story

Yavari on Lake Titicaca

Two travelers discuss ships…

Graham: Just as travelers have stories, ships have even bigger stories.

Somerset: Titanic was a huge story. Grandeur. Romance. Adventure. Irony. Tragedy. And all the passengers had their own stories.

Graham: Even smaller ships have their own stories. When I was traveling with my aunt last year, I sailed on a short voyage on quiet waters.

Somerset: No drama there. Or was it that you were traveling with your aunt?

Graham: It was on Lake Titicaca. No storms, no. No shipwreck, no. My aunt was not in the least bit outrageous.  The story lay in how the ship, the Yavari, a hundred-foot lake ship, got to Titicaca.

Somerset: Wasn’t that the one that was carried up the Andes on a mule?

Graham:  Simply put, yes. Built in 1862, in London, then disassembled into 2,766 pieces. Shipped to Peru, then mules carried the ship pieces 220 miles up the Andes to Puno on Titicaca. Reassembled there by riveting the bits together.

Somerset: Riveting account! A hundred-foot boat built of a kit of parts.

Graham: And get this for a bit more local adaptation. The ship's steam engine burned dried llama dung.

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Voice-over
Storytelling construct: Somerset knows something about the Yavari but Graham knows more. A collaborative narrative.

The Yavari has been restored and is now docked at Puno Bay.