Lake Titicaca

This morning, finally we had a buffet breakfast that didn’t conist only of eggs and rolls. We had cheese, ham, sausages, yogurt, fruit, pastry. It was a lovely beginning of an interesting (to say the least)day.

We drove to Puno’s harbor to take a boat to two islands. The first was a floating island of the Uros Indians. There are several Uros islands all built by hand from the totora reeds. When we got there, a group of very colorfully dressed Indians greeted us and took us to the middle of the village where we had to sit down in a circle to listen to their explanation of how the islands are built and about their culture. Then each person from our group was invited by one Uros family to their hut. Ania and I went together to the house of a young couple, Gabriela and her husband. The hut was just one room with a bed and some clothes. They asked us to put on their traditional clothes and then took a picture of us in front of their hut. And then the hard sell started. We had to follow them to their stall and they wanted to sell us their artifacts -- embroidery, necklaces, etc. We had to buy something. We came to the conclusion that this whole setup is a sham just for tourists and nobody really lives in these villages now. The whole concept of a floating island is interesting, though.

After 3 more hours by boat, we got to the island of Amantani. We disembarked with our day packs and sleeping bags and were met by a group of local Indian women dressed in colorful clothes. We were divided into 4 groups and each group was to spend one night in a house of a local family. Ania, Regina, Ola and I went with dona Ines. Getting to her house was an experience in itself. We had to climb up through rocks, dirt and grassy patches carrying our things. It wouldn’t be that bad if it weren’t for the altitude. This island is even higher than Puno -- close to 4,000 meters. Going up takes a lot of effort.

Dona Ines house is a mud house without a chimney or running water. Our rooms were nice, but the toilet was outside and there was no bathroom at all. There wasn’t even a sink. And to flush the toilet, we had to fill a plastic container with water from another, larger plastic container. Our hostess had a 5-year old cute boy called Yon. When we settled in, she gave us lunch, which she cooked on a gas stove in her tiny kitchen. It consisted of quinoa soup with some veggies and then a dish of a few boiled potatoes of several different kinds (some looked like caterpillars) + a slice of fried sheep cheese. Everything, including quinoa they grow themselves. Ania and Ola didn’t feel well so Regina and I went to the center of town to see the fiesta. Dona Ines had to take us there --- through rocky paths and other people’s homes. It was worth it. There were dances around the plaza -- several different groups representing different communities, lots of stalls with local goods and at the end, when it got completely dark, they lit two huge bonfires and danced around them. Ines came to take us back home. We had to walk the same route, this time in complete darkness. Thank goodness we had headlights and flashlights. Ines made us dinner --- vegetable soup + rice and potatoes with garlic. And after dinner, Ania and I went back to town to meet the rest of our group in the community house. We had to get dressed in local costumes -- white embroidered shirts, full skirts (I-blue and Ania --red) and black embroidered shawls. Then in this attire climb up the same route back to town. The dance was disappointing -- a group of boys played and a few people danced. We danced for about an hour and then went back to the house, jumped into our sleeping bags and went to sleep.