The Islands

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One of my favourite parts of the trip so far. On Saturday, we caught a tuk tuk down from our hotel to Lake Titicaca. I shared with Callum and our driver won 'the race' to the boat which made for a bit of a scary ride on Peruvian roads.

Hopped on the boat ready for a 3 hour ride to the islands of the lake. The first stop was on Taquile Island where we walked uphill for about 30 minutes to the main square which didn´t´have much in it but a couple of shops and a church (and a few kids trying to sell everyone bracelets they didn´t want.) We then walked back downhill to have a traditional lunch overlooking the lake and then had another walk back to the baot for our journey to Amantani Island.

I got off the boat and was told that about the homestay. I´m to call the woman looking after me ´Mama´. Only they give me a Mama who is 9 years my junior which makes calling her Mama a little weird for me. My homestay was with Mama and her mama and papa in addition to Julie, Molly and Suzanne. Time for another half hour trek up to our Mama´s house.

The house was so pretty and overlooked te lake and the rooms were clean, comfortable and not quite as cold as I´d expected.

We had a 10 minute rest and were taken to the Island´s football pitch. You could choose to stay and play football or walk up a hill to see the sunset. I did neither. I stayed and watched the football. The local kids playing were really good and slowly, from 3 on each team it turned into about 9 on each as the kids appeared out of nowhere.

The rest of the group came back (I´m glad I didn´t join them they said it was too cloudly for a good sunset) and we went to a little shop/bar place. The shop put out candles and served up hot chocolate (with a shot of Bailey´s if requested) which helped to warm us all up.

Our Mamas then came to pick us up for dinner. The four of us sat down at the kitchen table whilst Mama gave us soup to start and her and her real mama sat on the floor cooking our main course. We asked if she wanted to sit with us but she didn´t. I was the only one of us who could speak any Spanish so I was asked to 'ask her this´and 'ask her that'. I guess it would have been awkward to sit in complete silence. I found out that she was the youngest of 8 children and the only one left at home on the Island. All of her brothers and sisters had left for the mainland. I asked if she wanted to leave too and she gave me an immediate 'yes' but when I asked her why, she didn´t know. So I just said because there were more things to see and she agreed with me. It´s quite sad that the younger generation are leaving as the culture seems to be disappearing. They still keep their native language, Quechua, but the kids learn Spanish in school now which gives them the opportunity to leave. I really hope that they can retain some of their native culture.

After dinner, Mama dressed us up in the traditional Amantani dress. I wore a white blouse decorated with colourful flowers tucked into an orange skirt layered with a purple skirt on top and finished off with stripy belt and a black flowery shawl. I was ready for the dance at the town hall!

We walked in and a band was playing. Just after sitting down, Mama grabbed all 4 of us and everyone in the hall had to dance round in a massive circle, twisting and turning.

Totally out of breath, I sat back down to be pulled straight back up again by Mama for a one on one dance that only lasted about 5 minutes but totally killed me in the high altitude (that´s my excuse anyway.) I did get the chance to rest for a while thought before having to dance again.

Mama took us home at about 10.30pm and the walk was amazing. I´ve never seen so many stars in all my life. It was so clear that you could see the Milky Way! The others said that if I stayed outside for 5 minutes I would see a shooting star. So I stayed and I saw my first ever shooting star! I made my wish and went to bed.

Mama woke us up at 5.30am, cooked us pancakes for breakfast and took us back to the boat. We said our goodbyes and began to make our way to the Reed Islands of the Lake (Uros).

The Reed Islands are exactly what they say on the tin - made of reed. They have to re-do them every 3 months and lay fresh pieces of reed every few days. Only 8 families are allowed to live on each island by law and so you can imagine how tiny the islands are.

We stepped off of the boat and were greeted by the women of the Island and then shown by one of the men how they make and maintain the islands. They then showed us inside their houses which basically consisted of a bed and the things they make and after that, displayed the tapestries that they are famous for making.

They also make reed boats in which we went for a ride in before returning to Puno to pack for the roadtrip to Bolivia in the morning.

Great weekend.

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