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Firstly... happy 30th anniversary Mum and Dad! Secondly.. happy birthday to me! As Halliwell wrote on my facebook wall, this is definitely one of the strangest places I will spend a birthday. We woke early to fit in breakfast before our overnight trip to the Peruvian islands of Lake Titicaca. I opened a card from my parents which I had carried since the start of the trip, and a surprise card from Soph I had no idea about!
After a decent hotel breakfast at Camino Real (which included avocado) we headed to the port where we picked up some gifts for our homestay family... rice, pasta, granola, sweets and fresh fruit. Not expensive but difficult for them to get hold of 3 hours from the mainland.
Our first stop was the floating islands of the Uros people. We stopped at Jachachallera (fish look out - which had just that), one of 40 floating islands in the community. There are 2,000 in Los Uros, and they live in groups of families on the islands made of blocks of reed root tied together with reeds criss-crossed on top. Jachachallera was made over the course of a year, now 40 years old,
made from 21 blocks, housing 6 families and 22 people. There are no toilets, these are a boat ride away on another island, and speaking of facilities, the closest hospital is back on the mainland. Despite this, people generally live to 80 or 90 years old. Reeds are used for everything - making the islands, construction, souvenirs, and even eating; peeled like a banana from the base!
We headed off to Isla Amantani and after a hard uphill trek reached our house for the night where we met our host family: Irma and Nelly (mother and daughter). We were shown to our rooms for the night, and the accommodation was simple but spotless. After settling in we headed to the kitchen, a separate building with clay fire built into the corner with holes for cooking pots. Bubbling away on one of these was a quinoa and vegetable soup which started our lunch. Despite offering to help, Irma would have none of it, and the three of us tucked into soup while she cooked up a second local dish of mixed potatoes (25 types on the island) and fried cheese! Nelly joined us briefly after she had finished her chores,
but gave the impression she had seen her fill of travellers for her 13 years.
After lunch the community got together in the town football/basketball field before our tour group started the ascent to the top of the island, Pachatata temple on the crest of the hill. On the way up we chatted to Katherine from Switzerland (here with her brother) and Kay from Chepstow (here on her own), the three in another family homestay. Legend has it that if you walk around the temple 3 times anticlockwise you can make a wish, and so of course we did this. As the sun was setting at this point, we had a different view and natural colour scheme on each lap.
On return to the town (poor Soph's knee with more downhill on terrible Inca steps) we had dinner with our adopted family, vegetable soup followed by a pasta and potato stew - they do like potato! The early evening was fairly relaxed before Irma appeared with traditional clothes for us to dress up in. Full colourful multilayered skirts, colourful blouses, belt and black head scarf decorated with flowers for the girls. And for me, traditional poncho and Andean
Peruvian hat. We looked a treat, and headed down to a fiesta held in the town hall where the rest of the tour group was also dressed to the nines!
We were "invited" to join in traditional dances which definitely kept us warm in the cold climate as they were so energetic. And then, amazing for me, Soph had earlier mentioned to Irma it was my birthday and she had spent the afternoon making me a traditional birthday flower garland from the flowers of the island. This was presented to me in front of the group as the Peruvian band played happy birthday on the panpipes before I had a dance with Irma as the centre of attention - much to Soph and Taryn's amusement! My own private birthday fiesta. The evening carried on with several more traditional dances and I even had time for a birthday beer before the group headed off to bed.
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